6/4/24

Another BLS outing, this time, another visit to the Bluebell Railway, and this visit meant that I have now seen every single Bluebell Railway locomotive on this Railway as of current, with the final edition of 32424 Beachy Head, whoch looks absolutely gorgeous, and ROD 27, the last P Class I needed for sight! Some rare track was done on this tour, including a piece of track at East Grinstead in which we were the first passenger outing to traverse it, the only other one being a Wickham!

Our motive power for the day was BR Class 09 No. D4108, not often I get to see an 09 operating, let alone an original one and haulage too! Our sense of deja vu crossed me with our coach for the day, the LNWR observation saloon and the running of Camelot on the same day, as this was what happened on my very first visit to the Bluebell Railway. Camelot was running, with the LNWR observation saloon on a train, and I got to carry one of the SR route discs to the other end, there a lot heavier than they look!

We traversed the line from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead to pick up the rest of the booked passengers before starting to do the rare bits of track the Bluebell had to offer, on note were the aforementioned rare siding at East Grinstead, a few areas in Horsted Keynes aswell as Sheffield Park and a siding in Kingscote. Whilst the others were enjoying the track, I wasn't intrigued by the developments of the Railway, and it seemed that the majority of locomotives once at Horsted Keynes had now moved to Sheffield Park, leaving 80100, Sharpthorne and the Thumper being left in those sidings, glad to see Bluebell taking action!

We stopped at the Wealden coach bay 'platform' and had a break, this included a trip around the sheds, including seeing Beachy Head up close pretty much complete for the first time and seeing the P Class I wanted as well as some other locos that were away from the public eye.

After this, we left the tour here and I filmed the other locomotives that were running that day, this being 80151 and Camelot on the service trains and the gorgeous 65 on the Wealden Rambler, Camelot still remains my first locomotive here! That whistle and bark!