Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Its probably a good thing she is stepping down, As to her reasons, I can only wish her the best, and wish her well, family has to come first,
Recently there has been much head scratching, and disagreement with the management of the Railway, and how they have been responding to recent news, the web site etc, hopefully the railway will take this opportunity to put their house in order, and get their publicity right, In these uncertain times, you need to be on your game, and proactive, Silence, certainly isn't golden especially if it effects the future of the railway, because your not getting the word out and attracting visitors.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. The boards must be very careful to select the right calibre of candidate for CEO.
I know some would argue that experience in the heritage industry is not necessarily an essential requirement.

However, I think that if you know how the heritage railway industry ticks then surely provided the other credentials of good management ect. are up to scratch, then a candidate with this skill set has to be the preferred option.

 

I’m always wary when someone is appointed to head up a heritage railway who hasn’t had any prior involvement. The ethos found in heritage railways is pretty unique and those who have not been involved generally find it hard to come to terms with it. Volunteers will take on and do the impossible if approached in the right way but will not take kindly to doing something they know or even think is wrong.

 

This is something my mother and I have had many a conversation about regarding a certain former GM and a railway that’s a tad north of Hampshire, however Steve this is maybe one that’s not for this thread.

 

Yesterday was most definitely a case of SSDD as three hardy souls gathered atop the hillto do battle with LMS van M517317.......

Muggin's 'ere and his mucker started off by doing a good impression of Pickfords humping & dumping stuff out of LMS van M517317 so that floor planks could be lifted and angle iron extracted, so that our comrade could continue with his sterling work of cleaning them up and getting them into red oxide.

On the ply sheet front, it was going to be a slow day with lots of head scratching and discussion, along with various scenarios played out and investigated, as we need thses boards to sit proud of the corrugation, so that air can circulate behind them, as the vam will spend more time stationary than it was designed to, hence with so much timber originally hard up against the van ends, there was so much rotten timber when we pulled the van apart!!!

We spent a fair amount of time looking for suitable spacers, but nothing was staring us in the face, but then whilst having a brew, me muckers eyes alighted upon a roll of self adhesive foam...... so with some noggins that muggin's had aquired from work, the ply sheets were propped up against the corrugation, with a piece of foam postioned on the crest of the corrugation...... one board was pressed in to emulate the board being bolted in, and it was found that the foam compressed enough to leave an air gap without causing any problems with the existing longitudinal beams!

With that success, the sheets were then trimmed to fit, and trial fitted sitting on the noggins - we know we need to shave more off the bottom of the sheets, but not by how much, until we can determine how much of an air gap we will need to leave behind the new roof hoops...... so, for now caution is the watchword.....

One day soon, we will have the ply sheets fashioned to fit the country end corrugation, which, should mean that the London end ply should be fitted before you know, as by then, we'll know exactly what we need to do without trial & error!!!

By the of the day, we'd made some more progress on getting the van back into traffic - it was also good to see the passing trains, with 506 in charge will filled with lots of happy travellers!

506 out to play yesterday......

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52772612285/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52772685633/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52772684988/in/dateposted-public/

The ply sheets, sitting on noggins, finally trimmed to fit the country end corrugation.

 

Is this lady the one who occasionally does videos for their Instagram when a visiting loco arrives or similar? Whoever does that definitely doesn’t have a great deal of knowledge about the actual railway side of things… whilst in some cases that’s great because it means they ask questions the general public might ask, in others their lack of solid knowledge is evident and slightly cringeworthy at times.

 

Not a question for me, I’m afraid. I’ve no idea nor any knowledge of instagram.; it’s a place I’ve never been.

 

Meh!

It were a soggy morning when seven like minded nutters gathered atop the hill yesterday, and would also turn out to be a day where all our plans would bite the dust!!

Over our usual breakfast in the messroom, we found out that our first job was off...... we'd been asked if we could sort out the sticking brakes on the Presflo up at Alton, but this had since been shunted into the Meon, so working on it was no-go.

So, when we finally plucked up the courage to venture from the messroom, we found that the wind had blown the tarps from LMS van M517317, allowing water to get in in spades, meaning all the lumps of timber that we'd planned to start fettling were soaking wet!!!

To that end, plan D was put into action....... ie a jolly up to Alton so that we could show the new guys around, and see what's been going on as its beem a while since we last went there! So, whilst waiting for the Company transport to arrive, we started to worl out just how we're going to have to put all the longitudinal beams back in....... there's going to be alot more head scratching to come.........

And so to Alton we went, and discovered the reason why the Preflo and other wagons had been moved to the Meon....... it was to allow travelling crane DS58 to lift the newly overhauled boiler for the 45t steam crane DS1580 back in!

So, having witnessed that, and have a look around it was back to base, this time to inspect the running rake stabled in Bennett's.

A few pics of yesterday's happenings......

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52786950197/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52787956793/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52787737034/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52787737549/in/dateposted-public/

 

Some diesel running coming up!

Diesel out again over Easter weekend, Alton diagram as per last weekend.

Should be 20188 Fri/Sat. Sun/Mon is still TBC

In addition 20188 will be the rostered loco on Sat 22nd April, once again the Alton diagram.

If diesel is your thing then do please come along! If it's not then don't worry, the Alresford diagram is still steam!

 

Some Class 20 action from last weekend as a taster....

Night-time Conversation at Alresford by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

Sunset Diesel Haulage by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

D8188 nears Bishops Sutton by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

My loco for today.

 

And what a loco it is too!

 

I was looking into buying tickets for tomorrow, it looks like the decision to charge for dogs has been dropped, there's no advance purchase dog ticket now.

 

In action yesterday

506 in Bighton cutting by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

Having been on the line with a dog today l can confirm the proposed dog fare has been dropped. Not surprised, reckon they'd have taken £20-30 pre tax today at the proposed £4 per dog. Really not worth the loss of goodwill. Awful management to dig themselves into that hole.

506 and a diesel today. One of the ticket inspectors told me the 7F packed up on 31/3 and may not be repaired due to the ticket life. It's due out for the Spring Steam Gala according to advertising up today. We shall see.

 

D8188 heads for Alresford this afternoon

D8188 approaches Northside Lane bridge by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

It has been very tired for a while, see my previous posts and my column. Sad for such a lovely loco one of my all time favourites

 

Good to see pics of D8188. Is D8059 operational too?

 

Sad news indeed if she has been withdrawn from service early. One of my favourites as well.

I wonder what will happen with the upcoming Steam Gala as the railway will be down to just three locos (4079, 41312 & 506) to operate full line services. A diesel taking the place of the 7F if she is taken out of service I guess?



Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

Not too late to hire another steam loco but I suppose a DL replacement is the most likely