LBSCR H2 Class - 32424 ‘Beachy Head’ hauls her first loaded test runs - Bluebell Railway | 10/07/24 

I remember see ing this one many moons ago, at Eastleigh sheds when I was happy to tick it off, in my train spotter's booklet. In those days she was painted in Apple green, with yellow wheels. I am now 90 years old.

I’m fairly sure Beach Head is a new build - all the more impressive!

@@tomlee9534 Its mostly new build. The boiler was from a GNR Atlantic and the tender frames from an LBSCR B4.

​@@Simon-Davisthe tender frames were new too. Only the wheelsets were salvageable from the fake Dean Single at Windsor.

@@joshslater2426 honestly, I cannot wait to see the Adam’s Radial back in service. A loco I’ve never seen run!

Thank you for the kind words my friend 🙌

@@Mr.C_the_Artist Beachy Head isn’t the only new build the Bluebell are building. Bluebell are converting 78059 into a BR Class 2 tank 84030.

@@chaileystowe3026 interesting i will watch that and wait to see how it goes

I suspect you'll have to come to the Bluebell if you want to see it in the first couple of years it's in use. The railway needs to maximise its revenue potential (so I guess it might also depend how much another railway was prepared to pay)! So far as the reasons why it has been completed in BR condition, you need to understand the importance of this particular locomotive in that condition to the Bluebell. It's been the plan ever since the project to reconstruct this locomotive was announced 23 years ago, and all the fundraising (£1.34 million) has been on the basis that it would be initially in this livery. In its final BR form it: * was the very last Atlantic tender locomotive running in BR service. * was used on many railtours in the 1950s, including several over the Bluebell line. * was this loco's scrapping in 1958 which led Brighton enthusiasts to realise that something must be done to save something of the history of the LB&SCR before it was too late, and led to the first meeting of what became the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society in 1959. So it is significant in the Bluebell's own history. * It's how many people in the Atlantic group remember it. Undoubtedly it will carry other liveries in subsequent boiler certificates. We do not however have a rake of appropriate carriages to run behind it in LB&SCR Umber. Personally I hope the next livery we'll see it in is Southern olive green.

I would love to see it in Marsh Umber.

@@joshslater2426 I would have been a good photo opportunity for Fenchurch & Beachy Head to sit side-by-side at either Sheffield Park or Horstead Keynes if the H2 was in LB&SCR colours. A preservation first!

@@bluebellsalmon ok thanks for clearing that up.. I was unaware of the historical significance of the original 32424. I'm sorry if I have offended you or anyone you represent, I usually don't give any flying monkeys what a locomotive is painted in whether its authentic or not (I was in full supported of 34027's purple phase & of her Wartime black livery). However, with the large amount of pre-1948 steam locomotives both on & off the mainline current in BR colours, I get slightly annoyed when more pre-BR locomotives are painted in BR colours with the exception being un-common BR liveries in preservation such as BR Lined express Blue (as worn by 60007), BR Apple Green (as worn by 60163) or BR maroon (as worn by 46203). Don't get me started on when the NRM announced their plans to not re-paint 60103 into LNER Apple Green for her Centenary because it was "inauthentic to her re-build" even though she was in LNER Apple Green for her 80th in 2003

Top job, isn't it? It's nice to see 'Archie' out and about too. Powerful locos were looking distinctly thin on the ground, not so long ago. For Marsh Umber to be authentically carried, you'd need to revert a few bits n bobs to "as built" spec., including the LBSC cab, chimney, dome etc. as after grouping, in common with other larger 'Brighton' designs, these handsome machines had to be trimmed to fit the Southern's composite loading gauge. Mercifully, witness a result rather more pleasing than the butchery meted out to NWNG/WHR 2-6-2T 'Russell' If you look at old photos, the original cab design presents a very different look .... and to judge from the comments whilst this magnificent beastie was under construction, the cab construction was quite a challenge. The real shame is that none of Panter's "balloon" stock* made it into preservation. A rake of that would have been perfect behind the H2. Ho-hum .... can't win 'em all and anyways, it's not as if the Bluebell is exactly short of wooden bodied stock to restore. * Or a 'K' mogul, or a C2x (and that's just the 'not being too greedy' list!

@@WheelsonRails728 thank you my friend

@@SharpthorneSteam cheers matey, glad I could help u capture her for the first time!

@@chaileystowe3026 the gen was epic, thanks mate.

Coaches look great, too. Well done!

