Bluebell Railway: 65th Anniversary

Like most galas, it ran from Friday to Sunday, and I attended on the Friday and Saturday. My plan for the Friday was simple and typically open-ended: book on to the lineside, then jump in my car and hotfoot it to Horsted Keynes in time for 73082 Camelot to arrive from Sheffield Park with the first steam service of the day. The timing was a little tight, but in the end I arrived at Horsted with enough time to get to the position I was after, on the southern end of the yard where you have a great view of the line from Sheffield Park.

This is a spot I’ve wanted to shoot from for a while, but rarely have I been here early enough for the light to be on my side. It’s one I should try for one of the autumn galas, when the early trains coincide with morning golden hour and the light can be perfect.

As you can see, Camelot is pulling a decent rake of coaches, and amongst them are two of the exquisite Pullman dining cars. One of the benefits of a gala like this, other than a near enough doubled frequency of trains compared to a normal day, is some of the nicer coaches get put into use.

Shooting Camelot was the entirety of my plan for the day and from that point I was planning on winging it. However at this spot I found another lineside photographer (or, more technically in this case, a videographer, by the same of Watercress Wanderer) and they had a bit more of a plan, and were happy for me to tag along.

First thing we did was wait in the same spot for tank engine 80151 to come up the line. This wasn’t a must-take photo as she would be coming bunker-first, but always good practice.

80151 is actually slightly younger than Camelot – built in 1957, she was only three years old when the Bluebell Railway began running trains in preservation (in fact, whilst we’re on the subject, 92220 Evening Star, the last steam locomotive built by British Rail, was completed only five months before the Bluebell ran their first train).

We then took a short walk south to Three Arch Bridge in anticipation of the arrival of the next train, headed by 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair.

You might just be able to make out another locomotive on the back of this train. That’s 32424 Beachy Head hitching a ride to Horsted Keynes. Personally, I don’t think the old coaches in use here suit Archie very well, but that’s no matter, because she wouldn’t be using them for the rest of the day.

Our next plan was to head a little bit back north in order to catch 80151 heading back south. This was nice for me, as I’ve not often had occasion to photograph 80151 facing in the right direction.

We were right next to the site of a previous crossing or access point to the line, which gave me a nice old weathered sign to stick in the frame.

We continued to trek north. We passed Sir Archibald in the yard, collecting her coaches ready for a service north.

The setup for the gala was slightly unusual, in the sense that the locomotives were split into two sets, one operating from Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes and back, and the other from Horsted Keynes up to the other end of the line at East Grinstead. This made Horsted a hub with different locomotives to be seen on the north and south sides of the station.

We made our way to the north of Horsted Keynes station, ready for Sir Archibald Sinclair to depart. We positioned outselves slightly north of Leamland Bridge, which is the first bridge north of the station (and the start of my trackside access in that direction). Last time I was here – admittedly in a post I haven’t actually shared yet – I learned that sometimes it’s good to use a telephoto here, so you can get a decent shot of a locomotive whilst its still on power chuffing out of the station and under the bridge. So I did.

Luckily, Archie was also venting steam, making for a dramatic sight.

Archie is my favourite of the Bluebell’s home fleet, so it was great to see her pulling the blood and custard coaches, which we don’t see that often but I love the colours of.

This spot is also the point north of the station where the lines meet, so it’s the point where locomotives come to run around their coaches when turning around at this station. This meant I got a quick hello from Camelot light engine as she changed ends.

As you can see, Camelot is carrying a headboard with ‘70’ on it. I haven’t made an error with my years – whilst the Bluebell is celebrating 65 years, Camelot herself is celebrating her 70th birthday this summer, meaning she is only five years older than the Bluebell Railway operating as a heritage line, and was still working for British Rail until just before their 6th anniversary.

We headed a little further north in time for the next train, which was diesel 33108 heading south.

Now, 33108 is not part of the home fleet. Unfortunately E6040 The Bluebell Railway failed the day before the gala, and was substituted by the visiting class 33. If I’m honest I probably preferred to see the 33, but I’d have still to actually see The Bluebell Railway in action. Hopefully that chance will come at the forthcoming Diesel Gala.

We stayed roughly in this spot to wait for Camelot to come back north.

I like the shot above with the signal in the frame, but in the one below you can see a little more of the side of the locomotive and her coaches.

As is often the case, there are a few other takes in the gallery below.

We continued on north. For the next train I briefly separated from my companion, and positioned myself up past Horsted House Bridge, a second bridge about half a mile up from Leamland Bridge that we shot at earlier. Here I found some lovely colourful foliage to frame the shot with. The next train was 33108 coming back north again.

I did end up photographing 33108 slightly more than the other locomotives, based solely because it is a diesel and so looks the same regardless of which direction it is facing (I might have phrased this to someone as something along the lines of its bum looking like its face).

