MHR Goods Weekend 16/17 January 2010

Afternoon folks:

Marketing Manager Tim Beere has asked me to inform you that there will be a Goods Train Weekend on the 16/17th of January 2010.

This will include Brake Van rides,
One and two goods train running,
Guided tours of the wagon restoration area at Medstead and Four Marks,
Lowfits with unusual vehicles placed on them.

Possible but unconfirmed are the following,

45 ton Steam Crane in action ,
Night running,
A photo charter.

I have no idea what Loco,s will be in operation as yet but I understand a WTT is being worked on.

More news as i get it.

Best regards
Chris

 

This is exactly the sort of thing I have been wishing MHR would do for years. I trust that Bob Deeth can come up with something interesting and exciting.

Good to have something to look forward to in January.

Its all very well doing night-running, but why the hell are they doing it in the middle of winter? Dont have much experience of night running, but pitch black in the freezing winter seems odd.

Expecting timetable not to be available until day before.

 

The question of night running is just an idea put forward at the moment, nothing has been written in tablets of stone.

Still we shall see what happens nearer the time.

Regards
Chris

 

Sounds excellent with perhaps the exception of overcrowded brake vans!

Any chance of the shunting being linked to keeping the brake vans on the back?

Any chance of lineside passes for others apart from the 'special' few? Would be happy to pay £10-15 for a day of freight photos.

Looking forward to seeing the 9F on a frosty morning in January....unless of course it clashes with the Black 5 fest at the GC! Will check.

 

Could it be that night arrives earlier in the winter, so they don't have to run so late? And if it is cold its a good excuse to light up the stove in the brake van!

 

And some dirty freight engines after a busy santa season...

 

Also, this seems an excuse not to just have steam in service. There may be need for 6 locos (2 goods, 1 on break vans, 3 service?), so why not have one train formed of the Hampshire unit and save on coal and water costs by having the 33 or 37 on one of the goods trains? With opportunities for swap overs of course.

Also, why not get the 2 pullmans, the green SO, a TSO and a BCK, put a green CCT/PMV on the back and there you have a boat train formation as one of the service trains?

 

No 37 thank you...a 1980s railfreight grey engine would look rubbish on a rake of 1960s wagons. 33 may be alright though and far more in keeping with the line.

 

Perhaps they could recreate the winter of '63 when the diesel fleet ran into all sorts of problems and steam was turned out on many diesel diagrams. Need lots of snow for authenticity though.

 

Mixed traffic?

 

Coming to think of it, Colin Chambers mentioned something about one to diversify, instead of a diesel gala (and come on, the reason nobody went to the diesel gala was that we couldnt be bothered after Eastleigh 100 and all the mainline tours).

 

I'm not entirely sure about that, you only have to look at some of the comments on WNXX around the time to see it wasn't that simple. Among the comments on there were things like relatively uninspiring motive power choice, timetables not available in advance, too many DMU and freight workings etc.

A lot of that can be put down to familiarity with that market, which hopefully the MHR can learn from and put on successful diesel events in the future.

Certainly not event exhaustion; if you put on the right product, people will invariably come.

 

What I probably should have said which that message didnt convey, was that the event didnt capture peoples imagination and wasnt the sort of event that people look forward to.

 

It could capture people's imagination with the right focus on that particular market.

In general diesel enthusiasts I have been associated with are looking for different things to what would happen at a steam event, for example a good selection of locos is a pre-requisite, plenty of mileage behind 'their' locos, cut out the freights and DMU's (all they do is reduce the mileage on offer!); it is a very separate market. A bit of rod action is also pretty useful, often gets out the red pen merchants and you can possibly look at charging a bit of a premium for it, particularly if you go for a bit of a 'pay and play'.

The Mid Hants did, at a time, have a very good reputation for its diesel galas. I don't propose getting into a discussion about the whys and the wherefores behind the railway cutting the event out of its calendar, but as I say with the right focus on the target market the resurrection of the event could still potentially capture that imagination.

Although I fear I may have gone slightly off-topic...apologies!

 

Rumpole has got the diesel market about right. Add some real ale and never pair a Sulzer engine wiith EE or vice versa always helps. Unlike steam enthusiasts most diesel enthusiasts like only one class and want MMM(maximum mileage moves) off their preferred traction.

Think other issues that have been highlighted before are the very short days (0900 to 1700 and everything done) and the even shorter trains that don't give the engines an opportunity to thrash on the banks.

The Mid Hants galas use to run by the team that now do Swanage which are now very succesful.

Hopefully the freight gala can offer a really enthusiast friendly event with plenty of action for all. Just need some freight engines...9F, USA and ???

 

Agreed something was missing, call it the X factor call it what you will which is why the next one I think will be a mixed traction event.

if plan A does not work ,make sure there are back up plans.

Regards
Chris

 

Sounds very good. A bit of extra interest in the quiet period after Christmas. I guess the goods loco's will be 92212 and 30075 and possibly 5224? Or a slim chance 31806? with 34007, 850 or 60019 on the service trains. Or will it be an event to launch the Black 5 into service I wonder?

 

Could be Green Five, to launch the Black Five into service.

If so a fine piece of marketing wouldn,t you say?.

Regards
Chris

 

Hardly nobody.

There was a pretty good turn out and it was well organised apart from the WTT problems

 

Tim Beere was advised to talk to organisers of successful diesel galas to understand their mind set.
As far as I know he has yet to do so.
Either that or he has spoken to the wrong people