I believe it is the original whistle from Beachy Head itself. 😃

@@bluebellsalmon even better then :)

Thank you my friend

It's done a couple of weeks of light engine runs, which has provided the confidence to try it with a train-load. This is our normal set of carriages for such test runs, since our afternoon tea train "Wealden Rambler" set is a low-mileage set, and conveniently lives at Sheffield Park.

The coaches seen here are the Bluebell's Wealden Rambler afternoon tea set, simply because they are sitting there in the siding at Sheffield Park, and are readily available to form a test train. Hence the two large brake vans, used for laying out 100 servings of tea, being in the centre. The coaches used on the Rambler actually form part of a collection of coaches which the owner has with the intention of forming an authentic recreation of a much longer Brighton-Cardiff set.

@@bluebellsalmon Most interesting and thank you for explaining - it is much appreciated and makes much sense. They look absolutely superb (as do all the Bluebell's coaches). Beachy Head is a real gem!

Might be tomorrow, but that depends on whether any problems were found today that need rectifying first, or any other more urgent priorities which come up for the loco works staff. It did loaded test runs yesterday as well.

@@lnerrules-iw6ry No, he. I see this engine as male.

@@lnerrules-iw6ry Well I think that’s sexist. Any trains with male sounding names should be deemed as male and any trains with female sounding names should be deemed as female.

@@trainlover16 The editor of Bluebell News ruled decades ago that steam locomotives ('Beachy Head' is definitely not a "train" by the way) are inanimate objects, which should be referred to as "it". I have also followed that philosophy on the web site for the last 27 years! It saves a lot of silly arguments! 😀

​@@bluebellsalmon and where possible, avoid all pronouns and use names/numbers as far as you can before you sound pedantic! That's been my philosophy too.

​@@trainlover16locomotives (as in the case of other vehicles) have been traditionally referred to as "she" regardless of whatever name is on the side of the engine so if you really want to be pedantic about using feminine pronouns for trains, take it up to tradition. If you still do care for no apparent reason, just call any trains "it" as the aren't living beings at the end of the day

Thank you very much my friend 🙌

@@simonjames3845 thank you for the comments, I would be inclined to agree with a turntable but the issue ofc is space. Could probably fit one somewhere at SP but at EG? Although a nice thing to have, don’t necessarily think we need one even if we did have space at EG.

Tender frames are new too.

@@richardharrold9736 No they were not!

@@bluebellsalmon the LBSCR tender frames recovered from Windsor were scrapped years ago, I remember the Bluebell saying as much, it was beyond restoration. Only the wheelsets and axleboxes were recoverable.

​@@richardharrold9736 Then you have been misinformed because the tender frames recovered in the 90's are running around under the new tank.

@@mattlander9119 the Bluebell has always been clear that all it salvaged was the wheelsets, rescued from an Uxbridge scrapyard, that the rest of the tender was scrap.

Pretty much, all except the boiler, which is an original LNER Ivatt Atlantic boiler

Heritage only as there isn’t enough room in the cab for modern equipment for the engine to be mainline certified

Yes, something I keep meaning to do but I forget about it and push it back lol

Your shout?

Because this was by far the best boiler we have on any locomotive on the Bluebell, and it was an important locomotive to LB&SCR enthusiasts, the scrapping of which in 1958 was instrumental in kick starting standard gauge railway preservation through the inaugural meeting of what became the Bluebell Railway, in March 1959. And because there was a group of people who both wanted to do it and had the patience and skill to see it through!

​​@@bluebellsalmonis it just me or has the track level risen significantly with the reballasting, especially at West Hoathly? And what implications has that had for loading gauge considerations?

@@richardharrold9736 Er, no. Where we've been renewing the rail, sleepers and ballast, everything has been scraped down to the base, and the drainage also attended to where necessary. If trackwork alterations have implications for loading gauge, that's taken into account in the project design. But most of our bridges are well clear of any such considerations anyway.

@@bluebellsalmon okay, must just be my eyes being deceived by the visual contrast of fresh ballast! Is the ballast itself any thicker than it used to be? It's been a long time since I've been to the Bluebell and I fear I'm not likely to be able to return any time soon. Is anything being done about developing a proper station at East Grinstead? The facilities there were adequate a decade ago, at least on a quiet rainy autumn afternoon, but it wasn't exactly the most inspiring terminus, not compared to the wonders of Horsted Keynes - and, perhaps more relevantly, Alton on the MHR made a rather nicer place to be in the driving rain! I remember the Bluebell airing proposals to rebuild the original LBSCR building or to build a more suburban Streamline Moderne style thing... but that was a quarter of a century ago!