61306 'Mayflower' visits the 'Bluebell Railway' | The Cathedrals Express | 23/3/19

We're back with some mainline action this week, taking a look at B1 61306 'Mayflower' and her run with 'The Cathedrals Express' from Southend to 'The Bluebell Railway'.
This is not the first time Steam Dreams have used the Bluebell as either a destination or start point, and on this occation they partnered up the the preserved line to create a very interesting day out for the passengers.
After a spiffing run down from Southend, first seen here at Merstham, the tour made it's way to Kingscote where the Bluebell had put on an extra train for the passengers to transfer onto with SE&CR 01 65 & Maunsell Q Class 30541 at the helm. Mayflower attached to the rear of the train to be brought to Sheffield Park for servicing.
After the B1 was replenished at Sheffield Park, she took charge of the 16.35 departure to Kingscote, with S15 847 at the rear, before re-attaching to her railtour and heading back for London.
The weather proved cloudy for most of the day, yet lighting conditions helped to provide the perfect backdrop for the B1s venture on the Bluebell, and it proved highly succesful! Hope you enjoy.
Previous Cathedrals Express at Bluebell:
• (HD) 'The Cathedrals E...
JP SteamMedia:
• 61306 'Mayflower' Head...

[@railfreightdrivergallagherGBRf]

Fantastic 2nd to last shot of the B1..with a gentle push from the 33 on notch 2. Superb video.

[@FlyingScott]

30583, back in BR black at last!

[@mikebradley4096]

Superb video!

[@kyle123481]

Fantastic video!
Love seeing tours heading on to Pres Lines!
-Kyle

[@themodster]

Smashing video Will, great to see Mayflower finally back on the Bluebell, looks like she gave a great performance whilst she was there! Thomas

[@paulconner115]

Watched the train pass through Benfleet about 30 mins ago on way to shoeburyness

[@AndreiTupolev]

Great sound from the Crompton! Interesting comparison with the S15 at Horsted Keynes.

[@mattybutler1985]

So I'm a little confused about what's going on here...
The tour gets brought onto Bluebell metals backwards so Mayflower's facing the right way to leave, Mayflower + Support Coach come off at Kingscote and hitch a ride on the C and Q's train to Sheffield Park, then after servicing which takes a reasonable amount of time, Mayflower pulls a different Bluebell train along with its Support Coach and 847 to Kingscote where the train and Crompton are presumably waiting, and takes over from there, so the railtour train never actually got any further on the Bluebell than Kingscote, and the bit it did do was partly diesel-hauled...?

[@frontlinesteam]

Correct. The tour had to stop at Kingscote because it was too long for anywhere else on the line to be stored.

[@mattybutler1985]

Is this how it was dealt with the other times railtours went to the Bluebell? I know Tornado, Braunton and Ollie have all done it too.

[@frontlinesteam]

Some of those are different because they started there, or had another engine on the rear etc for easy shunting.

[@mattybutler1985]

I also imagine it's an organisational nightmare, especially for trains starting there. There's paths onto the line and fitting the tour in around the line's normal scheduled trains on top of having to separate engine and Support Coach from the train at Kingscote. Which is why I'm so amazed Ollie's tour from the Severn Valley to the Bluebell was possible.

[@EHSteamVideos]

Lovely video of Mayflower Will!
regards Edward

[@sharktails6468]

i think they kept her at bluebell

[@AndreiTupolev]

How did the train get turned so that the B1 was pointing the other way by the time it got to E. Grinstead?

[@trevordaburn3501]

Service was reversed at South Croydon after running up from Redhill. Class 33 pulled the service down to East Grinstead

[@DrRobBallard]

too bad so many people fail to understand the importance of the railroads over the past 200 years.