Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

My experience of S15’s is limited to 825/841 but I have nothing but admiration for them. They may not have the ease of prep and comforts of the BR Standards but they are strong, sure footed and fantastic steamers.

 

Not sure why, but a friend on portering duty at Ropley today has advised me 35005 is in steam and NOT 4247 as expected. Glad I didn't make the effort to go down today after all.

 

Interesting. The WL website roster still shows 4247 as the Alresford loco for the 2nd to the 4th September. I wonder if a problem has been found? It looks like she has been out for a test run going by the picture on the roster page. We were going to visit on Friday for a trip behind the Western Tank.

 

After giving last weekend a miss, as some of us had business elsewhere, four like minded folk gathered atop the hill yesterday to carry on resurrecting the workshop PMV.

Two lads spent the day derusting, red oxiding and undercoating as much of the steel work as they could, leaving Muggin's 'Ere and Me Mucker to carry on with the ply cladding.

We needed to see if we'd got things right with the window reveal..... so the two sheets were offered up & clamped in place - turns out we had!

The decision was then taken to actually bolt the sheets on, cue the drilling & fitting of 60+ bolts - a time consuming task, but at least this time we were just drilling straight through ply & not having to drill holes through tough steel, unlike the LMS van!!

Once bolted in place, the two lads applied first undercoat, whilst Muggin's & Me Mucker revisited things on the doors,more head scratching, even though we've been over measurements time & again, along with working out approximately just how many more bolts we're going to need..... turns out we're looking at 600+, looking at the van, you wouldn't think that many would be required, but believe me they are.

Was good to catch up with a few folks as well & there plenty of people enjoying a day out on the line.

The internal face primed.



Starting to look like a van again.....

 

Does anyone know what timetable is in operation for the engineering open weekend / Urie Locomotive society open days this weekend? Nothing has appeared on the website yet. Also where are the brake van rides with Kilmersdon taking place.
35005 is due to be running but not sure what else will be.

 

The timetable should be the normal two train service on the Saturday. On Sunday there's a dining train running as well so I believe there might be a few slight adjustments to the normal departure times.

Have no idea on the Kilmerson brakevan rides unfortunately but as for locos out aside from Canadian Pacific it'll probably be the Ivatt on the Saturday and then the Ivatt on the Sunday will do the Dining train and one of the Class 20's will come out on the Alton set. Don't quote me on that I don't know for certain just basing on when there's usually a three trains running the Ivatt normally looks after the Dining Train.

 

Timetable is indeed the standard two train one (found further down the page for this event - https://watercressline.co.uk/special-days/open-weekend/ )

Looking at the rosters, only 30506 shown to be out Saturday for steam, joined by the Ivatt on Sunday; the event briefing actually says one steam one diesel both days and curiously has no mention of brake van rides. That might be something to message the railway direct about. Crane demonstrations are taking place in the yard at Ropley.

 

Thank you both for your replies. Much appreciated. The timetable link must have been added this morning as it wasn't on there late last night.

 

Loco roster now updated for the weekend:
30506* on the Alresford set and Class 20 D8059 on the Alton set.
*The open weekend event page says that 35005 is running over the weekend. Whoops!

 

41312 is also running on a Dining Train on the Sunday only.

 

And the 1050 ex Alton only (D8059 picks up the diagram from Alresford on Sunday)

 

Latest YouTube video is now available to view.

 

And he has time to make films as well! Well done.
Pat

 

Sometimes Dear Reader, we can have more bodies than work available, and yesterday was one of those days!

As it happened eight like minded souls gathered atop the hill yesterday morning, all well and good, but at the mo work on the workshop PMV is limited, but luckily there was a heap of wagon exams to get through prior to them running in next months gala, so we split into teams of 4 - Me Oppo leading the wagon exams..... 10 wagon's were on the to do list, but only 7 were available, and by the end of the day five had been given the once over - happily with no nasties found!

That left Muggin's 'Ere & Me Mucker & two of the lads to crack on with the workshop PMV...... the two lads had the task of continuing to get metal work into undercoat, a job that they tackled admirably, including bits that were missed last week.

Muggin's & Me Mucker took a deep breath and took the plunge with the window reveal on the next set of ply cladding...... happy that we'd got the dimensions correct, me Mucker set to with Jigsaw & Router, whilst Muggin's got the caulk out and sealed all the gaps on the first two sheets fitted last week.

Job done, it was time to show the sheets up - with the bottom sheet clamped into place, it was then drilled & bolted into place, the top sheet was then offered up, but didn't seem to sit right...... it wasn't until Muggin's stuck his head out of the window reveal that it became clear as to why...... they'd only gone & put the reveal in the wrong place! Still no damage done, as they hadn't actually drilled any holes, although they were literally about to.



So, with egg on face, the panel was turned to put the reveal in the right place, and it slotted home as intended after which it was drilled & bolted into place, but both panels only have a few bolts securing them as for some unknown reason we have run out of the correct washers.......

It was good to see the trains well loaded with folks enjoying the open weekend, and to see 506 out to play again. PLUS it was very nice to see someone I've known since they were a nipper in the Rangers come of age and pass out as a driver on the line!



The next two sections bolted into place - it's starting to look live a van again.



From the inside, with both now primed ready for what ever colour we choose for it.