Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Tomorrow (4/2) Alresford station will be open 1200-1700 with 1125 on display to commemorate 50 years since the line's closure. The West Country buffet will be open for light refreshments and you'll be able to talk to some of the people involved with trying to get 1125 back into service and what it's going to take.

 

Just seen on the MHR Friends Facebook site. Pendennis Castle has been confirmed for the Spring Gala.

 

Any idea when it's going to be advertised on the main website?

 

Keep up at the back
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?url=https://www.national-preservation.com/index.php?threads/1421944/&share_tid=1421944&share_fid=66475&share_type=t&link_source=app

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Good to see the Hampshire unit at Alresford this afternoon - even though it is looking rather poorly - and to catch up with a few familiar faces.

 

When they can be bothered to update it i suppose.

Seriously since it was revamped a while back it has gone backwards and IMHO is not very current news wise or intuitive to use and find info quickly.

When nearly every other heritage railway have started to announce their 2023 plans, ticketing and events the MHR seem to be stuck in the starting blocks.

Today's 50th anniversary of closure event is a case in point, not mentioned on the website but very important in the history of the Mid Hants Railway and yes I know that it wasn't a public event and the railway is closed until later in February but its no excuse not to publicise an important occasion.

 

The old website had to be replaced as it couldn’t interface with the new booking system. The new booking system was needed in order to permit an interface with the point of sale system and the accounting systems.

The new systems saved our bacon in late 2020 during the first Steam Illuminations. Because of cv19 restrictions that kept changing prior to a full lockdown, the daily volume of cancellations was approaching £25k and bookings £35k. With the old system we would have crumbled and likely still now be trying to sort out the mess.

Any website thought is only as good as the decisions being taken that feed the creation of the content to go onto the website.

 

Thanks for the explanation and I take onboard the reasons and justification for moving over to the new website system .

I'd agree with the last point about content creation and it is this aspect that definitely needs to be improved I think.
There are still areas where placeholders say "coming soon", nearly 3 years after launch.

 

Well I cannot answer for the lack of content I am afraid.

 

So here I am once more In the playground of the broken wagons........ One more experience, one more entry In a post, self penned.......

Yesterday were a strange day atop the hill....... with four like minded nutters all wanting to put the pressures of the working week behind them......

After the now normal morning ritual, it was time to venture forth from the cozy mess room, and do battle with LMS van M517317...... there were various jobs to tackle, which mainly meant working in pairs, but with collective input when needed..... the first lot decided to tackle the north side upper vertical timber, behind which the longitudinal beam sits, as part of this is rotten, but first, one of vertical c-section angle irons needed the rot cutting out.....

Elsewhere, muggin's 'ere & matey decided to tackle trial fitting the missing bolts in the gusset plates, not as straight forward as it sounds, given there's anglw iron in the way, so floor planks were lifted, and heads scratched trying to work out the easiest way to do it without too much effort...... then we remembered that at some point, we needed to nip down to Ropley & check that the new buffer for the QMB would marry up on the bolt holes...... so after tea break, and given the pair working on the northside were thwarting our efforts, we left them to get on with it & headed for Ropley......

Once there, we located the QMB and measured up...... the bolt holes on the new buffer dont match the existing!!!! Frustrating, but not something that can't be overcome.

Whilst having a nosy, I could hear the dulcet tones of my Ropley Spy on the air....... once we'd located him and listened to his ramblings for a good 10 minutes, I finally got his attentiom by waving a wad off notes under his nostrils........ its amazing how attentive he can become when someone does that to him with out being coerced into opening their wallet and parting with hard earned!!!

Any road, the wad was a donation to the ULS from five of us in the Saturday gang - it being the difference from what we thought we'd have to pay for the transfers on the GPV, to what we actually did....... I'm assured that the donation will be ring fenced to be used when tey get round to tackling their SR Pillbox Brake 490001.

Money parted with, we made a swift exit and headed to Alresford to play a small part in marking the 50th anniversary of the lines closure in 1973..... it was nice to see plenty of people in attendance, and the buffet doing a roaring trade!

That done, it was back to base & lunch, after which, whilst the guys working on the north side, having removed a 6' section of of the timber, went in search of a replacemnt piece, we checked the spacings on all the large head buffers we could find..... all were them same as the one we prepped last week!

