Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

A very quick video of 35005 running round last night before the evening run.

 

An unconditional 10 out of 10 to Rebecca and her team for staging a magnificent event which has delighted so many people and sent great enthusiasm surging through the railway again. Well done.

 

I can second the above comment. The public days have been busy and it is quite sometining to have the chief executive cooking hotdogs for the volunteers on a rainy Friday night!
The sun just about put in an appearance for the 11:00 departure this moning...

35005 near Bishops Sutton by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

Yesterday, atop the hill, was one of those days..........

Me Oppo & the lads helping him, had 'fun' fitting the ironmongery to the new south side door on LMS van M517317.......

That left Muggin's 'Ere & Me Mucker to crack on with various tasks on the van........ it soon became clear that any job we tackled, fought back, and for once won! It got to lunchtime before we called it quits with actually trying to achieve anything, so after lunch, did the sensible thing & gave up trying and instead, started to look again at jobs that need to be done........

It was nice to see two Bulleids out to play, with 35005 looking the Mutts, and the trains and railway in general very busy. At Least it gave a welcome distraction to Muggin's & Me Mucker!

A few shots of yesterdays passing trains........

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54405064639/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54404888796/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54405064784/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54405066154/in/dateposted-public/

 

Having visited for three days of the event (Thursday, Friday & Saturday) I have to agree that it was indeed magnificent. There was a wonderful atmosphere around the whole Railway. The organisation of the event was excellent. Collecting the tickets, Pacific Provisions packs and souvenirs was easy. The souvenirs for the passengers travelling on the 35005 services were a nice touch and much appreciated. Yesterday was very busy and the West Country Buffet was doing a roaring trade. We had a great meal there before boarding the 15.00 CanPac service. We bought some of the delicious cup cakes (with little Canadian and British flags) to enjoy on the train.
It was great to see so many people attending the event. I think all of the services yesterday ended up being sold out. There was a good mix of enthusiasts and families travelling on the CanPac services which shows that the railway is getting its promotional/publicity campaigns right. I heard plenty of favourable comments about the event over the last few days. The only headache we had was with the parking at Alresford. It was a problem everyday that we visited no matter what time we arrived. Yesterday we had intended to arrive to catch the 11.45 service from Alresford hauled by 34072 but we spent most of the morning going round the three car parks looking for a space. The capacity of the three car parks in Alresford just doesn't seem to be enough for the amount of events that now take place in the town. We heard many other passengers and some of the locals moaning about the parking issues.

Thank you to everyone involved at the Railway for delivering one of the best special events in recent years. Congratulations to all of the people involved with the first class restoration of the railways flagship locomotive. You could see the pride in the faces of all of the staff and volunteers. Here are some shots of the mini Bulleid fest from Friday and Saturday featuring the star of the show and 34072:

Star of the show:

This is the strong country:

Spamcan waits for the off:

Bulleids passing:

CP = Crowd Puller:

Run round at Alresford:

 

34072 has now finished its current loan spell to the Mid Hants. A drizzly last run from Alresford this afternoon and a slightly brighter run round this morning, also a sunset shot from Thursday

Last Trip for 257 Squadron by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

34072 running round by Stephen Morley, on Flickr
34072 at Northside by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

It seems that the Mid Hants will feature on Countryfile next Sunday

 

Deleted, I replied to the wrong poster. Well, it is late!

Bryan

 

A great series of photos, many thanks for posting them. Just one comment if I may please. 34072 with the Bournemouth Diversions caption is wearing the route discs for a Waterloo-Southampton Docks via Millbrook Ocean Liner Express and vice versa. For the Waterloo -Bournemouth route the top disc should be centre right, that is showing on one of Hampshire Units lovely photos for 34072.

PS. Does that comment make me a rivet counter?

Bryan

 

Well spotted Bryan!
I used the Bournemouth Diversion caption as my picture reminded me of a photo I had seen from the 1960's of the Bournemouth Diversions at Medstead. I did add the question mark at the end of the caption though as I realised that it might not be the right route discs for that working. I have now changed the caption.

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

For me one of the best route disc arrangements that gets used on the Mid-Hants is that for Waterloo to Southampton via Alton, and vice versa. The Southern email group call it Waterloo to Southampton Terminus via Alton, but I think it must have covered Southampton Central as well back in the day.

