Bluebell Railway Appeal: 'Tenner for the Tip'

As some of you might know, the Bluebell Railway is currently extending its operations northwards towards a new terminus at East Grinstead, however progress has been firmly blocked by a massive tip full of rubbish in Imberhorne tip, to which 100,000 tons of domestic rubbish were thrown in the late 60s.

Approximately £35k has been raised thus far, through a current appeal 'Tenner for the Tip'. A donation of £10 will get you a certificate stating your donation, which wil allow the railway to remove a quarter of a ton of rubbish from the tip.

Please consider a donation, and help this famous line reach East Grinstead!


TENNER FOR THE TIP HOMEPAGE

Garratt art now avaliable!

Announcing the first of my all new locomotive art!

Avaliable as a shirt and as artwork, a 'drawing' (photoshopped photo) of a mighty 400class Garratt.



Please consider purchasing even a postcard sized variant and help me save up for more railway books to review.

Anounced: Ready to Run Bulleid "Leader" OO Gauge

A major plug here to help make sure another project gets to the finish line- mainly, because it invloves something I have discussed here: the enigmatic 'Leader' prototype designed by O.V.S Bulleid.

Loconotion, a family owned model business in the UK, has teamed with major players Dapol in order to deliver a 'very detailed and well presented model' , ready-to-run in OO gauge.

At present, they are taking orders, which will not need be paid for until production begins (which will be when sufficient orders have been achieved.

Here is the official site, please consider ordering a model and supporting this brave venture!

LOCONOTION MODELS

Barrow Hill April LNER Gala: Joy Unconfined

Although its a few months too late, I have only recently learned of this wonderful UK gala at the famous Barrow Hill Roundhouse.

Featured: A1' Tornado', A2 'Blue Peter' (not in steam), A4s No. 60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' and No. 60009 'Union of South Africa', K1 No. 62005, N7 No. 69621.

To say this is a sparkling representative of surviving LNER steam would be an understatement: and all enthusiasts are awaiting the return of the beloved 'Flying Scotsman' so as to have the ultimate line up: every major LNER class of express engine together again at last! (From A1 to A4!)

Here's a nice clip on Youtube, it gives a nice idea of the Majesty of the occasion: make sure to watch it in high quality mode!
BARROW HILL LINE UP

And some pictures on the official site:
BARROW HILL ENGINE SHED SOCIETY

5000 hits! Thanks to all readers

A quick note to say thanks to all readers of this blog, and to crow about reaching a milestone:

OVER 5000 Hits! (and one t-shirt sale...the profit-$3US- is going towards 'An Illustrated History of the North Cornwall Railway', so if you'd like to see a review of this text in the future I'd be grateful for any donations or purchases- remember, I can try requests or suggestions!)

Keep reading and giving your opinions, or to add something to my posts.

Review: 'Bulleid: Last Giant of Steam'

I was extremely fortunate to recently acquire a very difficult to find (for a reasonable price, $30Au) book on one of the most controversial figures of British railway history, Oliver Bulleid.



The text, Bulleid:Last Giant of Steam by Sean Day-Lewis is an examination of O.V.S Bulleid's life, of course dealing with his locomotive developments as C.M.E of the Southern and later in Ireland, but also his earliest days on the Great Northern, his experiences in the Great War and later rejoining the Great Northen and continuing his partnership with Sir Nigel Gresley, which only ended with Bulleid's transfer to the SR.

A particularly nice touch of this book is the interesting and very often amusing anecdotes about various events that occurred to Bulleid or even others, which makes the text more interesting overall. Especially, the episodes of interaction between Bulleid and Gresley are a highlight.

For the locomotive enthusiast, however, this book will appeal most due to its examination of engines and rolling stock Bulleid designed or was connected with, and you will almost certainly learn something new about the various designs: for instance, the original appearance of the Bulleid 'Merchant Navy' class was considerably more 'air smoothed' and without smoke deflectors, in fact it looks quite odd considering what we are used to knowing the class to look like. One thing that surely few people would have seen before, however, was the fact that Bulleid experimentally fitted a wooden mock up of airsmoothed style streamlining to 'Schools' class 4-4-0 no.935 Sevenoaks, perhaps drawing inspiration from Gresley's similar A4 style addition to his B-17 4-6-0s. Only the outbreak of war stopped this from developing further, and it is a shame that the idea never got passed the mockup (of which a works photo is thankfully included!).

What is also refreshing is how Bulleid's more radical moves (the pacifics and 'Leader') are given the opportunity to be justified in Mr Bulleid's own words- the reader, while he or she might not agree with the engines themselves, would have to admit that at least they have sound theory behind them- most notably, representing Bulleid's attempt (with 'Leader' and the 'Turf burner' for C.I.E) to go beyond the Stephensonian principles and show steam traction could match the new diesels and most importantly, deserved a future.

I rate this overall, a fantastic text which gives Mr Bulleid a fair hearing with regard to all his experiments and shows what an innovator he was, not only with steam but also in carriage design and electric traction. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Southern railway, experimental steam, locomotive engineers- and the steam enthusiast as a whole.

I cannot, however, give a perfect score- the main issue is that this book is LONG out of print, and finding one for a fair price is next to impossible: 25 pounds is the lowest I have found currently, which might be fair to UK residents, but its over 50$ AU without the $14 postage, ridiculous for most Australian or overseas readers. I was fortunate enough to troll across it by accident on ebay (the seller had not even put the title in the listing heading, I only recognised it by the picture!) but it will not be easy to repeat this success- I suggest trying antiqbook or ukbookworld or similar sites with an impressive collection of old railway books. If I come across any, I will post the links here for your convienience.

Rating: 9.5/10

Another new build: Great Central Railway 'D7'

Yes, another new build.

This one is set up by the Great Central Railway Rollingstock trust and has been in existence since around August 2007!

The locomotive type this time around is the lesser known GCR Class '2' 4-4-0, better remembered under the LNER classification D7. These engines were originally built in 1887 for the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway before its metamorphosis into the Great Central, and the last was withdrawn by the LNER in December 1940...after use as a makeshift air shelter! (Considering their low tractive effort of 14,144 lb it is surprising the LNER managed to find a use for them).

There seems to be some controversy over the types origins, as my copy of Locomotives Illustrated 170 tells me, based on a comment in the RCTS Locomotives of the LNER, which claims:

"the genesis of this class is obscure"

(note: I have no knowledge as to whether this is true or not, owing to the fact I hed never heard of this class before reading of the new build project).

Interestingly, the engine already has some vital components that would be very expensive to build new: the Boiler, tender chassis and cylinder block- the block is new and the boiler is in excellent condition, although both are a slightly (very negligable) different sizes that will make no difference in the finished engine.

The spokesman, Mr. Tony Fairburn, has been quoted as saying the engine will a lot less difficult to maintain due to its lack of complexity:

'Its a very simple engine...non superheated engine with slide valves...in terms of size, its akin to building an industrial engine, but with a tender.'

Given the time frame of operation, this engine will be one of the few new build pre-grouping locomotives- and because we do not have a large number of such engines surviving when compared with 20th century types, especially in operational state, it is extra important for this project to suceed and bring some Victorian operational capabilty to UK railways.

At the last update on the temporary site on the GCR Rolling Stock Trust page, the group was still waiting for the now completed Search Engine at the National Railway Museum to open in order to aquire the drawings.

I have contacted Mr Fairburn for a project update, and am currently awaiting a reply. Rest assured, I will continue to add to this project in my 'new-build' section as more information comes in.