Bluebell hires S160 as loco shortage bites

With capable hire locomotives largely spoken for during the summer season, the Bluebell Railway has hired Greg Wilson’s USA S160 2-8-0 6046 from the Churnet Valley Railway for the rest of the main season.

It arrived in mid-august, having visited Didcot Railway Centre for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Great Western Society, which runs the Didcot site.

It is the first external hire locomotive the Bluebell has needed since 2015, and reflects the delay to the intermediate overhaul of BR Standard 5 4-6-0 73082 Camelot. Withdrawn in January due to a leaking foundation ring, this required the boiler to be lifted. Although four years remained on the boiler certificate, it was decided to carry out an intermediate overhaul, with a partial re-tube, to provide a fresh 10-year certificate. At the same time, the locomotive has been repainted. It retains lined BR black but now sports the later BR tender crest.

As part of Didcot Railway Centre’s 60th anniversary celebrations on July 17/18, S160 2-8-0 6046 – which then moved to the Bluebell Railway in mid-august to assist with a locomotive shortage – and Lambton Tank 0-6-2T No. 29 were guests. Six S160s were based at Didcot in 1943 and 1944, as part of the D-day build up to work trains to Southampton. Treflyn Lloyd-roberts