Bluebell Railway General Discussion

Nice to see Stepney and Bluebell at Sheffield Park on BBC1"s children in need tonight.

 

Beat me to it. BBC South East broadcasting from there( for those in other regions).

 

From the Bluebell website : -

• Pudsey Express - As part of BBC Children in Need, we should feature on the 6.30pm and 10.25pm South East Today programmes, and also in the main BBC1 fund-raising extravaganza tonight. We wish everyone associated with the appeal all the best for a sucessful evening! (Photo from Tony Sullivan).
  Our first mention on TV this morning was at 6.30am! As well as featuring Pusdey, and Children in Need, the coverage also features our achievement in extending through to East Grinsted this year. With 600 visitors on site for the filming today, including invited guests and a large number of school-children, it has been a very busy day for the Railway!
  

 

Available here until 6pm tonight (probably UK only).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03h6fpc/South_East_Today_15_11_2013/

Scroll forward to 6'55"

Edit - also from 19'15" to the end.

Tom

 

I don't get why the female presenter had to keep on pointing out the fact they were in 3rd class carriages? Maybe it's just me who noticed that.
Good coverage though.

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. I guess the concept of "third class" these days has a slightly derogatory air, so maybe it jumped out at her as a concept that would still be offered. How long has it been since there were actually third class carriages on the railways? 50-odd years? Not something in many people's real memory.

Still, it was good coverage and I think the railway got a good bit about its own extension, as well as all the coverage of Children in Need activities. Congratulations to whoever in the commercial department arranged that one!

Tom

 

I think it was a win win situation, the Bluebell got some great publicity and the fantastic charity raised some much needed funds. We'll done to all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Tom I am only 63 and easily remember third class. For those too young to remember it was second which dissapeared leaving 1st and 3rd. I suspect the change from 3rd to second didnt happen until well into the 60s. I suspect the presenter mentioned third because she was seen earlier in a 1st class seat.

 

On the subject of fundraising I notice KUTP has passed the £100,000 mark

 

I'm 64 and I can't! However, that's probably because I didn't travel by train in my younger days. You're right to say that it was second class that disappeared (in June 1956) but for many years it had only been available on trains in connection with ferry services to the continent. Third class then became second class but I think that only first class had been designated on coaches for a long time prior to this so it was simply a change of name and little else.

 

Aren't East Coast reintroducing 3rd class on the routes North soon?

 

Aye, an order for bogie cattle (people) wagons has been placed with Bombardier!!

 

There are two reasons why I probably remember third class. The first is my father never had a car and we went everywhere by train and bus, including camping holidays with a converted pram chasis. The second is that whilst the class may have been abolished in 56 the tickets were probably not changed till later as old stocks were used up. I have a dim merory of being issued with third class tickets much later and being a child ticket not as many would have been used especially as an adult fare was charged from 14 in those days.

Not being well off we did once travel to Brighton at a silly hour on Workmens tickets - you dont get those nowadays

 

Allegedly they've asked Jeremy Clarkson for his "scum class" as a blueprint.

 

I think it is one of the things those bidding for the franchise to return it to the private sector are being asked, by DafT, to consider and cost in. i don't believe the existing state-owned operator has any plans to introduce it.

Steven

 

There are a couple of paid positions currently being advertised by the railway:

1) A C&W fitter
2) An apprentice for the infrastructure department.

See http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/recruit/index.html for details.

Tom

 

Thanks, ive already sent lisa an email

 

Some updates.

Firstly, as of December 9th, Mid Sussex District Council have given permission for the Well House at Kingscote to resume selling refreshments to passengers who arrive by train, and for the field behind the down platform to be open for picnics. You may remember that, when Kingscote changed from a Terminus to a through station, all the commercial activities there were no longer allowed to carry on as the planning permission that permitted them effectively lapsed once we opened to East Grinstead.

So, now you can get a cake and coffee at Kingscote! Because of the ground conditions in the field, that is likely to be a summer season thing only (i.e. from Easter to October) but we'll see. The next step is to put in an application to allow tickets to be sold from Kingscote, but this permission is certainly good news on the way to regularising Kingscote as a full station again.

Secondly, the railway has received some awards recently. Firstly, at the Ian Allan Heritage Railway Awards, the railway was awarded "Heritage Railway of the Decade". The next evening, Chris White (the plc Infrastructure Director) was runner-up in the "Heritage Heroes" award, run by the Heritage Alliance. Finally, the Bluebell has also won the Heritage Railway Association "Large Groups Award".

Finally, for those who didn't see it in the motive power thread, fundraising is starting in earnest to restore "Stowe", under the "Keep up the pressure" banner. This is the launch video explaining the project - and with some bonus views of Stowe in action more than a quarter of a century ago.



Tom

 

A bit more news - 66737 and 20 wagons of ballast arrived yesterday evening and were unloaded overnight (part at HK for the forthcoming points renewal and part on Freshfield Bank ready for track-renewals early in the new year). The empties left early this morning - quite a sight to stand on the platform at HK and see the loco disappear underneath Leamland Bridge with the rear-most wagons still rolling past the signalbox at the south end of the platforms!

Then at lunchtime today 2 further lorry loads of materials arrived for the point-job, so all the pieces are slowly starting to fall into place for the forthcoming major Civils projects...

 

The northhern extension is obviously proving its worth. As a minimum it has saved considerable lorry movements for the ballast and I assume there was a saving in transport costs. Good luck with the rest of the works