Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

And so the first Saturday of 2024 dawned cold, wet and miserable as seven desperate souls gathered atop the hill......... the forecasters got that one wrong again, its supposed to be cold and sunny!!!

Still, after a lenghty breakfast and catch up, the wet stuff departed so we decamped from the nice warm mess room to the bottom of the yard to resume battle with LMS van M517317........

Three of out number drew lucky straws in as much as they'd be in the dry and warm continuing the tasks of getting the internal cladding planks into primer, along with the continued refurb of the vac release valve for the vac cylinder on the meat van.

The unlucky four had jobs to do in the open - fine and dandy on a nice day, but the wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping........ Still, underterred, we set about our tasks.....

Me Oppo & his mucker had to replace some rusted steel at the top on one of the C sections on the south side and fabricate new and weld in...... simple to do in theory, but a bugga in practice, as you only get one chance, so lots of measuring and measure again before cutting and drilling, but by the end of the day it was done and welded in.

Muggin's 'ere and me mucker carried on with drilling holes, and this time we had a carbide bit! We soon had the holes in the second angle iron drilled, and then it was on to doing the same on the new C section...... all well and good, except for one thing, we were having to drill the holes through the weld that is stronger than the host steel - we started off ok, but it soon be came clear the bit was getting blunt...... But being stubborn bugga's we found a way to finish drilling all but one hole!

After that, we realised that we still had more holes to drill in the wrap round...... so it was a case of looking at where they needed to go by checking things on the north side - it was a bit of a brain ache working things out as the spacings aren't uniform, and trying to transpose things on the inside isn't plain sailing, especially when you discover that the ply sheet on the corrugated end needed to be pulled in, as it was throwing us off with our measurements - so that was the next job, and with that done we reckon next time we can get the holes marked and drilled.........

@Ploughman, I will pm you at some point as I'd love to come and see what you get up to, and likewise you're welcome to come darn sarf and see what we get up to.

Some pics from the final evening of the seasons steamy lighty trains........

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/53448490146/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/53448809939/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/53448906640/in/dateposted-public/

The refurb of the vac release valve coming on.....



The new piece of C section welded into place.


Holes drilled and the ply sheet pulled in!

 

What happened to 34070?

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

Down at Ropley we found that huddling around a hot rivet was most welcome in the 1°C sunshine.
Nearly finished reassembling the frame of tender 3223, just finish the welding together of the front and rear longitudinals and rivetting on the flitch plates. Pic shows the last rivets in the forward crossmember having a red oxide moment, after we finished rivetting it into place.

Pat

 

F F F Flippin' 'eck it were right fresh atop the hill yesterday, and I'm damn sure that the cars gubbin's were having an off day, as it told me it was 0 degrees when I arrived with breakfast for all........ but it just seemed to get colder as the day went on........ but I'm damn sure there was a minus sign missing on the temperature reading as we left - it said 2 degrees.........

Still, those of us daft enough to be out in the cold trying to tame the troublesome trucks insted of being at home under a nice warm duvet had a good day......

Me Oppo and his mucker decided that doing exams on vehicles in the running rake that had been flagged as needing to be done was a good idea!

That left Muggin's 'ere and me mucker to carry on with drilling holes in steel on LMS van M517317........ first up was to drill the final hole in the bottom of the C section - not an easy task given where it needed to be - cue a lot of head scratching as to the best way of doing it as there was no chance of putting a 4' level across to mark the centre of the hole!

So, after several attempts at trying to work it out with frozen brains, it was brew time..... suitably refreshed and a little warmer, we approached the task from a differrent angle, and did what I have to do evey day at work - think in reverse, and use what we've got, a principle that worked, but with one minor hurdle - there was the top of a rivet in chassis directly in the way of where we needed to put the drill!!! Somehow we managed to get the hole drilled in line with all the others......

Next job was to mark out and drill the missing bolt holes in the wrap round that were now missing due to new sections being welded in - all I can say is thank fudge for a builders level with an angle finder, its a God send given that the van is on a falling gradient......... and the last thing we need are things on the wonk! Sp having duly found the angle, the holes were marked out, at which point I left me mucker to drill them as Muggin's 'ere amd me Oppo needed to pay a visit to Ropley to have a look at a test rig for vac cylinders.......

The Urie lot were busy making a lot of noise riveting the tender frame for 499...... my Ropley Spy must smell money as he appeared out of nowhere - we had hoped to avoid him, but no such luck!!! After pleading poverty and greetings exchanged, he muttered something about an update, so watch this space as I won't steal his thunder.

