Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Here you are Stinch- Chawton Woods this afternoon

34070 in Chawton Woods by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

Dank is the only word to describe conditions atop the hill yesterday, along with fog in the morning - neither of which were in the forecast!!!

Still, that did not stop the four hardy souls who gathered from having 'fun'........

Me Oppo and his mate spent the morning dismantling the brake rigging on the south side of the meat van with 'no brakes' chalked onto the buffer beams and brake handles just in case someone misses the 'not to be moved board'.........

Afterwards, they moved on to giving the bottom end of the ULS owned LMS van M520771 the once over before it goes for and FTR - it came into the yard several years ago for a new door to be fitted, and is only just about to leave........

That left Muggin's 'ere and me mate to continue drilling and bolting down the floor planks on LMS van M517317.......... a slow and frustrating day was had, given it took us the morning just to drill out two new boltholes, for the final plank in the London end section in the chassis and bolt the damn thing down due to it sitting at different levels over two gusset plates and the chassis.......

The afternoon was a bit more straight foreward,but progress was still slow, with only about half of the country end section bolted down.

Still, by the end of the day, progress had been made on three vehicles!

A couple of pics of 34070 out and about.....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/53535823447/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/53537124875/in/dateposted-public/

THe south side brake rigging off the meat van.



Some excess play in the brakes on M520771 which was sorted by the end of the day.



More floor planks on M517317 bolted down....

 

Great photo. My memory of being on a train climbing over the Alps from Alton, is that that it was through trees all the way up to Medstead. Clearly not so!

 

Cracking Picture Stephen!

 

A good bit of publicity for the Urie S15 group has appeared in the Haslemere Herald about 499.
https://www.haslemereherald.com/new...toration-of-historic-ropley-locomotive-666750

Cheers, Neil

 

A good bit of publicity for the Urie S15 group has appeared in the Haslemere Herald about 499.
https://www.haslemereherald.com/new...toration-of-historic-ropley-locomotive-666750

Cheers, Neil

 

The Etsy adverts I’m getting in that piece are how shall we say? Interesting is possibly the right word.

 

That site was OK with blanks instead of adverts, I find that other local papers are terrible. What sort of world are ETSY targetting, apart from unsavory and cheapskate?

Cheers, Neil

 

I’m not cheapskate thankyou very much I’m just thrifty.
Unsavoury though I’m guessing you’ve had a chat with Mrs 6968?

 

Also in the Hampshire Chronicle- all part of the same "local newspaper" group- although the picture of 499 learly isn't at Ropley!

 

Still quite wooded, but there has been a bit of thinning out over the last few years

 

With the Chronicle group, it is best to supply the photos - then you get something connected with the text.
As I'm typing this Mrs R, is finalising an article for the Romsey Advertiser, complete with photos from the history group collection.

Cheers, Neil

 

Nine Elms Loco. Probably nearly new, say 1920/21. Colourised by our internet wizard I believe. The coal shed was an iconic backdrop very popular with e.g. Henry Casserley.
I have a similar picture, different date, a Loco & General print I acquired at a model railway show last month. I haven't scanned it yet - waiting for the lurgi to wear off first.
Pat
PS. If anyone has a copy of a picture of the first 499 (Adams Jumbo) I would love a copy. V V V long shot, I know. P

 

The lurgi was worse than I thought - I had already scanned this
Real Photos, ref 31065.
Pat

 

Incidentally, these sites may be of interest to any and all:
1920s Railway Photographs by Cyril Hawkesworth.
Steam Locomotives - 1920s (1920slocomotives.blogspot.com)
(The picture in my last post appears in one of these, with an overprinted logo.
Pat

 

We were a bit mob handed atop the hill yesterday, with eight like minded souls in attendance........

Progress on LMS van M517317 and the meat van progressed at varying rates........

One of the lads, whi arrived late due to car trouble had the 'pleasure' of getting the brake blocks and linkage for the south side of the meat van cleaned up back to bare in readiness for bringing back to their best......

Over on the LMS van, matey who started to get the south side door runner back to bare a few weeks ago picked up where he'd left off and by the end of the day it was into red oxide, next time, undercoat beckons........

The two lads who've been churning out external cladding planks into undercoat continued their sterling work, until they ran out of paint!!

An outstanding job was tackled by two of the other lads..... namely fettling the north side country end external cladding fillet to tuck into the longitudinal beam - job was a good 'un!

Next up for them, was to trial fit the south side longitudinal........ seems the beam was cut to length before the end ply sheets were fitted as there was no way it was going to fit without a bit of a trim....... that done, the fun began with trying to persuade new and old that they were going to marry........ which meant that Muugin's 'ere and me mucker were called away from trying to bolt down the rest of the county end floor planks............. to say it took four of us plus acrow props to get the damn things together, tells you summat!!

Still, by the end of the day, it was bolted into place, and all but two of the floor planks were bolted down - the remaining two are going to give us a major headache next week, given what they lay across...........

The south side door runner finally into red oxide.



Brake rigging for the meat van more or less cleaned up.



South side longitudinal finally in place!

 

On Saturday I attended a charter not run by Duty Druid and myself, was nice to relax rather than have to do the organising!
34070 ran with a short goods rake first off before switching to the service set.
Here are a few from the day

Frosty morning with a Light Pacific by Stephen Morley, on Flickr



Winter Goods at Wanders Curve by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

"Manston" in Bighton cutting by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

For those of such a disposition, some diesel running dates for this season (excluding the gala!)

Saturday 18th May & Sunday 19th May (Sunday being Watercress Festival involving an intensive diesel shuttle between Alresford and Ropley)
Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th June (All Change! event, 1950s/1960s theme)
Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st July
Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th August
Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th September (Open Weekend)
Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th September (Amateur Radio Weekend)

 

A shout out to the PW dept for keeping the lineside down, and to Geoof Tilston and Adrian North in particular who have worked hard in the area around Bishops Sutton
A view from the foot crossing at Bishops Sutton last week, 34070 being worked downhill, as you can arrange on a photocharter

34070 in the country by Stephen Morley, on Flickr