Mid Hants Railway Spring Steam Gala 2014

Rather interesting little article in the Railway Magazine this month suggests that Met 1 and 52322 have been booked to appear at the MHR Spring gala. 2 further visitors are being sought with talks underway.

Rather surprised that 52322 will be visiting. Quite an odd choice in my opinion... Either way, will be nice to see it down 'ere!

James

 

Not complaining, nice to see a bit of variety. A B1 might be nice as well at some point rather than Tornado or a Britannia again.

*Hint* *hint*

 

A couple of small locos for a change. That'll be nice.

 

Sounds interesting, presumably will be a lot of double heading though......

 

Met No1 will look nice on Ropley shed when it fails only kidding.

will they do Ropley yard shuttles, or run it to/from Alresford ?
Whats its haulage capacity, Ive only seen it double heading/topntailing but kind of the opinion it's not that strong.. 1F ?? perhaps ?

 

I very much doubt Met1 would get up the bank unassisted, depending of course on the rail head conditions and load............................... so A to R shuttle with load one or two with supplement payable for the ride seems favourite, and hopefully the repairs done on her over the winter will hold this time round - fingers crossed!!

Looking forward to seeing the L&Y jobby!

 

Given the last gala had three high-profile express engines visiting, I was wondering how the Mid Hants was going to follow that. Going for something completely different like 52322 and Met No. 1 is a good idea. It seems that 52322 is very much pre-grouping engine of the moment. It was the M7 doing the rounds a couple of years back, and more recently, the N2 was turning up at quite a few gala events. It will be rather good to see an L&Y loco well off its historical stamping grounds.. I'm looking forward to seeing it too.

.. I hope 52322 is given a run or two on its own. 41312 could manage 3 coaches easily and the LMS rated that class as 2MT, whereas the "27"s were rated as 3F. I know tractive effort isn't everything, but hopefully it could manage 4 up the 1 in 60. Anyway, we'll see.

 

Met1 last visited the MHR back in 2009 Spring gala and worked from Alton to Alresford unassisted with two coaches and a box van. From memory the loco stormed up Medstead bank with no issues.

 

14,515lbs TE. To put that in context, the Bluebell SECR H class is 17,360lbs, and we allow her 135 tons on 1:55 gradients. No doubt the boiler is a bit smaller too, which would limit the steaming rate. Obviously in the end it is down to the owner and the MHR operating people, but I'd have thought she should fairly easily manage 3 Mark 1s on the MHR (say just over 110 tons). Whether that is enough at a gala to run on her own is another question.

Tom

 

Beat me to it Tom!!

Given her recent outings (which is what I was going from with my post), she seems limited to doing shuttles when out and about on other lines............................. and on the Met this year, when she did run she didn't do a solo run what with SS and a chopper in the consist!!

So as you say, who knows what agreement will be reached as to what she's allowed to do........................ we'll find out come March!

And at least we now know the Autumn Gala should have a copper top theme...................................................... anybody care to start a thread?............................................................

 

I found this photo of Met1 working up Medstead bank from Spring gala 2009. From memory met1 worked a few round trips over the gala.

 

Out of interest, is there an issue with the LMS saloon which has stopped it being used at recent galas? Would seem an obvious candidate to stick with wither of them.

 

I was lucky enough to drive Met 1 when it last visited. Three coaches unassisted would be no problem, and I suspect 4 might be possible providing the track conditions were reasonably favourable. Fantastic engine. The only problem was not letting it build up too much speed...it wanted to be off!

41312 used to take 4 all the time has worked 5 unassisted, and the ringing in my ears has only recently stopped from the trip where we pushed 5 + std5 out of Alton. The issues only start when it gets slippery, and to be honest if we were allowed to go faster than 25mph it could probably cope most of the time even then.

The LMS directors saloon is stopped due to some issues connected with the roof not being completely waterproof. I believe the owner would be willing to sell it.

 

It worked the Met rake up Freshfield Bank on the Bluebell a few years back but not for long as hot boxes reared their ugly heads.

 

52322 took five coaches out of Keighley on its own with plenty left, it was very impressive comparing it to the bigger locos, it maintained times too. It's minder, Russell Walker said to me afterwards that the main problem is the short gauge glasses and keeping the water level right, he felt that power wise it could have taken seven. At the Mid Hants there are longer sections between stations of course but it's not as steep as the KWVR and has lots of straights unlike the sinuous worth valley. I too hope it does some solo trips, lets face it, it's something different and great news it's been booked for the gala.

 

Given the general fondness on NatPres to think of clever schemes with other people's toys, do you think the QRS would mind if I started a Facebook campaign to build a new Stirling domeless boiler for Met 1, and thereby recreate a long-lost South Eastern Railway Q class? (*)

Tom

(*) For those not spotting the reference - in the late nineteenth century, Sir Edward Watkin was Chairman of both the Metropolitan Railway and the South Eastern Railway. So when the Met needed a new tank engine design, Watkin let them have the plans for the then-current Stirling Q class, and the first batch of Metropolitan 0-4-4Ts were direct copies, save for having a different design of domed boiler and condensing apparatus.

 

Should be a good event. Never seen 52322/1300 before and I prefer seeing the smaller loco's in action on the MHR as the larger ones (60163, 34046 etc) hardly break into a sweat on 5 carriages. I wonder if the other 2 visitors will be small loco's? Good to see Met 1 returning. Very gutsy performer when she visited last time.
I wonder though if the new fare prices will put some visitors off next year? In the new Issue of the MH News there is a report mentioning the price rises for next year with the Steam Gala admission price going up to £25.

 

It depends what's being offered. Make a show good enough and people will pay anything to be there. Personally I wouldn't bother paying £25 if we had another gala with Tornado, Britannia and something else in the next couple of years having seen them twice in a couple of years, but if you bring in things people want to see or unusual stuff then some would probably pay more than that.

*Cough* Like a B1 *Cough*

 

To be fair to the MHR, they have kept their prices pegged for the last three years, and in the face of ever increasing costs, eventually something has to give......................

 

"To be fair to the MHR, they have kept their prices pegged for the last three years, and in the face of ever increasing costs, eventually something has to give......................"​

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I am surprised that they have kept them down for so long when other lines have put their prices up.​