Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

Noticed (thanks to 34002's post on WNXX) that the Ropley shuttle is back on the timetable for what had been the one-engine-in-steam days and looks like a standard fixture for all of those this year. Intrigued by that and what the regular motive power might be, nice little bit of extra interest on those days. I've got a free day on Friday March 15 and seeing the shuttle on the timetable for it has pretty much ensured I'll head to the Watercress then.

 

I imagine it would be the same as last year, Kilmersdon and gronk as a back-up.
I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

 

A bit of an update on the Hammy unit here.
It’s a public group which I believe can be viewed by everyone.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/thumper1125/

 

Two more recent videos from the excellent Watercress Films Unit.

Magnificent Manston (youtube.com)

Your Carriage Awaits - Keeping You In The Loop (youtube.com)

Also, many congratulations on the Heritage Railway Association highly commended award. Very well deserved.

 

great to see!

 

For once Dear Reader, the weather gods smiled upon the five like minded nutters gathered atop the hill yesterday - for once it didn't rain, but it were a tad nippy with a biting wind, but we'll take that ocer it being cold wet and miserable any day!!

One of the lads picked up from last week on finishing cleaning up the south side brake rigging for the meat van, in the warmth of the workshop PMV - in fact all jobs for once were actaully done inside!

Plus one of the Stalwarts painting the internal cladding for LMS van M517317 continued witht eh mammoth task of getting the internal cladding into undercoat.......

That left Muggin's 'ere, me Oppo & Me mucker to carry on with jobs inside the van......

Me Oppo elected to start job of securing all external cladding planks, that miss existing holes to the uprights and angle irons, an easy job, but tedious and time consuming given the amount of extra holes that need to be drilled!

So, Muggin's 'ere and me mucker picked up where we'd left off last week and finally managed to drill and bolt the final two country end floor planks into position!!! After that, we had a look at what needed to be done to to fashion the top fillets for the south side cladding.......... we'll leave that to the man who can.

So....... we decided to show some of the internal cladding planks along with a central divider up to one section of external cladding to see just how they look......... Hmmm........ we have some fettling to do! Unsurprising really when you've not got s lot of timber to play with, and are governed by the shortest length available........ so a dip into pics taken as we dismantled the van, showed us us what we need to do........ thankfully we have managed to figure out a workaround, plus we have the timber on site!!!

Next up, was to have a look at the roof hoops and just how we're going to refurb them, plus produce new ones for the ends of the van..........

The floor planks finally bolted into place, albeit temporarily given that they have to come up to receive more coatings of dollop!



Some of the external cladding planks finally bolted to the door opening to pull the planks in properly....

 

Interesting to see that the one main train plus shuttle now seems to fill the bulk of the operating dates until the end of May (when I looked last week nearly all weekends were two train services).

Does anyone know what is likely to be in use this weekend?

Thanks

Andrew

 

The shuttle should be a nice easy running in turn for Dave , or the other little green engine, who's name we dare not mention

 

34070 and D8188

 

Some great news about 92212 shared on the facebook page
“Spring begins with some good news for Ropley workshops with the arrival of the first parts of Locomotive Services Ltd’s well loved 9F 92212. The coming months will see it enter the shed for completion of a major overhaul, and we look forward to seeing it run again in the near future.”

I had a sneaking suspicion 92212 would end up appearing out of the blue one day

 

Would this be because The Midland Railway centre have stopped doing contract work?

 

Thanks Don

 

Can't see the point of the Ropley shuttle myself - if they're going to use a diesel (which is reasonable at this stage in the season) why not run a proper 2 train service. Can't cost that much more to run.

 

I imagine so

The whole point is to have something to do in between the wait for the 1 train service. I think it's a great idea and some added interest for someone to come on a 1 train running day. It's no different to a railway offering a DMU shuttle, only problem is the MHR are missing a DEMU right now.

A friend of mine was planning to visit one weekend to ride behind Manston before the gala. After realising the green timetable shuttles were running they have decided to come on a friday instead. I imagine it could prompt others to do the same, especially when Kilmersdon is in traffic too.

 

Well each to their own I suppose but a trip behind either Kilmersdon or a Class 20 doesn't rock my boat!

 

Whilst its very good news about the 9f, I have to wonder though, what impact will this have on the overhauls already in progress.? 35005, and 75079, will it lead to delays on their completion how much has been done on 92212, and what remains to be done, I believe the boiler is virtually finished now on 35005, and its awaiting its boiler test, and transferring of the already completed chassis from Eastleigh, once the boiler is in the frames, it should be quite a rapid turn round, as the tenders done, ideally I would guess the motive power department would love to have 35005, out by the end of the year, and hopefully 92212 not long after, with 75079 the following year, then 499 after that, hopefully before 506 comes to the end of its ticket,

 

Personal preference then!

 

I imagine maybe 35005 and 92212 will be worked on at the same time and 75079 may be delayed slightly? I guess time will tell

 

499`s wheelsets are now in Ropley yard, so a rewheeling this summer or Autumn is possible. Front bogie is all but complete and the copper firebox of the boiler was this week undergoing copper welding repairs.

 

If 92212 is largely reassembly there is no reason why it should delay the other overhauls very much.