Very useful for me as I progress my SR Steam Loco memoirs book, as I had a few runs over the Alps in steam days - an opportunity to run at 60-65 mph on parts of the descent from Medstead to Winchester! My most recent use of it (yesterday) was when adding my timing log of the down Mail (22.35 Waterloo), which was actually Waterloo to Southampton Terminus via Alton, and then on through Soton Central and eventually Weymouth, with 73169. 13 August 1966 11 vehicles (passenger and parcels vans) , a creditable 17 mph at the top of the 1/60, then 62 mph before Ropley and 60 mph near Bishops Sutton. My photo of 73096 that goes next to that log, along with the caption is below.

Caption:

LEFT BR Standard class 5 4-6-0 73096 climbs the grade from Alresford towards Ropley and the summit of the Alps at Medstead and Four Marks. It’s 15 March 2008 on the Mid Hants Railway. Over 41 years earlier I was heading down that grade at around 60 mph behind fellow Standard class 5 73169 on the down Mail of 13 August 1966, 66-105. 73169 would have used the Waterloo to Southampton via Alton route discs, as being carried here by 73096.

Photo:

 

From 1917 it was Headsignal No. 9 - "Waterloo or Nine Elms and Southampton Docks, via Alton". Became Headsignal No 10 in 1921. Southampton Docks was then the name of the Terminus station but, logically, must have applied to the actual Docks as well.
Pat

 

Presumably no long section tokens in those days and exchange by hand?

 

I think there must have been some tokens and long sections in 1966, as my log shows we braked to 10 mph at Medstead, Alresford and Winchester Junction. But I'm not sure where the token exchange would have been at the Junction, so maybe that was just a speed restriction back onto the main line. Indeed, I wonder if they were also just speed restrictions at the other locations, although I think I have a mention of token exchange somewhere in my original note books.

Bryan

 

Pat, thanks for that. I'm using a mix of memory with plenty of jogging from the Southern Email Group for Southern Railway from 1944 headcodes, so I don't go back as far as 1917 and 1921.

Bryan

 

Has there been any update on the future of 73096, perhaps from the AGM?

 

By 66 the token sections were Alton - Medstead, Medstead - Alresford and Alresford - Winchester. Later the Medstead loop was also removed, by Alresford remained to closure.

 

Thanks. My memory of the notes in my original note books is correct then, saves me digging them out. If that last section was to Winchester Junction I presume that a safe stopping distance back towards Alresford the train would have a signal to obey before proceeding slowly past the signal box to hand in the token. And a train heading to Alton would have a signal for the Alton line to obey before crossing the down main line slowly to pick up the token? If my thinking of such signalling matters is correct!

Bryan

 

On a single line with token exchanges occurring, it would be down to the crew to know the location of the signal box and regulate their speed appropriately to make the necessary exchanges.

Looking for example at the signalling (via the Signalling Record Society) for Alresford, it had a pretty conventional sequence of distant / home / starter / advanced starter in each direction. For a through train, especially one expected to pass non-stop, it would be likely, unless things were not running to plan) that the signalman would have pulled off home, starter and advanced starter for the move, which would also enable them to pull off the distant. At that point there is no signalling “caution” being indicated to the driver, so only route knowledge tells him he needs to check his speed to allow the token exchange. Obviously the location of the signals, even if cleared, tells you where you are in relation to the the station.

For a train going from Medstead to Alton, the critical location is Butts junction. Approaching the junction you have distant / outer home / inner home followed by the pointwork of the junction itself and the signal box. Again, for a through train no reason why the signals couldn’t all be pulled off, at which point again it is just down to the driver to regulate their speed effectively.

I don’t know if BR had a prescribed speed for token exchanges. We used to allow 10mph but in recent years that has been reduced to 5. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were a bit faster on occasion in BR days; I can well imagine a train going from Alton to Medstead wishing to do the exchange as fast as they could get away with so as to have a bit of momentum for the bank!

Tom

 

Quite early there was no Butts Junction, two parallel single lines ran from Alton Station the mile out to Butts where they diverted. As a consequence by 66 the token for Medstead was picked up or dropped off at Alton.