Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

506 RAT departure by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

34072 at Alresford on "Belle" duty by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

It was only a flesh wound....

 

Flesh wound, !! It's in pieces on the ground

 

As it was impossible to get on the forum last night and keep readers upto date with the trials and tribulations atop the hill on a Saturday, Muggin's 'Ere migrated to Discogs...... a dangerous place to go in terms of adding to your coullection of vinyl......

So, now the forum is back, I'm making an effort to keep folks abreast of our efforrts , after a long and sgtressful day at work........

It were a dank day on Saturday atop the hill, and thankfully not wet, so three of our number cracked on with things on the steeel highfit - two doing a bit more derusting and priming, and matey making a start on cleaning uo the brake rigging that has now returned after being machined and bushed.

On the LMS van, matey had the job of red oxiding and then undercoating nigh on all bolt and screw heads that needed it........

That left Muggin's 'Ere and Me Oppo to concentrate on on various odd jobs...... first up, being to check the new pad in one of the axleboxes on the Urie lads LMS van...... even though it had been oiled, it was still dry, as you would expect, so it was given copious amounts of oil, but will probbaly need more next week.

We'd also noticed that the bolts through the roof hoops, bar one set had been put in the wrong way round, so time was spent putting the rest right........ and then fitting the side bolts, where we discovered that the roof felt isn't as good as it seemed, so that will need repalcing next year - its good enough to see out the winter, so not an urgent job - after that, it was more discussion on the roof hoops that we need to produce...... we need four more in total for each end of the van, two off of both internal and external, so, more sourcing of suitable material from our stock......

A few pics of the steamy things from Saturday........ rail head conditions were challenging in the morning, but I didn't see any train come to a stand in Soke cutting - slow and steady was the order of the day.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54113787221/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54112925492/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54114055143/in/dateposted-public/

 

Over the weekend The A Team from The Class 50 Alliance visited the railway to bolt 50027s main gen to the engine assemble the engine and then crane this and the etc / aux gens back into the loco.

Another effortless performance from them all.
They work like fluid and it’s a pleasure to deal with them.
Photos to appear on Facebook later but new donations link here.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding ... ntoservice

 

Wizard!!!!

Wizard Express by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

Sometimes Dear Reader, when like minded souls gather atop the hill on a Saturday morning, it isn't just about taming the troublesome trucks,but the company you're in, and yesterday was one of those days - probably due to it being yet another dank, dull and dismal day coupled with no trains running.......

Still, we did achieve various bits and pieces, amonst plenty of banter and brew breaks......

For some reason, we didn't touch the LMS van, though there were things an the to-do list, apart from giving the face of the new north side door a coat of gloss - and that wasn't even on the list!

Me Oppo got seconded into doing some welding to the step supports on the footbridge in the station, whilst most of the lads continued with cleaning up the brake rigging and red oxiding and undercoating on the steel highfit......

That left Muggin's 'Ere and me Mucker to have a good tidy up around the yard, and set a good bonfire going - I haven't had one for a fair while, but I haven't lost the knack of getting things that are wet through to burn! It was one of those fires that needed coaxing along with one that you could not leave alone to burn, so that was us for most of the day!

In the afternoon, it was time to start solving a jigsaw puzzle, without all the pieces in the shape of working out jsut how the brake rigging goes back together, so that we can work out the size of the various securing pins as new ones need to be made, so cue a lot of head scratching and looking at a multitude of images of the riiging in place....... eventually the puzzle was solved, to the extent that we now know most of the sizes we need..... it was pleasing to see that even with the rigging only hanging there with the old pins, the amount of play is now within tolerance!!

The face of the new north side door now in gloss.


The brake rigging on the highfit being trial fitted.

 

It's been a long time coming but this weekend saw the power unit reunited to 50027 with thanks to the Fifty Alliance team from Kidderminster. Still a while off a return to traffic but one huge step closer!

There's a new fundraiser going to help get us over the finish line if you can spare a few pennies!

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/50027sreturntoservice?utm_term=nNxMwZPW7

Just the one photo to not take up too much space

 

No, this is Wizard (Roy Wood)

 

Great to see (and the ploughs look great!)