Bluebell Railway Giants Of Steam: 14th - 16th October 2022

“Many people here and on Facebook” is not the same as an official announcement though! Bluebell Times last Friday was still saying “+ 1 guest” (don’t ask me how I know …) so I figure parties are not yet ready to say what that is.

If you’re a gala organiser, you can’t win either way. Announce early, and sod’s law the loco breaks in the interim or simply doesn’t get ready after an overhaul and everyone is disappointed: announce late with more certainty and people complain that “the railway just has a really annoying habit of waiting till the last minute”.

Tom

 

How is it annoying? Frustrating as it is, has it ever occurred that it it might be a little difficult to not announce what loco’s might or might not be visiting, until the last minute.
I’ve said this to to you before, please do not worry about being the unofficial spokesperson for whatever loco is running at whatever line.
It’s really not giving me a horrid migraine to know what is or isn’t running at ‘Giants of Steam’
I appreciate you have Anxiety issues but please, you don’t have to worry about people like myself, Please do yourself a massive favour and stop worrying about trivial things, most of us are more than capable of either picking up the phone or using the internet to find out the information we need should we want to make a visit to the events or railways we’d like to visit.

 

I was assured told by someone who claimed to know about these things that the 2nd guest was something different (but which is very unlikely as it will probably be at a gala elsewhere!)

It's very easy for one person's "Wouldn't is be nice if it was loco X" to become another person's "I've heard that it's loco X" to become a third person's "It's loco X, but they haven't announced it yet".

 

PLEASE refer to these photos, you will then know why everyone knows.

 

With respect, regardless of whether it is or it isn't, unless I've missed a big clue, the second photo doesn't actually prove anything about the first. It just shows that 76017 was photographed at roughly the same location as the loco in the obscured image used by the Bluebell, and both were hauling maroon mk1s. I'm not familiar with that spot but there are places on the ELR for example where I could easily find two near-identical photos of different locos in the same place online.

I'm not saying you're wrong about whether or not it is 76017 (I have no idea). Just that the photos prove nothing.

 

What was rumoured to be has transpired as true on this occasion.

 

Timetables are now up. What's odd to me is that on Saturday/Sunday morning, a loco goes to Horsted Keynes double-heading, detaches there and then sits around for 3 hours. No mention of brake van rides or similar on the event page, so don't know if this is just to be a spare in case of failure or other reason?

Microsoft Word - GoS 2022 - Vers 2 - 26.8.22 (1).docx (bluebell-railway.com)

 

Normally rostered as a spare, but brake van rides and / or demo goods are likely while there.

Tom

 

Was reading Klaus Marx Illustrated History of the Lewes to East Grinstead Railway and in context of 76017's visit, there is a picture of sister loco 76055 shunting some condemned wagons at Horsted Keynes in April 1960, so there is a historical presecedent for 76017's visit.

 

Having checked the T/T is their no DINER running on Fri or Sat
-- anyone advise PLS????
Tia
Neale

 

As far as I can see they are not running that weekend.

Tom

 

From memory, the Bluebell doesn't tend to run dining trains during Galas. Although I'm not sure they intend to this time, but on some rarer occasions Pullman's have been used in carriage sets at Giants events in the past (either declassified or for 1st Class ticketing)

 

I've definitely seen the Saturday evening train run during a gala weekend (2017 Branch Line Weekend had Camelot on it, for example).

 

No mention of a bus link from Haywards Heath to HK as per the Beer Festival. It would probably be our easiest way to get to the Gala compared to EG. Does anyone know if it will be running?

 

Depending the day, if memory serves me right, on weekdays HK is a request stop on the 270 Metrobus from Haywards Heath station, but according to the Bluebell website the same bus serves HK on Saturdays. Not sure about Sundays though.

 

The Metrobus web site isn’t very encouraging due to driver shortage. I meant the dedicated service

 

£37 to ride behind 76017 don't think so. It was £27 for Britannia 3 years ago (last time I used the line) which I thought was worth it having missed her on the EG opening weekend

sad; I was a BRPS member for many years and supported the line often until they decided not to run any trains to speak of for 5 months of the year...

 

Nobody’s forcing you to go are they?

 

no, and I'm not

I'm sure plenty of others will and I hope they enjoy the event

 

Why complain then? It’s no secret prices are going up everywhere.