Bluebell Railway General Discussion

The view from my end ...



Tom

 

I want another day down in Sussex!

 

I've had a day trip from York to Sheffield Park every Whit Monday for some years now until this Covid thing struck. The first time I miss a visit they turn out these two gems double heading. There is just no justice in this world ( and the sun shone too!). Good to see the pictures though.

Peter

 

Oh for a full rake in all it's SE&CR finery to go with those beauties!

 

I think there was actually an error in rostering that led to their being out! Apparently it should have been the Mets and SR bogie carriages in traffic from the weekend, but the Bulleids and Mark 1 set was put into the booking system instead, so couldn't be changed. That set is outside the weight limit for one of the Chathams on its own; 80151 was on the afternoon tea train (also now 5 carriages, so outside the weight limit); 541 is on washout, so the two Chathams took the six coach train. We swapped round variously so at times 65 was leading and at times 263. The perils of having a heterogeneous collection of carriages.

The Mets are in service from today.

Tom

 

Some pictures from yesterday. While waiting for the first train I was talking to a volunteer from the railway who was out with his camera as well, he suggested visiting Sheffield Park in a gap between trains. He did his pitch well because I did end up going for a look around and an ice cream, don't think steamworks or the museum were there whenever I last was.


1000 comes into Horsted Keynes.

1215 starts climbing Freshfield bank.

1430 at Town Place bridge.

80151 at Kingscote.

 

You've just caught me leaning out of the cab of 65, obtaining a somewhat aggressive sun tan, on one of those! Far enough way not to endanger your camera lens ...

Nice easy job on that load, neither loco needing to be worked too hard, and the coal is good as well except that the lumps are very big.

Tom

 

Are you using this large (unscreened?) Russian coal that seems to be cropping up all over the place? It is interesting trying to feed some of those boulders through an LNER "flap", but hey, you are in the wrong job (hobby) as a fireman if you don't like a challange! The stuff I have encountered recently is slow acting but produces plenty of heat and very little smoke. I have a feeling that we may have to learn to live with it once domestic supplies dry up.

Peter

 

Sounds like the stuff David Smith has imported. It’s a bit like going back to the steam era where lumps of coal could be anything up to 3 feet in size. Just have to learn to use the coal pick properly. When I first started on the NYMR coal was like that. The big lumps made good cornerstones in the back corners before setting off and using the big door and not the rat trap.

 

Sounds similar to what we had. Certainly slow acting and produces lots of heat, and not lots of smoke (see photos ...). I know we had a relatively easy time of it on Monday with the load, but I scarcely put any in north of about Black Hut (well south of the tunnel) and that pretty much got to EG without burning away to nothing. That’s quite unusual by my standards relative to the hard coals we have had in the past that lit up quicker but burnt away quicker as well - rare not to be doing something north of the tunnel.

As for lump size - yes, I’d suggest unscreened. It seems to have everything from shingle to lumps about a foot or more across. Of course, when you are carefully building up the fire before departure all you have is shingle, and when you want to just put half a shovelful on a developing thin spot you get a whacking great tombstone!

Chatham fire hole doors at least are nice and wide - wouldn’t want the current coal on Birch Grove, you’d be at it with a coal pick the whole time. (Marsh bought the Doncaster-pattern fire hole door south).

Tom

 

Co-incidentally this was in my feed today. Cripes!



Tom

 

Lovely picture of a 'Vesuvius' class. Late Adams era. Wonder where it was taken. (There is a picture of the same engine, other side, taken at Nine Elms Loco. in Bradley's Wild Swan book on the Beattie engines.)
Pat

 

Think it may have been taken at Dorchester, Cant be certain but sure I have seen the picture before somewhere.

 

Alas the coal pick just bounces off. We even failed to break up the large lumps with the digger bucket. As Tom notes, when you want big "bits" for the back corners you invariably get small stuff on the shoveling plate and when you want smaller stuff to fill in holes or to feed to the front the big lumps appear. The big problem with the larger "boulders" is that it is impossible to get an even firebed across the grate with this stuff, resulting in uneven heat stress on the firebox sides.

Peter

 

I've just found it in HC Casserley's "London & South Western Locomotives". No credit. Location given as the repair bay at Bournemouth Loco. (I thought it all looked a bit modern for Dorset Loco.) I see that it has the smokebox socket for the 'special Train' disc (post-1892) and the original boiler (Adams type fitted 1895).
Many pictures of LSW engines in the late Victorian and Edwardian picture show such enormous lumps of coal - the days when railways could pick and choose, eh!
Pat
PS I think that the partially shown bunker is a Plymouth tank (close cousin of the Metropoitan and Metropolitan District engines.)

 

It reminds me a little bit of this.



Clearly firing on the LSW was like drinking tea. One lump or two.

 

Austria Ex Graz Koflacher Bahn 4-4-0 Built 1891, Where was the photograph taken please?

 

Strasshof an der Nordbahn in Vienna. That's not my photo.

It is a good museum if you are ever in Vienna.

 

While we are reasonably catholic on this thread, I am struggling to see the relevance to either the Bluebell or a discussion about coal

Tom

 

Quite a lot actually. The Vesvius reminded me of the Austrian loco. Andy asked where it was, and I told him.