"Fenchurch", our 1872-built LBSCR Terrier took part in the
East Grinstead Jubilee carnival procession on its way to Ardingly.
Dave Bowles picture shows "Invincible" which visited us at very short
notice at the end of June. The reason for the visit was that
"Percy", seen behind, was feeling unwell, so his twin, 1915-built
Hawthorn Leslie "Invincible", resplendent in his Royal Arsenal
Livery, came over from the Isle of Wight to shunt the Troublesome
Trucks. Being air-braked only, "Invincible" was unable to haul any
passenger trains.
Our Thomas event itself was, as ever, hugely popular with families,
and takings were up on last year (but, with extra loco movements to
pay for, so were our costs!).
The funeral is at 12 o'clock on Tuesday, the 16th at The Downs Crematorium in Brighton.
Work continues on the Dukedog No.3217 "Earl of Berkeley". Replacement
of sections of the main frames at both ends of the engine has been
completed (above).
The Maunsell Locomotive Society have been making great progress on the tender frame of "Stowe", with the entire front drag-box re-built, and this rivetted tothe new main frame sections, now themselves welded into place.
The U-class No.1638 has been moved into the workshop (left) where the
motion will be erected, and work continues on its boiler.
Work is proceeding on Baxter's repair, most recently on the boiler, front buffer beam, and steam chests (right).
The full Loco Department News, with many more photos, is available on
Lewis Nodes' Loco
Works Photo News Pages.
The new locomotive preparation/disposal pit in "3-road" at Sheffield
Park (Photo right) is now in use. At 43m long it will enable several
locos to be prepared or disposed simultaneously, which will be a
great boon at weekends when we often have 4 or more locos in steam.
The full story of the construction of the new pit, with many more photos, is available on Lewis Nodes' Photo News Pages.
With the completion of the new timber roof on Maunsell open Third No.1336 the scaffolding on A-road has been removed, and the vintage compartment stock (LCDR 106, Met 412 and LBSCR 661) are now in residence in the works dock.
Maunsell brake No.6686 is coming to the end of a paint-touch-up and re-varnish, and we are very pleased to see Tony Funnell (complete with his new kidney) back at work part time, and looking very well.
Work on SECR Birdcage brake No.3363 has now moved to the last of the six compartments, with the last floor and partition repairs completed, and the only big structural repairs still to complete being the new roof and at the brake end. The coach is now at the north end of B-road where the concrete pad, a temporary metalworking area during the building of the works extension, will be used to enable the entire end section of the coach to be removed and laid on the floor for the replacement of the corner pillars.
The LSWR team are getting on well with their roof, with new timber roof-hoops cut from pitch pine. The seat bases for the LBSCR Stroudley first are now with the trimmers, the backs having been completed. John Coleman is now preparing the quarter-pads (with arm rests, which go beneath the windows). Other interior components are being prepared.
The Sunday Wagon Gang have outshopped the SR box van, and Gerry Bixley and Alan Blackburn have nearly completed the SR 20T ballast wagon. Work is due to re-start on the Queen Mary brake, with visits by the Kingscote team on Wednesdays, and space allocated in the yard for the work.
The LCDR brake second now has most of its panelling fixed in place, and its lower step-boards are on. The last of the four Metropolitan coaches is coming apart, with more of the softwood than expected needing replacement. Fortunately most of the interior mouldings in the first-class are recoverable, and Pat is well into stripping these.
Only the brake area of Bulleid No.2526 has yet to have its steel bottom side replaced, with new pockets welded to the new steel plate along-side the two compartments.
The viewing gallery in the workshop is now finished, and so visitors
can at last just pop in and see the work going on in the shed.
- Get more involved as a Volunteer
Trains will be in the hands of four of our largest engines:
There is a three train passenger service, running approximately every 50 minutes from 9.50 am, into the evening. The carriages used include our pre-grouping vintage train of LBSCR, LNWR and SECR vehicles, and two trains formed of Southern Railway Maunsell and Bulleid carriages, as well as some 1950s/60s BR Mk.1s.
A goods train will run in addition to the passenger services. This will be formed of vintage SR and LMS wagons, and be hauled by 80151 on the Saturday and 75027 on the Sunday, running Horsted Keynes-Kingscote-Sheffield Park in the morning, a complete round trip in the early afternoon, and SP-HK in the late afternoon.
