Mid Hants Spring gala

The Mid Hants Spring Gala looks like an excellent event!

I'm thinking of travelling down for this one on the Friday and Saturday, can someone tell me, are all the engines usually out on the Friday of the gala, and do they usually run passenger trains into the evening?

Thanks!

 

The past trend for Mid-hants galas seems to be for quite a late start and early finish with the timetable, compared to galas on other lines anyway.

 

Subject to availability all rostered loco's will be running on all three days. Friday used to be a relatively quiet day but it is now just as popular as the weekend. Trains don't usually start running until about 10am and finish between 5-6 pm. Although as 60163 will be in residence they may start earlier and finish a bit later. I think it's going to be very busy this year as Tornado is the visitor. Some friends from work who are not interested in trains are going just to see Tornado.

 

It certainly will be very busy; us platform staff may have to practice crowd control, which hasn't happened for ages!

I don't yet know what the timetable will be, but a 9 start and a 5 finish sounds about right.

 

well, in that case i may skip college or get myself down there as a volunteer so access isnt as hard.

 

What, become a volunteer and get a PTS just for the gala?

 

Thanks for the info' !! Friday now booked off work, one more query, is the timetable/roster usually available in advance to buy or download?

Mid Hants website has advance tickets for sale, but no mention of a timetable...

 

The timetable is usually available to download a few days before the event on the MHR website. Hopefully it will be available a bit earlier this time.

 

Hopefully, if certain people at MH have listened,the timetable will be made available to all well in advance. A few days in advance is no good in encouraging people to attend.

 

I'm sure comments will be taken on board. The fact is, us traffic staff don't usually get a WTT until a few weeks before.

As far as a roster goes, I'm afraid I don't know.

 

Theres a gala timetable now available on the Mid Hants web site, no mention of loco allocations though

 

Link Here for timetable
http://www.watercressline.co.uk/mhralp/special10/SSGTT.pdf

 

When or are we at all likely to see any loco diagrams ?

 

Most probably the day before the gala because Bob won’t put this information out until all loco have been given a FTR? And this topic has been discussed at length on another thread.

 

Glad to see we are all catching on.

 

Looks not a bad timetable..... Might even be tempting too.

Well done for getting TT out early...

 

does the loco dept have overnight crews to look after the engines during galas, i can remember RF, Smiffy and myself doing a few of those, on one a certain GWR 4-6-0 kept on trying to put its fire out i think we had 8 or 9 engines to look after that night

the reason i ask is, that if locos are kept in light steam overnight and serviced as you would normally, you could have an earlier start on the sunday because you would be ready to leave shed a good 2 hours earlier once we had cleaned the grates and banked the fires up we used to take turns looking after them then in the morning we were ready to bring them back to full steam and get them off shed as soon as the drivers booked on, its only a thought if there is demand for a longer service

 

Im not sure they do have men there overnight,
1 mhr people like their sleep.
2 wadebridge had the cab fire in early 2008, and it wasnt found until morning

 

Thats (probably) due to wood being left on the footplate overnight....

Maybe the reason for a late start is that they dont have enough crews, either able or willing, to start early....

 

I do know that, my point is that that wouldnt have happened if there were men their overnight. And i have been told that men arent there overnight as they are often burgled.

I dont think that crews are willing to start as early, as it is a long and taxing day anyway. Also, station staff and signalmen arent willing to start as early, and the mentality of people around the MHR who visit arent likely to want to come down so early. Only photters ten to want this to happen.

(you are right about wood on the footplate, but also some kerosene was left on there overnight, im not sure why)