News of some of these overhauls is
available via the Loco Works News pages
LBSCR Billinton Radial Tank, No.32473
Web page
The only surviving locomotive to a design by Robert Billinton, "Birch
Grove" is one of a family of locomotives known as Radial Tanks due
to the radial axle beneath the cab. Mixed traffic locomotives, they were
equally at home on local passenger workings as branch-line goods services.
Although almost the oldest, the E4s were amongst the last of the Brighton
Radials to survive.
"Birch Grove" itself was one of the first two Brighton locos to be repainted into Southern Railway livery as B473 in February 1924. It was bought straight out of BR service in 1962 and served the Bluebell
for a decade before being withdrawn for a protracted stop-go overhaul. It
finally became operational thanks to a bequest which paid for the major boiler
repairs required and a team of volunteers who undertook some of the
easier boiler work and most of the remaining work, as is well recorded on
the following web
page.
Remarkably "Birch Grove" retains her original boiler, number 891, fitted new in July 1898. It had been passed to various other Brighton tanks of classes D3, E3 and E4 before being refitted to Birch Grove in 1960.
It was repainted from LBSCR livery (right) into BR lined black (above) in February 2005, for a limited period. With a boiler still in good condition, its overhaul was started immediately following the expiry of its boiler certificate in May 2008, and it is next expected to carry SR Olive Green livery.
SECR Wainwright P-tank, No.178The only one of the four P-class tank locomotives not to have steamed in preservation, 178 came to the Bluebell in 1969 after industrial service at Bowaters Paper Mill, where it carried the name "Pioneer II".
Its best chance of restoration was seen to be outside the Bluebell Railway's direct ownership, due to the railway already having two other Ps, and so it was sold to Southern Locomotives Ltd, who commenced its overhaul, at Sheffield Park. However, with the shift in emphasis of that group to become major providers of motive power to the Swanage Railway, it was decided more appropriate to transfer ownership of this 'P' class loco back to the Bluebell. This was achieved in mid 2006, thanks to funding made available by the Bluebell Railway Trust.
The overhaul is being undertaken by the Loco Workshop working group.
BR Standard, No.73082 "Camelot"
Owned by the 73082 Camelot Locomotive Society
Photo by courtesy of Hiroshi
Naito
"Camelot" was one of the Southern Region's allocation of Standard
5s, and when the King Arthur class, which they replaced, were
being withdrawn, a staff suggestion led to the names being transferred to
the new engines. Modern engines with roller bearings, highly capable and
easy to maintain, they were withdrawn long before they were worn out thanks
to BR's rush to get rid of steam in the 1960s.
A survivor of Barry Scrapyard, "Camelot" is the only remaining one of these named Standard 5s. It was returned to working order thanks to the dedication of the Camelot Society, which carried out fund-raising and engineering work. The latter included the construction of a brand-new tender body, fitted to frames recovered from a South Wales Ironworks, since, like so many Barry locos, it had lost its tender. It was a core member of the Bluebell's loco fleet for the decade after it returned to traffic in 1995.
The Camelot Locomotive Society recently prepared the loco for a boiler lift, and the overhaul is now under way.
SR Maunsell S15-class No.847This class of locomotives, of which this was the final locomotive to be built, were essentially a goods version of the King Arthur class of express passenger locos (N15). The S15s thus became known as Goods Arthurs. Coming to the Bluebell from Barry scrapyard in 1978, its restoration was not started until the Maunsell Society had completed the restoration of their Q-class locomotive in 1983.
The boiler received its hydraulic test in 1988, and although it did not enter service at that time, regulations retrospectively applied mean that the boiler certificate, valid for ten years, started ticking from that test. Hence after a relatively short spell in traffic it was withdrawn for overhaul. The Maunsell Locomotive Society then carried out as much preparatory work for the boiler lift as is possible, whilst maintaining the loco in a presentable condition for display.
The overhaul commenced in earnest in October 2006, with some of funds to finance the overhaul (in the Bluebell's own workshop) already available.
