25th November 2019
No. 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair's Overhaul (October – November)
Some pictures showing the progress with No. 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair.
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| General view of the right hand side of chassis showing the valve has been removed from the block with the piston head just visible below. | |
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| Right hand cylinder block with piston and valve covers removed and the middle cylinder visible. The middle cylinder block was a new casting when the engine was rebuilt. | |
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| Valve rods from the left and right cylinders with the rings removed from the valve heads. | |
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Valve covers awaiting cleaning. |
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| Left hand cylinder with valve removed and piston head visible awaiting removal. | |
30th September 2019
No. 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair's Overhaul (September)
The pictures below show progress with No. 34059's firebox. After the insertion of the stays they will need to be 'knobbled over' – more than 2,000 in all!
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| Fireman's side and back of the firebox with the drill used to enlarge the pilot holes to the correct size. | |
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| Driver's side of the firebox. | |
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| Fireman's side of the firebox – the green stains around the stays is the lubricant used to help insertion. | Inside the firebox. | |||
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| Work on No. 34059's chassis showing the removal of the cylinder cladding. | ||||
3rd September 2019
No. 35028 Clan Line's Surprise Visit to the Bluebell Railway
No. 35028 Clan Line made a visit to the railway to use the wheel drop in Sheffield Park works to investigate a potential problem with the front bogie after a derailment at Stewarts Lane. All was well but a test run was deemed advisable so it was agreed to use No. 35028 on Tuesday’s 2.30 pm service train (27th August).
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| No. 35028 Clan Line in the works next to No. 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair, Saturday 17th August. | |
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| No. 35028 Clan Line at Horsted Keynes hauling the 2.30 pm service ex Sheffield Park on Tuesday 27th August alongside No. 21C123 Blackmoor Vale. | |
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| No. 35028 Clan Line's Cab. | |
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| No. 35028 Clan Line's Nameplate. | |
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| No. 35028 Clan Line with support coach Mercator readying for departure on Wednesday evening. | |
20th August 2019
No. 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair's Overhaul
Work has commenced on the re-staying of the firebox. The initial pilot stay holes, drilled by South Devon Engineering when the new firebox was fitted to the boiler, were of 1/2 inch diameter. These are being drilled and reamed to accept 7/8 inch diameter stays.
All the stay holes have been measured for length i.e. the distance between the outside faces of the inner and outer firebox sides and the numbers seen in the photographs are the code used for stay length. The figure 310 indicates that a stay of 5 3/8 inch length is required.
The green deposit around the inserted stays is the cutting fluid used for drilling and reaming the stay holes. After the stays have been screwed into the stay holes and to ensure a water tight 'fit' between the stay and the boilerplate the stays will eventually be 'knocked over'.
Work on the chassis has commenced with the removal of many items. These are being cleaned and overhauled where necessary and then labelled and stored.
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10th July 2019
No. 21C123 Blackmoor Vale
Construction of the new inner firebox for No. 21C123 Blackmoor Vale has started at South Devon Railway (Engineering).
RMS Queen Elizabeth's Maiden Voyage as a Passenger Liner
The article below was published in the November 1946 edition of the Southern Railway Magazine and covered Cunard's RMS Queen Elizabeth's maiden voyage as a passenger liner. The Pullman boat train was hauled by No. 21C4 Cunard White Star. Click on the image for a larger version.
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5th July 2019
No. 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair's OverhaulThe chassis of No. 34059 has now joined the boiler in the work at Sheffield Park. The chassis will have a complete overhaul which may well include the grinding of the crank axle, a procedure which will be undertaken by an outside contractor. This operation has already been successfully undertaken on two Maunsell locomotives.
The overhaul of the chassis will include the removal of all the motion, pistons and valves from the three cylinders, overhaul of both bogies and the six driving wheels and an overhaul of the axle boxes. The boiler's firebox awaits the drilling, tapping and reaming of the 12 mm/0.5 inch pilot holes to 7/8 inch for the 2,200+ stays of which an initial supply have been supplied by an outside contractor. The radial drill in the foreground of the second picture will be used to enlarge, tap and ream the pilot holes in the firebox boiler plate.
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| The boiler outside the workshop for the Model Railway Weekend with all stay holes measured using a unique coding system. | |
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| The radial drill along with the boiler, plus the chassis of No. 34059 in the background. | |
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| The chassis inside the workshop at Sheffield Park to enable its overhaul to start. | An example of a 7/8 inch stay for use in the firebox | |||
Coach 5768
After a nine year long overhaul, the Bulleid coach number 5768, a corridor composite vehicle with four first class and three third class compartments, has re-entered traffic on the Bluebell Railway.
The coach was built in May 1947, to diagram 2318, with the frame being a Lancing Works product and the body built at Eastleigh Works. With an overall length of 64 ft 6 in, Bulleid designed the coach to have a continuous curve from floor to cant rail and it was distinguished from the BR built Bulleid coaches in having shallow opening sliding window ventilators. No. 5768 was used as part of the three coach set, No.787, on the West of England and Weymouth services, until withdrawn by BR in 1968, when it was purchased by The Bulleid Pacific Preservation Society, later renamed The Bulleid Society at Liss, where the Society’s locomotive No. 34023, Blackmoor Vale was then based.
The coach and No. 34023 moved to the Bluebell in 1971, when it received an overhaul before entering traffic in the five coach Bulleid set in May 1976 at the same time as No. 34023 entered revenue service. Maintenance to keep the coach in traffic until 1994 included replacement of some of the curved windows due to rust in the frames causing cracking and a repaint in 1993 but the general state of the body resulted in it being withdrawn from traffic.
The overhaul team of volunteers was led by Bulleid Society member Roger Williams, well known as the expert on Bulleid coaches. Removal of the interior components of the timber body structure showed that extensive repairs were necessary to the cant rail together with three new corner pillars, A compete new floor and bottom plate were installed to eliminate the build up of rust between the body and underframe which was distorting the former. The exterior was completely re-skinned and all the aluminium framed sliding ventilator lights, sited at the top of the replacement curved glass windows, completely dismantled. All the screw holes required re-tapping and the ventilators were then rebuilt and fourteen replacement pairs of steel main light frames were fabricated in house and welded into position.
The interior timber in the compartments and corridor has been stripped to base wood and re-varnished and all the seating reupholstered. The coach’s wiring has been replaced with modern material, the electrical control system and the dynamo and gangways overhauled, together with the bogies and brake gear and the coach repainted in SR green, matching other Bulleid coach stock on the railway.
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| Bulleid Corridor Composite coach CK 5768 in service after its extensive overhaul. | |
11th March 2019
Coach 5768
The relaunch of SR Bulleid Composite Carriage No.5768 will take place 15th - 17th March - The Bluebell Railway's Branch Line Weekend.
7th December 2018
Coach 5768
Below are some picture of the completed compartments taken by Mike Anton.
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| First class compartment. | |
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| First class compartment. | |
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First class compartment. |
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| Third class compartment. | |
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| Third class compartment. | |