MHR Autumn Steam Gala 6th-8th October 2023

Something I think no one has picked up yet.

 

When did that appear?

 

Must've been within the last 24 hrs. Certainly didn't see it yesterday morning

 

What is it supposed to achieve?

 

At a guess to avoid overcrowding for a additional charge

 

Thanks for highlighting that, Ben. To me that's a sensible move and it's not exactly a big charge. Was only planning to do Medstead-Alton-Medstead on it so I could have Vulcan out of Alton first but I guess once you've paid your £2 you can hop on at any station.

 

It isn’t clear what exactly you can do and will £2 put anyone off?

 

Vulcan facing Alton.
1054 I’m told will face arlesford for its double header with the 7F.
I didn’t get a definitive answer but 72 also likely to face Alton.

 

Yes my thought, surely £5 or £10 if you want to limit numbers may give you more chance of achieving lower numbers.

 

Surely it doesn't matter if you charge nothing or £100 for the additional ticket, as the website says, numbers of tickets will be limited (only 90 odd to be sold) so not allowing bums to out sell seats is the important bit.

Andrew

 

If all of these tickets are sold, I suspect there will still be empty seats on the train as many people may only want to travel one way or join/leave the train at Ropley or Medstead rather than doing the full round trip.

Another unrelated observation about the timetable - the times at Ropley are shown in bold on the 10.00 from Alton, and 15.30 and 16.45 from Alresford. It doesn't actually say it but I'm assuming that mean that the assisting loco(s) are attached or detached at Ropley.

 

Presumably charging too much would be slightly counterproductive given it's not a visitor from that far away, and while she should sound good up the Alps with two mk. 1s on it's not that much more of a feat for her than taking three pre-grouping bogie coaches up Freshfield or Holden banks on the Bluebell I wouldn't have thought

 

The three coach vintage train she had for a while earlier this year was 85 tons tare, a bit more than two Mark 1s. “Holden Bank” is 1 in 55 at the summit.

What is the Coal Tank being allowed? I remember doing a trip with her when she visited the Bluebell with I think four Mark 1s.

Tom

 

The Coal Tank has the same two shuttle coaches as 72 when rostered for them and double heads with 53808 for a round trip on load 6 whilst 72 does its full round trip working

 

It is an interesting looking timetable, but it does seem to have some rather large gaps. For example there are only two trains from Alresford back to Alton after the 14:00 has departed and those are 15:30 and 16:45.
Maybe with the GCR on the same weekend there may be an expectation of fewer passengers than some MHR Galas?

 

Evening All,

I've been a bit busy over the summer, so haven't had much time to edit all my footage from the Mid-Hants Railway Spring Gala and get it on YouTube. However, with the Autumn Spring Gala almost upon us, I thought that I'd better get on with it and the final part is now available for all to see. So, if anyone would like to have a look, this is the final instalment and it features 4079 PENDENNIS CASTLE and 2-8-0T 5239:



All the other instalments can be seen in this playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFsbViNeGSHmvW0OEtXp8pVy4S-yvF-G7

TTFN,

Ron.

 

All guests have arrived, 1054 and the 7F facing Alresford with the rest facing Alton.

 

Some times at Ropley are given in bold but the significance of this isn't explained in the timetable? Does it perhaps relate to locomotives being attached or detached? Thanks for any help you can give!

 

Yeah

The 10;27/10:35 - 5239 attaches to the London end of the train behind the 7F

The later ones the Coal tank will uncouple from the train hauled by 5239 in the afternoon and 401 and 72 will detach from the train hauled by 53808 on the last train to Alton.

 

It'll be locos attached/detached yes. 5239 attached at 10:27, 1051 detaching at 15:38 and 401+72 detaching at 16:53