Graham Lugsdin’s photo taken last Friday shows the concentration on the faces of those on the footplate of ‘Camelot’ as they prepare for a shunt move at Sheffield Park.
This Saturday is the BRPS Members’ Day and AGM, so in addition to our normal timetabled trains, there is an extra morning train (timetable here) to get visitors to Sheffield Park in time for the 12-noon relaunch ceremony for 34059 ‘Sir Archibald Sinclair’, and evening trains – leaving for East Grinstead after the AGM, at 6.45pm and at 9.00pm in conjunction with the volunteers, staff and members social evening.
32424 ‘Beachy Head’ – Coming in August 2024
The Bluebell Railway is proud to announce the highly anticipated launch of the new build LB&SCR Marsh Brighton Atlantic 32424 ‘Beachy Head’. This major milestone in railway preservation will be celebrated with a launch into traffic over the August Bank Holiday, with a launch event running from 23 August to 1 September, marking an extraordinary achievement in railway preservation and engineering.
Tickets and further details will be released imminently so watch this space!
Jack Lamb’s photo below, taken last Friday, shows ‘Beachy Head’ in steam at Sheffield Park.
The scale of this achievement, and its importance to the history of the Bluebell line, can be judged from an article covering the potential for rescuing locomotives, and the problem of having to prioritise securing the line on which to accommodate them over spending any money on acquisitions, on Page 7 of the second issue of the BRPS Journal, Bluebell News (December 1959), in it was stated “As each week goes by, more interesting pre-grouping classes become extinct – the loss of the last Brighton Atlantic was an irreparable catastrophe…”.
Of course the locomotive had been scrapped more than 6 months before the Bluebell’s launch meeting in March 1959.
So may I, as editor of this web page, add my personal words of congratulations to the Atlantic team for their dedication in having reversed, in considerable style, that supposed “irreparable catastrophe”.
Dinosaur Weekend At The Bluebell Railway
Join us at The Bluebell Railway for an epic adventure with dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes at Sheffield Park, at East Grinstead, and on our Set A trains with our Timetable C service this weekend!
Don’t forget this event is FREE for all travel ticket holders – and kids travel for just £1 with any fare-paying adult.
Bring the family for a roaring good time with prehistoric giants and timeless steam trains. Don’t miss out!
Road Steam passes Sheffield Park
An added bonus today at Sheffield Park came in the form of Mclaren 8NHP No 1713 of 1922 “General French” hauling, on the trailer, the boiler to Bulleid “Merchant Navy” No. 35025 ‘Brocklebank Line’ (on loan from Southern Locomotives Ltd).
This special pairing was on their way to this weekend’s High Weald Working Steam Weekend and took a break outside Sheffield Park station before heading onwards to Pippingford Park, as seen in the photo here.
