9017 "Earl of Berkeley"

GWR 9017 "Earl of Berkeley" has been withdrawn from traffic and will now join the overhaul que at the Bluebell Railway after a split in the Flue Tubes was found. Had many a fantastic day on the footplate of this loco and became a firm favourite of mine, roll on her next overhaul...

 

Oh dear a shame to lose a great loco. Hopefully an overhaul isn't too far off.

 

That's a tremendous shame, given that the engine spent around 8 months out of service undergoing extensive boiler repairs.
She's only been running again since February, afterall!

Ah well, looks like work on the 'H' will step up a gear now that there's a gap in the working fleet.

 

Hold on. If it is just a split in the flue tubes then a re tube is needed. But to be withdrawn from traffic, to me seems a bit over the top when she's still got another 2 years on her ticket?

 

That's what I was thinking, too; specially since she's just had most of her stays replaced. Mind you, the way things are going at Sheffield Park, I wouldn't be surprised if there's too much going on already to have her back in the works AGAIN so soon.

 

I thought as well she was retubed at the same time

 

Great shame to hear 9017 has been withdrawn, also the loco was bringing in good hire fee monies for the railway recently so that's another blow.

 

The split in the flue tubes was the latest find of a number of work needed to be done to get her back into traffic again so the decision was made taking into condsideration; Money, time out of traffic, resources taken away from other projects and the amount of work and money spent on her last year...Currently the Bluebell only has Baxter, 55, 178, 34059 and 80151 operational. 323 has been stopped needing final adjustments to valve setting after overhaul, B473 has 3 broken springs, 592 has yet another broken spring, 1638 has been out of traffic since December requiring work to her Flue tubes and cylinders parts of which won't be delivered to the railway until July. So work on the 'H' has taken a bit of a back seat.

 

Sad news. I hope that 9017 may jump a few in the queue as it is a favourite of mine, but I'd really like to see some of the Bluebell's back catalogue in action - 488 for preference.

 

488 needs a new boiler, it is believed to be beyond repair.

 

Guys, NOT wishing to make accusations, or cause ructions either, but is there any particular reason why the Bluebell seems to be having such bad luck with engine fitness? I remember this was a problem a few years ago, and it was going to get better when x, y and z were finished. It seems that the picture is almost worse than ever! Am I also right in thinking that 80151 hasn't got that much longer on her ticket?

 

Surely, broken springs are pretty routine, perhaps requiring the loco to miss a day in traffic but no longer. That is, unless there are no spares!

 

I think the problem is that ideally we'd need about 10 - 12 locos of various sizes to run the service, allowing time for routine maintenance and giving you a bit of leeway if you get the odd unexpected failure, such as a broken spring. But actually, at the moment we only have about 7 (not including Baxter and Stepney, but including 592, B473 and 1638); you can still run the service, but every engine is pushed harder (more days in service) and you have much less scope to cope with the odd failure. So with 10 engines, no-one would notice the E4 out of traffic for a few days with a broken spring; with only 6 or 7, suddenly one failure has a big impact.

It is for that reason that 9017 has been retired rather than repaired. Although it still had over 2 years on its ticket, it was felt that the mechanical condition was such that it wasn't worth doing the boiler repair. (Some of our engines do about 8000 miles per year; if they lasted the full 10 years of their ticket, they'd have racked up 80,000 miles which is a long time between heavy overhauls).

As for 80151, it has had a retube and has been re-certificated for another year (it should have been stopped already). The reasoning is that we will get a summer season and an Santa season out of her before she stops for good in January. Doing the retube was reckoned to be cheaper than hiring another big engine for the Santa season.

Tom

 

Does anyone know the state of play with the Bluebell steam fleet with possible steaming dates of non running locos.



Thanks

 

Try this.
http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/loco_operational.html

Has links to out of service locos as well.

 

263 should (touch wood, and hoping resources aren't diverted into keeping the running fleet going) be ready this autumn.

847 - probably next year?

73082 - maybe 2013

Anything else - who knows? Too many variables to be more precise!

Tom

 

Look forward to seeing 73082 within the next two to three years.

Thanks

 

Thanks Tom. I see the problem now! I suppose it can't have helped having to stop Blackmore Vale early, either.

 

Sad to hear she has been withdrawn early. Here is a short video I took of her with 3717 at the MHR in March which shows her in better health:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4gYa8Otxag

I hope to put some on-train footage on YT later in the week showing her storming up the Bank from Alton with 3717.

 

Don't suppose the Bluebell would consider selling her????