Mid Hants Railway Operational Matters

I took a break from reading the forum. The debate doesn’t seem to have moved or improved over much.

I think you are splitting hairs that aren’t there to be split. The railway has accepted a 150/2 on the same basis as it accepted the DEMU. The CEO has explained how she sees it being used. There’s nothing in that statement that supports the conclusion that it isn’t really preserved. Nothing is indefinite obviously, steam engines have come and gone from the line in the past, and will probably do so in the future. To those who decry this news, all I can say is that were the railway to listen to your voices it would be more likely not less likely that the railway would struggle to fund the things you do like. You (me) and any individual is not on our own the audience for the railway.

As a more general comment or two:

To be frank I never had all that much interest in the Hammy for the first 15years, but that’s not relevant or important. It has more right to be on the line than most other rolling stock or locos. The class 20s are not representative of the area, but we would be sunk without them. None of the big events on the line could do without their foreground and background work.

We have to move with the times, as Hammy itself has demonstrated over the last 20years. We should strive to a vision of what the railway is about, but to think that should stop at July 1967 is absurd and risks future irrelevance, even if the objective is for that 1950s and 1960s theme to be the main part of the story. Whatever challenge from funding to volunteers you care to examine, none is better met by being closed to new thinking, new ways of doing things or new equipment.

I accept that not everyone will approve of 150231, or have any interest in it, I think all I would wish is that as with my feelings towards Hammy people go with the flow. You don’t all have to like it, just to accept some do and let them get on with it without being decried.

 

Can it not be both?

15x traction has been a massive part of the railway story from the 1980s, including the Southern Region. Although not specific to 150231 itself, 150s have regularly worked to Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Weymouth, Salisbury, Basingstoke, Axminster, Barnstaple, Gunnislake, Exmouth and of course Exeter; all very much on the Southern. As an example of the class, 150231 tells the story of Southern Region railways quite well I think.

Short of battery conversions (see 400 series preservation) or laying down third rail (which even the "big railway" struggles with), to continue the story of BR(S) we need to be looking at DMUs and the next generation of diesel locomotives. I've always said if I won the lottery I'd like a 159

Anyway, onto operational matters. For those of you visiting Thomas this week, due to fire risk, the Alton trains are diesel hauled. 47 tomorrow and Saturday, 20 on Sunday. Thomas shuttles are unaffected.

 

The 400series group's 313201 at Eastleigh (if it stays there) will not be too far from the MHR, so possible they may co operate in supporting preserved Mk3 based units?
Not sure if any other 150s units maybe preserved, also if the 455868 will be preserved, perhaps also with battery power?

 

I'm personally pleased that one has been saved. An interesting fact is that many of those early Class 150/2 deliveries entered service without yellow ends (except for the end doors)!.
https://flic.kr/p/2o6zZJj

 

If it is just running on the MHR it could get by without the yellow ends, but if it is still mainline approved and at some point gets on the mainline then it will need the yellow?

 

Hasn’t the high intensity headlight removed the need for yellow front ends?

 

Only if you have three headlights - top marker light and two retina burners lower down.

 

As though network planners are reading NatPres and trying to mess with our heads, for the first time ever, I saw a 153 sat at the end of platform 6 at Guildford this morning, so that's something… I'll just assume it came from Alton…

Simon

 

Was it painted light blue with cameras and extra lights below solebar level? If it was, it was a Plain Line Pattern Recognition test train and this was the schedule -
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:H00477/2025-08-11/detailed
The first leg would have been Eastleigh Yard to Haslemere. After arrival at Fratton and trips around Portsmouth, it's planned to do another trip over the Portsmouth Direct.
Instead of hours of convoluted knots crossing and recrossing the route, these schedules are broken down into reasonable sized chunks for planning and validation.
According to Wikipedia, it's one of these numbers -153311, 153376, 153379, 153385 used by Network Rail.

Test trains were not my field apart from occasional WTT schedules, but STP freight workings could always wind up the end of platform experts.....

Cheers, Neil

 

Are they cleared all the way to Alton?

 

To… maybe not from. (An “in joke” for those that know the issues we’ve had with the tunnel!)

 

I was passing through so didn't clock the details, but that sounds about right… I probably wouldn't have noticed but for the conversation we'd been having here.

Thanks for the extra info, I'll keep a closer eye in the future (though trips via Guildford are rarer than was once the case).

Simon

 

I was thinking of the 150 which only needs to go one way!

 

Ah. I thought you were referring to the 153. Same answer though.