Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

The paint was looking tired, especially over the firebox. Refreshing the black was the quickest (and cheapest - v v important) answer. I am not aware of any plan to return to a Maunsell livery scheme.
Pat

 

Normally would agree about losing a loco in pre-nat livery but it has been 20+ years since we saw an S15 in Br black; 825 and 847 have been flying the flag for Maunsell green so a change is nice (IMO).

 

Looking on the bright side (if more happiness is required) 506 had Southern on the tender when we had the biggest gathering of Bullied coaches since withdrawal from BR, 6, back in early 2020. Now it is in the same livery as the mk1 carriage fleet.

 

Bulleid!

 

Wow, a discussion about a loco that ran a great deal in BR days and is going to re-appear, after some work, in BR black and BR numbering - 30506. And I've somehow missed it up until now!

I will adjust my radar software to make sure I don' t miss the chance of this happening again. Can you imagine if the Bluebell put their C, H, O1 and S15 out in 1960s form, and let the Q and Adams radial tanks stay as they were in BR 1960s form, and I missed it!

I shall be emailing the International Space Station to keep an eye out for that for me . . . . . .

And @60019 Bittern I will of course be recommending you for a Knighthood in the next set of honours.

Bryan

 

And so, another Saturday atop the hill has come and gone!

With Muggin's 'Ere, Me Oppo and Me Mucker, plus two other lads in attendance, after the usual morning ritual, work was divided on two fronts, BY Van (C) S 653 is in the yard for a refresh, so at the behest of the midweek guys, the two lads were tasked with cleaning up the solebar in readiness fo painting, this took thwm all day amd they still didn't finish the job, as the solebar was thick with grime, and there's more surface area than you think.

That left Muggin's & Co to do battle with LMS van M517317....... top of the list was to sort out the southside, the paint for whatever reason has cracked and the caulk has bulged - not good, so it was decided that the best course of action was to rake out all the caulk and start again - a long laborious process, but with plenty of banter and passing trains, the seams were soon raked out, the pain in the ar*e bit is the caulking, you have to have patience of a saint, and take breaks and again, banter and passing trains helps, especially when you hear @21B coming up the bank with 35005, and giving you a wave & smile as he glides past - good to see you having fun..........

Once all the caulking had been done, it was time to work things out with the latch plate for the door, a job that's been on the back burner for quite awhile...... and as ever with troublesome trucks, nothing is ever straight forward, we spent the best aprt of an hour getting nowhere, but instead figuring out just why things aren't as they should be!

That said, we now know what we need to do next time to rectify things........

A few pics......

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54682543014/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54681485227/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54682638685/in/dateposted-public/

The south side of M517317 recaulked ready for the paintwork to be sorted out.

 

Another great YouTube video.

 

Good to see the boiler back on 30506. Hopefully all the work is on schedule for a return to service soon including the early September freight charter.

Bryan

 

Well I would say because it is something new.
The current livery existed in 2000, the green Southern livery in 1990 and although I cannot lay my hands on an image at the moment my spreadsheet says I have images of it as 30506 in 2004. I believe this was with the later BR logo on the tender, not the cycling Lion, which still seems uncommon in preservation (and in my view far more pleasant). I understand from what I have read that is what will be carried going forward. Seems a good course of action to me.