Bluebell East Grinstead Open Weekend

a nice couple of "what if?" photos taken today

What if the Southern Railway had never been nationalised?

http://www.fotothing.com/photos/cd6/cd69e54cd40e3cc06673ac3fff24f0c5.jpg?ts=1283887139


What if they had electrified Horsted Keynes to Sanderstead as planned?

http://www.fotothing.com/photos/af4/af45023ed0f04d82b430363a571c1eae.jpg?ts=1283887190

I was thinking about the success of the weekend; how feasible would it be to run the 4 Vep up to Oxted and back behind some rare traction? I'd certainly pay for that

 

Can anyone tell me, when the 4-VEP was leading the train to Imberhorne North (73 at rear) was the train controlled from the 4-VEP cab or was the 4-VEP effectively a dead set of coaches being pushed and pulled around?

Thanks,
Nigel

 

It was controlled from the VEP I believe

 

The East Grinstead Open Weekend was certainly a clear statement of intent from the Bluebell Railway.

Does anybody know how successful the weekend was in terms of visitors, what the plans for the next open weekends are (73+4-VEP each time?) and whether the continued excavation in October will go ahead?

 

Correct. Control supply from the 27 way jumper meant the VEP could be driven from the leading cab.

 

And to prove the point, here is a photo of the driver detraining from the 4-VEP cab at the Imberhorne railhead to walk back to the class 73 ED to drive the train on the return journey back to the platform....



My Fotopic pictures of this event are here: http://gallery74781.fotopic.net/c1893320.html

Chris

 

Quite right too...

 

Around 1300 tickets sold, I don't know about future open days, but as far as I know the October excavation is still on.

 

My video from Saturday's opening day is now on Youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRkeSzozE2Y

 

My video from the service trains in the afternoon taken lineside between Sheffield Park and Horsted Keynes is now on Youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84_Y3tNnShY

 

Someone has posted a good video of a cab ride across the viaduct and into East Grinstead station here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrkC6-V6LtI

Does anyone have any updates on the continued excavation?

 

It says on the Bluebell website that "around 100,000 tons of domestic waste was dumped on the railway line, filling Imberhorne Cutting".
How much was removed to Horsted Keynes triangle, i.e. how much is left?
How many tons did the test train remove in July and how long did it take to fill it using the one digger and one snowcat?
I'd just like to get an idea of the scale of the remaining task.

Why am I not e-mailing the questions to the Bluebell direct?
Because answers tend to come MUCH quicker on Nat Pres! :thumb:

 

The tip is around 105,000 tonnes. It's 1,000 tonnes per spoil train, 5 days of northbound trains = 5,000 tonnes. The person giving information on the Imberhorne Shuttles in August said there was 90,000 tonnes remaining. So roughly 10,000 went to the HK-Ardingly triangle. This video shows how quickly one of the cats is loaded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBSChRSrEpw&feature=related and I believe it takes under 3 hours to fill the train.

There you are, at least partial answers to your questions in under 10 minutes :thumb:

 

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: Matt!

So "all" you need is 90 weekdays of work, paid for by £3.6 million in donations and event fundraising (at £10 per quarter tonne, as per the website)

 

So, anyone know when the next excavation and spoil trains are due to take place? There was talk of October, which we're already a week into.

How long does anyone think it will take to raise the required funds? 300,000 Tenner for the Tip certificates seems like an awful lot!

 

I think you can also hear the guide on the video mentioned above say that each spoil train costs £20,000 to run so 90 trains will cost £1,800,000 and that is just to get the tip cleared. Does anyone know if the Bluebell already has the materials required to complete the line? There is also a water tower to be built at East Grinstead. I believe there was talk of running twenty more spoil trains subject to funding. If only my piggy bank wasn't empty...

 

Before any more spoil trains can run the work being carried out by WSCC on Hill Place Farm Bridge needs to be completed.

 

.


Just to put the record straight, NO RUBBISH/WASTE went to HK only the CLAY CAP

ED 73136 Perseverance moved 10,600 tons of cap spoil from Imberhorne Lane tip to HK at a cost of 22.6 pence per ton.

 

D'oh! I knew I'd cocked something up with my info!

 

And to think that one diesel hauled service train paid for it all