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The visit of 34028 'Eddystone'
to the Bluebell Railway: 2006-7
No.34028 "Eddystone" is a modified West
Country locomotive, owned by Southern Locomotives Ltd, and is normally
resident at the Swanage Railway. During 2006 this locomotive had a problem with loose driving
wheel tyres. With a long lead time for obtaining new tyres, the owners
have replaced the driving wheels with those from another loco, which was done using the Bluebell's wheeldrop facility.
In return for SLL
staff using the Bluebell's facilities for the repair work,
the Bluebell had use of the loco for the 2006 Santa Special
trains. It entered service on the Bluebell on Saturday 18 November 2006.
The locomotive remained on hire to the Bluebell for the whole of 2007, and returned to Swanage on 3 January 2008.
The photo on the right shows Eddystone at Kingscote in May 2007 (Sean Tompsett).
David Chappell's photo shows the loco's arrival at Sheffield Park on 4th September 2006. By 18th October the maintenance work replacing the defective wheelset was complete, and the loco ran a test run, as seen in Chris Dadson's photo below.
Unfortunately the horseshoe and other good-luck charms were to no avail, and the test run revealed further work required on the axleboxes, so 'Eddystone' was only in light steam (photo right from Tom Waghorn) at the following weekend's Giants of Steam event (the star of which, in the rain, was 'City of Truro').
The actual entry into service on the Bluebell was on 17th November 2006.
The photo below from Jon Bowers is from the Somerset & Dorset themed photo charter which he organised that day. See also his photos and videos from the photo charter.
The second photo, from that evening's night shoot at Horsted
Keynes (yes, it was raining again) with locos 75027 and 34028, is from Tony Pearce.
Eddystone was used on that year's Santa Specials, as seen below in Andrew Strongitharm's broadside view taken on 9th December 2006, and one from Dave Jefferys on 18 December showing it powering under Three Arch Bridge.
Tom Waghorn's photo taken on Christmas Eve (left) shows 'Eddystone' on the Horsted Keynes based set, with the newy restored Pullman Car "Christine" as the first coach.
In April 2007, on the Goods Train weekend, 'Eddystone' had charge of both a Passenger train and the Pullman train, as seen below in Mike Snow's Video, and in photos from Andrew Strongitharm and Derek Hayward.
Two photos below from Paul Pettitt, from the 2007 Southern at War event, for which 'Eddystone' was one of the five engines in steam.
In June, a photographic line-up (seen on the right, Jon Bowers) was arranged at Sheffield Park as a taster for the Bluebell 125 event.
Later in June, 'Eddystone' acted as a 'Friend of Thomas' when the blue engine visited the Bluebell for his "days out" event (Derek Hayward).
Tony Pearce's photo illustrates an evening photo charter on 10 July 2007 with 34028 running as 34021 'Dartmoor'. This event was the culmination of a day which saw a private function for The Bulleid Pacific Locomotive Association in conjunction with The Bulleid Society and the Bluebell Battle of Britain Locomotive Group, with thanks also due to Southern Locomotives Limited and was a warm-up for the weekend's "End of Southern Steam" 40th anniversary public event.
The photo on the left from Ashley Smith shows 'Eddystone' in action on the Golden Arrow Pullman train on 22nd July.
Bluebell 125, held over the weekend of 11-12 August 2007, saw one of the largest gala events for some time on the Bluebell, and 'Eddystone' played its part, including in the double-headed finale 12-coach train (photo from Bryan Benn).
The highlight of the event was the cavalcade on Sunday, seen in Derek Hayward's photo below.
In the third photo below, from Ashley Smith, 'Eddystone' is seen hauling its train into Kingscote Station.
Mike Snow has two videos showing 'Eddystone' at Bluebell 125. Click on each image below to run the video (.wmv format - they may take a very long time to load if you are not on broadband).
A final photo from Bluebell 125 from Tom Waghorn shows 'Eddystone' setting off from Horsted Keynes on the Saturday, whilst 'Sir Berkeley' shunts the mixed train.
Derek Hayward's photo below shows 'Eddystone' north of Three Arch Bridge on Bank Holiday Monday 27th August, and his second photo taken the same day shows the same train heading southwards down the bank, with the GN Directors' Saloon next to the engine.
Left: On 8th September, Derek Hayward shot 34028 'Eddystone' steaming towards Ketches Halt.
Giants of Steam was
held over three days, Friday 19th - Sunday 21st October 2007. Jon Bowers photo above was used as advanced publicity for the event, which featured four Bulleid Pacifics. 'Eddystone' was the odd-one out, being the only rebuilt example!
Two photos, both featuring 'Eddystone' leading '92 Squadron' on the Friday. The one on the left is from Bryan Benn, and the other from Andrew Strongitharm.
John Potter also caught the same combination. The Friday ended with a line-up of all four pacifics at Horsted Keynes (Derek Hayward).
On the Saturday we see the same pairing but reversed (Bryan Benn), and a video from Mike Snow (in .wmv format - it may take a very long time to load if you are not on broadband).
Finally, from the Sunday of "Giants" we see 'Eddystone' on the goods train (from Tom Waghorn) and, in combination with 'Wadebridge' from David Warwick.
On 6th November there was a photo charter, with 34028 running as 34100 'Appledore', as seen in Matt Allen's two photos on the right.
The photo below shows 'Eddystone' taking its turn on the Santa Special trains (Derek Hayward, 1 December 2007).
34028's last duty on the Bluebell was on Christmas Eve when Ashley Smith caught it passing Caseford Bridge.
See also:
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Page created 6 January 2008 with grateful thanks to all our photographic contributors.
Last updated 10 July 2020 by Richard Salmon.
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