rasalmon

It went on Monday. Bluebell crew were making it spotless on Tuesday. https://www.bluebell-railway.com/brps/whats_new/

The best part of their web site/marketing/sales system for me was their Trunk (and pre-Trunk) since it enabled me to gather deliveries together into a bundle, making the best use of combined delivery. So here's a vote for Rails to roll that on. I've been both a satisfied customer of both Rails and Hattons in the past (and looking forward to receiving some of the new batch of Hattons' Genesis coaches through Rails very soon) :-)

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.

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).

Yes 2mm Andy is right, it’s the sole surviving SR POT (Post Office Tender) rather than a POS (Sorting) vehicle. The price probably reflects roughly its scrap value. The Bluebell POS was sold at the turn of the year, I suspect for below its scrap value. There is a suspicion that the new owner, who claimed he had plans for the vehicle has instead cashed it in for scrap. The body did partially collapse at the toilet end before it left the Bluebell. I’d been trying to find someone to take it on 30 years ago, but no one was interested at any point in the intervening decades. That therefore probably leaves the ex-NRM 4920 at Nene Valley as the sole surviving SR POS. The Pontypool & Blaenavon were threatening to scrap this one two years ago if no one bought & removed it. So if this one were also offered for sale for £600 it would I suspect find a buyer quite rapidly and it would then just as rapidly be scrapped.

The first two locos on the Quainton Road to Brill (Wooton Tramway) branch were a pair of Aveling Porter 0-4-0 geared locomotives (Works Nos. 807 and 846) purchased to operate the line in January and June 1872 respectively. 807 is preserved at Quainton Road. There then followed, in 1894, Manning Wardle 0-6-0T "Huddersfield" and in 1899 another MW (K-class "Wooton No.2"). The Metropolitan took the line over later that year (1899) and the A-class were able to take over services only in 1911 following upgrading of the line for the heavier locos. I suspect the 8mph tied in with the Aveling Porter locos. The Duke of Buckingham used horses on his initial stretch of the tramway, around his Wooton estate, with Wooton Station built in 1871. Steam took over (the Aveling Porter locos) when the line from Wooton to Brill was constructed the following year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wotton_railway_station_(Brill_Tramway)#/media/File:Brill_tramway_system_diagram.png

Fair enough. Who knows what they might do later, after they've (I hope) produced some carriages?

The model with the earlier Metropolitan lettering and crest is noted by Rapido as representing Met 1 as preserved, 1999-2009. Which it does. You'd have to ask Buckinghamshire Railway Centre what their source was for that livery.

Advantage of producing models of the Ashbury/Craven "Bogie stock" is that you could do them as hauled stock, as electric multiple unit stock, and as a pull-push set, (oh, and as preserved too). And I don't think anyone else has ever done such short bogie coaches (just 40-ft) as RTR.

Whatever source you discovered suggesting the E-class withdrawals started in 1925 was, I'm afraid, simply wrong! First two withdrawn in 1935, third in 1941, and remainder lasted until 1963/4.

Given what an impossibly large number of tooling variations you'd need to produce all those variations for the A/B and its derivatives, and that Met 1 has a much more popular following, having been a high profile locomotive over the last 60 years, I am sure Rapido have taken the approach they believe will be commercially viable.

Given that the first three were built at Neasden in 1896 and 1898, and the other four from Hawthorn Leslie followed later (1900/1901), I think it's fairly obviously a Met design.

Being a carriage restorer at 12-inches to the foot scale, I'm probably over-aware of what's authentically correct... as a modeller at OO gauge, they are an extremely good representation of the prototypes, and when running on a layout most will never notice a problem. They are a classic and widely used set for use on branch lines all over the South-west, a very good choice of prototype for a model manufacturer to have chosen. In LSWR and pre-war days they were used more widely, including on trains to Brighton. So I am sure those earlier periods will be covered later with the addition of the Full Third (originally 2nd/3rd composite). All I'll probably do to these 1945-livery coaches is add transfers to the passenger doors on the Brakes, and then spray a coat of satin varnish over the bodysides.

That makes sense. Having moved the number to the right hand end of the bodyside it was adjacent to the Tare and Seating capacity plates, which the Guard would have needed to record.

