Bluebell Railway mini-gala 28/7/2012

[Rlangham]

This weekend the Bluebell had a bit of a mini-pre-grouping gala to celebrate the return to service of H Class 0-4-4T 263 of 1905. Joining 263 were C Class 0-6-0 592 of 1902 and P Class 0-6-0T 323 of 1910, all three built by the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (P Class 178 was also to join them but unfortunately had a problem on Thursday), E4 0-6-2T B473 of 1898 in 1920's Southern Railway olive green and 1877 Fletcher Jennings 0-4-0T 'Captain Baxter' industrial covering for 178. It's my first visit since I was very young and will certainly be returning - i've never really had an interest in the Southern railways before but it's certainly been kindled now and look forward to returning, definitely one of the best preserved railways i've been to with it's Victorian/Edwardian rolling stock and superbly presented stations, the presentation of the stations alone is something a lot of railways could follow the Bluebell's example on





E4 Class B473, formerly named 'Birch Grove' in LBSCR livery



P Class 323 'Bluebell', one of THREE P class locomotives the Bluebell has







Inscription on 'Captain Baxter's buffers









'Sharpthorn', the industrial locomotive that was actually involved in the construction of the line





In the engine shed, in which you can look around most of the out of service locomotives, is this A1 Terrier 'Fenchurch'




P Class 178 being worked on



H Class 263



C Class 592







The Metropolitan set of carriages

[60526]

Nice set of photos. Yes 672 is Fenchurch, did well during its last stint, a better loco I understand than Stepney which is a bit fragile at the moment. Interesting that they have Sharpthorn that was used in the construction of the line, they also have the North London tank 2650 that was use in the closure, both need considerable work to return them to service. My primary interest is really Eastern, but since the NYMR isn't on my doorstep I have occasionally volunteered down the Bluebell, wish I could go more. I don't know what you thought of the railway but it always comes over as a working museum, because of the effort to get to East Grinstead they do seem a bit pushed for locos at the moment, with the return of the 9F to the Mid-Hants they don't have many large locos in service, but the other week they had the two class P's double heading or top and tailing which was good fun. The H class looks nice, the next out should be the Q class followed by the S15 and then the Std 5? But in there somewhere is a plan to do a quick retube of std4T 80151, again that served them well while in service.