Bluebell Railway General Discussion

Totally agree. Shame about the TPO and sleepers, but others survive. However is that really the best that could have been done for the unique and potentially useful 2356? There wasn’t even an announcement of ‘free to a good home, or we’ll scrap it next week.’

 

Why would the Bluebell give it away free if someone’s prepared to pay good money for it? Anyone with the means and desire to restore it could presumably have had it for scrappers money.

Simon

 

To preserve our railway heritage, which is what they are in the business of doing?

Scrap value or free, not much difference really, my point remains the same. Was the preservation world made aware it was at risk of scrapping if no one stepped in?

 

It had been advertised for sale for at least the last 18 months. I think anyone or group who wanted it had ample opportunity to make an offer.

Tom

 

The realisation that it was in imminent danger may have focussed minds a bit more.

Look at the LSWR dining cars. It was only when the PBR threatened to scrap them, that people leapt into action.

 

Agreed. A unique and potentially useful vehicle. Many many moons ago, I used to eat my lunch in it. It's very sobering that carriages of this pedigree, and not in particularly egregious condition, even if lacking an interior, can still in this day and age find themselves on that siding to oblivion. very disappointed indeed.

 

I suspect that the community needs to get its head around the fact that anything sitting derelict on the major preserved lines with no place in future plans and no support group funding its restoration is ‘in imminent danger’ once it’s been put up for sale.

Organisations like the Bluebell won’t take those decisions lightly. But the times when preserved lines could accommodate the proverbial linear scrapyards are gone, and I expect there’ll be more, rather than less, of these types of issues over time.

Simon

 

I'm not keen to see any coaches scrapped, but I have no personal knowledge of the condition of these particular coaches. Nor do I know what "scrapped" in this context means - if it is "broken for spares", then that is slightly more positive than just mercenary destruction. I also got the impression from an earlier post that the Bluebell were under the impression that the buyers were not going to scrap them, but I may have misremembered that (and can't be bothered to go back and look, given that it may only be hearsay).

However, I did remember this post on the Bluebell's Blog from last April 14th. It reads:

My emphasis. The document referred to no longer exists on line.

Steve B

 

You can see it at https://web.archive.org/web/2022112...bluebell/temp/bluebell_carriage_disposals.pdf – I don't think anyone who'd looked at that document would be in any doubt that the vehicles were at high risk of scrapping. Notably on 2356 the text says 'It would probably have to be “flat- packed” for transport due to the rotting of the bottom-side structure.'

There's a clear offer on the LMS sleepers for interested parties to procure them for a nominal fee, but no doubt the asbestos would be a big disincentive.

Simon

 

That document somehow passed me by. If that was the case with 2356, then it's fate was pretty inevitable.

 

I observe that we are seeing more and more of this, and folks generally will do well to realise that the world we live in now will not see derelict coaches guaranteed to be held onto for years and years with a protracted "going once, going twice" attitude.

Any coach in poor condition that goes on the market should be considered as having the axe hanging over its head, with no second chances sadly.

If anyone was serious about that Maunsell (and I mean serious, not just campaigning to prolong it's storage) they'd have jumped in when the advert was placed and wouldn't have waited for a direct scrap threat to be published.

This post reads very harshly but I think regretfully it's broadly accurate.

Sent from my moto g(8) power using Tapatalk

 

In this issue:

• Dates confirmed for the volunteer workshops – sign up now!
• Take 5 with the Railway’s safety team
• Time for a Southern Railway Coach Group? Read the proposal from the Rolling Stock Committee and take their survey
• A round-up of the best pictures of the Railway in the snow
• News about our namesake locomotive No. 73133
• Farewell to the museum’s long-standing curator
• And much much more

The Bluebell Times is published monthly on the second Friday of every month. The next issue is due out on Friday, 10 February 2023.

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/bluebell-times/

(A lovely Tim Crump photo for the heading).

Tom

 

From a mostly wet and cloudy day, for the 01 Photo Charter thanks to @jonpbowers, the crews, the catering team for the breakfast and the railway.

 

For those with an interest in the upcoming additions to the Diesel fleet, it seems there's an announcement coming tomorrow regarding the Thumper unit, according to the Facebook group set up for the unit.

 

It certainly was a bit of a challenging day yesterday but some decent results could be extracted from it, even the second shot here in the flat failing evening light

 

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/bluebell-railway-press-releases/

1305 purchased by the Bluebell Railway, though with a separate group maintaining it.

 

I know I'm a bit slow on the uptake here as I don't follow diesel preservation too closely but I'm disappointed to find that this is only part of an East Sussex (3D) unit and not the whole thing. I don't think they ever ran as a two car unit - certainly I never saw one - and I remember them well on Sussex branch lines in the 1960s of my youth. What has happened to the center trailer car?

For what it is worth, here is a complete one that I photographed at East Grinsted LL in 1968



Peter

 

In the early 1990's British Rail took 3 of the 'Oxteds' (including the one the Bluebell now has) and modified them with corridor connections. The original centre cars were scrapped, and eventually former CEP trailers were added to the sets. All the other 'Oxteds' bar one were broken up by the same period. Thus the one remaining original centre car is owned by the Spa Valley Railway as they own the 'bar one' set 1317, which while currently out of service is being worked on and rejoin that set in time. It won't be available for the Bluebell at any rate.

I think that in the last years they did often run as 2-car sets.

 

That's certainly how I remember them in the Connex era.