Kent & East Sussex Railway

Yes. It was felt that we were 1 mk1 short of two full sets. With that one, we can have a brake coach out of service and still make up two sets.

 

Robin Coombes has posted photos on Facebook this morning of 75008 and 76017 being prepared for service.

 

Wonderful!

 

75008??? Surely not. Here is 75008 at Chilcompton on the S&D in May '65, but alas you can't mean that one. I didn't know that there was another 75008.

You must admit that the thought of this and 76017 working together on the KESR (or anywhere for that matter) is a nice idea.

Peter

 

Sadly not! WD 75008, HE2857/1943, currently in Longmoor blue and named Swiftsure.

 

The buffer stops look a bit unusual, are they back to front?

 

It is an odd arrangement. They look to me like a fairly normal set of rail-built stops, but which have then been encased in brickwork at the front. (The brickwork is presumably newer than the dock, which is built from stone).

There was an interesting thread on RMWeb with all sorts of designs, but this one at Holyhead was particular interesting in the current context, appearing to show a rail-built stop extending back into the structure of a dock.




Tom

 

I suspect that a rail-built buffer stop, was reinforced by mass-concrete, and a single skin of bricks was used like shuttering.

 

I ended up filming at the railway the following weekend and to my delight: three locos were out! Nice to see Swiftsure as always while saying goodbye to 76017 as that weekend would be my last time seeing her in steam for a while. Would be my first time seeing Sapper in steam however and she definitely looks, and sounds, stunning.
My results from the weekend are here if anyone is interested:

 

Received email newsletter this morning or last night announcing that 76017 will run on 30th, 31st December and 1st January 2026 before its ticket expires and leaves the railway.

 

I wonder where it will go for overhaul or will it sit around gathering dust like 31625 and 31874?

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

Southall, I should think. Isn't the USA tank under overhaul there already?

 

I've received notification that the GWR railcar, W20W, is expected to start trial running in the spring. Looks like the end is in sight for a project that has taken more than 40 years to come to fruition.

 

This really is excellent news! I love these railcars and donated quite a lot of dosh to #20 in the early days. I thoroughly enjoy riding in Didcot’s #22 but travelling on the KESR will be a very different experience and I’m looking forward to it immensely! Thanks for sharing the news!

 

My K&ESR career has been a bit intermittant as I aslo fitted in a long navy Career which meant that some years I was completely absent. However it started the year I finished my a levels and this year I got my oap bus pass, in the k &ESR thats not long enough to have seen the GWR railcar in passenger service although Ive shunted it around several times. I think in regular passenger service it might struggle to wash its face financially. As its going to be a pretty unique experience on a full length line I wonder if there is a market hiring it out to groups starting at Robertsbridge as a private train for the day? You know the sort of corporate/ enthusiast thing with a bar and railcar host, light bites etc. In the modern parlance "a Rother Valley Premium GWR Railcar Private train Experience"

 

I remember riding in no.20 when it had a final spell in KESR service as an, unpowered, ‘extra coach’ sometime in the 70s. Look forward to seeing it again- solo this time.

 

I remember it being used as hauled stock. Had a trip in it behind Sutton.

 

Any scope for hiring 22 and running them as a pair? (Out of curiosity, I presume there's no multi-working and both would need a driver?)

 

Previous reports of W20W have said the railcars were designed for multiple working and capability would be retained in '20's restoration in case the opportunity to pair it with '22 ever arose. That was reported a few years ago and things can change, of course. It also assumes the same systems are still functional on '22 but there certainly has been contact between the KESR and Didcot teams during the restoration since it's not so far to go to measure or photo bits of '22 when necessary to figure out how they'll fit together on '20.

 

More prototypical would be hiring a GWR coach and having the Railcar haul that.