Bluebell Railway General Discussion

Quick update on the NEP: spoil trains are now running (behind teh class 33) starting to move the clay capping. Meanwhile, at EG, the tank was lifted today onto the base of the water tower, which now looks close to its final form. Still needs to be "plumbed in" (technical term, that...) though the fittings have already been prepared; and the windows need glazing. Incidentally, the water for this water tower will primarily come from rain run-off from the viaduct.

Tom

 

Hi Tom
where is going this clay? to the Triangle? to the "Ardingly gap"??
kindest regards
Noel

 

Apparently there is no further need for spoil at HK (or at least not a substantial need now we will no longer be constructing the turning triangle) so the clay is going to some Bluebell-owned land at the southern end of the viaduct where it will eventually build up the ground levels by a small amount and be grassed over.

Meanwhile, with regard the water tower - piccies (not mine): http://riff-raff.org/photos/v/notepad/watertank/

Tom

 

Tom, just out of curiosity do you happen to know what the water capacity is of the tank at EG, and does it refill by means of a pump, or just mains pressure?

46118

 

It is 18,000 litres, which is just a bit under 4,000 gallons. To put that into context, depending on load, a P tank will probably use about 400 - 500 gallons for the round trip with a full load (most being used on the "up" journey), against a capacity of 550 gallons; the H and E4 will probably need of the order of 800 - 1000 gallons with their full load (against a capacity of I believe 1200 and 1400 gallons respectively). Tender engines have plenty of capacity for the trip. So it is likely that tank engines will take water, but maybe just a few hundred gallons each.

The main water supply is run-off from the viaduct, which collects in a sump and is pumped into the tank as required. I assume there is also a mains supply, but I'm not sure exactly how that feed works - I'd have thought maybe via the sump and pump.

Photos of the tank being lifted into position here: http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/whats_new.html

Tom

 

Although it sounds a good idea to use rainwater run off, I do wonder at the practical reality. The collection sump would have to be fairly large to act as a buffer reservoir as otherwise the majority of water is going to be from the mains. Despite what we sometimes think, rain doesn't fall all that regularly in the summer. Are any water treatment facilities being provided?

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect the use of water harvesting from the viaduct was probably a planning condition, i.e not something we had a lot of choice in. Certainly we use run-off from the SP Carriage shed roof for the same reason. So how effective it is in supplying our needs remains to be seen: probably not 100% unless, as you say, we have a huge buffer, but I guess with water charges for mains supply at EG, every little helps.

As for water treatment: there's no fixed plant at EG to my knowledge. The works manager has a system of monitoring boiler water chemistry in place, and additives are added, according to a calculated schedule based on each individual loco's boiler pH etc, before locos go off shed each morning. I assume we will continue with that system though we may find long-term changes in chemistry due to adding in a mixture of essentially pure water to the normal (rather alkaline) river water we have been used to using up to now.

Tom

 

I see in the updated loco roster E4 B473 has had all its future workings deleted,is there a problem?

 

Fire box problems. It requires the bolier to come out and apparently will not be looked at until the S15 & Q are finished.

 

That's a shame, fantastic locomotive

 

For those interested, the revised long term plan, as ratified at the recent AGM, is now available online:

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/soc/ltp.html

My very quick summary: It's not a huge change from the previous one, except that the major focus is now on preserving what we have and building up the capacity to do so, rather than - obviously! - the major focus on extending to East Grinstead. Even so, most sections are considerably beefed up; partly that seems to reflect some omissions from the old plan; partly because of the necessarily greater resources needed to run a bigger railway.

Tom

 

Re Tom's report of increased passenger numbers.

Todays mid-day train ex EG was so busy passengers had to be left behind. Train consisted of 6 cars, 4 Mets+100 seater+birdcage brake.

Of course it is still half term.

And the loco update is.
Available, U+9f+H=2*P. C class due end of June and S15 mid to late August.

 

Always great to hear a preserved railway doing well. A shame some customers got left behind. I hope this doesn't reflect badly on the railway. I think this would be out side of their control and would be hard to Judge if extra coaching stock is require on a particular day. Is there any way extra coaches can be stabled at EG to stop this from happening again?

 

Trains are limited to 6 coaches due to the length of platforms at Sheffield Park.

 

You can't stable anything at EG - the siding is a cripple siding, and as soon as you put anything into it, all sorts of other considerations come into play. Also, the arrangement of the siding doesn't make for easy shunting to add an extra vehicle. So effectively, whatever seating capacity you leave SP with is what you have got.

We really need longer platforms. HK, KC and EG are all built to take 7 coach trains (based on a mark 1 as a "standard" coach length; the vintage coaches are shorter). However, SP can only take 6, which limits the whole line. The only way to start a 7 coach train is for the engine to be past the starter - that then means any down train is held at the outer home! So you can have 7 coach train, or you can have a frequent service with trains crossing at SP, but you can't have both! (You get the same problem for a seven coach arriving train - because the whole of an arriving train wouldn't be inside the starting signal, the starter on the other platform couldn't be cleared to let another train depart).

Platform extension at SP is in the long term plan; however, in order to be useful, such a scheme needs all the signals moving and track circuits adjusting, so isn't a quick job.

The Mets plus two vintage coaches are I think 370 seats. They are actually shorter than six Mark 1s so I think another coach could have been added (presumably the LBSC bogie first) but I guess it wasn't available. We have enough coaches to run four 6-coach equivalent sets plus dining trains, but we can't run that level of stock utilisation continually - even if we had available engines - because, like engines, the carriages need to be cycled through the workshop for maintenance on a regular cycle.

Tom

 

I think this has to be seen in a wider context - what was the capacity of the train? How many passengers were left behind? How often has this happened? Were there a number of parties booked on the same train?

It (say) 10 passengers were left behind and it was a one-off, that's one thing, but if (say) 100 were left behind and it's a daily occurrence then that's quite another.

 

Certainly not a daily occurrence! I've only ever heard it happen one other time since re-opening to EG. Not ideal, but certainly not regular. The capacity of the train was 370 seats.

We really need our other 100 seater back!

Tom

 

On another note, if you fancy working for the railway, there are currently paid opportunities as a full time C&W fitter; full time locomotive fitter; part-time C&W administrator and silver-service staff. See http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/recruit/index.html

Tom

 

Maybe rather than thinking of longer trains the BB should increase the frequency....and by looking at the TT for today should not be a difficult thing to do....

 

It has been suggested on the Bluebell yahoo group that a relief service could be run, departing between 12.00 and 1.15 from East Grinstead using the loco that is due to haul the Wealden Rambler later in the afternoon( when it is running). This would be say H Class plus 4 coaches. The 12.00 appears to be a popular train.
I travelled on it over the Mayday weekend and arrvied 10 minutes prior to departure and there were 4 people in each of the the 2 queues for tickets. On departure people were standing in each end of the droplight coach I was travelling.