Mid-Hants Railway | Watercress Line | Spring Steam Gala 24th-26th April 2026

Cheers!

 

Things are going well today even though 68067 was apparently playing up again this morning when we arrived. She was taken off her service with 41312 and put in the yard again while the class 20 hauled her train to Alton.
She returned to her scheduled services later on.
We had a great run on the Express again with 73156 in fine form. We passed a line side fire between Alresford and Ropley.
We are now getting some mileage in behind 30506 til the end of the day.


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Just to add to this, the ivatt is doing it's last diagram as booked with the austerity detaching at Ropley as booked.

 

68067 didn't have a booked service with 41312, it ran on it's scheduled diagrams just with 41312 assisting. The class 20 replaced 41312 on it's diagrams while it was doubleheaded on 68067s diagrams.

 

Beautiful day down in Hampshire today. The countryside really does look glorious when the sun comes out!

Gala went went well today - everything ran almost to time and the locos all seemed to behave themselves! It was obviously the right move to pair 68087 up with 41312. A little disappointing that it couldn't work on its own but at least it came out to play when it could have been declared a failure yesterday and banished to the yard for the rest of the gala. I'm sure the Fat Controller gave it a stern talking to!

73156 was the highlight of the event for me - put in some very lively and noisy performances as expected.

I have to admit I wasn't that interested in Furness No. 20, or at least I wasn't until I saw it - what a gorgeous loco! I enjoyed a slow but steady climb up from Alresford to Ropley in the afternoon behind it.

I even got to meet the Gricing Owl at Medstead. He was very nice even when I admitted to being a GWR fan and he's got lots of interesting stories to tell from the 1960s!

All in all a very good day and thanks to everyone at the Mid Hants as ever for their hard work in making it happen.

 

Footage from a fantastic 2 days at the Gala, Lots of Sunshine resulted in some fabulous shots. Enjoy

 

Very nice to meet up at Medstead and Four Marks station, great chatting with you. And I do like your varied coverage of today.

My day didn't go to plan after my 09.00 arrival for a full day at Medstead. On parking my car I noticed some minor surface cracks were starting to show along part of the line of one of the 'gulleys' that run round the whole tyres, on two of my tyres. Nothing wrong with the actual treads that comes into contact with the road, and the tyres were all fully inflated. Plenty of tread left on all four tyres too. It was something I've never experienced before. So I decided to stay until 30506 hauled the freight not long after mid day and then very gently drive home - leaving early to give the AA (I have full cover) plenty of time to get to me if needed. I went and got a ticket, and a cup of coffee from the two lovely ladies in the booking office, and the lady running the booking office found out for me that the Farnham Halfords would shut at 13.00 - but in any case the chance of them having four new, good quality tyres in stock to fit straight away was, I felt, quite low. And I walked back to my car between every train to check the tyres were still fully inflated - which they were as these were minor surface cracks and not holes!

So my half day was at Medstead, chatting to people as you do, including a Spa Valley Railway volunteer I met their last week, and @6026 King John plus others. Big brother @gricerdon and son were on the 10.20 Alresford behind 73156 and I had time to board the train for a quick chat at Medstead- keeping going our joint gricing since time began a very long time ago, starting with a good few years of me trotting along behind Don as he taught me my trade!

I got shots of the four trains I wanted to photo, all from the footbridge (below)- missing out on 41312 on the 09.15 Ropley as it was the train loco behind 68067, and a diesel loco took its place on the 11.25 Alresford for reasons already well covered here.

The event looked quite busy, hopefully so as the cost of bringing three locos in must have been enormous. And from what I saw it looked to be running very well. So very many thanks to all at the Mid-Hants for putting thie event on - just a shame I couldn't do a full day there today and also maybe get down again tomorrow.

I got home fine, driving on inside lanes at not more than 55 mph, and keeping an eye open all the time for a warning from my tyre pressure software. But the tyres were all still fully inflated when I got home and parked my car on my driveway area, where it will remain until four new tyres are fitted at that location next week.

Photos virtually as they have come out of my camera,

Bryan