17-009 Ex-LB&SCR E4 0-6-2T No, B473 at Sheffield Park - one of two; seen from the racegoers footbridge

Taken 10/01/17: A loco that I think I've snapped more at the Isle of Wight Railway than at its home line. A brief loco history, copied from the Bluebell's website:

"The first of the Brighton's 0-6-2 "radial" tanks was designed by William Stroudley, and under his successor, Robert Billinton, they eventually became a family of designs covering a wide range of traffic requirements. The small-wheeled E3 and E6 were aimed at Goods traffic and the larger wheeled E5 were suited to passenger work, but it was the E4, with an intermediate diameter of driving wheels, which was the most flexible and most numerous member of the family.
The "Radial" tank takes its name from the radial axle beneath the driver's cab. Rather than the more conventional pivoted pony truck, the radial axle is set in curved hornguides in the main frames.
'Birch Grove', as was the practice with such Brighton engines, was named after towns and villiages in the LBSCR's area, and Birch Grove is a small hamlet just north of Horsted Keynes, and its residents, including one-time Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, would have used Horsted Keynes as their local station.
Initially painted in Stroudley's famous "Improved Engine Green", which was actually a golden ocre, in 1912 it was reboilered by Marsh with an I1-type boiler, and re-painted in his dark umber livery, as in the photo below.
After being re-numbered B473 and 2473 under the Southern Railway, in February 1948 it was one of the first Southern locos to receive "BRITISH RAILWAYS" sunshine lettering, and ran as s2473 until finally renumbered as 32473 in April 1951.
Arriving on the Bluebell straight out of BR service in 1962, it was quickly repainted into the Marsh umber, and ran until 1971, by which time its boiler was in need of major repairs. Its overhaul took many years, finally being completed in 1998, and the story is told on the "Villa Team" pages.
In early 2005 it was re-painted into BR Black livery (photo left). After being the star of our own Branch Line Weekend, it was off by low-loader to the Severn Valley Railway for their similar event. It has now been transformed into the SR olive green it carried in pre-war years as part of its latest overhaul, which, thanks to the good condition of its boiler after having had so much work a decade earlier, was started immediately on withdrawal in May 2008, being completed in January 2010."

www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/locos/bg/

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Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Sheffield Park (show map)

Taken on: January 10, 2017

Tags:

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Sets appears in: • The Bluebell Railway - General 2017

Groups appears in: • Steam power . . . .ed! • trains more » • Trains and railways • Railway • Railway and all the things around • Trainspotting • I Love Trains • British Preservation Railways • UK Railways • UK Steam • Steam Trains • UK Steam engines • Bluebell Railway • Steam in the UK • GB Railways • Anything Railway • Steam Trains of Europe • UK Preserved Railways and Trams « less

Camera: Pentax K110D, f/6.7, 1/30 sec, 55mm (=82mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Pentax K110D
Aperture:	f/6.7
Exposure Time:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length:	55mm (35mm equivalent: 82mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Landscape
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Scene Capture Type:	Landscape
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	K110D Ver 1.02
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