A working timetable will be available for a small charge. Bus timetable as per Table 1-2
Free guided tours of the Carriage Works at Horsted Keynes start at 12.35, 1.45, 2.20 and 2.55, led by Richard Salmon on the Saturday and Peter Milnes on the Sunday.
Walking tours of the extension route up to the tip (from Kingscote at 11.15, 1.30 and 3.15) are also on offer. The first tour (11.15) on both days is very heavily booked, with only a few spaces left. To book telephone Horsted Keynes Booking office: 01825 720832, ASAP. Cost £2 or more if you wish!
The bus fare remains the same (£1.50 return, or £1 single), but a bus ticket (or through ticket from National Rail) allows you to break your journey to visit each of the attractions as you wish. Standen is open Wednesday to Sunday from 11.00am, and Sackville College: Wednesday to Saturday in July, daily in August, 2.00-5.00pm.
During the visit she met a number of local school children who had taken part in a painting competition to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee.
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Jon Bowers' photo, left, is one of several now available on the web site,
which give a flavour of the weekend. It shows No.75027 BR Standard 4
4-6-0 hauling the demonstration freight train which ran between
passenger services.
The Bluebell Railway again had a major presence at Eastbourne's
annual air show (15-18 August), with SECR P-class 0-6-0T No.323 on
our stand, attracting much interest. Les Anstey's photo, right, shows
No.323 on Saturday 17th August, enjoying the summer sunshine on the
sea front at Eastbourne for this, the 10th anniversary Airbourne 2002
event. This time the weather was somewhat better than in June for the
South of England Show at Ardingly - Tim Baker did not have to wear
his wellies.
The current workshop programme should see the following locomotives,
all of which are currently receiving attention, outshopped
progressively in the next few years, starting with the GWR Dukedog,
the SECR C-class 0-6-0, U-class No.1638 (photo left, from the Maunsell Locomotive Society,
shows the newly bored and honed valve chest, and restored slide-bar),
"Baxter", "Sir Archibald Sinclair" and then possibly "Stowe" or the
S15. It should be remembered that we typically outshop one or
occasionally two locomotives a year, so this programme looks some
years into the future, and so could change if circumstances dictate.
With ten operational locomotives, the Bluebell can currently field more former BR steam locos than any other heritage railway (data from listings in Heritage Railway Magazine), and half of these are over 100 years old! It's sobering to think that we have 9% of the national operational ex-main-line steam fleet, and our locos worked about 2,000 trains, running over 39,000 miles last year, dwarfing steam activity on the Railtrack network, which is limited to 15,000 miles per year.
The Buebell's Atlantic project is now well under way, with physical work on the tender frames involving adding just under 6 inches to the length at the front of the LBSCR B4 tender making good progress. New spring hangers are being forged, and whilst we have some LBSCR tender springs available from a C2X tender, these are too short, so will be replaced by new, which we are contemplating making ourselves. The ability to make new locomotive springs will be a worthwhile addition to our workshop's capability for the future, since it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain springs of adequate quality.
It is hoped to have a rolling tender chassis for the Atlantic in time for a project "Open Day" at Sheffield Park to co-incide with our October "Giants of Steam" gala, which should see "Taw Valley" visiting the Bluebell for the first time, becoming the fifth Bulleid pacific to steam on Bluebell metals in the preservation era.
Funding for the project is progressing, with £89,000 now pledged
towards a total project cost of about £300,000. Further funding
promises are therefore required to make this loco a reality. Further
details are here.
The Alf Brown Group are making substantial progress towards the erection of the second of four Bracket signal posts which they are constructing for Horsted Keynes. The brackets, gallery and railings are being assembled on a stub post in preparation for mounting as a single unit on the actual post.
The good news is that the large majority of callers were very supportive of Bluebell and welcomed its arrival. Several neighbours asked if we could leave a screen of trees which we have accommodated but have left a "corridor" by the base of the viaduct and ensured the clearance is as environmentally friendly as possible. Fencing has been re-instated in accordance with the requirements of the HSE.
We would like to remind everyone that the viaduct is now a construction site and access will not be permissible under any circumstances unless approved and under escort.
Jon Bowers has put together the first photo news page for Graham Ward's volunteer track
gang, and this shows work being done to re-instate the dock
siding at Horsted Keynes, which is being rebuilt roughly on its
original alignment, having been truncated in about 1935.