Rebuilt SR Bulleid Light Pacific, "Sir Archibald Sinclair"
Web Page
The Bulleid Society's comprehensive web pages
The identical "West Country" and "Battle of Britain" pacifics were built to provide increased power for use on the Southern's secondary main lines, especially those in the West country with weight restrictions. However, some of Bulleid's novel ideas, designed to reduce maintenance costs, proved troublesome. Therefore in 1957 a programme of rebuilding the locomotives along conventional lines was started. The rebuilding of the Bulleid light pacifics added several tons to their weight, but produced, to all intents, brand-new locomotives, whilst retaining the distinctive light-weight Bulleid-Firth-Brown wheels and his superb free-steaming boiler, along with many other of the successful innovative design features.
Rescued from Barry scrapyard in 1979 without a tender, this locomotive has since then been the subject of ongoing restoration work and fundraising. A tender underframe was salvaged from a steel-works, the original intention being to use this in conjunction with a new body. However this underframe was in poor condition, and in the end only some fittings from it were used, with the tender frames being constructed at Sheffield Park from new material. A new tender body has been made, and placed on it. With the locomotive's cylinders, main-frames and running gear overhauled, major boiler work is now being undertaken.
Dorking Greystone Lime Company, No.3 "Baxter"
Lewis Nodes has provided a video clip of
Baxter
working the Vintage Goods train in September 1997. The file is a 6MB
Mpeg.
"Baxter" arrived at the Bluebell in 1960 after spending its working life at
the Dorking Greystone Lime Works at Betchworth station. It was only in 1982
that it returned to traffic after a comprehensive overhaul.
"Baxter" runs a very low mileage each year, so, having received a major mechanical overhaul in the early 1980s and a boiler overhaul ten years later, following the expiry of its boiler certificate in July 2000 it was not expected to take much effort to give it another ten-year certificate. However various items have needed rather more work than expected, and the opportunity is also being taken to fit steam heating and vacuum braking equipment for the first time. This work is being undertaken by the volunteer team who most recently undertook the overhaul of "Fenchurch".
LBSCR Class H2This is our project to reconstruct a Brighton H2 Atlantic based on SR/BR period "Beachy Head". It is based around a suitable boiler which was obtained some years ago, and the project is now moving ahead rapidly, with a building constructed to accommodate the components, the frames cut, wheels cast, and the tender chassis nearly complete. Various other original H2 components have been given to the project, including the locomotive's original regulator handle, and a class identification plate.
The photo shows Brighton Atlantic No.32424 "Beachy Head" at Horsted Keynes with the Locomotive Club of Great Britain "Southern Counties Limited", 24th February 1957.
BR Standard Class 2
The photo by Jon Horrocks shows the loco's frames with its boiler behind (under the green tarpaulin).
The 2MT locomotives were built for light branch-line work. The tender engines, as this loco was originally, were almost unknown even as visitors to the South, whereas the 2MT tanks were used extensively on the Southern Region. Thus, when this loco was rescued from Barry scrapyard without a suitable tender being available, the decision was taken to restore the locomotive in the tank-engine form, of which there are no surviving examples. The last 2MT tank having been numbered 84029, this locomotive will take the next number in the sequence.
The project is now making progress, and news reports are available here.
Howard Petrol-engined locomotive
Web Page
Web page for Overhaul
Built by Howards in 1926, No 957 was used to shunt their agricultural implement and railway wagon factory sidings in Bedford. The Britannia Iron & Steel Works Ltd took over the site in 1932 to make pipe fittings and continued using it until a larger shunting loco was obtained in 1965. Through the intervention of a local enthusiast the company presented 957 to the Bluebell Railway where it was used for light shunting until about 1969. Under the auspicies of the Alf Brown Group an overhaul was begun in the 1970s at Horsted Keynes which had to include new wheelsets, and is now close to completion.
Last update 11 June 2008 by Richard Salmon.