For steam engine fans, this summer has been long and at least a little disappointing. For a start, warmer weather means the exhaust coming out of the chimneys is never as impressive as spring, autumn or, if you’re really lucky, a sunny winters morning hovering close to freezing. This summer was worse, because the weeks-long drought meant that eventually steam operations were banned across much of the country, because the lineside vegetation had become so dry it was basically tinder.
This has meant that the usual summer gala at the Bluebell Railway – which last year was their 65th anniversary, and this year would have been another home gala called Bluebell on Parade – was cancelled outright, and all services were replaced by diesels. That’s why it’s been over a month since my last post with steam in it. This is a railway post – but there will still be no steam, because September is the month of the Bluebell Railway Diesel Gala.
This year, thanks to a relatively new phenomenon in my life called other kid’s birthday parties, I was only able to attend the Sunday of the event, the first time in two years I’ve only done a single day at a multi-day Bluebell gala. I would, however, reunite with a few of my lineside friends for the first time in a while – Chailey Stowe, South East Classic Rail, 72B Photography and Sharpthorne Steam, the latter of whom I’d not been out shooting with since the Bluebell Spring Gala almost six months prior.
We all started our day at the buffers south of Horsted Keynes station, which is a great spot to start the day, with the sun coming in nicely from the east. You do often take your chances as locomotives, whether diesel- or coal-powered, can often let off the power on approach to the station. There would be little risk of that this morning, as the locomotive we were waiting for, 03179 Clive, was a shunter engine not coming in that fast anyway.
Clive is seen here in the iconic red, white and blue Network SouthEast livery. This year marks the 40th anniversary of NSE, and the gala had this as a loose theme to celebrate. It certainly piqued my interest in the event, as the old NSE livery takes me back to my childhood days with Network SouthEast trains passing by the end of my garden. Not everything would be in the iconic livery at the gala, but there was at least a healthy contingent.
With Clive safely in the station compound, where she’d be doing brake van rides for much of the day, we headed north, where we’d wait at the Horsted House Farm foot crossing for the next service, which would be pulled by Class 33 33108, a locomotive that may seem familiar from last year’s gala.
This spot was working quite nicely for us so we stayed here for a bit. First, I shot the Hastings unit 1001 travelling away from us (mainly because it looks mostly the same forwards or backwards, with the exception of its one green carriage, but since the unit was heading south and the green coach was on the southern end, it looked nicer going away).
Next would be one of the other visitors, Class 60 60028 doubleheading with one of the Class 31s, 31210.
We then decided to move, heading south towards Three Arch Bridge. There, we saw the railway’s own E6040 The Bluebell Railway top-and-tailing with NSE-liveried visitor 73128, with a consist of the observation coach and visiting luggage van 9002.
We held here for the next service, which was the Hasting unit coming back north.
We then headed further south towards Holywell, the spot where I shot the banner image for the Bluebell Spring Gala. There, we shot another doubleheader, as 33108 led 31108.
We returned north, and this time stopped to shoot 31108 coming back south on its own. This is not a shot you would normally want to get with a steam locomotive, as this is a downhill section where the engine would not be working very hard, but the difference is not that apparent with a diesel.
One of the locomotives I was most interested in seeing was Class 50 50026 Indomitable, because it’s a big, boxy-looking thing in splendid Network SouthEast livery. Unfortunately she had many problems over the weekend, so on the Sunday we were out she was late to the party, and then couldn’t be trusted on her own at any point – but at least we got to see her out and about. We eventually saw her at Freshfield Bank, where she was being escorted by 31108.
We hung around at Freshfield Bank for a while. The next train was the Hastings unit coming up north which, as has already been documented, meant that the funny green coach was at the back out of sight.
We then used the opportunity to shoot another diesel-only angle, as the two Class 31s came back south. We positioned ourselves on the south side of Town Place Bridge to shoot them.
We headed back a little closer to the bridge for the next train, which was headed by 73128 The Kent and East Sussex Railway, one of the few times we’ve gotten good view of her so far.
We didn’t move far for the next service, which was 31108 bringing a train back north.
Keen eyes might recognise a noted diesel spotter and nascent car show entity sticking a head out of one of the windows.
By this point, things were beginning to wind down, and we didn’t have many services left in the day. We decided to head back to Horsted Keynes, based on suggestions that all of the Network SouthEast liveried visitors would be there at the same time later that afternoon. We arrived at the station to quickly realise that the Class 50, which we thought wouldn’t be going anywhere, was in fact getting ready to depart. With a timetable full of swapped diagrams and a handful of delays thanks to the odd troublesome locomotive, we had lost track of what was doing what and where. We hotfooted it to a spot just south of Leland Bridge to shoot the departure.
Spur of the moment, because both 72B and South East Classic suggested doing the same thing, I changed my settings for a zooming pan shot. In the tiny snippet of time I had I only changed the shutter speed, not the aperture, so the shot came out pretty overexposed. I was able to recover most of it, although it’s still clearly not quite right.
With only one service left, a final Class 31 doubleheader, we headed back north along the footpath to capture it was Horsted House Bridge.
Once again I took a swing at a pan-zoom, although this time I made sure to switch over to Shutter Priority to let the camera worry about the aperture.
It didn’t work quite as well, but I’m happy with the result.
We headed back to Horsted Keynes to see if there was any sign of a gathering, but nothing took form (there was something of that nature later on, after the event had finished). I did grab a final shot of the Class 50 coming back into the station, but without a clear view I decided to embrace the people on platform for the shot.
With most of the services having now run, and with us having a deadline to get back to drop off our hi-viz vests, we headed back to base, and then headed home.
I do enjoy the diesel gala as something a bit different. It’s not a patch on steam of course, but it’s nice to see a variety of different locomotives running and making a different sort of noise. That said, the diesels at the Bluebell last way more than a weekend thanks to the steam ban. Luckily, rain has since come, and the weekend after I rejoined several of these friends to shoot some steam in action – for me, after a break of almost three months.
Our next gala will be the big one, Giants of Steam, and this year it’s got some cool visitors. But you’ll have to wait to see the post for that one.
As ever, I’ve got a few extra shots among the images in the gallery below.
Creative Splurges 