Bluebell Railway East Grinstead Opening Gala - SPring 2013

Yes, thats exactly it. Because of the need to get the Tour onto NR metals as close to its booked slot as possible, the H had to be terminated at Kingscote to enable to tour to overtake it due to the "one engine in steam" practice. As a result, and rather unfortunately so there was a large gap in services to Grinstead, though any passengers with connections that needed to be met were offered the use of taxis to catch their mainly services.

 

Some pictures from Thursday and the visit by the 66 and 73s.

First Railtour to the Bluebell Railway - a set on Flickr

JP

 

I travelled again last Saturday. The railway was quieter at first than the previous week but a lot during the day and there appeared to go loading on the trains I travelled on and passed.The film of the line after clousure and early footage of the Bluebell being shown at Horsted Keynes did not appear to be as popular as last weekend.

A selection of my pictures can be found at Zenfolio | Paul Simpson | Bluebell Railway East Grinstead Opening Festival and includes a couple of pictures of 323 and 473 crossing Imberhorne viaduct, taken from by the side of Turners Hill road.

There is a 2 train service running this week including Saturday and Sunday.

 

Video and photos from an afternoon lineside between Holywell and Freshfield on East Monday...

Bluebell Railway 2013 - a set on Flickr

Bluebell Railway East Grinstead Opening Festival Day Ten - Easter Monday 1st April 2013 - YouTube

 

I came down for Thursday last week and really enjoyed the day. Hope not too many were upset by being turned away from the Chesham set at East Grinstead in the morning.

The dampener for me was definitely the delay and termination towards the end of the day to get the tour out on time. Understand the difficulties involved but it didn't feel, to me at least, like what was happening was very well communicated at Horsted Keynes. Heard announcements that the H would be terminated at Kingscote without any follow-up to say why, if there were any alternative arrangements, etc. I tried to make the best of the gap by immediately wandering up the path to get some pics of the H leaving and tour shunting, but if I'd known there were taxis being offered I would have jumped at that because while an extra trip behind 1638 was great, the problems meant it was very much touch and go to get my last connections back home that night. Not sure what else could've been done... although if there had been any chance of chucking 33103 on the set the 73s had just shunted away and running a quick 'relief' to EG with the Crompton after the tour, I'd have loved that.

Overall though, a very, very enjoyable day. I had previously wondered just how much benefit the extension would bring but now I'm totally convinced. The rest of the line is relatively remote, and that's exacerbated by the access issues at Kingscote and the lack of West Hoathley. Steaming into what is basically a massive supermarket car park a few yards from a busy national network station in a busy town offers far more visibility.

The cutting is an incredible achievement, the views from the viaduct are great, and getting off at Kingscote earlier in the day and hearing 1638 for ages as it blasted up the bank was a brilliant experience. Great credit to 1638's crew for making up so much time repeatedly during the day as the diesel workings delayed things. Looked like a decent turnout for the 73s though. I only had them on the final trip where only one was powering so it didn't live up to my hopes. Should 33103 slip onto a special at some point, if I'm not working I'll certainly be there.

 

Out of interest, now the three week opening "gala" is over, do the powers that be at the Bluebell regard it as having been a success? I hope that loadings were good.

 

Bit early to have had any official communications about loadings, profits etc yet! But from everything I can see, loadings held up well (in relation to the offered service) throughout the two weeks. Perhaps more important, there was a huge amount of positive coverage in both the specialist and general media (including quite a lot of TV coverage on both BBC and ITV), so no-one can be in any doubt that we are well and truly arrived in East Grinstead!

Tom