Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Sounds like the West country buffet are going to have to uprate their menu to include, Voles, in their offering then or are little eared owls not that fussy? To me 506, or 30506, in black is equally ok, but having 499, as it was when it entered service and 30506 as when the last few came to their last days, , I think is right,

 

Well said Pat. Thank you.

Bryan

 

Great, but please make sure they are Short-tailed Voles for this Short-eared Owl (far from Little these days) as Water Voles are a protected species.

Bryan

 

Does Woody Bay Station count as southern England?!!

 

Point taken. Operational standard gauge then.

 

Is 828 (Southern, not Caley…..) still at the MHR?

Seems to have fallen off the radar.

Chris

 

Yes S15 828 is still at Ropley.
The owning group are fund raising and slowly rebuilding their structure from loosing 6 key members a years back.
Please pm me if you want to become involved. At the moment it's mainly admin and sales but activities will shortly return to engineering.

Cheers, Neil

 

30828 Neil?

I think I probably took this photo in 1962, at Southampton Central. It was working a ballast train.

Perfect 'livery' and numbering - for me.

Bryan

 

Is there any merit in suggesting a merger with the Urie group? (Yes I know 828 isn’t a Urie loco but there must be an awful lot of identical engineering).
1 loco under overhaul
1 loco in service
1 loco in later years of service

Just a thought..,

 

Sorry to hear that,
It’s a loco that featured heavily in on a VHS my parents bought me when I was probably 8 years old that I watched until the tape wore out (along with 80080, 46229 and 45596) so I have always had a bit of a soft spot for it.

I had heard it was at the MHR, but not seen or heard anything about it for a long time- understandable given the circumstances.

I’d love to be in a position to volunteer hands on, however I’m based in Yorkshire, and currently work/family has to take priority over volunteering.

I wish the group the best of luck.

Chris

 

Yes we have thought about it but there are administrative difficulties around the articles of association for ERPS.
Mind you there is a fair bit of common engineering and components with any Maunsell loco. I fully understand about prior commitments. Having gone past the stage of children it's keeping an eye on elderly parents and parents in law....

Thanks for the photo of 30828. I can't promise anything about livery but many years ago there was a vote of members that we would return the loco to pre war Maunsell green. But it might be via black at the start of the boiler ticket. ( As built black with green lining would be different.)

Thanks for your support

Neil

 

First up, before I ramble on (sorry Led Zep!)

Thanks, @DavidW for the comment, much appreiciated as nothing with these things is ever straight forward!

@RichardSalmon, we go for semi hard wood as well, but make sure that the timbers are treated with as many coats of dollop as possible to give them a chance of longevity....... the timbers that came out lasted for at least 15 years, so not bad going and most if not all wagons will have a floor under load for the duration.

And so to yesterday atop the hill........

Double the number of like minded souls from last week, and it was a tad toasty atop the hill, which, depending how you look at it was good.......

First up, two of the lads removed the end sections of timbers in the steel highfit and began the task of coating them in dollop, whilst me Oppo & his mucker tackled the rebates on the end planks, so that they straddle the strenghtening plates on either end - they did a neat job!

That left Muggin's 'Ere & Me Mucker to potter along with jobs on the LMS van....... which mainly involved replacing temporary bolts with the correct ones, which meant reaming holes - at least we didn't have to drill out anymore for a change!!!

So, all in all a fairly productive day, and with passing trains full of happy families enjoying the Thomas event as an added distraction, along with having a catch up up the the Medstead bobby over lunch - good to see you again mate!

The end timbers being rebated.




Photo bombed by an errant digit...... 2/3rds of the floor planks curing in the sun, having had two coats of dollop.

 

I have always thought that there could be some loose agreement between the Urie group, the owners of 828 ,and 53808 sharing admin, arranging working parties, co ordinating fund raising, to maximise the groups aims, and operation of these 4 engines, In time, it might make sense to set up an umbrella organisation that incorporates the S&D trust, Maunsell loco Group, and Urie LPS done in such a way that they retain their identity, but for practicality, operate as one organisation, call it the Mid Hants Freight Loco Group,

 

It is a very good idea which and to be frank 828 is not going to appear in the lifetimes of all current ERPS members unless the two S15 groups can create a consolidated S15 society with all the benefits of a large, experienced and enthusiastic workforce dedicated to the restoration and preservation of all three S15s. Both Societies are relatively comfortable financially but together they could achieve even more than they can separately. You only have to look at what the Urie Society has achieved, and continues to achieve, to wonder why the ERPS would not want to have access to that workforce once 499 has been completed in a couple of years time. ERPS stand to gain more than the Urie Society from such a merger, yet it seems the ERPS are the ones who find reasons to remain separate and alone.
Out of interest , amending Articles of Association is not especially complicated or expensive, but it requires a majority shareholding to approve it. If some members wish to adopt a dog in a manger attitude and put this up as an insurmountable barrier (it isn't) they can console themselves with looking at the ERPS bank statements rather than watching 828 take shape once more.

 

Watching the latest In The Loop, the focus is on the ULS and the various work on 499 and 506. With all the work done to the boiler, is a fresh boiler ticket being sought?

 

If you mean on 506 then no, the work is not so extensive as to enable that. That boiler will require a fairly significant overhaul next time, so I wouldn’t expect any extensions either. The focus is on getting her back into traffic as soon as possible.

 

I’m not sure this is entirely fair to the ERPS. Nor am I sure why you think ERPS won’t consider the idea? And finally, it would also require ULS to agree. I don’t dismiss the idea, but not do I think it is immediately and so obviously the right thing for anyone.

 

Thank you. I wasn't sure with it being extracted if the work done would warrant a fresh ticket or not.

 

Welcome to this weeks edition of Gardeners World.

Yes, Dear Reader, your eyes do not decieve you!

Given the weather forecast, a major working party had been knocked on the head, but three of our number had to be inattendance atop the hill regardless of the weather for PTS resits, so Muggin's'Ere joined them to offer morale support....

As it turned out the forecast Biblical rains didn't appear until kater in the day, BUT, tanks to heavy overnight rain our initial plans went out the window one by one as everything was too wet!

So plans C & D were put into action.....

Plan C involved wandering down the the far end of Bennett's to assess the Lowfit with Insul container - it was stopped a fair few years ago, for what exactly, we can't remember but I'm sure we'll find out in due course when it eventually comes into the yard to replace the steel highfit as one of our next projests!

That brings us neatly to plan D..... with everything except the the rapidly growing green stuff being wet, it was decided that we embrace our inner Charlie Dimmock and do something it about it!

With plenty of hacking back, pulling up of weeds and pruning, we started off around te workshop PMV and progressed to and beyond the paint store to the opposite side of the running line.and carried on untill about halfway down the length of Bennett's pruning back the overgrown shrubbery that to be honest has been bugging us for a fair while & yesterday was the perfect time to do it - it means that the approach to Medstead is now more pleasing on the eye for our visitors, and it also means that footplate crews have a better view of the signals, I'm sure @Stinch & @21B will soon tell us if it isn't!

A couple of pic's before the weather turned for the worst.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54575155229/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duty_druid/54575302810/in/dateposted-public/

The result of our 'gardening' efforts......