Bluebell Railway General Discussion

I remember the old shed as being a single road, was this temporary?

 

No. It was still there in the late seventies see https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/locos/178/178.html and scroll down to see 178 with the Q1.

 

The original single road shed lasted for quite a while, only fairly recently being demolished to make way for some of the more recent buildings. The scaffold built structure was basically an extension of the original shed.
Here are some (poor quality) photos taken on some very basic cameras dating from 1965 through to the early 1970s - the earliest shows the original shed in the context of a very uncluttered yard, the later photos show how the scaffolding built extension was added on. The USA tank was very much in evidence at the time, also to note are "Blue Circle", the Dukedog, including one in it's Seadog phase (check out the C class' tender) and also "Stamford" in pieces undergoing an overhaul which was never completed.
One of my photos must have been taken around the same time as the one in the "Flashback Friday" post that @Paul42 shared. I think it is Birch Grove in the background on that one.

Steve B

 

That's interesting. So the GWR Dukedog was able to inter-work with an SECR C-class tender?

I don't recall any reports of SECR tenders working behind locos from the LBSC (braking system issues?) or LSWR (different drawgear height?).

 

From an old book, 592s tender was rendered usable but the locomotive itself had developed issues with its axle journals. 9017/3217 was the other way round and so to keep a locomotive available for traffic the decision was made to give the Dukedog the C's tender for a bit of time. And thus the nickname C Dog was christened at the time

 

Yes, if I remember correctly the mounting for the drawgear at the front of the GWR tender had corroded to the point where it was unsafe. The railway was short of locos and so the GWR loco and SECR tender were put together and it ran like that for a while.

Up-thread a bit I voiced the opinion that the loco in the background in the picture @Paul42 posted was Birch Grove (in the screenshot that had been posted it was said to be Fenchurch. Looking at it again I agree that it was Fenchurch - and on the day I took my near identical photo (even down to having Stepney's smokebox door in the same position) I see from my other photos that the two locos in steam on that occasion were Fenchurch and 27.

Steve B

 

Interesting, thanks. I went there many, many times as a child as dad worked in the loco department but didn't remember it as anything other than a single road. When I worked there first in the late 90s the lobby there looked like it had been there a lot longer than the 70s.....

 

There's also this video of the "white fishplate" moment as well:

 

And the re-opening video directly here:

 

You can see how much it has greened up - this is John Sandys' photo taken from the bridge above the cutting, three years ago:
https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pic2/wn/2020a/80151_imb_cutting_johns_7mar20h.jpg

 

Thanks for the update Richard. Please can you contact me by PM or email.

 

The scaffolding extension was only temporary, although lasting around a decade. I presume it came down once the new three-road running shed had a roof (in late 1979), or maybe a bit before. As mentioned above it was still there at the time of the photo of 1178 and the Q1 (arrived May 1977). The then lobby I believe had been used as a machine shop for the locos until the loco works was built in 1976.
The 1960-built shed came down (I think in 2014) because it had become unsafe, a few years before the new maintenance shed was built (2017-18) on its site (and also covering the new washout pit) with lottery funding thanks to the ASH project.

 

Think you are right on dates for the 1960 shed - it must have been Christmas 2013 that it was damaged in a storm, and dismantled in early 2014. In the Spring 2014 Loco report for Bluebell News (which would have been written in late February), I wrote:

"The storms also caused damage to the old running shed at Sheffield Park, which ultimately resulted in the shed being dismantled. During the Christmas Eve storm, “Stowe” was stored in the shed, but fortunately did not suffer any damage. The shed was later demolished by contractors"
​

Tom

 

My pictures show that the scaffolding was still in place when I visited in July '77 but but had definately gone whenI returned in July '78.

Peter

 

Having just used Google to call up the website, the Google page shows the message "Temporarily Closed"

Has something happened today or is there any error that may be putting visitors off?

 

Google maps shows many places thus, and has done for most of the last 3 years.


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Looking on the Bluebell website, the recently announced Bluebell On Parade event will be replacing the originally planned Summer Steam Gala, with the upcoming Branch Line Weekend, Flying Scotsman visit and Giants of Steam acting as the Railway's major Gala events this year.

Really looking forward to the Branch Line event in particular.

 

Locos running over Easter

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From the Isle of Wight Facebook page: looks like “Fenchurch” is off for a little holiday across the Solent for their spring gala.

Tom

 

Lovely day out on the Bluebell today. 3 locos in steam, and lots of happy passengers. The kids for a quid is a great offer. Thanks to all of you who make this possible. As an aside Camelot has a fantastic whistle, I do wonder where it was acquired from.

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