Bluebell Railway news

[Oldddudders]

1 hour ago, rasalmon said:

 

 

"Sumptuous" hardly covers this!

[Neal Ball]

2 hours ago, rasalmon said:

It wouldn't go very far... a volunteer restoration of something like the Maunsell Restaurant Car is expected to come in at around £150,000 (of which we've now raised £140k).  But we're restoring that as volunteers, so money is not the issue, it's available volunteer manpower.  If everyone stopped posting on here and instead spent the equivalent time volunteering on their nearest heritage railway there'd be much less to winge about and much more to celebrate. 
A Pullman is twice as complex as the restaurant car.  Add in full time staff costs, and you soon get to such an apparently huge amount.  But it's still less than VSOE/Belmond would spend/have spent on an overhaul.
But remember that this money includes a substantial donation received to enable the restoration of a Pullman, a grant from the DoT for adding wheelchair access.
We'd love to be given £800,000 for other coaches, but we'd have to sub-contract the work out.  We looked into that recently, and to restore a couple of 6-wheeler Victorian carriages we'd be looking at £600k, even with us completing the internal restoration.  But the reason that money is worth spending for a Pullman is that a) the majority of the cost has been granted/gifted to the project and b) the commercial return of running the Pullman Train makes the expenditure worthwhile, since it's a highly marketable and profitable service which subsidises the rest of the Bluebell's operation (or put another way, stops the railway going out of business).
 

 

2 hours ago, rasalmon said:

Given that Paul, as well as being Chairman, is also C&W Director at present, he's unlikely to have got his figures wrong.
Yes, the initial budget was OF COURSE set.  The donation and grant together came to about £400k and the Bluebell Trust additionally contributed another £100k.  The overspend is largely down to additional costs of contractor/staff time as the project has run on beyond its expected completion date, in part due to Covid, in part due to it being a bigger task than initially envisaged.  e.g. the original bogies were decided as being too expensive to overhaul, but the replacements haven't been cheap to do either.  300 new 7/8" diameter hot rivets in the underframe.  New headstocks.  New springs. New coach ends, new timber roof, new inner ceiling. New brasswork, new table lamps, new seats.  The marquetry panelling was going to be overhauled by contractors, but they couldn't do it, so that was done using in-house staff, taking the rotten plywood off the back of the marquetry and fixing it to new plywood.  Not something I'd want to tackle.  The result is superb!
Photos from a couple of years ago.  I've not been able to get inside to take photos more recently.

Thanks very much Richard, those photos show that the carriage is going to be stunning.

[SR71]

 

80151 waiting for Camelot to arrive at Horsted Keynes this afternoon.

[SR71]

Another of 80151. Yesterday's crew are to be commended. Best ride I've had in years. No banging along at 15mph on full cut off as so often seems to be the case these days. Smartly away from the stations, notching up, and smooth positive braking to a stop at each station.

 

[Neal Ball]

Posted on Facebook this afternoon:

 

[Neal Ball]

If you have booked tickets for this weekend to travel behind Flying Scotsman, enjoy the journey and don’t forget to share your photos.

 

Enjoy!

[StuAllen]

Managed to get a few photos of Flying Scotsman today, booked on a trip on Saturday so will have a few more to share then,

[StuAllen]

Visited the Bluebell today for a trip behind Flying Scotsman in the observation car, got a few pictures...

 

 

 

 

Finally - Fenchurch was shunting the Observation Car from platform to platform.

 

[Bucoops]

As someone who thinks the LNER was by far the finest railway company...

 

Fenchurch is looking superb.

[StuAllen]

One more from this morning, looking splendid in the morning sun!  

 

[60526]

A comparison at East Grinstead from 2018

 

 

And one of their replacements at the Park in 2015

 

[Neal Ball]

We’ve recently been talking about Pullman car 54. I’ve just found this fascinating page about the overhaul: https://www.bluebell-railway.com/brps/cw-news-car-54/

 

The reason I was looking was due to the carriage featuring in this months Bluebell Times: https://www.bluebell-railway.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/issue-49.pdf

It looks terrific:

 

 

[papagolfjuliet]

Heartening news from the latest Bluebell chairman's report: when 'Beachy Head' leaves Atlantic House early next year, the Atlantic group will be starting work on not only the B4 but also the Adams Radial.

[The Evil Bus Driver]

5 hours ago, papagolfjuliet said:

Heartening news from the latest Bluebell chairman's report: when 'Beachy Head' leaves Atlantic House early next year, the Atlantic group will be starting work on not only the B4 but also the Adams Radial.

That's fantastic news. I do remember seeing the Adams Radial in steam once (just once) back in the 1980s. It'll be amazing to see it running once again.

[SR71]

My first ever cab ride was on the Adams. Don't think I'd fit on the shelf at the back of the cab these days!

[Neal Ball]

51 minutes ago, The Evil Bus Driver said:

That's fantastic news. I do remember seeing the Adams Radial in steam once (just once) back in the 1980s. It'll be amazing to see it running once again.

