Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Popped up to Butts today to see how the new bridge is progressing.

 

Welcome back 30506! She looks stunning and sounds magnificent. Wonderful job by all involved.
Mobile phone pictures attached:

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A fine loco indeed, well done to the ULS. Next up, 499

506 Returns by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

Also great to see so many people at Alresford this morning for the first up trip.

 

Yes a nice launch and a good strong loco which simply strolled up to Medstead

 

She is a credit to the team who have spent so much time and effort putting her back into service.

Alresford and Medstead


LSWR S15 class - 506 by Tim White, on Flickr


LSWR S15 class - 506 by Tim White, on Flickr


LSWR S15 class - 506 by Tim White, on Flickr


LSWR S15 class - 506 by Tim White, on Flickr


LSWR S15 class - 506 by Tim White, on Flickr


LSWR S15 class - 506 by Tim White, on Flickr

Old guard handing over the the new...


Passing the Baton by Tim White, on Flickr

 

Some images of 506 taken today - well done to the ULS and MHR, she looked and sounded awesome

 

Fantastic to see her - I wasn't born last time she ran. One thing is bugging me (VERY slightly) and that's the fact that despite the fact she is in SR Wartime Black everyone is referring to her by her BR Number!!!

 

We had an absolutely cracking day at the MHR. A great family day out with my Parents and my Sister (a secret gricer but she won't admit it!) We arrived at Alresford to catch the 12.30 departure with 506. She certainly goes well "out of the box" as she made an impressive return trip to Medstead.
Nice to see Alresford busy with regular loco movements and the restaurant doing good trade. My Mum really enjoyed her lasagne; it made her start talking in Italian.
Followed this up with a nice trip on the vintage Bus, a delicious ice cream from the shop in the town and a spirited last round trip behind 76017. Thanks to everyone involved for a brilliant day.
Congratulations to everyone involved with the superb overhaul of 506. She was a real vision of beauty at Alresford today.



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I think its safe to say my Ropley Spy & his colleagues in the ULS have been absolutely stunned & overwhelmed by today's turnout for the launch of 506 into service!

(who'd've thunk a humble freight loco could attract that much attention?...... )

In fact I think I saw the society's CME actually float off the platform at Alresford grinning like a Cheshire! & it wouldn't surprise me if my Spy has something to say later, when he's come back down to earth........

But let us not forget the other significant event that took place today - the re-dedication of 47 579 in memory of James Nightall GC & also the dedication of the unsung signalman, Frank Bridges in diverting an utter disaster at Soham 75 years ago.

The event was very attended & very moving, by all accounts, and the little touches applied to 47 579 very fitting.

Oh & @green five, thanks for getting my best side in the 1st shot of your last post!!

 

No problem Mr Druid!
I was actually getting a shot of the Celebrity Diesel driver. Mr Bentley is famous now as the train driver featured in Endeavour My Sister was star struck. "Bloody hell!" she exclaimed, "That's the man who was driving the diesel in Endeavour".
Great to see such a good turnout today.
I thought it was an absolute bargain travelling today with all that was going on.

We will all be back in a couple of weeks for War on the line.

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My Ropley Spy, it would seem has finally (I think) come back down to earth........

These are most certainly his words & not mine!


"Wow, what a day! To any of you who came along to join us as we reached the end of our journewith 506, may I say THANK YOU. Thank you for your support, thank you for your kind words andthank you for helping make this day so special for all of us. Returning 506 to traffic has clearly beenour goal but helping the MHR gain a few extra coffers in the kitty ran a close second. Boy did weachieve that….and some; I haven’t seen the platforms that busy on a normal running day for many ayear. Maybe we have set a new standard for team working…paid staff, weekday volunteers and ULSvolunteers have all pulled together to achieve what feels like an absolute miracle. Remember it’s only 3 years ago that 506 was sat in the shed at Ropley completely stripped at the front end with 9’of frames chopped off – did anyone really think that 2019 would see her return to traffic? This has been an emotional day; I feel proud and privileged to be part of this team and humbled when I seethe dedication, determination and sheer bloody-mindedness shown by others to get the job done.No matter what their contribution, everyone involved in this project has been important anddeserves all the plaudits they get.And so we move on. This journey may be over but 499’s is just about to restart; the ULS is on amission, to restore, preserve and protect both locos for generations to come. We’ve done one, best
get on with the other one, eh? I’m seeing some fantastic images posted on NP and elsewhere and I have seen some very kind words written. Thank you for your appreciation, it makes what we do worthwhile."

So if you want to see 506 & 499 together in the next 5 years, you know what to do..........

 

Eat a cheeseburger? Run a marathon while dressed as a neurosurgeon? Demonstrate and explain how algebra could be used to power a medium sized fishing trawler?

..............no?!

James

 

My own humble contribution was to buy a ticket and have a ride on what was a lovely day to be at the line. Everyone seemed to be smiling. Now I am wondering which will be the next engine to enjoy a spcial day, and when? I'm guessing this will be between Can Pac and Swanage, and I'm also guessing neither will be this year. Any thoughts from those in the know?

 

depends on the state of progress , 35005's boiler is already under repair, but the bulk of the work is being done off site by the Eastleigh crew, if both boilers are ready about the same time , then it may be possible that both engines if ready only months apart, could possibly be launched at the same time .

 

This is one particular reason for which we must be grateful to Dai Woodham. As a general rule, most of the locos which passed directly from BR into preservation came into one or more of the following categories: (i) glamorous express engines (ii) quaint elderly survivors (iii) cute little tank engines (iv) namers (v) the very last locos operational in a given area. Mixed traffic and freight engines, many of which didn't come into any of these categories weren't many people's favourite classes and tended to be overlooked, especially as they were considered too big for use on the embryonic preserved lines in the 1960s. Thankfully, quite a lot of them ended up at Barry and how useful they have proven to be since heritage railways started needing to run longer and heavier trains.

After such uneventful lives, it's therefore right to be celebrating engines like the S15s - a competent class which did everything which was asked of them and in the case of the Urie engines, must rank pretty highly in the league of successful pre-grouping 4-6-0s.

 

It says a lot that Maunsell decided to only tweak the design to make the engines more gauge friendly and then to build on the Urie design idea for his own 4-6-0's

 

James,

If you want to try any or all of those to fund raise for the ULS, I'm sure they'd be more than happy!!

Or....... you could just join up as a member & give donations on an ad hoc basis as and when funds allow, or like @domeyhead jump in with both feet!

 

Some from yesterday.

Alresford https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/47994125173/

Bishops Sutton https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/47994135238/in/photostream/

Wanders https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/47994190416/in/photostream/

And not forgetting 47 579 https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/47994140923/in/photostream/

 

It's so very good to see that the victims of the Soham disaster are not being forgotten, particularly Mr. Nightall, who lost his life at a very young age (along with so many of his contemporaries, of course).

Noel