Mid-Hants Hampshire Unit.

The Hampshire Unit made its final run of 2016 at the Mid-Hants yesterday. It's shown leaving Ropley on the last run of the day carrying the headcode for Waterloo - Portsmouth via the Direct.

 

Shame it's not out and about more, given its so historically appropriate for the line. Definitely should be headcode 98, though!
(But thank you so much for not calling it a bloody 'Th***er'!)

 

always like them and never called them Thumpers. In my experience, drivers at Reading called the Tadpoles Thumpers but not the Hampshires. Maybe they didn't get to drive them

 

The headcodes vary, depending on who's driving it. 43 and 76 seem to be popular.

 

43, my mistake... I like the way the Bluebell insists on the correct headcode for all its trains. A nice touch.

The only time I ever heard the term Th***er was by little kids after the demise of the Hastings units. For some reason I have always found it wildly irritating.

 

I can't see anything wrong with using different tram route code numbers. It must get boring using the same route numbers. But from memory the BB was long gone before Southern diesel units arrive. So it wouldn't matter what route numbers are used at the BB.

 

i think the electric units will have used them

 

Only from Haywards Heath to Horsted Keynes and from photo I've seen. A 2BILL leaving Horsted Keynes with 37 route code being shown.

 

37 was for many years the code for Seaford / Horsted Keynes via Haywards Heath.

Tom

 

You are mixing up two different things. I was referring to the fact that (a) I think the Bluebell using its authentic LBSCR and SR steam headcodes is a nice touch, which had been a comment that came from thinking that (b) I think using the authentic headcode for the Mid-Hants Hampshire unit on the Mid-Hants line would be good.

I said nothing about using two character codes on diesel units between Horsted Keynes & Sheffield Park! (Although Tom is of course right about headcode 37 for the Seaford-HK service). Maybe one day we will get to see the 2BIL sat in the HK branch platform with 37 on its headcode stencils, with a steam service alongside? That would be a great photo.

(Before anyone else gets confused - or any silly ideas - no I am NOT advocating reinstating the third rail on the Ardingly branch!)

 

Come to think of it, the light loco headcode on the BR standard in the photo jars as well! This the Southern, baby...!

 

I thought it was just a bit lost and displaying a Meon Valley headcode

Must admit, I have zero idea what the lamps mean off the Southern (or at least, if anyone said "what's the code for a light engine?", I'd reply "erm ..." before having to look it up).

Tom

 

1125 in the rain by Arle Images, on Flickr

Hampshire unit approaches Wanders Curve by Arle Images, on Flickr

90 and 43 here....I thought 90 was a fast Waterloo - Southampton service?? 91, 92 and 93 being semi fasts and then all stations. Dimly remembered from my commuting days

 

Here's a good starting point ...

http://www.semgonline.com/headcodes/eheadcodes.html

Tom

 

Whats the splash under the first vehicle on the top picture. has someone been doing what they should not do when the train is in the station.

Also how do you find out when its running?

 

John, it had just been p....ouring down* and the splash is rain spray! On the MHR website they show Hampshire Unit running days, plus look for "1 steam, 1 diesel" days on the timetable

*Here is the view looking the other way from the first picture, and about 5 minutes before

Rainbow by Arle Images, on Flickr

 

It could have strayed from Swanage, too

What a wonderfully evocative picture. Will anyone throw anything at me if I say that I wish I lived nearer the MHR, so I could volunteer to get rid of the ***** high intensity headlight and replace the post-1980s headcode blinds with the correct pattern ones? (The font is different on the newer type, for the uninitiated)

 

I'd love to see this one borrowed by the Swanage Railway for a diesel gala, or preferably a summer. Really going into fantasyland, perhaps it could be allowed to work a last train to Fawley, now that oil trains don't go there any more. One of my earlier memories is 'doing' the Fawley branch in one of these in 1965.

John

 

Yet, it's painted in BR colours, so surely it should be using that code?

 

Presumably what is meant is the universal BR headcode rather than the Southern Region loco headcode which was a route describer as well as a train describer.