Good News from the Bluebell

If they really want to save money to that extent then, are they going to buy their own 70 tonne excavator and train up a couple of volunteer drivers for it ?

 

Details of 1960s / 70s / 80s / 90s weekends

Details now available on the Bluebell Website of the various alternative timetables that will be run during the closure of the line through Sharpthorne tunnel:

27/28 February; 6/7 March - 1963 timetable
178 (or B473) and 672 top and tailing the 4 Mets; with brief pauses at Ketches, Freshfield and Bluebell halts.
592 and 3x Mk 1s on the Wealden Rambler.

13/14 March - 1972 timetable
592 + Maunsells and SECR 100 seater
B473 + Mk 1s on Wealden Rambler

20/21 March - 1983 timetable
592 + Bulleids
672 + 178 + Mk 1s on Wealden Rambler

21/28 March - 1990 timetable
80151 + Mk 1s / Bulleids
B473 + Mk 1s on Wealden Rambler
672 + Queen Mary running shuttles from HK to Horsted House Farm

Some interesting combinations and a good way to make a virtue out of the necessity of part-closing the line.

Full details and timetables are available at www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/events/50th.html#march. Normal caveats re engine availability etc apply!

Tom

 

I like the look of the first and last weekends, I think I'll get myself down there for those two

 

I've just read this entire thread waiting for some revelation to appear and now on page 9 this has to be the perfect encapsulation of the sheer pointless pendanticism of railway fora and I've had the best laugh since christmas reading it. Firstly it says nothing of any import or consequence, secondly it has no point or conclusion yet it has stirred the usual hornet's nest of Bluebell emotions:- jealousy, perceived persecution, envy, dogmatism, stubbornness, rage(!) .......and I love the image of being threatened late at night by rail enthusiasts. Iin the real world where lives are lost, the vision of some bloke with a beard, glasses and sandals wearing a CAMRA T shirt holding a handkerchief over the phone and threatening to send the Morris Dancers round to tip my traction engine on top of my wife's Metro is such a joyous antidote it has made my day. I can't wait to get a few private emails of my own threatening to smash my glasses. I also can't wait to to get all the pedantic retorts an anything from my grammar and semantics through to football style rubbishing of whichever railway I'm perceived as belonging to. (oops, preposition at the end there....)
My new years wish is that the Bluebell succeed in all their aims (not just East Grinstead but Hayward's Heath too) but change nothing about themselves - where would we be without you? The whole preservation movement owes you a huge debt and would be a shadow of what it is today if you were not there lamenting the end of an age every time a diesel engine is heard.

 

I can only assume that this diatribe is intended to wind people up. Happy New Year!

 

Do you know I thought exactly the same thing.

Happy new year too you too.

Regards
Chris

 

2010 in summary

Maybe we need a summary of the good news to avoid newcomers to the thread wading through 7 pages of comment? Thought as much! OK, here goes:

Extension

- Probably starting in March 2010, spoil will be removed from the north end of the tip by rail for ultimate disposal at Calvert in Buckinghamshire
- Initially this will be a one-week trial, but if it is successful, it is hoped that all the spoil could leave that way, saving the railway a considerable sum of money and also making it easier to remove the spoil in small amounts as and when funding is available, leading to more visible progress
- To facilitate the above, tracklaying from East Grinstead to Imberhorne Lane should be completed before March, leaving just a few hundred yards between the two rail heads
- The possibility of EG - Imberhorne shuttles on selected weekends next year is being explored

Visitors
Confirmed visitors for next year (subject of course to all the usual caveats) include:
- Riddles 2-6-0 78019 (February)
- Fairburn 2-6-4T 42085 (February)
- Peppercorn A1 60163 (August)
- Furness railway 0-4-0 20 (August)

with no doubt others to be confirmed for e.g. Giants weekend.

Restoration
Conceivably, 15 items of rolling stock could see the light of day in 2010, some for the first time in preservation. Seeing all 15 in one year would require quite a following wind, but one new item per month for the whole year is a possibility. These would include some of:

- LBSC E4 B473 ("Birchgrove") (relaunch in January)
- SECR P class 178 (Scheduled to run in February)
- LBSC A1X 55 "Stepney"
- SECR P class 323 "Bluebell"
- SECR H class 263
- Fletcher Jennings 0-4- "Baxter"
- Howard petrol locomotive 957

- SECR Birdcage brake 3363 from 1910, back for its centenary along with 178 and 323
- LSWR Lavatory brake 3rd 1520, also back for its centenary!
- LCDR 4wh brake 3rd 51 of 1889, to be converted to a wheelchair accessible coach

- LBSC 6wh perishables van 270 of 1908

- GWR 10 ton open 87782 (1912)
- SECR 2 plank ballast wagon 567
- SR (Bulleid era) 12 ton open 12058
- SR Conflat 39617

Events
Lots of events for the anniversary year, including Branch Line weekend in February with the aforementioned Riddles and Fairburn tanks; 1960s / 1970s / 1980s / 1990s weekends in February / March while the track through Sharpthorn tunnel is relaid; the main anniversary in August with Tornado and Furness number 20, plus a variety of other open days and events throughout the year - see http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/events/index.html

There, did I miss anything? Not bad for a railway supposedly drowning in internecine political sniping!

Tom

 

You missed out:

Visitors:
Blue Circle

Historic Carriages (most likely)

The return of the VEP + some 73's

 

C'mon - some folk like pendants

 

Can one of the mods delete all the messages posted before Jamessquared's above post? Surely if Admin wants to save space on the server by deleting the archives, removing 8 and a half pages of utter dribble and bitching would be a good place to start as well.

 

I thought utter dribble and bitching was the raison d'etre of this forum.

 

But we already heard it all before....

 

And of course you would never dream of posting utter dribble and bitching would you?, perish the thought.

Regards
Chris

 

Ding Dong!

 

They should rename this thread 'Dribble'
Of course it is New Year...

 

I don't understand, they've fallen for it! This post was so clearly intended to wind people up and its intended audience have duly wound up! Crackers, absolutely crackers! Happy New Year and may 'Jamessquared' predictions come true.

Regards

 

In the loco dept yes, in the C&W dept I doubt it.

Also just watch the board of directers resign once East Grinstead has been reached leaving others to pick up the wreckage left behind .

Happy new year.
Chris

 

Probably both.. Happy New Year

 

Yep,Happy New Year to all and of course I didn't mean any malice, and as a humble passenger I love the Bluebell. But when even the dissemination of information that is already all over the electronic domain elicits the sort of skullduggery you used to see mocked in Bill Tidy cartoons then a lot of the members and volunteers down there need a bit of leg pulling. As other posters have inferred, read the first 7 pages of this thread and there's enough wasted hot air to launch a ballooon.
As we all should know "enthusiasm" leads rational adults to display some very peculiar behaviour and if left unchecked leads to damaging factionalisation. Avoid it and this will be a great decade for the Bluebell and I look forward to contributing via the fare box.

 

News just released from the Bluebell website giving dates for the PTS training course.
http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/lineside.html