Mid Hants Railway - Autumn Gala

PeterD-2009

Despite the drizzle and grey conditions I, like many others, visited the railway on Sunday. Nine locomotives were in steam which was quite a challenge for the railway. All trains were extremely well loaded with some being standing room only.
As we arrived at the Ropley car park, Black 5 45379 was spotted climbing the 1 in 80 bank from Alresford.

On arrival in the station, Lord Nelson joined the black five to provide a double headed train to tackle the steep bank to Medstead & Four Marks.

Lord Nelson can be seen through the shrouds of steam and smoke.

Given the right away, great volumes of smoke and steam were seen as the train re-started.

About 15 minutes later, the next train arrived from Alresford hauled by superpower in the form of A1 Tornado and A4 Dominion of New Zealand,


The opportunity to fill Tornado's water tank was taken while waiting for the Ropley - Medstead section to clear.

The train occupying the Medstead section was hauled by Gresley N2 Tank No 1744.

We travelled on this train to Alresford. On arrival, Brittannia was attached to take the coaching set back to Alton.

The Gresley N2 now picked up the 2 coaches forming the Alresford-Ropley shuttle.

This locomotive was originally built to work through tunnels on the Metropolitan widened lines in London. It is fitted with condensing equipment, as can be seen by the pipes leading from the smokebox back to the side tanks. It is the first time this loco has visited the Mid Hants Railway.
While we were in Alresford the sad news that Lord Nelson had failed, at Alton, came through. With so many trains in operation, it meant that the services had to be re-scheduled and caused delays. Wadebridge piked up and extra coaching set from the sidings, at Alresford, to try and recover the passenger time-table.


We boarded this train to Alton.
We had a prolonged stop at Medstead and Four Marks, which I presume was due to things being sorted out at Alton. This wait was over when Black 5, 45379 appeared.


At Alton, Brittania drew forward to take the coaches back to Alresford and Wadebridge was released.

Wadebridge now coupled up to the freight train in the adjacent siding.

I have to take off my hat to those who organised and worked the railway this day. To have nine locomotives in steam on a 10mile railway with two passing loops was really impressive. Add to the normal service trains between Alton and Alresford, goods trains and a shuttle train between Alresford and Ropley, it was really superb.

ian408

Sounds awesome! You must have more than a passing interest in trains

PeterD-2009

ian408 wrote: »

Sounds awesome! You must have more than a passing interest in trains

Thank you Ian, yes trains are one of my great interests but I really wish to celebrate the skill and dedication put in by the full time and voluntary staff who work so hard to keep the preservation movement alive to give us, the general public, a wonderful insight of past times.

They deserve our support and I would recommend people visit.

Health check: I have no ties with the Mid Hants Railway other than being a visitor from time to time.

ian408

Within a few hours drive are several very cool museums. The standouts (for me at least) are the California State Railroad Museum and also the Western Railway Museum. A bit farther away (in Portola, California) is the Western Pacific Railroad Museum.

There are several others including one that runs in Niles Canyon (Fremont, California) on occasion.

But you're right, railroads deserve a little support. For us, they played a significant role in the settlement of the Western United States and were also responsible for some of our National Park's lodges--many were developed, in part, to give the railroads a destination for passengers.

PeterD-2009

ian408 wrote: »

Within a few hours drive are several very cool museums. The standouts (for me at least) are the California State Railroad Museum and also the Western Railway Museum. A bit farther away (in Portola, California) is the Western Pacific Railroad Museum.

There are several others including one that runs in Niles Canyon (Fremont, California) on occasion.

But you're right, railroads deserve a little support. For us, they played a significant role in the settlement of the Western United States and were also responsible for some of our National Park's lodges--many were developed, in part, to give the railroads a destination for passengers.

Thanks for your reply and links to your favourite museums. I have checked them out.

In the UK we have several preservation centres and museums. The preservation centres are usually based on closed railways and operate steam and diesel trains that have been rescued from the scrapyard. They have mostly been re-built by the preservation organisation.
Here is an example of a tank engine delivered 'new' in January 2011.






This may take several years to re-build and certainly will cost lots!

The National Railway Museum (NRM) is based at York and owns a terrific amount of locomotives, rolling stock and equipment. Most items were earmarked for preservation directly from service.

Preserved locomotives haul trains on our National network if they are on the 'approved list'. This means that trips over hundreds of miles is possible, using steam locos that were withdrawn from service 50 or more years ago. There is also a policy of lending locomotives to preservations sites from the NRM collection and other preservation sites.

ian408

That's cool that the restored engines are still used.

The most recent place I went was the Western Pacific. Theirs is a "working" yard and you're allowed to wander as you please (with the caveat stuff can move at any time). We weren't able to spend a lot of time there. I'd like to go back as for a $200 or so, you can be the engineer How cool would it be to operate a real locomotive?