Tangmere Question

34059, 34023 and Normandy are owned by the Society and not by the Bluebell - The Bluebell (As I see it ) have these locos for the foreseeable future.. Shame in my view, as in a waste as the BoB's were designed for harder work than this. Is the Generator on 34059 working yet; from the donor part of 34023?

 

Well what railways can really give locos of Class 7 serious work? But if every railway had locos that were ideally sized then we would be buried in Standard 4 tanks and Praries!

 

You might want to go back and read the posting immediately before yours, from Roger Cruse, the Chairman of the Bluebell Battle of Britain Locomotive Group, where he categorically states that 34059 is owned by the Bluebell Railway.

To paraphrase the old engineers' proverb....read twice, post once!


Keith

 

Oh well, they should have just left her to rot up in the head shunt, rather than waste 20 years hard work and money restoring her.

 

There are only two railways that really have need of cl7 power - the WSR & the NYMR - and then, only occasionally, so, unless you intend flooding the big railway with them, be content with them running where they are. You also need to remember that, although designed for a harder life, a lot of light pacifics spent a lot of time ambling around on 2-3 coach trains.

 

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Personally I am very grateful that I can drive 5 miles, get on a 4-5 coach Bulleid set pulled by 34059 and amble along for 10 miles

 

At the end of the day, you can never have too many Bulleids! Big and powerful they might be, I think that compared to many of the other pacific designs based on heritage lines, the 'light pacifics' are probably the best suited to the hum-drum of everyday service on lines around the ten miles mark.

 

But they have the advantage of being suitable for heritage railways AND mainline. They re powerful and fast, yet almost suited to pulling 2/3 coach trains. Unlike the A4s and
stanier duchess'.

 

there isnt much difference between the costs of running a bulleid pacific on 3 coaches than a class 2, the bulleid would be worked a lot lighter and need less regulator on a thin fire, where as a smaller engine would be heavier on maintaince because it would be working a lot harder and because you have more in reserve, with the larger engine if you had to add additional coaches for operational reasons, you could, where as an overloaded class 2 would probally need attension very soon afterwards