Bluebell Railway | Spring Steam Gala | 20th-22nd March 2026

Saturday saw me and a mate make the long trek for our first ever Bluebell gala. We were very impressed. Great railway, friendly staff and a cracking selection of locos, with plenty of noise. Wonderful selection of rolling stock too.
The gala ran to time, we had good chances to look around then sheds, have something to eat and ride behind all the locomotives. The sun even shone (which I was told was a rarity for the Spring Gala!).
A very enjoyable day and very glad we made the effort.

 

Here you are Al - my shot of W8. I was on Fenchurch. First time I've been to the end of Platform 1 at Horsted on an engine!



Before leaving, I checked the Running Foreman's notes for the day. We were apparently 25 minutes late off shed waiting for the carriage shunt to finish; by your timing 15 late departing on our first trip and on time by our second departure. I'm not totally sure what the carriage issue was, but I suspect it was an issue with the brake on the 4 wheeler Victorian set, so the Cheshams and 4 wheelers were swapped round so that the Chesham brake was at the back - our normal operational preference is to have a brake as the most southerly vehicle.

Timetables are carefully written so that realistic amounts of time are allowed for any unusual move - for example, after the 1pm train you caught to Horsted Keynes, we had 15 minutes to unhook, shunt across to Platform 1 and couple to a train there before continuing north; then we had a 15 minutes stop at Kingscote to allow both Terriers to take water. (Kingscote in the "up" direction is roughly the mid-point of the line in water consumption; and a Terrier only has 500 gallons so it's a significant consideration where to take water, especially as we seem most of the work with that train as well!) So it is all carefully planned, but pretty relentless work on a Terrier: you are firing to the chimney and pressure gauge non-stop, and when you arrive at a station, it is straight in to uncouple and run round.

Tom

 

Another fine show from the Bluebell this weekend, footage from the lineside on the Saturday & Sunday:

 

I guess you must have done!

Tom

 

As mentioned before for anyone who has missed the gala or want more

W8 "Freshwater" will be double heading with 72 "Fenchurch" on set B this weekend before it heads back to the Isle of Wight
2999 "Lady of Legend" is also out this weekend on set A and throughout the majority of April.
75069 will head back to the SVR later this week.

Subject to usual caveats

 

A brilliant day Saturday. Thanks to all concerned, Saint, Terriers, St4 and tank were amazing. Good time keeping always a seat available, organisers if you read this a Horsted set starting is a great idea, plenty of space on the train for all the Grinstead passengers to begin their day and spread passengers round the railway. Please keep this for future galas, really good idea. Well done indeed

 

Fantastic weekend, great locos, everything running to time and wonderful weather, we had a brilliant time. My video from across Saturday & Sunday...

 

There's a little sequence at around 18'40" in that video of the two Terriers arriving with the vintage set on the service that impressed @Big Al You can see that W8 has steam to spare, and we (on Fenchurch) still have a little feather at the safety valves. (There's a very brief shot of me firing, showing that you have to bend double to put coal in the damn things!) The next departure north is also interesting; it looks like Camelot was hardly opened up at all and the Terriers are doing most of the work. It was a fun trip up to Kingscote. Thanks to the Isle of Wight for loaning W8.

Tom

 

I thought that was you firing - I had my eldest and the pushchair as my wife was walking our youngest up and down the platform so we stayed on P5 to be out that way! It was very interesting watching the whole sequence, although a challenge getting clips in between the crowds.

 

I thought of you Bryan, as I made a spur-of-the moment decision to photograph this double-header. I hadn't originally planned to go due to the north easterly wind - the curse especially of Freshfield Bank at this time of year, as many photographers will be all too aware, but the wind dropped, the last clouds in the sky disappeared so there I was a couple of miles south of you enjoying the lovely lighting conditions! Hope you're not too stiff after your exertions and a big thanks both to the Bluebell and the SVR for giving 75069 the first chance to visit East Grinstead in over 60 years.

 

If you haven’t seen quite enough footage from this year’s instalment then here’s my account if you’re interested!

 

Photos from Saturday & Sunday... https://www.flickr.com/photos/alts1985/albums/72177720332726054