 

I have a very old slide photo of the Radial tank in steam.

 

On the unofficial FB page I asked if the Dukedog would still get its place in the overhaul queue.... no reply as yet. I suspect no-one other than the loco director knows!

[thegreenhowards]

1 hour ago, Neal Ball said:

 

I have a very old slide photo of the Radial tank in steam.

 

On the unofficial FB page I asked if the Dukedog would still get its place in the overhaul queue.... no reply as yet. I suspect no-one other than the loco director knows!

Personally I think that we have too many locos which never get to steam and the Dukedog doesn’t really fit the Southern theme. So we should either sell or lease it to another railway for them to restore and use.

 

Andy

[SR71]

As hinted at in the below link there was a condition of the dukedog remaining at the bluebell when it was donated. While it specifically is not so much of an issue there are other things the railway do need/want covered by the same donation.

 

https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pic2/gwr/dukedog.html

 

I was always to understand that the schools would never run and seemingly we are not far away from that. So things go in cycles. People love a lost cause, regular maintenance is boring. I'm glad the 9F is getting looked at now as it's look was shocking just before they started on it. Seemingly no storage measures had been applied after it's last turn. I'm lead to understand that was under a different regime and it does seem like they have turned a corner recently.

[Neal Ball]

37 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Personally I think that we have too many locos which never get to steam and the Dukedog doesn’t really fit the Southern theme. So we should either sell or lease it to another railway for them to restore and use.

 

Andy

 

I agree there are too many "lost cause" locos, which is why the USA tank loco was moved on. So many railways have the old rusting hulks hanging around and realistically they will never see service again.

 

The Dukedog though is a bit different. So much work was done on it last time, this overhaul should be straightforward.

 

7 minutes ago, SR71 said:

As hinted at in the below link there was a condition of the dukedog remaining at the bluebell when it was donated. While it specifically is not so much of an issue there are other things the railway do need/want covered by the same donation.

 

https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pic2/gwr/dukedog.html

 

I was always to understand that the schools would never run and seemingly we are not far away from that. So things go in cycles. People love a lost cause, regular maintenance is boring. I'm glad the 9F is getting looked at now as it's look was shocking just before they started on it. Seemingly no storage measures had been applied after it's last turn. I'm lead to understand that was under a different regime and it does seem like they have turned a corner recently.

 

Yes it has been the case that it has to stay at the railway for quite a while now. 

 

Although if it was to be moved, I would agree if it went to somewhere like the GWS at Didcot. Although of course the GWS has several locos that haven't steamed in a long time....

 

Re: Bluebell locos, in an ideal world they should all be stored under cover, as should the carriage fleet. We had best start fund-raising 😎

[thegreenhowards]

1 hour ago, SR71 said:

As hinted at in the below link there was a condition of the dukedog remaining at the bluebell when it was donated. While it specifically is not so much of an issue there are other things the railway do need/want covered by the same donation.

 

https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pic2/gwr/dukedog.html

 

I was always to understand that the schools would never run and seemingly we are not far away from that. So things go in cycles. People love a lost cause, regular maintenance is boring. I'm glad the 9F is getting looked at now as it's look was shocking just before they started on it. Seemingly no storage measures had been applied after it's last turn. I'm lead to understand that was under a different regime and it does seem like they have turned a corner recently.

I work on the Schools one day per week. There’s still a fair bit to do, but the end is in sight! I can’t wait to see her steam again.

 

As for the Dukedog, shame it’s tied to the Bluebell as I feel she’d be more suited elsewhere. Maybe some sort of loan would be possible within the terms of the donation?

 

Andy

[papagolfjuliet]

16 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

 

I have a very old slide photo of the Radial tank in steam.

 

On the unofficial FB page I asked if the Dukedog would still get its place in the overhaul queue.... no reply as yet. I suspect no-one other than the loco director knows!

 

It's been suggested by a Bluebell driver elsewhere that the Dukedog will be the next 'medium' engine into the works after 263 is completed.

[papagolfjuliet]

Give it five years and the Bluebell's operating fleet will be the most Southern it's been in a long time: Fenchurch, Normandy, Stowe, Sir Archibald Sinclair, Beachy Head, 27, 263, and 541.

[SR71]

Sir Archibald Sinclair on Friday.

 

Plenty to be done but the firebox was still discernibly warm to the touch.

 

[thegreenhowards]

51 minutes ago, SR71 said:

Sir Archibald Sinclair on Friday.

 

Plenty to be done but the firebox was still discernibly warm to the touch.

 

It was moving up and down the yard on Thursday.

[papagolfjuliet]

Announcement from the Chairman: "I am very pleased to announce that after todays PLC Board Meeting and the previous Society Board Meeting, we have approved that 323 Bluebell will go into the workshops in early 2024 and it is planned to have the loco back into service by the summer. This is a real step forward and it will be great to see this wonderful engine and our flagship back in steam."

 

So that's an operating fleet of nine Southern engines to look forward to in the fairly near future.