After that, it was a case of digging out cladding timbers from under the van, and working out exactly what we have against wjhat we're going to need...... the answer being not many & a lot!

It has to be rembered that this vehicle is amassive learning curve ofr us, it being the first time we've had to take one apart and start again..... so hopefully in the future, the next one will be easier and quicker, as we should have a good idea of what to do, how and in what order.......

As a footnote, the last I heard, my Ropley Spy was in the recovery position, comfortable, and responding to treatment, as the shock of handing him money without being persuaded to is something he's not used to! By all accounts, he should make a full recovery.......

Alresford.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52670301981/in/dateposted-public/

The outer timber section removed, there are a few tings to address before the replacement gets fitted,



Some of the few cladding planks we have...... the internal cladding planks will be refitted to the inside.

 

Your Ropley spy recovered sufficiently to try to get me to part with some money for various torture-er-I mean medical- devices later in the day

 

This video featuring the Watercress Line has recently appeared on YouTube. It has footage of the late Dave Knowling driving 41312 and 34007 "over the Alps":


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Hampshire Unit at Alresford on Saturday evening

Watchers at Alresford by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

"Driver for a Tenner" this half term with Kilmersdon.

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And so dear reader, a full dull, dank and chilly day dawned atop the hill yesterday, as six men on a mission gathered to put the world to rights, whilst attempting to tame a troublesome truck or two......

In our sights were the Lowfit, which is not in the best of nick due to needing some major TLC, but needs to be kept mobile for repairs to happen, so with two willing bodies charged with removing the drawbars, cleaning them up and greasing them, as well as the area they call home.....

The rest of us concentrated on LMS van M517317...... or we tried to, as two of us were feeling the effects of a hard week at the coal face, whilst the others with less demanding jobs were like spring lambs in comaprison!!

Still, between us, we got various jobs done........ namely, one of the gusset plates finally had its missing bolt fitted, not a simple task given where it sits, and what needed to be fettled just to do it - we'd've done the opposite side too, but there's a pit prop currently pinning a floor plank in place whilst it supports the roof, meaning its not possible right now to fit the bolt!!!

Other jobs tackled were, working out how we need to replicate the corroded C - Section we'd previously removed from one of the north side uprights.... not easy given that the bit we need to replicate had already gone when we got to it, so a lot of head scratching and various methodology ensued, but we eventually worked out the best way forward and even managed to find a suitable lump of steel to enable us to the job!

At least one of the angle irons on the north side had bowed out due to the build up of rust, so this was pulled in thanks to having the use of a heavy duty ratchet from work, whicj means that it will sit more or less flush with the cladding planks when they are installed......... of which we have naff all left due to most being rotten when we took the van apart! So out next job was to work out just how many more we need...... so out with the tape measure, pencil & fag packet!!!

The major step forward though, was replicating the section of outer beam that we removed last week....... we now have the new piece ready to install - not bad for a days work for one man, aided & abetted by the rest of us when needed!!!

It was also good to see trains running again, which were well patronised, in the hands of 506!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52684776258/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52684283111/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52684280236/in/dateposted-public/

The few cladding planks we have! Hence to need to work outhow much we are going to neeed........ opting for new timbers will probably prove to be a wise move in the future........



The replacement section of outer beam......



PWay humour.........

 

506 and 41312 working today and Kilmersdon giving rides at Alresford. But where have all the other steam locos gone ?Nothing in the yard at Ropley and nothing in the old shed

 

What other steam locos? Apart from the 7F you have mentioned the entire working fleet there.

 

As my local line I should know. Six visits last year. 53808, 2999 and the Schools? Where are they? Thanks

 

Schools now out of ticket so presumably stored away somewhere. I thought 2999 loan period had now ended? Could be wrong. 53808 I assume getting some attention in the works.

 

It's possible that the 7F and Schools are in the wheel drop shed. 2999 has returned to Didcot.
75079 is in the main shed undergoing restoration.
76017 is believed to be still at Southall and won't be returning.
34007 is at Bury undergoing restoration.
35005 is at Eastleigh undergoing restoration. 499 is down the far end of the yard.
73096 and 34105 and 828 are in the Ropley headshunt.
850 is in the boiler shop stored.
34058 and 80150 are at Alresford out of public view.
34058 is due to move to Sellindge soon.
Oh and 45379 is still in store at Margate.