It was somewhere around this time that the plan for the day became more concrete: continue heading north to the southern entrance to Sharpthorne Tunnel. This was a goal for the person I was with, and as I hadn’t been that far up the line to that point, I was happy to come along. It was a little bit of a trek. I hadn’t been out lineside at all since May, and since then the undergrowth had grown considerably, making for slightly tough going. Nevertheless, we were able to make it to the southern entrance before the next service came along.

The first service, around the time we arrived, was Camelot going backwards. We didn’t bother shooting this, as we weren’t really prepared and I don’t often photograph the locomotives when they’re running tender-first, but I mention it mostly because she started a small fire. After she’d passed through, my companion noticed smoke coming from one of the wooden sleepers. A few pours of water later and the fire was doused before it turned into anything serious. My first lineside fire (of sorts, as it was smouldering and there was no actual flame) dealt with!

The tunnel is deceptively long, especially when you’re looking straight on and can see to the other end.

The first train to come along was Sir Archie.

The next train was 33108 coming back south, and I used the opportunity to photograph it framed against the tunnel, as there was nothing else facing south running on that part of the track that day.

Before too long, Camelot came back the other way.

We decided to start heading back towards civilisation. Somewhere along the way I caught sight of this distant signal, looking lovely and weathered.

We continued on. On the way we encountered another photographer who had found a sheltered spot under a tree, so we waited with him for the class 33 to head north again.

We headed on, and positioned ourselves slightly north of Vaux End Bridge in anticipation of Sir Archie coming up with a northbound service.

I swung my camera around and got a decent shot of the blood and custard coaches.

Not long after Archie was gone, my companion again noticed some smoke. This time Archie had started a lineside fire, and this one was a little more of a fire than the last one that required stomping out before it got out of control. One of the challenges of summer galas is the increased risk of lineside fires, and sometimes luckily there’s a photographer to sort them out when they happen.

We resumed our journey back to Horsted. For the final straight, we departed the lineside and joined the footpath that runs alongside the railway (a good spot, it must be said, for anyone without a lineside permit to see and photograph the trains). My goal here was to catch Camelot on another northerly run, because thanks to the bend in the track you can get a nice long view straight down the line (an angle you can’t get whilst lineside due to the lack of positions of safety on that side of the line).

Before Camelot departed, however, she had to wait for 33108 to come back south.

Then we were ready for Camelot. The view down the track was a long one. Clearly a telephoto would be in order.

Soon she was a bit closer, and a got a nice head-on shot, luckily with one of the crew hanging their head out of the cab.

As she rounded the corner I got a nice front quarter angle too.

With that, we headed on back to Horsted Keynes, and having walked quite a few heavy-going miles that day (my step count for the day was over 13,000) I called it a day, knowing I would be going out the following day.

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The plan for Saturday was simultaneously more defined and more open-ended. I met up with now multi-time collaborator Sharpthorne Steam, with the plan being to repeat our walk from Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes that we did during the Branch Line Gala a few months previously.

We met up in the morning, not long ahead of the first steam service of the day. We bumped into another lineside videographer as we were signing in, then made our way as a trio onto the line. We didn’t have time to make it across the bridge before Sir Archie came along, switching from Platform 2 where she had been taking on water to Platform 1 where her coaches were. Being a mildly cooler morning, there was plenty of steam to be had, making a bit of a dramatic sight.

Soon she was backing down onto her coaches, drainage cocks wide open.

We made it across the bridges and to a spot by the corner ready for Archie to depart. In hindsight, I should have taken her steamy light engine movement as an indication to position myself not quite so far round the corner, with a telephoto, as I did for on the second day of Giants of Steam for a dramatic closeup.

Instead we ended up with an impressively steamy departure – but not much of a steam train to be seen.

Sharpthorne and I continued on up the line. Thanks to the intense start of the gala, the next train would only be 20 minutes behind Sir Archie, not giving us a lot of time to get to a new spot. We elected to use my lucky corner in Ketches Wood, where I can use my telephoto to get some good shots as the train approaches and then goes on the power for the climb up towards Freshfield Bank.

My spot was a bit tricky to find and get to – the ferns in that area were so overgrown I couldn’t see an easy way to get there, and when I did get there, I was waist-deep in ferns. There is worse undergrowth to be stuck standing in, I suppose. By that point there was little time before the next train – headed by № 65 – came along.

This ended up being quite a photogenic pass, with the undergrowth that was causing a challenge to getting to the spot making the spot itself look really quite lovely. So here’s one more.

The future of this spot’s effectiveness for me remains in doubt. During the winter shutdown this section of track will be relaid, and the 10mph temporary speed restriction that causes the train to go on power at that corner will be lifted. I’m hoping to make the most of it before then.

