Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

It was always a must for us as well

 

Alton this evening

 

Funnily enough, my wife and I were discussing this earlier today.

We tend to try and have a short break away soon after New year when everything has started to calm down following Yule and year end.

We try and visit a steam railway as part of that- a few years ago we did the NYMR a few years running, but seemingly there are no services following new year.

Looking around, options seem quite limited for January- I can understand why, but as mentioned by others we used to enjoy the quiet trips early in the new year and my work often means that January is one of the more feasible times for taking some time out.

Will keep an eye out and see where is running, and possibly plan around having a short stay nearby.

Chris

 

34046,45231 and 60007 all currently based at Southall for LSL work .

 

Point 1. I probably do misunderstand the meaning of surviving.

Point 2. Well, whatever will be, will be.

 

It turned out to a frustrating day atop the hill yesterday........

With just three in attendance, one of whom got the easy ticket, firstly sorting out a corroded bolt hole with the magic putty on LMS van M517317 & then moving on to undercoating various lumps of metal, warmed up by a site light inside the van.

That left muggin's & matey to figure out the best way forward to sort out the bolts on the gusset plates...... the suggestion was to rebate the floor planks to accommodate the bolts - that would mean one hell of a rebate, which to me is a non starter as it would encourage moisture into the timber, something we definitley don't want, so after much discussion & head scratching, including putting the bottom cladding planks in place to help make sense of the whole picture, it was decided that the bolts would need to be shortened, and to allow access to the nuts, two floor planks would have to be trimmed back as well on both ends - so by lunch time this was accomplished!

After lunch, the task was to work out where to drill out the holes on the bottom plank and angle iron on the north side country end to take the door runners........ a simple task you may think, but no!

Thankfully next to us is the Urie Lads LMS van, built to the same diagram, so it became very handy as a point of referrence, with lot of back & forth between the two vans with lots of measuring & marking out, plus tweaking things on our LMS van..... everything was going well until after we'd marked out & drilled the holes, and offered up the door runner....... even though the two vans were built to the same diagram, the ironmongery wasn't - we'd made the fatal mistake of assuming they'd be the same & they aren't - the bolt holes differ!!!

Hey ho, at least its nothing critical, and is easily sorted - they sure are troublesome trucks!!!

Still, after that episode, and with the fading light, we cheered ourselves up by watching the steamy lighty trains cross before heading home & making friends with some decent ale!!!

The steamy lighty trains & Thunderbird.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52512746795/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52512817753/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/52512270251/in/dateposted-public/

Bolts fitted to the gusset plate & floor planks trimmed back.



Spot the difference - we didn't until afterwards - D'oh!!!

 

On the whole debate about running daytime in the New Year ... The revenue available for running in the evening is more than 10x that that would be earnt during the day. Worst to best comparison. It's simple really.

 

Plus, the bulk(most) of it will be pre-paid bookings, so there's no chance of having lost revenue, If demand outstrips availability, is there any scope to add any extra days, or to add an extra coach, as long as it does not mean the engine earmarked for that operation is overloaded?

 

If there was more demand than seats, there would be extra lights dates as what happened in the last season

Due to the nature of the light equipment and how its setup, bar the loco its done in pairs, so you cant just add a coach, you would have to add a multiple of 2, plus any programming nature that may be needed

 

Not sure about the system bot being capable of adding a coach at a time, but it is irrelevant because you can't run round more than the current train length at Alton.

 

Don't go bringing facts into the discussion - where's the fun in that?

Tom

 

Oops. I always forget that.

 

I see that the Saint was out for a gauging run today:


Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

[INSERT ELABORATE, COSTLY AND IMPRACTICAL TOP AND TAIL IDEA HERE]

 

You could probably run a daytime mainline service with the top and tailed set to Salisbury for the Christmas market as well, and only have to pay the marginal cost of the coal for the mileage run because the loco would be steamed anyway for the evening lights service ...

Tom

 

Surely for the night time runs you could just use a class 20 but stick the lights on it in the outline of a steam engine? It'll be dark so nobody's going to know.

 

I don't think anyone could stand Christmas songs for that long!

 

They're not great at heating the train though, so it would be more of a polar express

 

If the MHR have managed to fit a 4200, Mod Hall, Castle and King at Alton, then 2999 has no problem.
Wonder if they will rename it Saint Nicholas?

 

Put Kilmersdon on the back to provide the heat, and do the shunt at Salisbury