Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

I have a heavy coat. Fortunately.

 

You see? Fortunes are turning round.
Lost a 4 Moggul, gained the only surviving Saint!!
I don't know if I will be able to see it but, in which case, have fun with it!!

 

Not sure why you would need the boiler off to set the valves - maybe it's one of those mysterious Swindon things.

Tom

 

I did email the Mid Hants about using her after Christmas

Hello,
We are currently closed, apart from Steam Illuminations, until March 2023.
This allows us to do essential and vital maintenance to our coaching stock and track.
We will not be running any service trains until later in 2023 and as yet have not decided on our
days to run.

On Thu, 17 Nov 2022 at 13:52, wrote:
Dear Watercress Line,
I see you have 'Lady of Legend'
I was wondering if you had considered running it on 'service' trains for say a weekend in January?
I realise that its obviously subject to scheduled work on the line, the hire agreement etc etc and of course has to make money but there might be some interest?
Best wishes

 

Nice idea but no, they are obviously determined not to run any "normal" trains till March. I can understand why - my wife and I used to like spending a day on the railway after Christmas, but the trains were never very well filled so it probably doesn't make commercial sense to run them any more.

 

Well if you are going to re-create a Churchward design what do you expect? Mr Collett provided better cabs for his footplate crews.

 

Keeps the footplate crew on their toes .... at least, that's what they claimed on the GNR!

 

It takes a lot of people to operate the Steam Illuminations services. As discussed on other threads it is important to ensure the volunteers do not feel overwhelmed. Running anything more would not be compatible with that objective

 

Hmm, losing a loco with 6 years left on its ticket, and having to hire one at great expense for 6 weeks. Not sure that's so wonderful!

 

What happened to the earlier suggestion that 45231 was going to the MHR, was that incorrect?
If it was a modern loco I guess the cab on the Saint is the sort of thing that would be designed by Elon Musk to provide a "pleasant working environment" for his staff.

 

Apologies. That was a guess. The MHR did previously hire 45231 for Christmas 2017 to work alongside 45379.
It must have come South on this occasion to act as a standby loco for the Steam Dreams Christmas excursions which are due to be hauled by 60007 or 61306.

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

There needs to be enough time to carry out PW work, with the Steam Illuminations trains using November and January weekends that had previously been free, there needs to be a longer gap in late winter before running starts again. TBH very late and very early season trains were often pretty empty anyway as you say

 

Given that SD mainline trips are using 4498 and then 61306, the only other reason I can see 45231 coming down as well, is in case it's needed as a Thunderbird engine for those trips, with both the other locos only just returning after work was done on them. But also given the MHR has just had 30925 withdrawn and 76017 looking like it won't be coming back, it's possible 45231 is still being hired in along with 2999, but that would also depend on the budget available to the MHR I guess.

 

45231 is replacing 61306 on the Steam Dreams trips as far as I'm aware. The B1 isn't quite ready for mainline work at present.

 

What did it survive?

 

Not exactly permanent is it though? I’d genuinely like to hear the views of those who have to operate it in a few weeks time.

 

Likily scenerio, is it will run for one weekend, then be laid aside, there will be talks with Didcot on the lines of, this engine needs a lot of work, and is not fit to run, then either, it will be returned, or Didcot will come to some agreement to have the MHR engineers rectify the faults, and in exchange, the engine stays at Ropley for several months probally for most of the summer, to repay for the work needed to get the engine running properly, end result is 2999 gets the work needed, and earns the MHR revenue, as a guest engine, and the GWS end up with their engine being properly sorted out, sounds like a win for both organisations.

 

Ah well, I’m glad that’s all sorted then. Fire dropped Sunday night, quick intermediate overhaul, warming fire back in the following. Friday afternoon no doubt.

OTOH, pace @21B ”Shall we all just see how it goes?” (and wear a thick coat …)

Tom

 

I am sure with the amount of people (mostly families) that go to this rather spectacular looking event will be more than enough to cover the cost of 2999's visit.
Also, if you think about The Saint [cue the music] will be another added attraction, so even more people will pay to ride behind it, covered in lights or not!!
So yes, I think it's incredibly wonderful!

Being lost in the depths of time, clearly the people at Didcot wanted to newly build a "Saint" otherwise, they wouldn't have built it.

Well, you cannot please everyone.

 

I think you'll probably find that most people would see this as going on a steam train with nice lights for something a bit different to do at this time of the year. Most, if not all will not care about the type of steam engine pulling the train so i dont see how there would be any extra money for the MHR to cover the hire fees. Also, are the lights trains not a fixed schedule of trains which require booking, in which case even if extra passengers turned up the railway wouldn't be able to accommodate them.

I think you misunderstand the meaning of the word surviving.