Our next stop was up along Freshfield Bank, where we positioned ourselves ready for Camelot to make the climb. Like before, I decided my telephoto was in order to be able to shoot her all the way up the hill to the point we were at.

You can probably see the smoke at the back of this train. That’s 80151 hitching a ride up to Horsted Keynes, in the same fashion that Beachy Head did the previous day. On a similar note, if you look really closely, you can probably see me and Sharpthorne reflected in Camelot’s front plate. But maybe let’s not dwell on that too much.

We made our way past Freshfield Bank for the next service, which would be Beachy Head with 72 Fenchurch hanging on the back.

We continued on to the Broken Bridge to wait for 80151 to come back south. Whilst we were waiting, we chatted camera settings, and Sharpthorne put me onto something I really should have figured out a while ago: I normally shoot in Aperture Priority mode, because depth of field is the main artistic choice I make in my shots (I do use shutter priority when shooting, say, things with propellers). But in the past that has caused me problems when shooting moving things like trains at a wider angle, because AutoISO isn’t aggressive enough in those instances. But it was pointed out if I shot in Manual, I can control both the aperture and shutter and let AutoISO do all the work. So from here on out, that’s what I’ll use out on the railway going forwards. It certainly helped me out on this day. Anyway here’s the train we were waiting for.

We continued on. Our next plan was to catch Fenchurch coming south at Rock Cutting. Whilst we were making our way we were aware that № 65 would be coming up the line as well, but thanks to a typo in the timetable it wasn’t entirely clear when, which is how she snuck up on us a bit, making this a bit of a quick and not particularly planned shot.

We reached Rock Cutting in reasonable time, and before long we heard a forewarning toot as Fenchurch approached the Tremains foot crossing, with Beachy Head on her rear.

We continued up the line. As we approached Caseford Bridge, the first of a couple of bridges over the line as you approach Horsted Keynes, № 65 was due back. As I’ve said before, I don’t often shoot locomotives when they’re running tender-first, but on this occasion I wanted to capture the lovely pink undergrowth flanking the line.

We soon reached Three Arch Bridge to wait for the next train, headed by Beachy Head. With it being such a busy gala, there was evidently no space at Horsted Keynes, because the train was actually stopped by a signal at danger by the bridge – not something I’ve often seen on heritage railways .

She was underway before too long.

Fenchurch was again riding at the back of the train, this time crewed by a man with the most amazing facial hair.

We held this spot for the next train, which would be 80151 heading down south.

As she came by I got a side-on shot, hampered a little bit by the 24mm outer limit of the lens.

We soon arrived at Horsted Keynes station. We stopped briefly for a snack on the platform, and whilst we were there, Fenchurch gave us a lovely puffy departure.

For whatever reason – partly helped, no doubt, by the timetable starting relatively early in the day – we made it to Horsted Keynes in good time. This gave us a bit of time to get north of the station to photograph a few of the locomotives we’d barely seen that day.

Our first stop was just north of Leamland Bridge, where we saw 33108 depart northwards.

We kept going, making it to Horsted House Bridge in anticipation of the next service. We put some thought into how we would shoot this one – too much, if we’re honest, because after scaling some embankments and moaning about low hanging branches we ended up standing on a drain about a foot off the ground, and shot Camelot just as she passed into a lovely patch of light, and looking utterly gorgeous hauling the Blood nod Custard coaches.

I am pleased with this one – another pass where I couldn’t really pick the best shot, so were are a few others in the gallery below.

Throughout this weekend, I had also been filming most of these train passes with my phone. At the moment my plan is to release them to my Instagram account rather than here, but for now here is the above pass in full motion.

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We stayed around this spot for 33108 to come back in the other direction.

We walked a little further on to wait on the other side of the bridge for Sir Archibald Sinclair to round the corner. I had hoped to get some of the lineside foliage to catch the light a little better, but in the time we were waiting the sun moved just enough that they had moved into shade.

This was the northern limit of our Saturday wander. Having started at Sheffield Park, we had covered a good 5 or 6 miles by that point, and as most of it was over undergrowth or ballast they were not easy miles by any means – and we still had a mile or so to walk back to Horsted Keynes, where we were planning on catching a train back to Sheffield Park.

That return walk was largely uneventful; it ended up being timed to not see any trains. All told, I clocked up over 17,000 steps that day, making 30,000 over the two days I was out at the gala – and I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

Turns out, we were luckily enough to get seats in the second row of the LNWR Observation Car, and a journey face-to-face with Camelot.

There are still a couple of galas at the Bluebell this year: the Diesel Gala in a couple of weeks, and Giants of Steam in October. I am planning on getting out for both of those, hopefully with some company.

As I’ve alluded to a few times above, and despite appearances, the images above are an edited collection of images – there are a few more in the gallery below.