Welcome to 2026, our 35th year of fundraising

Well, who would have thought we would still be standing on cold and draughty platforms 35 years after we started!

This year marks the 35th  anniversary of the Fenchurch Fund.  Having started as a whip round following the passing of Matthew Wood, a young, popular and talented fireman who would have made an excellent driver.  he is long remembered by many at the Bluebell.

Our anniversary year began with  having Fenchurch carry a new headboard cast to be carried on Fenchurch when it is working on special events.  a few pictures of the event are below. 

Fenchurch at East Grinstead with the LNWR Observation Coach

Fenchurch on Platform 2 at Sheffield Park

Another view at Sheffield Park

A pause at Kingscote on the return to Sheffield Park

It was a great event put on by the team at the Bluebell Railway, and very successful too.

We have plans for 2026, to commemorate our anniversary and details of these will be released as they become a bit more organised.  

However, we can say that there will be a special train with Fenchurch pulling a train of 4 wheeled carriages at some time in the summer, hopefully around the end of July.  This is in the planning stage currently and details will be published as soon as we are able to.  However, if you would like to register your interest in the train to receive details as they become available please email thefenchurchfund@gmail.com and we will add you to our list.

We will be updating this blogspot a little more frequently this year than we have in the last couple of years, so keep popping back!

April Progress

Progress on the Frames

Work on the parts to re-assemble the frames has continued apace despite working in less than ideal conditions!  There is a coat of gloss on the valances and the frames, together with the buffers and footsteps.

If you would like to have a look at the progress we will be open to visitors during this weekends "Branch Line Event" where you will be able to chat to the restoration team.  In addition, we will be having a sales stand just inside steam works (with the kind permission of Chris Knibbs and Lisa Boyle).

We will be having the usual pickles and preserves as well as tee shirts, Polo Shirts, caps and many other quality items you can buy to help us restore the loco.

Below you can see a selection of pictures of the team working away to get the loco presentable for Branch Line Weekend.  Come along and haver a look at their efforts!

Ben applies a coat of green undercoat on the middle wheel set

Jim painting the motion plate between the frames of the loco

Sean painting the top of the front balance weight 

A sneak preview of the frames (they look even better in real life!)

The front of the frames with a test fit of the buffers

A general view of the frames. What's under the cover? You will need to pop down at the weekend to find out! 

Remember, all of this has been possible with the generosity of people like you that are interested in the project.

Without your support we cannot carry on at the same rate experienced so far.

Please donate anything you can afford if you would like to see our efforts and passion come to a successful end.

We are a completely self funded group of Bluebell Railway Volunteers working hard to look after and promote the small locomotive fleet on the Bluebell Railway.

Contact Information

To make a donation, please go to the Bluebell Trust's donation page at: 

 https://www.bluebell-railway.com/make-a-donation/ 

You will then need to select "P27 - Restoration of SECR P Class No27" from the pull down menu.

To visit our on line shop please click the link below:

Home | The Fenchurch Fund - Project 27 (square.site)

where you will find many items for sale, including clothing, gifts, railwayana, books and soon, models!

For general correspondence and other enquiries, please email us at:

thefenchurchfund@gmail.com

For more details on the history of No.27 please go the the Loco 27 page on the Bluebell Railway website:

Locomotives under overhaul - Bluebell Railway in Sussex (bluebell-railway.com)

NEW WEBSITE!

We can at last, announce the new web site for The Little Loco Group this gives the latest information on the restoration of the loco together with other information and useful links to other pages.  This can be found at:

Home - Little Loco Group

We would like to thank our supporters for your continued encouragement, donations and injections of humour and goodwill over the last two difficult years.  It is much appreciated by the team.

We look forward to seeing you at various events over the coming year.  we are already getting invitations to attend shows away from the railway as well as the usual "big days" on the railway.

The Fenchurch Fund -Project 27 At Steyning exhibition

 On Sunday 12th of March The Fenchurch Fund - Project 27 will be attending the Wealden Model Railway Group model exhibition in Steyning. See the poster below for details. Additionally we are doing the show catering with all profits coming to our funds, hopefully it will be worthwhile. Arrive early forBacon rolls!

Additionally our modelling group will be displaying a 009 layout called Botolphs, which is on the fictional Lancing and Bramber (L&B) railway, also a diorama of the fictional Hardham loco shed (both Clive Emsley) and another countryside diorama by Stuart Bardouleau.

It would be god to see you there and have a chat, there will be much more to see than just us!

In the near future we will be attending the Beckenham MRC Vintage Model railway show in Beckenham at St Johns Church, Eden Park BR3 3JN. An interesting show, but with a very dangerous club shop! (I definitely overspent there last year!)

A couple of sneak preview pictures of "Botolph's"  See more at the exhibition on Sunday!

