Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Another warm but windy day atop the hill yesterday, and greeted by the sight of a Sealion & 3 Dogfish stabled in Bennett's siding, they of course being a source of much blood, sweat & swearing to get them up and running for the benefit of the railway & given they were used in the Alresford remodelling, we found it rather gratifying to see them.

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This time with 5 of us in attendance to advance things on the Gunpowder Van - it turned out to be a day of two halfs, good in the morning & not so good in the afternoon!!!

The morning consisted of hanging the two door frames properly to see what & where needed tweaking before the rebate on frame #1 was cut - they now fit snugly. Another task was to replace the temporary bolts on the London end roof hoop with the permanent ones, along with cutting any excess on various bolts followed by applying red oxide to any surface that was bright & shiny - leaving one of the lads to do the oxiding, two of us nipped off to Alton to attend to a Palvan to try & sort out a vac cylinder that is not behaving as it should....... problem was solved by isolating the cylinder thereby making the van through piped & fit for traffic.

The afternoon was when the 'fun' began........ the two lads charged with fitting the door frames also had to weld some small holes on one of the doors....... turned out the steel is thinner than thought, and small holes got bigger instead of disappearing! Still, after much banging of heads, they have come up with a cunning plan, which should solve the problem.

On the other side of the van, it was time to hang door #3....... 1st job was to remove the hinge pins & clean off the rust before applying dollops of grease - then it was time to offer up the door........ you'd think hanging a door would be a walk in the park....... not this time, the hinges did not want fit snugly - all three put up a fight & about half way through, two of us who took doors #3 & 4 off remebered that they were absolute bugga's to remove & so it proved, even with the use of a lump hammer!!!!

After the trials of the afternoon, over a brew, the screw holes in the southside roof were discussed, and we think we may have the solution.......

Sorry, no pics this week as I completely forgot! But here's a couple of the service trains - it really is nice to see folks coming out to enjoy a trip on the line once again.

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Finally caught up with the entertainment on here, some very interesting posts I have to say, be interesting to see if the threats made about not turning up are followed through.....?

What I will say though is I took my 2 young sons to the railway on the 13th April and we had a great time. The one way systems in place for the carriages were easy to follow and it was very reassuring to see the staff cleaning the door handles etc at every opportunity. The new play area is a great addition which all the children seemed to love and 30925 was on great form too!

As already mentioned, the extra trip to Medstead was a grand surprise and made the day great value for money!

 

Timetable for the enhanced timetable spring steam up we are operating this weekend.

Tickets available in advance or on the day.

 

Cheers for all the updates its really appreciated, cannot wait for Sunday! keep up the good work

 

Going to start off...

Thank you very much. Appreciated greatly.

 

Indeed yes. Looks good

 

Thank you very much 21B.

Is there parking at Ropley? I would think so as trains are starting there but best to check!

Thanks

Andrew

 

5526 just departed South Devon for the Mid Hants

 

how far South was the furthest any GWR Prairie tank got in either BR, or GWR service, ? I would be thinking most likily it would be Yeovil .

 

Weymouth?

 

As Weymouth is roughly in line with Exmouth and Launceston, they must have gone further south and west than those - I'm sure I've seen pictures of Prairie tanks in Cornwall?

 

Helston? (50.10° North). Certainly Penzance had an allocation of small prairies.

Yeovil is 50.9° North ...

Tom

 

I’d go along with that. One of the Penzance allocation leaving Helston:

 

Romsey, A picture of 4538 taken in 1955 in the book Eastleigh to Romsey and Salisbury by Nigel Bray.
Apparently it had worked through from Cheltenham via the MSWJ !

 

Yes there is parking at Ropley. If you want to buy a ticket on the day then Ropley is the place.

At present the Monday is the quietest day.

Sent from my SM-A405FN using Tapatalk

 

How far south did Bill Parker’s Prairie get when it went abroad?

 

Indeed but I won’t be rushing for the first train out of Alresford

 

I think Budapest is a few degrees south of Helston!

 

I understand 34058 Sir Frederick Pile sales stand will be located on the down platform at Ropley over the gala weekend. Selling a large selection of merchandise.