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Locomotive Works News

SE&CR P-class No. 323 'Bluebell'
Overhaul started 2023

 
Main web page for 323 'Bluebell'     -     Earlier overhaul (completed in 2011)     -     Loco Works News
 
Information about the "Make Bluebell Bloom Again" Appeal
 

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As announced on 6 October 2023, the rapid overhaul of No. 323 'Bluebell' is now taking place in our workshops, with an original plan for the locomotive to be available in the Summer of 2024, giving us an exciting prospect of seeing our flagship locomotive once again in steam and working Bluebell service trains. We have three P-class locomotives (and four boilers). No. 178, which is now on static display, last steamed in October 2020. No. A27 which, not having run since 1974, is currently being completely rebuilt, with new frames and cylinder block, etc, as volunteer-run "Project 27".

323 'Bluebell' was the second locomotive purchased by the nascent Bluebell Railway, in June 1960, and except for a decade in SE&CR wartime livery, has worn various versions of "Bluebell Blue" since first repainted in 1966. It has been heavily used over the years, having clocked up 78,000 miles on the Bluebell, and was last in steam in 2019. For this overhaul it will be receiving the boiler which it was carrying when it first arrived on the Bluebell, which has most recently been used in No. 178. It received a replacement cylinder block (a spare which had arrived with No. 178 in 1969) at its last overhaul.

In the reports below, click on photos for enlargements.

December 2025

As people following this project will have seen, the locomotive (and particularly 178's boiler) did not prove to be a quick and cheap to overhaul as had been hoped, hence the launch of "Make Bluebell Bloom Again" Appeal which we hope you will support if you wish to see the locomotive running again more quickly. Whilst the frames and running gear are coming together, with new axle boxes having been made, the boiler has been sent away for overhaul at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway, where work on the boiler is coming along well.

Early November 2023

The first photo below shows P-class 178 having had a boiler swap to release the original boiler which had arrived with 323 in 1960, which will be carried by 323 again after this overhaul. No. 178 is now being prepared for a return to static display, in the new One:One museum in Margate.

In the second photo, the boiler being overhauled for SE&CR No. 323 'Bluebell' is seen with forced ventilation fitted whilst the tubes are being removed. (Both photos thanks to Andy Kelly, 7 November 2023)

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