An overall view of the station area at Botolph's

Trains laden with sand from the sand pits in the Henfield area served by the Small Dole Railway 

Another Sales Stand!

Worthing Model Railway Show  

The Fenchurch Fund will be attending the Worthing Model Railway Show this weekend at Durrington High School, The Boulevard, Worthing West Sussex BN13 1LA.  The opening times are from 10 - 5 on Saturday and 10 - 4 on Sunday. For more details go to www.worthingmrc.co.uk/exhibition_2022

In addition to the usual Fenchurch Sales Stand we are joined by "Billy no Mates" model Railway Club who is showing the "Work in progress" model of Botolph's on the Lancing and Bramber Railway, a narrow-gauge line which (in the imaginary history) ran from Lancing Widewater to Bramber and on to Storrington. There was also a connection to the Small Dole Railway.  Handily PECO produces ready to run stock for both routes! (L&B and SDR)

Giants of Steam

We will be having a sales stand at the Giants of Steam event again this year at Sheffield Park, either on Platform 1 or in Steam Works (depending on the weather forecast). We will have all the usual things on the stand and (if we are in Steam Works) short, guided walks around the little locos of the Bluebell Railway, Including viewing the works being carried out on No.27, if it is safe to do so.  This is subject to confirmation.

We hope to see you at one or both of the events above!

NEW WEBSITE!

We can at last, announce the new web site for The Little Loco Group this gives the latest information on the restoration of the loco together with other information and useful links to other pages.  This can be found at:

Home - Little Loco Group

Contact Information

To make a donation, please go to the Bluebell Trust's donation page at: 

 https://www.bluebell-railway.com/make-a-donation/ 

You will then need to select "P27 - Restoration of SECR P Class No27" from the pull down menu.

To visit our on line shop please click the link below:

Home | The Fenchurch Fund - Project 27 (square.site)

where you will find many items for sale, including clothing, gifts, railwayana, books and soon, models!

For general correspondence and other enquiries, please email us at:

thefenchurchfund@gmail.com

For more details on the history of No.27 please go the the Loco 27 page on the Bluebell Railway website:

Locomotives under overhaul - Bluebell Railway in Sussex (bluebell-railway.com)

We would like to thank our supporters for their continued encouragement, donations and injections of humour and goodwill over the last two difficult years.  It is much appreciated by the team.

We look forward to seeing you at various events over the coming year.  we are already getting invitations to attend shows away from the railway as well as the usual "big days" on the railway.

More pictures

 I have recently unearthed some pictures via a well-known online auction site! They are from the early 1960s and are taken at a few different locations.

A freshly painted No.27 taken by Harold D. Bowtell on the 25th May 1963
It is standing on the loco headshunt at Sheffield Park

27 collecting its train from the Pumphouse Siding at Sheffield Park

And drawing towards Platform 2

Believed to be on the same day as the previous two pictures No.27 can be seen running round her train at Horsted Keynes

Back at Sheffield Park R.A.Panting catches Loco No.27 in Platform 1 at Sheffield Park
on the 15th September 1963 with a train bound for Horsted Keynes

Alec Ford captures No.27 Primrose sitting in the Pumphouse siding with Carriage 1050 
whilst the public look on from the loco yard, how things change!

Some Archive Pictures of SECR No.27

At the weekend we were given a few photographs of No.27 in the early days of the Bluebell Railway.  they were taken on June 15thn 1961 by Fox Photos.

There is also an interesting commentary on the back of the photos, along with a description of the subject of the photograph.

We would like to thank Richard Clarke for letting us have these important photographs.

The description of the visit to the railway 

This is actually Bluebell Halt, just south of Horsted Keynes.

Arriving in the Up Platform at Sheffield Park having shunted across from the Down Platform.

This train has arrived on the down platform and will shunt across to the up platform.

These pictures are fascinating and very interesting in the Bluebell Railway history.  A great find.

We have also had a couple of pictures donated by Peter Gilbert, one of Fenchurch and the other featuring both Fenchurch and 27 these are shown below

Fenchurch leading 27 down Freshfield Bank.  Driver Dick Cawley on Fenchurch

Fenchurch with the LNWR Observation car at Horsted Keynes

Contact Information

To make a donation, please go to the Bluebell Trust's donation page at: 

 https://www.bluebell-railway.com/make-a-donation/ 

You will then need to select "P27 - Restoration of SECR P Class No27" from the pull down menu.

To visit our on line shop please click the link below:

Home | The Fenchurch Fund - Project 27 (square.site)

where you will find many items for sale, including clothing, gifts, railwayana, books and soon, models!

For general correspondence and other enquiries, please email us at:

thefenchurchfund@gmail.com

For more details on the history of No.27 please go the the Loco 27 page on the Bluebell Railway website:

Locomotives under overhaul - Bluebell Railway in Sussex (bluebell-railway.com)

We would like to thank our supporters for their continued encouragement, donations and injections of humour and goodwill over the last two difficult years.  It is much appreciated by the team.

