Behind Bluebell : Open Day - Saturday 12 September 2009

Hi everyone,

Just to give you a heads up as to something happening later this year at the Bluebell Railway.

To kick start our 50th birthday anniversary celebrations we will be holding an open day on Saturday 12 September 2009.

Come and discover the Bluebell Railway from a behind-the-scenes perspective and see 50 years of railway preservation at work.

Areas that we hope to open up to the public are:
[*]Locomotive Workshops and yard
[*]Board the footplate of a locomotive in steam
[*]Walk through the Golden Arrow Pullman train set
[*]Get the latest on the Operation Undercover and museum building
[*]Birch Grove Suite will host stands from Bluebell's groups and other societies
[*]Carriage and Wagon workshop viewings
[*]Permanent Way - See how track maintenance work is undertaken
[*]Signal Box visit
[*]East Grinstead extension update

As this event is still being organised some things may be added or changed. it would be good to hear from "normal visitors" at to what you would like to see - no promises from me though!
For more information please check on the Bluebell website from July or visit our Facebook Fan Page and I'll also be providing updates to this thread or you can PM me via Nat Pres.


Sinclair Spencer - Joint Organiser : Behind Bluebell Open Day

 

Should be an interesting event. We do something similar at Swanage - the footplate & signalbox visits are popular. We run it in an attempt to persuade people to come along and volunteer, so make sure you don't miss that potential.
Also, the more volunteers you can get to "man the stalls", so to speak, the better. A good example from our experience is to have a duty signalman and a "guide" (also a signalman) on 'box visits and ideally a friend from S&T down below to show the locking room.

 

The Bluebell, like Swanage and some other railways, also has volunteer recruitment days at which prospective recruits are shown around the railway, given a free train ride, etc, etc, etc.

The Bluebell event on 12th September will be a bit more than that.

Chris

 

Details available here:

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/events/2009/behind_bluebell.html

Tom

 

Thanks for posting this Tom.

Some more exact details will be added over the next few weeks. In the mean time if you have any questions post 'em up here or on the Facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/rebecca.collis1 ... 875&ref=ts

Hope to see you there!

 

Latest details

In addition to the informaion below about events and timings, the locos in steam will be 34059 and 9017 on service trains, and 592 open for footplate visits. 34059 will be on a train of Mark 1s plus the Observation Car; 9017 on LBSC Bogie 1st + Mets + LBSC 4 wheeler + LCDR 4 wheeler.


At Sheffield Park

Golden Arrow Pullman Dining Train, by the Catering Building, open 10:30am - 4pm

Locomotive Workshops, open 10:30am - 4pm

Footplate access to C Class Locomotive No 592, Loco Yard, 10:30am - 4pm

At Horsted Keynes

Carriage & Wagon Workshops, open 11am - 1pm and 2pm - 4 pm

Permanent Way work, Kingscote end of Platform 1, 11am - 4pm

Signal Box Visits, Sheffield Park end of Platform 1, 11am - 4pm


Tom

 

Sounds good, just getting ready to go!
Wonder if they'll let me carry my tripod around the works, we shall see, wouldn't be surprised if they say no but that doesn't matter, take it back to the car!

 

Just got back, rather good day, nice to see inside the works and had a nice conversation with the driver on 592.
80151 was out instead of 34059, which according to one of the men in the workshop has a problem but yet the man who did know the information had just gone to lunch!
Would have been better if the things at Horsted didn't seem to often start at the same time instead of staggered, could have made it easier to see things more.
Another nice day at the Bluebell though, and a nice warm up for giants!