Good question... Painting into Crimson started in April/May 1949, initially with horizontal lining both below the eves panel and below the waist panel, but fairly soon the upper line was dropped. At that time there was only an S prefix, no suffix, and the number carried at the left hand end of the bodyside. From July 1950 the running number was moved to the right hand end, and some earlier ones were changed (apparently the left hand end was more difficult for guards recording the numbers of the stock in their trains). On some stock, the number was actually moved. The application of lining to non-corridor stock ceased fairly quickly, with few coaches actually receiving it. The S suffix (denoting that Southern Region held the spares for the stock) started to be used at some point in 1951. Very few carriages would therefore have been repainted in all-over Crimson before 1952, since the vast majority of older stock (probably about 90% - since just 10% remained in Olive by nationalisation, and little repainting had been done during the war) had been repainted in Malachite between 1945 and 1948, so was relatively fresh, and just been revarnished at the point where the numbers and lettering were changed.

Perversely, Set 253, which they've chosen to do in Malachite, was reduced to a 3-set whilst remaining in Olive. It had been repainted (olive) in 1936, possibly with a reduced amount of lining. It became a 3-set in 1939 (at which point it was re-varnished) and ran in Olive for the rest of the war (so yes, they could have done a set in Olive). In 1945 it was next repainted, into the Malachite livery EFE have it in. They might have chosen a set which had been repainted Malachite much earlier... The set was withdrawn in April 1953, and having been only repainted in 1945 was almost certainly still in malachite then. It would have been given S prefixes, Southern removed and 3s on the third-class doors removed probably some time in late 1948 or 1949.

As preserved 1520 has a dynamo and battery boxes, which it never had in service (I presume it gained them in departmental days?) - the set was supplied electrically from the centre coaches. I'm hopefully they'll do the fourth coach, and produce four-coach sets in SR lined olive and LSWR liveries. I'd better start saving now!!!

Sadly, yes; they were apparently already made and on the boat when the November launch details resulted in the issue being raised. I have some transfers. Maybe I should re-do those on the Composite too with them higher up the panels?

Presumably items which have dropped out of the polls are ones which have been in them for some years, and never made much progress up the list. I guess that to get them back into the list you then have to make the case for something having changed, to increase their likely popularity.

With more candidates than posts for both the Chairman and Trustee vacancies, we have elections at the forthcoming AGM, so fortunately there are still plenty of people prepared to step into the shoes of retirees within BRPS.

Trains are running again! https://www.bluebell-railway.com/brps/whats_new/ Photo: 80151 at Birchstone Bridge, amongst the Bluebells - David Cable

Keith, I suspect that's more to do with Horsted not having a decent Internet connection. Regards, Richard

Fenchurch's frames and firebox have been sent away for overhaul: https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/loco_news/21/fenchurch_may21.pdf Camelot's boiler had passed its out of frames steam test: https://www.facebook.com/The-73082-Camelot-Locomotive-Society-381518251989806/ We have 5 additional web cams: https://www.bluebell-railway.com/webcams/ Staff training/refresher runs using the Q-class started today (Saturday), in preparation for the resumption of services on Thursday 20 May. https://www.bluebell-railway.com/brps/whats_new/ The May 2021 edition of Bluebell Times is out: https://www.bluebell-railway.com/bluebell-times/ I took this photo of the H-class at Horsted Keynes last Tuesday; it is seen about to shunt the generator van (BY 404) from the maintenance pit to join a set being prepared for some filming work (we seem to have had quite a bit of that recently, providing some very much needed income). The Metropolitan Railway coaches then went over the pit to prepare them for operation in a few weeks time. The Mk.1/Bulleid side-corridor set will initially be used on the public services.

That's very kind, Oldddudders. I'm afraid it's only the same I'm posting on the Blog page... but it does enable a discussion of the news items should anyone wish! Anyhow, the next edition of Bluebell Times is out, and contents include: – More virtual tours coming soon – A new addition to SteamWorks! – A special Easter message from the Railway’s chaplain – An in-depth look at ‘Camelot’ – Electric Vehicle charging points installed at Sheffield Park, funded from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage grant – Memories of Fire Service Emergency Services Weekend 2002 – In our Museum: The New Devon Pottery’s “Bluebell Railway” range – Five Minutes with … Sam Bee – Recruitment starts for our next plc Chairman and Locomotive Director – And much, much more.

Updates on progress with Camelot’s intermediate overhaul on The 73082 Camelot Locomotive Society Facebook Page. Members of the owning group have been cleaning down and re-painting the dragbox. The repaired (and mostly new) ashpan is ready, the new tubes are in the boiler, which has been filled with water and will have preliminary checks this week running up to a hydraulic test in the presence of the boiler inspector which is scheduled for 12th April. An out-of-frames steam test will follow and then reassembly can begin.