We look forward to seeing you at various events over the coming year.  we are already getting invitations to attend shows away from the railway as well as the usual "big days" on the railway.

Welcome to 2022!

 A short update as to our activities during the winter of 2021/2022

During a visit by your roving reporter on the 29th of December a few pictures were taken, firstly the crew take breakfast, the most important activity of the day!

L-R Ben Dingley, Sean Smeeth and Matt Holloway, the core team.

 In the "Villa" much work has been carried out on the front buffer beam with all the components being trial fitted prior to being fixed to the loco when the time comes, in the near future!

The buffer beam components and end of the valance being test fitted

A detail of the end of the buffer beam

The pictures above show the front buffer beam the upper picture shows the components being test fitted. The lower shows the components in a little more detail with the buffer beam below the strengthening plate and the angles which will locate on the counter balance weight at the front of the loco.  The front curve plate of the valance can just be discerned at the bottom right of the picture.

 

The sand boxes freshly returned from the sand blaster

The sandboxes were sandblasted over the winter to remove corrosion from inside of them.  they were returned to us in a grey primer which has now been covered with bonda primer. since this photo was taken the red primer has been completed.

Ben inspecting the rear buffer beam prior to applying the final 8 rivets.

The last 8 rivets were applied to the frames between Christmas and the new year this brings the work at the rear of the frames to a conclusion.  These rivets were applied to secure the angles to the buffer beams (seen behind the beam in the picture).

We now jump forward to the 5th February to see work being carried out to the front of the frames.

Trial fitting of the front balance weight

The balance weight has been located temporarily in the frames at the front of the loco.  this has been done primarily to assist in the setting up of the side valances.  This will also involve fitting the buffer beam.

The weight located with temporary "blue bolts" 

The plates which strengthen the area behind the buffers were also added

With the weight and the plates added the next move will be to fit the metric angles around the imperial weight.  this will involve some machining to change the profile of the angles.

Some fresh paint in the Villa!

Other work carried out over the winter has included the brake gear some of the motion parts being cleaned and painted up to top coat.  This has been possible due to the temporary repair of the very leaky roof and the use of a space heater to dry things out.

The refurbished valve spindles

The Valve spindles that were refurbished last year have been painted up to final gloss top coat over the winter. The "taped up" sections are to protect some bright work from corrosion.  Note also in the background of the picture the small electric space heater which has made working in the Villa almost bearable!

The new blast pipe

The blast pipe that was purchased along with two more for the other Ps a few years back has now bee machined and is ready (when the time comes) to be installed on the loco.  This was the last piece of work carried out for the group by the Late Ian Ferguson before his untimely demise.  A real credit to his skills.

Upcoming work

The next tranche of work is likely to be fairly visible and it includes work to fit the valances and associated angles outside the frames at the edge of the footplating, the fitting of the cylinders between the frames, machining and fitting the hornblocks, painting and preparing the wheels for refitting and plenty of cleaning and painting!  Please keep popping back for updates!

Fundraising

Last year was surprisingly good bearing in mind we were limited on opportunities to have sales stands, we didn't attend a single model exhibition, and only had three weekend on the Bluebell. despite this we managed to take around 70% of our previous annual average take. A very good result and thank you to all who helped.

We are still spending as much as we take in sales and donations and we need to continue to need to raise funds to carry on with the works. So, if you are able to support us we would love to hear from you.

Below are a few contact details for donations, correspondence and a link to our on line shop which is in the process of having some new items added, this will be completed over the next couple of weeks or so.  |Please keep looking I'm sure you will find something you didn't realise you needed! 

The new items will include our latest clothing range, some new book titles and we are looking at putting a virtual model shop within the site.  We are looking for donations of sellable models and spare parts for inclusion in the on line shop.  If you have any models (in any condition) we would be interested in helping to clear your shelves!

Contact Information

To make a donation, please go to the Bluebell Trust's donation page at: 

 https://www.bluebell-railway.com/make-a-donation/ 

You will then need to select "P27 - Restoration of SECR P Class No27" from the pull down menu.

To visit our on line shop please click the link below:

Home | The Fenchurch Fund - Project 27 (square.site)

where you will find many items for sale, including clothing, gifts, railwayana, books and soon, models!

For general correspondence and other enquiries, please email us at:

thefenchurchfund@gmail.com

For more details on the history of No.27 please go the the Loco 27 page on the Bluebell Railway website:

Locomotives under overhaul - Bluebell Railway in Sussex (bluebell-railway.com)

We would like to thank our supporters for their continued encouragement, donations and injections of humour and goodwill over the last two difficult years.  It is much appreciated by the team.

We look forward to seeing you at various events over the coming year.  we are already getting invitations to attend shows away from the railway as well as the usual "big days" on the railway.