Bluebell Railway General Discussion

847 was back today, and gave us a decent run up to EG. 1 1/2 trips was enough though in today's heat!

From the footplate, it looked very well attended at Horsted Keynes.

Tom

 

Was your '1' part tender first? If so, you've no excuse to complain with 847.

 

I am quite sure they were fully aware of its advantages. Perhap reduced maintenance costs were felt to outweigh increased first cost.

 

Once to Horsted and back, and once to Grinny and back - I count "one trip" as EG and back; HK and back as a half. I fired the SP - HK and back; and the SP - EG; and drove the EG - SP return.

The worst on a day like today (31°C and blue skies) is that on a generally north-south line you can't get out of the sun. I realise such things wouldn't trouble you in Yorkshire

Tom

 

Too true. We're well used to the sun in Yorkshire and just take it in our stride.

 

Yes, shame about that one, it would have been very cool

Tom

 

Certainly would have interesting and a very nice sight. Any reason reason why it was dropped or what it might have for?

 

I'm sure the Stroudley Coach Fund (a restricted fund within the Bluebell Railway Trust) would welcome your support to make that happen! (Though what we really need are more SECR bogie carriages, which were synonymous with the line from the grouping onwards).

There were a few C&W snippets in teh latest Bluebell News not previously reported. LBSCR Brake 3rd No. 949 is now fully glazed and has had seven of its ten doors panelled. (That was the carriage I put a picture up of earlier, which was a complete wreck when it first arrived at the railway).

The other interesting one was Maunsell Restriction 0 (Hastings line) brake 3687. That seems to have been a very low profile restoration, but apparently five of the six compartments are almost complete.

The latest Bluebell Times had a very interesting pair of "then and now" photos showing the interior of Pullman car No. 54.

Tom

 

Does this mean B.R. era vehicles will not be the ''default setting'' for the Bluebell in future?

 

One of the things in teak is silica which blunts any edge tools. When the carpenters owned and sharpened their own tools the extra down time this took could not have been popular. Indeed it may well have been a sticking point either directly - up from between the tradesmen and the foremen - or simply when there had been a burst of building in and near Brighton people left for better money and wood that cut more easily.

The London Chatham & Dover Railway was something of a paradox right from the beginning it put a much better subbase under the ballast proper than either of its grander neighbours, under Forbes in the 1870s it allowed and encouraged Sykes to develop his rotary lock and block which involved early track circuits - in effect major development work - and it paid the extra both for teak carriages and for revarvarnishing them which should be done annually for vehicles outside. None of this fitted its image out of functioning through a set of financial crisis punctuated by two bankruptcies, however, it painted its engines black and economised by not fitting wedges to their driving axle boxes saving fitters time and time out of traffic while they were adjusted.The legacy from it to the the SECR was excellent locomotive design and despite no speed limit a good safety record.

 

I was thinking it might not be difficult to add things nowadays to make it cooler on a cab like a sprinkler in the cab or you could have a fan that looks like an instrument so it doesn’t look bad in photos. As it’s not good I have seen a driver looking really hot and another engine there was a lady on it who was also hot and they seemed like they wanted to get off so we’re not enjoying it

 

There's a well known photograph which forms part of the C&W display boards at Horsted. Taken in Brighton works c.1905, it shows 2 artisans working on the bodywork of a Balloon railmotor carriage. They posed for a moment with their hand tools in order to indulge the photographer.
Couldn't help but think that if they could speak, their answer on the merits of working mahogany v. teak would be very illuminating.
Also, I can't help wondering if choices of materials might come down to the directors financial interests. With a timber-hungry concern such as a railway company, I could well imagine that the directors of these concerns would be taking a very close interest in supply of raw materials, and investing accordingly, be it teak from Burma and India, or mahogany from (say) Honduras. Either way, a nice little earner, and as Tom said earlier, mahogany? Perfectly fine for a carriage which only has an expected lifespan of c.30 years, 40 tops.
Be interesting to know what other pre-grouping companies used for carriage construction.
Some are obvious, others less so.

 

It would be illuminating to know what the prices of mahogany and teak, relative to home grown oak, were. Although these timbers are expensive today (if they are still available, even!) back then a lot was brought over as ship's ballast so presumably it was cheap.

 

Dont forget that most of the countries that exported timber for our coaches were part of the empire. The LNER owned huge swaithes of forestry land in Burma for teak.

On the merits of working with them. Teak will change colour. When its first sawn off the log it can be a grey colour with strong orange streaks. Once the oils start coming out it returns to a golden brown colour.

Top quality mahogany is difficult to get hold of these days. The highest quality stuff is Brazilian mahogany which is now on the CITES list of at risk species. What people assume is mahogany is more likely to be Sapele or Utile as they share the same colouring. Both are easy to work with bit can be cross grained making it a tad more difficult.

There were/ are native species used such as Oak, Ash, Hornbeam, Elm and Beech.

 

Is there a market to repeat that?
Not on the same scale, but as a conservation project - pay for fair-trade teak harvested sustainably and support a conservation area? If both are charities, there has to be scope for grants/tax treatments etc

Could be worse, the NZ lot go round buying up broken furniture for the Rimu wood (unique to NZ and almost not harvested at all now AIUI). Mind you, they dig up and use near-fossilised wood, so they are a bit unusual

https://www.wood-database.com/swamp-kauri/

 

Information about the changes bought about post July 19th:

From 19 July the Government has moved England to Step 4 of its roadmap, removing most legal Covid-19 restrictions.

Please see information about how this has enabled us to open up more of our facilities and services with all stations open, turn-up-and-go prices returning to normal, and all-day rover tickets again available. However, it is still possible to pre-book segregated compartments on specific trains for your exclusive use should you wish.​

Tom

 

I visited on Saturday, a very enjoyable day despite the heat and locomotive issues. First time travelling on the railway for a few years, had some great runs behind 80151 and 847 after it was fixed.

 

Not so much about the price but availability. Swathes of mature British Oak was used by the Navy which decimated it through the 1800s. Which is partially why the Scottish whisky industry looked at imported European Oak barrels coming in through vinters.

 

Some lovely photos there, the Q and the Standard coming into HK are crackers!
Makes me very much determined to pay a visit when a certain Merchant Navy visits in a few months time!