Bluebell and Primrose

    Bluebell and Primrose   Bluebell and Primrose are tank engine twins who live on the Bluebell Railway. According to Stepney, they had no names at first so their Controller gave them names. He says it made them over-confident, but they still work hard.
 * Built: 1909-1910
 * Builder: Ashford Works
 * Configuration: 0-6-0T
 * Numbers: 27 & 323

At present, Bluebell is in service after an overhaul, returning in time for the Branch Line Weekend in March 2011; whilst Primrose is out of service awaiting an overhaul.

Livery
Primrose is painted dark green with red and yellow lining and "SE&CR" written on her tanks.

Bluebell was painted blue with white lining with a red nameplate with her name in gold when she was first acquired by the Bluebell Railway. In 1998, she was repainted in the livery she carried in World War I. As of March 2011, Bluebell is currently in a variant of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway pre-war livery, but with blue instead of green and "Bluebell" written in gold letters instead of "SE&CR".

Basis
Bluebell and Primrose are based upon the SE&CR P Class built from 1909-1910 for lightweight passenger trains and later used for shunting.

Railway Series

 * Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine (do not speak)

Merchandise

 * ERTL (Bluebell only; discontinued)

Trivia

 * Although in the the illustrations Bluebell is shown in SE&CR pre-World War I livery she was actually painted blue from 1961 to 1998. (Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine being written in 1963.)
 * Bluebell's ERTL model was in fact Thomas' model merely repainted and with a different smokebox. She was originally going to have her own model.