Bluebell 2009 "Modernisation"

Did Port Line run on the main line? :-k

I know 34027 Taw Valley visited for a gala, but did not enter service for some reason. 60800 Green Arrow has also visited in the past and even 3440 City of Truro can be classed as a main line engine. Come to think of it 5690 Leander has also been a visitor in the recent past.

Regards,

Dan

 

If you include railtours 1247/120/123 on the Blue Belles in the 60's. 34027 did run but failed and didn't make the 2002 GoS. (Again something I went to.)

 

What! Over a week since someone had a rant on this thread!

 

Todays addition of "Latest News" on the Bluebell website has some hard words for all those who predicted the "end of the World as we know it" following the arrival of the ED to work spoil trains.

Suffice to say that the entire cost of the fuel and the hire for moving 10600 tons of spoil was met from the running of just the one special passenger train on the Bluebell.

Sounds like a good deal to me.....

46118

 

Bet the ******* Wilcock won't report that in his next tirade of drivel on the pages of Heritage Beano. That article was about the worst sensationlist bit of Sun reader type of reporting that has ever been printed in any of the railway mags. No wonder so many people have such a low opnion of him now. He should stick to making chuffing noises on game shows.

 

Glad to be of service!

 

Well said. =D> =D>

 

However much we dislike certain people, there is sill a way of saying it so please can we be more constructive regarding this type of matter. Thank you

 

Agreed entirely and I accept that, but the article written in Heritage Beano was to be honest a disgrace. it was one sided, distorted and downright biased. If a journalist wishes to set his stall out and behave like a tabloid hack then he should exepect that the brick-bats he has lobbed may occasionally get returned to him at the same velocity. Remember, the more time passes, the more this particular hack uses the railway press to further his own personal agenda, mainly daubing everything black or green so he can take a photo for his own satisfaction. Now because he doesn't agree that Bluebell should have ran a charter with a particular form of motive power off he goes again and launches a full scale assault. His audience in Heritage Beano is a lot larger than what reads this forum but right of reply should be expected.

David Wilcock has abused his position as a magazine writer and launched too many personal attacks, boardering vendettas on people who won't kow-tow to his demands recently. Personally, if I was involved with Clive Mojoiner and the Princess I would do everything possible to keep it red just to spite him.

I remember the TV programme 'spitting image' in the 1980's with their carcature of a sun jorno - the piggy head and mac. Just need to change The Sun badge to Heritage Beano and your away....

Give it another six months and he will be demanding that Lord Nelson will be painted in BR colours. Failure to comply will result in a double page article on why you Eastleigh boys should be barred from every preserved railway in the country!

 

Having just read the piece in 'Latest News' on the Bluebell website I do think that it is written in un-necessarily provocative terms that will be offensive to the many Bluebell members, of which I'm one, who cannot bear the thought of a diesel on the railway. Now I can understand the reasons for it and there is a part of me, the 'professional' part, that sympathises with it but it is, nontheless, a difficult issue. I would hope that there will not be a repeat of a diesel on the railway.

As far as the steamy mags are concerned, most of them are rubbish, particularly Heritage Railway and Steam Railway which seem to me to extra-ordinarily self regarding and self advertising. Very poor mags indeed.

Regards

 

What annoyed me most was the deliberate misrepresentation of a section of text from the constitution (that has been there for over a decade) regarding the acquisition of rolling stock. That was true Sun jorno reporting and it should be exposed for the total b******s it was.

 

Columbine:
Given your comments above, is it reasonable to assume that you would have put up the substantial sum of money required to hire in and steam a small steam loco for the past few weeks of spoil clearance?

46118

 

Poor quality journalism? In Heritage Railway magazine? Surely not. #-o

Oh well, let Wilcock have his little rant. I can't think of many people who actually take his opinions seriously very often any more.

 

Looks like I wrote too soon!

 

just what is the fuss about, the bluebelle hired in a class 73, so what! its a southern region engine that was about at the end of steam, so is in keeping with the southern ethos, what about Mk 1s did they run on the line in BR days, only if it was a special working, but the bulk of the passenger stock in use are Mk1s, no steam railway would willingly use diesels to run advertised passenger trains in place of steam , unless they had no other option ,and having a back up that you can turn the key and go means the difference between running a timetabled service or not, what if the steam engine fails going off shed,and you have nothing else in steam that is ready , do you cancle the first few round trips or put on a deisel till the spare steamer is ready, if you have one
most railways have back up diesels and it has not effected their loadings, on the MHR if they did not have the class 33,s how long would it have been before the train had been rescued and the stricken engine recovered and services re started?
i would guess that the deisels = doom brigade are most probally not regular volounteers on their local preserved line because if they were they would understand , yes we all would prefer all steam railways, but deisels have their part to play

 

Spot on Martin, sadly there will always be the self opiniated trash out there who do not volunteer or used to volunteer and now sit on their backsides and whinge, so pathetic.

Regards
Chris

 

I said once before that the Bluebell will need a diesel loco to help once the extension has been done. I also can't understand why they turned down a Hampshire unit that was offered to them sometime ago. Once the extension is up and running the Bluebell will have to send a loco on a light engine move every running day to cover the first trip out of East Grinstead. What a waste of resources to send a loco well over ten miles to cover the first service from East Grinstead and then to repeat the same operation at the end of the day with a light engine move back to Sheffield park. Far more expensive that using a diesel unit or loco and don’t forget there are a lot for diesel fans out there that will pay to ride be hind diesel locos another good sources of income for the railway.

 

Spot on Martin, sadly there will always be the self opiniated trash out there who do not volunteer or used to volunteer and now sit on their backsides and whinge, so pathetic.

Regards
Chris[/quote:24tl1tow]

Firstly I'm trying to understand why a deliberately understated opinion such as mine deserves these aggressive responses, and secondly I do most strenuously object to being refered to as 'self opiniated trash' and would request an opinion from the moderator as to the acceptability of such language.

I have in the past gone on record as saying that a shunter was perfectly acceptable to carry out the spoil removal role and even that I can see virtue in having a Hampshire demu on the line to carry out first and last passenger duties in order to assist volunteers in their disposal and preparation tasks, first and last thing. A mainline diesel is however of a completely different order of things and, for me, a step too far. Such an engine completely destroys the utterly unique atmosphere at Sheffield Park as it did when I was last down there on March 1st. I am perfectly willing to concede (and I would have thought this was clear in my original post) there is some virtue in having the 73 for the limited task of spoil removal but I would by immensely disappointed if such a locomotive were to be a permanent feature on the railway.

 

Not so. There will be no overnight berthing facilities at East Grinstead, so trains will never start or finish at that station.

Chris

 

This is more like it!!!
Like moths to a flame.....
Ta ta.