Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

And so three like minded souls gathered atop the hill yesterday morn, with sole intention of progressing things with LMS vam M517317, though the weather had other ideas!!!

On the to-do list were, to trim all the cladding planks fitted on the northside, so to aid this and prevent things getting wet, the tarp on that side was rigged to form a shelter so that matey could crack on...... meaning that Muggin's 'ere and his mucker had the final ply end sheet to fettle - all fine and dandy, execpt the weather didn't want to play ball - wet and windy - not what you need when you have to do the fettling outside!!

This delayed things somewhat, but eventually the sun came out, and so did the board out of the van!

Once the opening for the vent grille had been fettled, it was decided to try and adapt some rubber edging strip as a belt and braces approach to protecting the sheets...... the adaptation actually proved to work, so was duly glued in place with some Bostik 486 glue, which is serious stuff, designed to withstand extremes of weather - so hopefully it'll do the trick..........

When the glue had set, the sheet was placed back in the van, offered up and then trial fitted - everything now looks good!

In amgonst all this, Muggin's 'ere had a surprise visit from @Nick C , so a tour of the yard was in order to show him first hand what er get up to...... which he seemed to enjoy Then as the tour was ending @Hampshire Unit put in an appearance..... strange after comments about me earlier on here....... Just tp clarify - you'll be pleased to know I don't appear in the video and the 'retainer' has been renegociated down to zero!

A couple of pic's of the service loco's

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/53081487419/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/53080725247/in/dateposted-public/

The final end sheet fettled, and the rubber edging being fitted.



The sheet trial fitted - both ends now look good!



Cladding planks now trimmed to fit the door opening.

 

Thanks for the tour @Duty Druid - I normally only get to see the wagons after they're finished, so good to see a bit from behind the scenes...

 

Good morning, Does anyone know which locos are rostered this weekend? I am hoping to pay a visit to travel behind 5239. Many Thanks in advance.

 

Loco roster not been updated yet

 

Afternoon

I am visiting this Sunday, does anyone happen to know if any ECS moves happen to get the stock to Alton for the 1045 or is the stock stabled there already? Cheers

 

The stock is stabled there overnight on Saturdays.

I believe it is 506 and 41312 this weekend.

 

Thank You

 

506 is out today and the Ivatt is being steamed as well. there’s a RAT Saturday which I think is 20188 on the 1600 ex Alton (dit on rear on the inward, steam dit and off at Ropley).

 

5239 is on the Alresford set today. Info board says 30506 on the Alton

Andrew

 

And so dear reader the first Saturday of Octo...., of August dawned with a stiff breeze and six like minded nutters gathering atop the hill, and in light of what was to come, the term is quite apt, as over breakfast, the rain came in.......

As we made our way down the yard to our workshop van, we questioned our sanity, but soon came to our senses when we realised that all we'd be doing at home would be jobs our other halves wanted doing......... were

With that in mind, whilst sheltering from the torrential rain, we worked out was we could progress on LMS van M517317, and keep dry....... plus we'd been asked to look at the brakes on the milk tank which is in for some TLC - turns out the brake blocks are handed, and on the London end they were fitted the wrong way round, thus causing the shoes to badly lip - we soon put that right!!

In M517317, the main longitudinal beam on the north side was trial fitted, this has revealed, that we need to raise the roof in the country end corner, as its badly sagging.......

Also, another of the ply end sheets was fettled with the edging strips.

Sorry, no pics this week as it was not a day for getting the camera out!!

@Nick C, it was a pleasure to show you around - feel free to pop by any time to see how we're getting on.......

 

506 was in the Watercress Belle yesterday, It did eventually stop raining, although we got pretty wet doing the track inspection walk from M4M to Alresford earlier in the day!

506 on the Watercress Belle by Stephen Morley, on Flickr

 

Wet today too!

 

I'm interested in doing a round trip with the Ivatt tank, so why isnt the loco roster kept up to date?

 

I doubt that anyone on here can give an accurate answer to that.

It would be much better to email/phone the railway directly for an official response.

 

Things fail, things break, and people are too busy trying to keep things running to update the niceties....

 

Agreed, fairly lucky the Mid Hants tend to give loco roster information out as early as they do. Many other railways either don't put them up or its daily on the websites/social media pages.

 

I understand where your coming from but especially this and next year I'm gonna say its more or less certain that 41312 or 506 will run every weekend.

 

A rather attractive combo............

 

What do you mean? The roster has shown up until 11th August when you posted that, I checked it yesterday.

 

Or the GWR tank