Bluebell Motive Power

I wonder it the date in May is a Toy and Railway Collectors Fair there has been one the end of April for the past 2 years.

 

Plus that's also Bank Holiday weekend so might be some sort of enhanced service happening?

 

Some excellent pictures of the Brighton Atlantic new build in this month's Steam Railway. Very much looking forward to traveling behind that in years to come. The locomotive looks more and more complete every time an update is posted. The running plate being almost completely fitted, when can we expect an out of frames steam test for the boiler?

Overall it's just such a good advert for positive recycling of older components and the engineering capabilities on offer for new builds.

 

Awesome. It's probably written somewhere but I was wondering where the boiler came from? Was it a spare for one of the preserved GN locos?

 

It's an LNER boiler, built I think in 1941 as a spare for the GN atlantics. There is some suggestion that it may never have been fitted to a locomotive. Subsequently, it was used as a stationary boiler, I think to provide steam to some industrial greenhouses.

There are a few interesting differences with an LBSC equivalent, most notably that it has a sloping grate, whereas the LBSC ones had a grate that was level at the back and sloped at the front. That introduces some detail design work at the back to make sure it all fits! It was also designed for a pressure of 200psi, whereas the Brighton ones were 170psi, but the locos had correspondingly larger cylinders. I'm not sure if there is any long-term decision about how to set the safety valves: Logic would say keep them to the lower pressure.

Tom

 

Thanks!

 

It was one of 4 boilers at the joinery works of Boulton & Paul in Maldon Essex. The other Atlantic boiler was later scrapped at Steam & Sail but the T1 boiler and an ex M&GN boiler were preserved. Hope this answers your question. Ray.

 

For @Corbs and @S.A.C. Martin there is another online update about the Atlantic here: http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/locos/atlantic/latest.html

Tom

 

Ta Tom much appreciated.

 

Update on FaceBook (you don't have to be a member to view) of the throatplate of Stowe and the reason why a new throatplate is required - also CAD images of the steam pipes, for which new castings will be required.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.745332455535674.1073741841.541470399255215&type=1

Tom

 

My phone says you do have to be logged in.

 

Must be some FB setting - I'm not on FB myself, but it worked ok for me on a desktop machine.

Anyway, the digested read: the throatplate had signs of a BR-era welded repair. When that was ground away, it revealed deep cracks which could not satisfactorily be repaired by welding. So the a large part of the throatplate has been cut away and will need replacing. This will be a significant expense as a forming block will need to be made, but hopefully will result in a boiler fit for a couple of periods of operation without further significant repair.

The other update was cad images (from Fred Bailey, of the Atlantic Group) of the steam pipes - new castings will be produced using the lost poly-patterns process.

Tom

 

I run FB through an app on my smartphone and I'm logged in on that but the link takes you to the FB website where I'm not logged in.

 

Try this link https://www.facebook.com/pages/V-Class-928-Stowe/541470399255215

Simon

 

Update on the Standard 2 project:

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/loco_news/oh_84030.html

Tom

 

Hi Tom - clicked on it but can't see an update past June 2014?

 

Odd - I see a December update!

Try this link: http://rasalmon.co.uk/bluebell/download/locos/TheBluebellStandard18a.pdf

Tom

 

Thanks Tom - I still can't see it from clicking your original link though. Perhaps it's my browser?

Nice update - the re-use of the "poly-shed" is a good idea and is again a great example of recycling.

 

A couple of photos that were in Bluebell News (so ancient history now ...) The first shows the H class, minus tanks and cab while the recent boiler repairs were carried out before Christmas. The other shows the right hand (driver's side) tank, showing how the steam reverser and its associated control rods and pointer linkage are attached via the tank, rather than via the frames.

The loco is now back in traffic.


H Class 263 boiler repairs by Jamessquared, on Flickr


H Class 263 water tanks by Jamessquared, on Flickr

Tom

 

The M&GN one turned out to be a Jinty boiler, with an M&GN style smoke box.
It's been taken "off the radar" to some secret northern location, for an alleged secret new build.