The Bluebell Railway's
2008 Goods Train Weekend
was on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th March
This page provides photos from the weekend, including road movements, and also from the Photo Charter on Friday 28th March 2008. My thanks to Derek Hayward, Jon Bowers, Ashley Smith and David Haggar for the use of these photos.
Photos from the weekend are also available in galleries from:
Goods trains were a
very important source of revenue on railway lines like ours. In the
early 1880s, the railways were able to move many tons of materials,
livestock and commodities across the country, the like of which had
never been seen before.
On each day of the event, at Horsted Keynes, one loco was employed shunting some more trucks about, including the newly restored (and not quite completed) Lowmac.
The Bluebell's Goods train weekend is a great opportunity to see a wide variety of goods trains, as well as travelling the line on our vintage passenger trains.
The Steam locomotives in use over the weekend:
- 1638 - SR U-class 2-6-0, built in 1931 at Ashford
- 9017 "Earl of Berkeley" - GWR 'Dukedog' 32xx 4-4-0, rebuilt at Swindon in 1938 from two locos, which were themselves built in 1899 and 1906
- 80151 - BR 'Class 4' 2-6-4T, built in 1957 at Brighton
- 672 "Fenchurch" - LBSCR A1 'Terrier' 0-6-0T, built in 1872 at Brighton
- 32473 - LBSCR E4 class 0-6-2T, built in 1898 at Brighton
As well as the goods trains - we ran a full passenger service
The vintage set, formed of the Victorian Metropolitan Railway set plus the LNWR Observation Saloon also conveyed the six-wheeled SR milk tanker. The lunchtime Pullman train ran on the Sunday.
Picking up the Goods
We demonstrated how this was achieved with period
British Railways road
vehicles, which made pick ups and deliveries
between local towns and villages and the railway.
This will, once again, included Harvey's Brewery at Lewes.
The timetable for the road movements over the 2008 goods train weekend is available here.
Photo Charter with U-class 1638 - 28 March 2008
My thanks to Dave Bowles and David Haggar for sending these photos.
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Last updated 31 March 2008 by Richard Salmon.
Photos © Derek Hayward, Jon Bowers, Dave Bowles, Ashley Smith and David Haggar
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