Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

I feel like the Southern heritage lines might struggle to sensibly distribute the 30 or so Bulleid Pacifics between them (I'd give them a free pass for Ellerman Lines which I expect will remain a static exhibit in York for the forseeable…).

And imagine the boredom of the Western region preserved lines with unbroken ranks of engines that all look the same, but some have tenders…



Simon

 

Now that the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust have transferred to the MHR I believe that a Black '5' is entirely appropriate.

The locos were very popular among S&D crews battling up the 1-50 inclines of the Mendips hills. <BJ>

 

I really must be getting old.

Increasingly having to google recently coined words.

(Such as 'wummery')

 

WUM = Wind Up Merchant

I seem to recall seeing it early 2000s on cycling forums.

 

I believe that there are a number of scrap yards still in existence that deal with rail mounted vehicles, so the distribution of 30 such items shouldn't prove too difficult

 

Ahem......me too

 

I might add that I had googled it before posting.

The origin of the word is obvious once pointed out, but whilst 'wind up merchant' is familiar to me, extending this to a noun form was not.

(As for 'cycling forums', not ever likely to frequent such places.)

 

Do you remember "Freds" from the same source? (As in - "a complete Fred").

Tom

 

As for some more news, the Website Blogs have started to return

https://watercressline.co.uk/blogs-articles/

 

Whereas the Eastern Region railways would find themselves fighting tooth and nail over the limited number of ex LNER locos, and so would probably end up with the majority of the BR Standards in order to make up the numbers. Much nicer to have a spread of locos at different railways. Besides, it must be nice if you're a Stanier Enthusiast in Winchester or a Bulleid Enthusiast in Manchester to know you've got something you have a particular fancy to close to home!

Fun to wibble about "How nice would it be if X loco ended up at Y railway" but in reality not something likely to happen for many good practical reasons.

Anyway, weren't we supposed to be discussing what's happening at the Mid Hants?

 

All that is fine, but only once you have realised why a post that you can see isn't making sense.

 

The latest issue of MHR News has been published. I got my copy today.


Plus the latest In The Loop video is available to watch. Nice to see an update on what’s happening at Ropley MPD at the beginning of the Video.

 

There was no gathering of like minded 'fools' (?!?) atop the hill last weekend, due to various factors - the heat being a large one - it would've been utterly horrendous trying to work inside the GPV, doing its best impression of an oven!

So, battle with the GPV recommenced yesterday........

We are still in the midst of doing those fiddly jobs, that if they aren't done now, will stuff us right up!!

The two main areas tackled were, the doorframes & the floor.....

Frame #4 was manufactured & trial fitted along with #3, it was then a question of working out where & by how much #3 needed to be chamfered for it to close properly...... once we had worked this out, the chamfer was duely done, and trial fitted again, where it was discovered #4 now also needed the same treatment!!!!!!!

Whilst all that was going on, the floor was also lifted section by section & turned over, it was pleasing to note the finish of the underside, having had the best part of 4litres of dollop applied two weeks ago.

The floor, like the frames proved to be a ball ache, as when it came to screwing down the Londen end piece, it was disvovered the floor timbers had moved when we last played with them the other week, meaning the screws had nothing to bite into - luckily, it was the 1st section to be screwed down, so once all screws were out, it was removed & the timbers crowbarred into the correct position & the floor section relaid, then it was plain sailing screwing down all the floor sections before circa 3 litres of dollop were liberally applied.

Checker plate was also fitted across the doors to prevent errossion of the floor edges.

Another small job was the fitting of the 'Notice' plates..... straight forward you'd think...... not when you have a siding road that is sloping away at about 2 degrees & have to try & compensate for that, so that when its on the level, it looks straight........ lets just hope matey got it right, otherwise we'll never let him live it down!!!

We had planned to do some painting, but unlike last week, yesterday was the polar opposite - wet!! So we elected instead to work out where the lettering would go - we already had a good idea, thanks to @flying scotsman123 arranging for us to come and give their van the once over at the GWSR & take referrence photo's two years ago - thanks Alex - we also needed to work out spacings etc, so rivet counting was the order of the day!

All this was achieved inbetween waving at the passengers on the passing trains & taking the odd photo.......

A few of yesterdays movements.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/51333822566/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/51333823121/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/51334038823/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/51334543579/in/dateposted-public/

The underside of the floor with a uniform coat.


The topside of the floor having been screwed down & a large amount of dollop applied.


Checker plate fitted, with a breather gap.



Northside 'Notice' plate plate fitted.


Its all starting to come together........ north side with the doors closed, plate on & shoot bolt up & position.

 

Funnily enough I was only thinking about that the other day as I finally got round to redoing all the lettering properly on the platform side last week:



I ran out of paint to do the other side and 2 ends though for now!

 

Rookwood was dry on Friday, but Alresford was wet on Saturday

Summer Steam by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

Guard in the Rain by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

As a heads up this Saturday's wanderer is booked to be 20059 subject to the usual

 

As a heads up this Saturday's wanderer is booked to be 20059 subject to the usual

 

is there a loco roster hidden on the website somewhere,
wouldn't mind catching up with 41312 or 53808 but don't want to go on a whim they might be out

 

My engine today; off to Alton shortly.