Bluebell Motive Power

I know this is the wrong thread but I can't help wondering if 1638's owners (KESR) are a little but in a sticky wicket at moment. Their USA tank is also out half through its ticket with boiler issues. And on the surface no attempt has been made to start the repairs to Poplar.

Then again there maybe nothing to worry about.

 

Yes, they are.

 

300 was only meant to last long enough to cover 65's return to service. It was known that the inner firebox would require replacing at some point. Sadly, it just came up quicker than was hoped. The Poplar situation involves a second railway where the repairs were done under contract, a third railway where it failed while on hire, and an insurance company. As you can probably appreciate, with that many people involved, it is not going to get resolved quickly.

 

The latest issue of Bluebell News. (SUMMER 2023) now states that 6989 "Wightwick Hall" is to remain based at the Bluebell till the end of 2024.

 

Seems to be liked enough and capable of everything the Bluebell needs. Makes sense to me.

 

It’s good once it is prepped

Wish it had two gauge glasses though!

Tom

 

Nothing wrong with one gauge glass and two test cocks!

 

Until one of the passageways gets blocked.

 

With regular rodding through of the waterways (by your maintenance team), and regular blowing down by the fireman, it shouldn't happen. I've certainly never had a problem with the superior GWR fittings.

 

And in what way are they superior.

 

With regular maintenance and attention by footplate crews it shouldn't happen but that can be said about a multitude of things. The lower passageway especially is a single line component and engineers generally avoid such things. They also have coupled cocks so you can't blow down each one individually, another problem with them and one perpetuated by the LMS and BR.

 

They aren't. It's just that GW footplate crew were brainwashed into believing they are.

 

I agree with @Steve, both that having just a single glass is flawed, and that the GWR / LMS / BR pattern of linking the top and bottom cocks is also flawed.

Try cocks might as well not exist in practical terms, since they don’t give you an immediate indication of water level at a glance; and even when you use them can be quite ambiguous in reading. So realistically, being on the footplate of a GWR loco is like being on a normal loco in which a gauge glass has failed: you might carry on to a place where you could safely repair it, but you wouldn’t willingly go off shed with one glass already being a failure. Yet that is what you do every day on a GWR loco. Which might not matter with some gauges, but water level is the single most important indication you have about the state and safety of your engine on the footplate.

As I say, in many ways it is an excellent loco - but how Swindon thought it was still appropriate in 1950 to be building locos that in a key safety feature had not evolved since 1850 I don’t know.

Tom

 

The size it is so it darned well ought to be.

 

Who put the 50p in..........

 

Improbably small cost?

 

Crackin news!

As apposed to the SR who thought they were superior by painting everything green and running masses of electric coffin boxes?
Nobody's perfect.

 

Very happily, being a Guildford boy, that is something worth every penny.