Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Agreed. Will be great to see it back. My understanding is that there were issues with the original restoration and that the loco was not always easy to keep in service. Hopefully this time round it will be much better.

 

Boiler 799 will get a new smokebox tubeplate. Here it is, fresh out of the box.
Pat

 

Of course, it only lasted ten years........

 

There were testing times atop the hill in many different ways yesterday......

We've not been up for awhile as we're trying to conserve work until our next victim arrives in the yard, and it's currently proving elusive, even though we can see it!

Our intention had been to do some more wagon exams, but the Kibosh has been put on that as the troublesome trucks have migrated eastwards for the winter to Alton, and currently reside in road #3, bedecked with lights & we're not prepared to lug all the gear we need that far, or get in trouble for disturbing the lights strung along them....... those kind of exams can wait until they return to Bennett's.

The first job of the day, once we'd extracted ourselves from the warmth of the mess-room was to do some hand shunting in road #2 to give us enough space to construct a base in readiness for the next project, by the stop blocks - it's just as well that Muggin's 'Ere has a 6' builders level with angle finder still in the back of the car from the LMS van, as the base needs to be level & the siding is on a falling gradient, and also on the wonk!

Whilst most of the lads were engaged in sourcing lengths of timber for the base, Muggin'Ere decided to try what most would consider a futile exercise, and try to set fire to a mass of sodden timber off cuts and sawdust....... within 2 minutes, Muggin's had managed to get the fire going!

And boy did we need it, as the weather was trying out patience given it was freezing cold, wet and windy......

Then, before we knew it, 3 of us were being dragged off one by one for our PTS resits, and all three of us passed.

Next up was to open up and examine the inside of our next intended victim, so most trooped to the bottom of Bennett's to execute this, whilst Muggin's & Me Mucker opted for fire management!

By the time the lads came back from Bennett's. it was brew time, which last a fair while, and then it was time to head for the hills, but only after making sure that what was left of the fire would not flare up.

 

With a lot of effort.

 

Another productive weekend in Urie Loco land.
Picture shows the first section of tender rave just before the rivetting gang got to it. Nice thing is that they were all from the youth section and /or recent volunteers. So I'm redundant as a rivet heater. 44 rivets later it was up.
The beading was a trial fit - anyone familiar with old GPO telephone exchanges may recognise the material.
Pat
PS Picture courtesy of Jamie Karslake.

 

That's excellent. Without new recruits from younger generations, there is no long-term future for heritage rail.

Noel

 

One of theses days dear reader, it will not be raining when we convene atop the hill of a Saturday morning.........

Yesterday was a rinse and repeat of last Saturday, but at least for a change it brightened up for the afternoon!

Sooooo....... as we still await our next project to arrive in the yard.it's a case of finding things that we consider need doing, so that we can get to our happy place!

To that end, Muggin's 'Ere, Me Oppo & Me Mucker had decided that some site tidying was in order and whilst we carrying his out, the workshop PMV came into the conversation, as between us we'd noticed some rather spongy cladding planks on the south side, so we decided to investigate further which meant doing a good impression of Pickfords as we moved stuff out of the way, so that the dog could see the rabbit!

Well, what we thought would be a quick fix, has turned out to be a ball ache - we managed to source enough timbers of the right length that Me Mucker has taken home to let dry out, and get painted up - all fine and dandy, except of the fact the spongy timbers have basically gone back to nature, leaving large holes in the body-side something we could leave unattended, given the time of year and the current forecast, so a stop-gap was needed & we found this in the form of some stainless steel sheeting, which was cut to size, fixed with clout nails & sealed around the edges to hopefully prevent water ingress - we'll find out next time we're up!

It was good to see things moving on the line again, we were kept entertained by the PWay and their Wickham, before the twins went past on route proving duties, and 506 came past on the way to Alton.

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Here’s the latest in the loop YouTube video.