Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Going to be warm today.

 

Woking Whistler out on Wednesday evening

"Woking Whistler" at Northside Lane by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

Roster for the Retro Wheels and Rails Event this weekend:

Saturday: 35005 on the Alresford set
41312 on the Alton set

Sunday: 35005 on the Alresford set
47579 on the Alton set

Ropley miniature railway is also staging a 10th Anniversary Saddle tank gala with two visiting locomotives.

Resident loco: Ivor

Visiting locos:
Alice from the South Downs light railway
Firefly from the Hastings miniature railway.



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My comment is based on the impressive restoration progress of one Society and the lack of current (restoration) progress by the other. I only mentioned resistance based on the comment about amending articles of association being a showstopper when it is not. Notwithstanding the differences between Maunsell and Urie machines the commonalities outweighs them so there are economic advantages at the intersection of the venn diagram. Goodwill between parties is of course paramount, and there is already a cordial relationship and no apparent jealousy or rancour, which is not always a given in Railway preservation. Moreover the ERPS has a lot of goodwill of its own in and around Eastleigh itself so it is not a one sided marriage. Nobody can say with certainty whether anything that hasn't happened is the right thing to do, but just to illustrate the antipattern, imagine if there had been two separate 506 and 499 Preservation Societies. Would we be witnessing the impressive progress on both engines?

 

It was good to see the railway really busy again yesterday with both trains well loaded for the Retro Wheels and Rails event. It was nice to see people getting into the spirit of the event with quite a few wearing period clothing. I must admit the vehicle displays were a little disappointing this time. Not sure if the potential exhibitors were put off attending by the bad thunder storms forecast for Friday afternoon and evening but hopefully if the event is staged again next year there will be a better turnout.

We enjoyed a lively round trip behind 41312 on the four coach set. It was a real pleasure to listen to the plucky Ivatt tank romping over the Alps again. Afterwards we headed to the West Country Buffet for our usual favourite of Baked Potatoes accompanied by a nice cool beer.
Later, heading back to Ropley behind CanPac there was a wonderful exchange of whistles between the crew of the Merchant Navy and the crews of the locos on the Miniature Railway as we entered the station. The miniature railway Gala was proving to be very popular. I wonder how many passengers they carried?

A big thankyou to everyone involved for another excellent day in the Hampshire Alps. Roll on the Diesel Gala!

Below are some shots from the day:

41312 rolls into Ropley with a well loaded train to Alton:

Miniature Railway Gala:


The Yanks are coming!:

Top up:

CanPac waits to head off for servicing:

 

And so snother week comes to pass, and six like minded nutters found themselves atop the hill attempting to progress things with the Steel Highfit & LMS Van.....

Two of the lads were charged with finding all the misses on the steel highfit and putting them right, parking the blame firnly on someone else even though they'd been helping at the time........ it's a thankless task, but one that needs doing before the floor goes back in, and as Muggin's 'Ere kept finding misses they clamined to have rectified, I suspect they were getting a bit miffed with the whole thing.........

Another of the lads got the center section of floor planks into dollop before starting to give the end sections more of the same.

We also had one of the lads from midweek with us, who it turns out is dab hand with a nurdle stick and wanted to sign write the highfit - who are we to argue?...... as it's a skill any of us have yet to learn!

That left Muggin's 'Ere and Me Mucker to try and make progress on the LMS van..... we opted to fit the bolts on the ends of the new roof hoops, and promptly wished we'd picked something else, as once we'd got the ladder positioned and tied off, the wind picked up, meaning that a relatively simple job became rather prolonged - still, we got there eventually, and even managed to get the new sections into undercoat.

Next week should see the highfit on the verge of completion, and strides made witht the LMS van, but given the current forecast, it maybe be too hot to work at anything above a snails pace!

Some pics from yesterday....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54590735855/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54590614689/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54589543052/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54590421991/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54589542862/in/dateposted-public/

Floor planks drying in the sune.



The highfit has its identy back on the north side.

 

And so the forecast proved to be correct! Though having been inside a pressure cooker at owrk, it was actually nice to be outside, even in the heat & humidity.

Various jobs were tackled amongst the six nutters who gathered atop the hill......

Two of the lads got what you'd call lucky, insomuch as, they got to do sone wagon exams, mainly down in Bennett's in the shade of the tree line.

Me Oppo & matey had the 'fun' task of refitting the vac cylinder to Palvan B782114, another lad picked up on the job of getting more dollop on the floor planks for the highfit, which left Muggin's 'Ere & Me Mucker to sort out the country end corrugation on the LMS van....... a job we wished we hadn't decided to do in the heat.

Still, we got on with it, and by the end of the day, the bolts on the new roof hoops had any excess removed and the nuts changed to nylocks, to make damn sure that they don't come loose & anything that needed red oxiding got done & dried off whilst we took the paintwork back, whic has neatened to job up no end, and also gotten rid of the next to useless Leyland paint (I'm damn sure its responsible for the paint cracking on the southside of the van.........) after which we got the whole lot into decent undercoat, before heading for home.

All this was achieved with plenty of sun slap and drinks breaks in the shade.

For a steaming hot day, where you'd expect the world & his wife to head for the beach, the passing trains were very full - so a couple of pics from Mid Summer's Day.......

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54606364430/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54606256729/in/dateposted-public/

The country end of LMS van M517317 now properly into undercoat.

 

Ok, the fully acceptable response is 'it'll be ready when it's ready'.

But I just wondered if there was any update on 30506 and its return to service please?

Bryan

 

The latest Watercress Line In the loop video posted at the beginning of June has an update which says that 30506 will return to traffic in a few months......

 

What is the current operational steam fleet this summer with 506 out?

 

Looks like 41312, 35005 and Dave.