Mid Hants Railway - Great Spring Steam Gala 2013

Correct. Trains typically wait 5-6 mins in the loop. The 1539 arrival in the station actually arrives in the loop at 1532. It still requires some very smart work by loco crew, shunters, guards, signalmen and everyone else to unhook the loco from one train, couple up to the next train, do a brake test and depart in the time allowed, but this is the third or fourth year that such a timetable has been used. The case of the disappearing LN on Saturday afternoon is a little more puzzling, but it looks like they've given T9 a second solo trip from Alton. It's the same coaches as the 1315. That leaves 850 waiting to hitch a ride home on a later train - perhaps on the Diner at 1720, double-heading with 5164?

Personally, I think the traffic and loco planners are to be applauded for rearranging things to take account of 5164 being the other way around from what it seems they were expecting, and for publishing the loco allocations for free in advance. And of course, it can all get mixed up again on the day. It only takes one loco to have a last-minute problem before coming off shed and suddenly you've got a gap to fill, and you can't give the Black 5's roster to the T9 if it means hauling a 6-coach train... and so on!

 

Not strictly true as the note deals with a double headed train but yes same priciple as long as there's an engine to pull the train into Alton. I am more concerned about the disappearing 850 as I would like a run behind 31020 by itself out of Alton and the 1610 fits with my plans. I suspect though that 850 will also be on the train.

 

Everything running OK when I made a quick visit this morning. 30120 and 925 slipping and sliding a bit on the 945 Alton and 30120 leaking steam at the front end but looked very nice. 777 was very claggy on the 917 Ropley. Well done to all for getting it ready in double quick time. 34007 spinning along easily on the freight. Augers well for our full day visit tomorrow.

Don

 

An excellant plug sir... I now own one of these models.

Also met Coalwagon and got a tour of the real version of the model too.

 

theres plenty of people about today, worth a reminder to use the field at Ropley station for parking... There was no where at Alresford to park, but the field at Ropley can swallow a lot of vehicles !!

Timetable was a bit late running and a few locos off diagram... Nice forward facing double header of 925 and 850 just left Alton 20 minutes ago..T9 was on its own earlier and 777+45379 should have arrived at Alresford by now, with 5164 following. 34007 worked up alone and is departing 1610.
Due to late running the freights have been cancelled.

not a bad day for me, unexpected afternoon out, post work and avoiding M25 traffic home tonight.

 

John , I was delighted to meet you this afternoon, an unexpected pleasure.

Kind regards
Chris:

 

Looking at the trains today there seemed to be a good turn out for the start of the gala. Nice to see the Urie group and class 45 group with their sales stands in Ropley boiler shop. I also see the Medstead wagon group had a stand on the up platform at Medstead. Just a shame it rained and remained cloudy all day. Let's hope the sun comes out tomorrow.

 

Just put this back in the public domain AGAIN :becky:.................................................. :bolt:

And to say Thank you to all who came to see us today at both Alresford and Medstead & Four Marks :clap2:

If you want to see the pics of the mugs & van & wagon please see post #104

 

Sir,

Thank you for your support!:thumb:

 

My Father and I had a great day today despite the poor weather and the problems encountered in the afternoon when the timetable went a bit skewiff. There were problems with the Engineers train but it was later abandoned along with the freight train to claw back some of the time lost. We managed to get runs behind 777 solo, 777 with 45379, 5164 with 30120 and 30120 solo. The highlight of the day was the delayed 13.15 departure from Alton with 30120. What an epic slog that was up Medstead Bank with a load of 5 on the drawbar. Sadly there seemed to be something wrong with the T9 after this and she was taken back to Ropley yard (on the rear of a train hauled by 34007) for attention. She did reappear on services though at the end of the day paired with 5164. I hope to have some videos up on YT at the weekend including the one of the slog up the bank to Medstead.

Thanks to all involved for another Great Spring Steam Gala.

**FINALLY A WARNING TO THOSE TRAVELLING TO THE MHR BY TRAIN THIS WEEKEND. SWT SERVICES WERE IN CHAOS TODAY DUE TO EMERGENCY ENGINEERING WORKS AT FARNHAM. A SHUTTLE TRAIN SERVICE WAS RUNNING BETWEEN ALTON AND FARNHAM BUT GOING BY WHAT PASSENGERS WERE SAYING ON THE MHR SOME OF THE SWT TRAIN SERVICES WERE NOT TURNING UP. WHEN WE DROVE HOME ALONG THE BYPASS TONIGHT THERE WAS A RAIL REPLACEMENT BUS SERVICE IN OPERATION BETWEEN ALTON AND FARNHAM.**

 

I did hear the only reason why 30120 was taken off at Ropley was to recoal the loco.

 

I really hope this doesn't affect me tomorrow as i'm travelling in the early hours and only had 8 minutes to spare for the arrival of my alton bound service till the first depearture of the day.

SWT website says this only affects services till the end of today so i assume it will be overnight works. Fingers crossed....!

 

Thats good news.

We got a bit worried after the 13.15 run up the bank as the crew stopped her outside Medstead station even though they had the road. One of the footplate crew walked along the side of her and was inspecting something in the motion. Then they had a bit of trouble getting her going again. Once at Alresford she was run round the train and put on the front of 34007 so that they were smokebox to smokebox. Then she was detached again and put on the rear of the train. Don't know what that was all about.


Anyway the first two of my videos are now on Youtube:
MHR GREAT SPRING STEAM GALA 1-03-13. LSWR T9 30120 & SR SCHOOLS 925 CHELTENHAM DEPART ALTON - YouTube

MHR GREAT SPRING STEAM GALA 1-03-13. BLACK 5 45379 Barks out of Medstead. - YouTube

The climb of Medstead Bank by 30120 will follow tommorrow.

 

Look forward to seeing some video chaps and also keep an eye out for the Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society stand with all donations going towards the restoration of S15 E828 "Harry A Frith".

 

The 34081 stand will be at Ropley so come and say hello and hopefully spend some money.

 

A further update to the SWT site says that the line from Farnham to Alton is shut until further notice with a bus replacement service in operation.

 

Well back again from another day at the gala. A shame about the cloud cover for most of the day. The sun did come out towards the end of the day. Made a visit to the Alton section of the line today and noticed the Railway have piled up pallets of concrete covers down by the motor bike field. So any one going down by the sheep field will be disappointed. There isn't any photo opportunities.

 

Had an outstanding day at the MHR today, with everything running roughly to time, as far as I could tell. The highlight for me was 5164 on the 13:50 from Alton. I could hear it for at least 10 minutes before it came into view at Hampshire Hunt bridge, near Medstead. For quite a while, 5164 didn't look like it was going to make it, but some expert firing got her to the summit, albeit 10 minutes late. I have uploaded that video as a separate video, and the link is below. My full video will be online on Monday.

The link to my video from today is here: 5164 slogs up Medstead Bank 02-03-13 - YouTube

James at SVN

 

Here's a selection of photos I took around Ropley and Medstead Stations, very good day just a pity about the gloomy weather.

https://picasaweb.google.com/105454327852537837128/MidHantsSpringGalaMarch22013

Cheers

 

Lee where is the pile of pallets? Where we cut back near the bridge .. The beech trees or under the Oaks? David