Mid Hants Railway Spring Steam Gala 2019: 8TH TO 10TH MARCH.

It would make sense as a clue, it might not tho bare in mind

 

Nevermind False alarm apparently

 

That's because at the moment, there is no news.

You forget, depending on what the powers that be are looking for may or may not be available - never mind all the other hoops to jump through!

As ever, as they say, watch this space..........

 

L92 from South Devon announced as first visitor.

 

Very nice!

Looking at the MHR webpage for this event it seems now that the only parking for the Gala will be at Alresford. Is the field at Ropley unavailable?

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

With limited parking and no services to Alton this is likely to be one tough gala to visit

 

im thinking about taking the bus to and from this gala

 

Excellent bus service from Alton or Winchester - no 64. Have used it myself recently and timekeeping very good. Not the cheapest though

 

From memory back in 1996 a GWR pannier tank visited the railway in LT livery. Possibly running has L94

 

Hopefully it's just an oversight on the webpage, if the Ropley field really is unavailable the car park at Alresford isn't going to be able to cope with the number of cars. With no trains from Alton a lot more people will come by car.

 

It was L99

 

I do not have inside info on this, but I do seem to recall that use of the Ropley field is often not possible at the end of winter due to how wet it is as cars can get stuck, the field can get churned up etc.
The field is used for grazing, so the farmer is not going to want it left as a mud bath after two days use.

The Alton Station Updates page does advise that:
Connecting Watercress Line bus services to and from Alton Station will be available on weekends, Bank Holidays and special events. StageCoach 64 will also run from Alton Station to Medstead Station Approach every half an hour on Monday to Saturday and hourly on Sundays.

Watercress Line bus services are in addition to the Stagecoach services and I would fully expect them to be running during the gala.
From what I was told last year, the plans were to use heritage buses. If this does come to fruition it adds to the gala (IMO) and would actually encourage me to come into Alton on SWR and travel on via the Watercress buses. I would see it as an additional bit of fun for the day.

Don't take the running of heritage buses as gospel though, I could be wrong / arrangements can change etc.
I would recommend either an email or call to the railway to confirm if this is of interest to you.

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/215..._plan_mall_activity&notif_id=1548334826504480

My guess is the Longmoor Military Railway livered USA tank loco from Kent & East Sussex

 

Does this mean that at Medstead every arrival will have the following announcement, " the train just arrived will terminate here, passenger's for Alton should go through the station building and board the rail replacement bus service on the fore court"

 

Now confirmed.

 

Where has that been confirmed? So far the only one confirmed here is 57xx L92:

https://www.watercressline.co.uk/product.php/126/spring-steam-gala/34f97c885ab9c3d3d64e06936fb39e2b

 

The MHR facebook event page https://m.facebook.com/events/21501...370996358510&notif_t=admin_plan_mall_activity

 

On Facebook, which is more regularly updated than the main Website. Also confirmed in General Manager's latest missive to volunteers...we get these regularly now, a very positive step IMHO

 

First post of thread now updated with locomotive details.
Great to hear we will have a Loco in Longmoor Military Railway livery running over the Alps again. It has been a while since Errol Lonsdale, 601 Sturdee and Franklin D. Roosevelt graced Hampshire metals in LMR guise.

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

Not the best quality, it is from a small print

Longmoor Military Railway at the Mid-Hants by Arle Images, on Flickr