Completion of this project now awaits only the transfer of the
platform 4/5 starter and down yard shunt signals from their temporary
post to the newly erected bracket post.
The photo on the left shows, from left to right, LBSCR Stroudley
First No.661, Metropolitan Railway Composite No.412, and LCDR Brake
Second No.106 in the new carriage works extension. The raised dock
on the far side of the vehicles makes access to the interior of these
compartment vehicles very much easier.
Stripping of No.412 has now reached its lowest point, and re-assembly will soon start, with about £1,500 of new timber being installed in the partitions and roof.
The viewing gallery at the far end allows visitors to the shed to
view work in progress on these two carriages as well as SR Maunsell
open third No.1336 and Bulleid brake No.2526, which are seen on the
right.
The Maunsell is seen with its new roof in place, and cover strips are now being fabricated for the exterior steel panelling.
The Bulleid coach is seen with its completed re-sheeting of the
nearer end of the coach. The steel bottom-side has now been renewed
as far as the end of the passenger area, two-thirds of the way down
the further end of the coach, and structural timbers which had rotted
have been replaced in the central toilet area.
We are very pleased to have become only the ninth recipient of a Silver
"Smokin' Website Award" from smokin.kvrr.net (and no one has yet
achieved Gold!).
This video is now available. Amongst other films, it features
Decontamination and Repairs to Damaged Track which goes
through in detail the procedures involved after a gas raid. This
film was shot on our line in the vicinity of Sharpthorne Tunnel and
West Hoathly Station in 1943.
Details here.
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The Saturday of our "Somerset and Dorset" event went off well, double-heading and all, but unfortunately on Sunday morning the news was not so good. Camelot/Linette had suffered a boiler problem and would not run that day. So we were down to three large locos for the day, and a slightly curtailed timetable with only three coaching sets compared to that which had been planned. 'Linette' was left on view in the yard on Sunday, then changed back to 'Camelot' at the end of the day.
Camelot Loco Society President, Peter Smith, came over on Sunday and we were able to give him a footplate trip on 75027, but it was of course a bit of a disappointment not to have Camelot running.
The news on Camelot is not as bad as some of the rumours that day had suggested: a leaking foundation ring rivet - not difficult to repair (hopefully), but the engine has to cool down enough for the grate to come out for access. The intention is to do this soon so that she is available for Giants weekend.
So here's to the Giants of Steam gala, 26-27 October, when we should have six large locos in traffic, including the visiting "Taw Valley", and our own 9F, since by then we should have obtained and fitted the required replacement main springs.
Horsted was a hive of activity on Sunday, with Graham Ward's "3rd Sunday" P-way gang laying original LBSCR rails and chairs in the dock siding, with three track panels connected up, and only 1 and a half left to do. The Alf Brown group and S&T were finalising the exact position where the Platform 1&2 down starter post will be planted (scheduled for late next month). This post (built from 4 old rails) will have three arms, on three lattice posts, on an unequal bracket, two for departures towards Ardingly (initially used only as shunt signals) and one for Sheffield Park.
We received £77 in donations towards materials for restoration of the fourth Met coach as a result of the Carriage Shed guided tours over the weekend.
In the carriage shed on Sunday there were people working on the LSWR coach, SECR Birdcage brake, LBSCR 661, LCDR brake and the Bulleid brake. The midweek staff are getting on well with the end repairs to the maroon buffet car, and the Midweek Volunteer Gang are transferring the floor and other good planks from the recently failed SECR 7-plank wagon (which now needs most of its main underframe members replacing) to the underframe which has just been rebuilt (with several new underframe members, including headstocks). The Kingscote gang have dismantled the first bogie from the Queen Mary brake van, and the frames are being grit-basted. The brake rigging is in excellent condition, so will need very little work. The major Saturday project is the fourth Met, and this is just about at the "starting to come back together" stage, although some serious rot in the structure at one end has caused a bit of head scratching, since this was quite unexpected on the otherwise very good t! eak-framed body.
We've re-furbished the steam heating display in the exhibition coach (which Tony Harris originally put together, I'm told, for a "Parade Day"). When did we last have a "Bluebell on Parade" event? Must have been back in the 1980s!
The sub-base and drainage are now laid into the new C&W paint-shop, so the next job is presumnably the new floor, to be followed by blockwork walls and new doors. The existing external door has been moved northwards by one coach length to provide an exit from what will become part of the main workshop.
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Compiled by Richard Salmon.