Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

This Dear Reader is a very hard post to write due to the nature of yesterday atop the hill, as those gathered over breakfast were in a buoyant mood and looking forward to the day ahead and making strides with our workshop PMV.......

However, the mood was soon dashed as we made our way to the bottom of the yard and finding things that shouldn't have been there, ie power tools....... the first thoughts were 'what had midweek been playing at?' but we soon found out the cause - our workshop CCT had been turned over.

That meant Muggin's 'Ere somehow found himself responsible for having to deal with it, so bang went any plans & up went the stress levels!

Muggin's then spent most the day either on the phone or waiting for it to ring meaning any actual input into getting the PMV back was minimal, never mind any shots of the Ivatt or S15......

Plus getting past from pillar to post between Hampshire Constabulary and the BTP did me nut in, but we got there eventually - never mind having to keep the Bod on duty updated!

I won't go into detail as to what we found, but suffice to say the scumbags who did this have severely impeded our ability to work, thankfully they didn't manage to take everything which meant we could get bits done, but what we couldn't do was make the CCT secure until CSI had paid a visit & pay a visit they did, which surprised us all! But then again she was a closet steam fan thanks to her dad.

Once she'd done her job the lads cracked on with making the van secure, on top of that a bit of progress was made with the PMV, two panes of glass were refitted along with the beading, which is definitely unique to each window opening, and some bracing was added to the backs of the fitted ply sheets.

See, even in the face of adversity, we can still get things done!

Now, to be serious for a minute, the scumbags who did this will be lucky to get a tenner at a car boot per tool, but at a rough guesstimate, it's going to cost us circa 4k to replace all that's been taken!

This is where the Mid Hants Wagon Group needs you, more than ever as we're a self funded group and something like this is a massive shock to system, as well a hit on our finances!!!

We will have our sales stand in the waiting room on the down platform at Medstead with plenty of goodies on offer including pre loved (god I hate that term!!!) model loco's wagon's, carriages & even buses, along with cast iron wagon plates and our limited edition coal wagons "A Curtis "of Alresford & "Charles Archer" of Alton & I'm sure there's a deal to be had for the two..... plus I'm sure there'll be other stuff you never you knew you needed until you saw it.

BUT if none of that tempts you, we will will welcome any donation large or small to help us replace the numerous power tools we've lost & if you mention when handing over any hard earned it's to replace what we've lost I'm sure the lads on the sales stand will thank you over and over, as we know you love to see our freight train running & that's why we do it.

Anyhoo, it was nice to see @21B trundling past on the S15 with a friendly wave & little did he know what Muggin's was have to deal with. And for once I did actually manage to pick the camera up, but not until the evening, so a few pics from then.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/55554313695/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/55552901947/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/55554026603/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/55552903502/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/55553927731/in/dateposted-public/

The second of two windows to be fitted, making the body sides more weather proof......



The bracing fitted to the backs.

 

@Duty Druid it nice to see you too. I had no idea what was going on. How dreadful. As you say…scumbags.

 

That's awful, the scrotes not caring about anyone else, just to get a bit of cash for themselves.
( Being in a group who had a pile of non ferrous components taken a few years ago, I know just how you feel.)

Neil