Upon our return to to safety of Medstead up yard, the holes in the wrap round had been drilled,bar the two for the support bracket on the door runner and various drill bits blunted, and the exams on three vehicles had been done with a few nasties found that were sorted there and then meaning the vehicles are good to run.

The final holes, for now, drilled in all the replacement steel in line with existing, and mirrored on the wrap round.....

 

And so dear reader, the weather forecasters got it wrong again...... instead of a balmy 7 degrees atop the hill yesterday, with a biting wind all day it felt more like minus 7!!! And when it came to drawing straws for the three pairs of hardy souls who ventured out, two of our number drew the longest one meaning that they would be inside all day in the dry and warm out of the wind, the only downside was, they'd be getting the final two dozen or so internal cladding planks for LMS van M517317 into primer!

The next pair got semi lucky - they'd be outside in the morning removing the north side brake gear off the meat van, and then inside the workshop van in the afternoon cleaning it all up - there's too much play in all the linkage which needs addressing, and me Oppo has the means off site to fettle all the bits to reduce the amount of play!

So that Left Muggin's 'Ere and me mucker with the shortest straw......... being outside all day in the biting wind trial fitting the south side London end external cladding planks on the LMS van........... A job easy enough in theory, but a ball ache in practice and not funny when you're being chilled to the bone!!!

Still, by the end of the day, we'd got them fitted and also drilled the missing holes in the London End ply sheet for the lamp bracket and swan neck support that we'd been unable to do before.

Also, all the internal cladding planks are now into primer - next up, 120 planks 4 dividers into undercoat.......... plus a large chunk of the brake linkage for the meat van had been cleaned up, the rest can be done next week before they go off site.

Brakes and linkage in the process of being removed from the meat van.



The gubbins being cleaned up.



The south side London end external cladding planks finally trial fitted.

 

Latest edition of 'In the Loop' is an interview with the new CEO. Excellent job as ever by Will and the team. Link below.



Fascinating discussion. Really liked the idea of turning a carriage into an Escape Room!

 

Slick, professional and impressive, I keep saying this but how many other railways could learn from Will and the team?

 

I'm sure there will be critics in various corners that she isn't train mad but Dalley comes across quite well and has a pretty decent steading in the Edu-leisure sector and thinking out loud on how to engage the older youth demographic who when I was a teen had volunteering fall away with Saturday jobs, girls and guitars with varying levels of distraction.

 

Early in the interview she refers twice to riding behind a steam train. That would be understandable if this was her first few days on the railway, but is disappointing if she has been there for months. However I did not notice anything else to complain about.

 

Lots of people refer to them as "steam trains". People use different words for the same thing. There's no right or wrong word, it's just different - get over it.

Why do some people always have to pick faults??

 

Lots of people confuse the meanings of "train" and "locomotive". I get that, though others on here often mutter about misuse of those words by a journalist. I was surprised that someone who has had a senior job on a railway for the best part of a year still confuses those words. But I approve of everything else she said -- even though I had to use Google to find out what an "escape room" is.

 

Was the other No No mentioned at all? Train Station.
I confess to not having read the item.

 

It also depends on context. In some senses a light locomotive is technically a train. For signalling purposes, train can include light loco, single railcar or a full loco-hauled train.

I recall during a training session, one of my fellow trainees asked the question "what is a train". It sounded a silly question at first, but it did raise some points which are covered in the rulebook glossary.

 

“A device for carrying a tail lamp through a section”, isn’t it?

Tom

 

Or on a single line railway, a token and a tail lamp...

 

A single-unit railcar could be viewed as both a locomotive and a train.

HST power cars have been widely viewed as locomotives, although normally working as part of a multiple-unit. That does raise the question of whether there are other circumstances in which an MU power car might count as a locomotive. Depends on one's definition of "locomotive"?

 

I acknowledge that there are some hazy boundaries and a locomotive can sometimes be a train. But if a locomotive is pulling some other vehicles and you are riding in one of them, then you are on the train and behind the locomotive, not behind the train.

 

I thought that Rebecca came over very well. She gets out and about and is a pleasure to talk to. A total contrast to her short-lived predecessor.
Pat

 

On the main line a train is defined as "one or more vehicles", thus a light locomotive is, in and of itself, a train, but within a consist it is merely part of the train. A rake of stabled wagons or carriages with no locomotive is also a train, though it gets a bit hazy if you have a line of separate vehicles.

John

 

Possibly bit not between Kidderminster and Bewdley