Mid Hants Railway General Discussion

[sem34090]

This came up at Medstead today, and given that the stationmaster didn't have a definitive answer, I would venture that this is still being planned out.

[MrTea]

Anyone else make it down to the Mid-Hants for Flying Scotsman at the weekend?

 

Sunday was a busy day at Ropley with lots of cars on the field. 
 

Great to see all the loco fleet out on the line and the extra Bulleid coaches from the Bluebell in service too. 

 

A few pics from Sunday:

 

[MrTea]

And a short clip. 

[Northmoor]

On 03/03/2020 at 06:22, MrTea said:

Anyone else make it down to the Mid-Hants for Flying Scotsman at the weekend?

 

Sunday was a busy day at Ropley with lots of cars on the field. 
 

Great to see all the loco fleet out on the line and the extra Bulleid coaches from the Bluebell in service too. 

I didn't have time to travel unfortunately but spent a couple of hours on Medstead station on Sunday.  Many thanks to the friendly volunteers who let me in to buy my platform ticket; apparently a few turned up who resented being asked to contribute anything to the railway (as well as the locals whose usual and unofficial footpath was blocked).  I got a few decent shots of everything except Scotsman, but the light was nice to capture 41312 banking it into the station:

 

 

[sem34090]

We undoubtedly came across one another, then.

 

To clarify, the path across the railway at Medstead is a permissive path, that is to say a path owned by the railway company who chooses to allow general use of it. It is not a public right of way and a sign has been displayed to that effect since 1933. It is not shown on the map of public rights of way and the Land Registry considers the Land to belong to the railway. Under these circumstances, the railway is entitled to close it and effectively does so whenever trains are running even though an alternative route is offered for the locals' convenience.

 

[Chris116]

Sadly the Mid Hants have today announced that all services are cancelled until the end of May.

 

I was looking forward to Guarding my second Real Ale Train of the year but the safety of staff, volunteers and customers has to be far more important than anything else. 

 

I look forward to seeing all my friends on the railway as soon as we are open again and wish everyone all the very best.

[TomE]

I notice the MHR has an appeal running at the moment to help with ongoing costs during the shut down:

 

https://preservation.watercressline.co.uk/news/entry/temporary-closure-and-how-you-can-help-us-continue-our-work

 

Tom.  

[MrTea]

Had a fun afternoon at Ropley today for the Mid Hants autumn gala. Interesting to see it’s still possible to organise such an event in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. 
 

Anyway, here are a few pictures from today:

 

Urie S15 506 departs from Ropley

 

Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T 41312 waits in the yard between turns.

 

Fowler 7F 53808 arrives from Alton as 506 waits in the yard. 

Stanier 5XP 45596 ‘Bahamas’ waits for the off at Ropley. 

[adb968008]

Indeed, it almost felt too safe at the MHR today.

 

Not many on the trains, I doubt my carriage got much above double figure occupancy for every ride we did.

 

Every station the door handles were wiped, and most people kept there distance. For the most part everyone wore masks onboard and slightly less on the platform.

At a guess i’d say around 300 or so passengers between the three trains.. lots of space, and people were generally left to roam. People managed their own risk level and precautions sensibly enough.

 

The one way system didnt work anywhere.. not the train, entrances, exits of station, shop... but generally the flow was tidal any way.. everyone was either entering, or exiting at the same times...plus.. there wasnt many people.. a crowd would still be less than 6.

 

tbh i’d pay more for a more restricted gala like this... I like the idea of a reserved seat. Rotating the locos between trains means passengers don't have to rotate, as you see at a usual gala crush. Post covid, if there was an option of reserved seating, with an overflow train here /there for those moving between stations, to get back to their own train without waiting too long, I think it would be good.

 

Very good show today, really impressed, the smallest crowd ive seen at a gala.. the experience felt more like a BR era railtour.. with lots of loco changes & reversals enroute. Certainly the locos performed like one, 45596’s three cylinders sounds like your going at 60 only the rail joints give it away. 
 

in short, great day, priced too low for what was offered.. a mainline charter costs you towards £100, and what was offered today wasnt far from that.. a reserved seat for a full day out with 80+ miles of steam, with 5 locos... it wasn't your usual pot luck, free for all gala.
 

All the locos turned out well, ran very well, but the crew need training on head lamp arrangements... seen a few class 7,8,9 freight arrangements on passenger services today. 

Anyone know what happened at Ropley on the 1050 departure with 53808..?

 

 

Edited October 17, 2020 by adb968008

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

tbh i’d pay more for a more restricted gala like this... 

 

in short, great day, priced too low for what was offered.. a mainline charter costs you towards £100, and what was offered today wasnt far from that.. a reserved seat for a full day out with 80+ miles of steam, with 5 locos... it wasn't your usual pot luck, free for all gala.
 

I'd forgotten this was on this weekend, but glad to hear it's well organised.  TBH the loss of "freedom to roam" is what most puts me off visiting preserved railways; I don't want my visit organised to that degree, it reminds me of going round commercial theme park-type museums where they discourage you from lingering at anything especially interesting and you are clearly being routed to the gift shop.

 

Totally agree about the value offered at a MHR event compared to a mainline rail tour.  At a couple of their diesel galas I've done about 60 miles just in the afternoon for £20, riding behind four different heritage locos.  Towards the end of the day you can pretty much get a carriage to yourself.

[adb968008]

10 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I'd forgotten this was on this weekend, but glad to hear it's well organised.  TBH the loss of "freedom to roam" is what most puts me off visiting preserved railways; I don't want my visit organised to that degree, it reminds me of going round commercial theme park-type museums where they discourage you from lingering at anything especially interesting and you are clearly being routed to the gift shop.

 

Totally agree about the value offered at a MHR event compared to a mainline rail tour.  At a couple of their diesel galas I've done about 60 miles just in the afternoon for £20, riding behind four different heritage locos.  Towards the end of the day you can pretty much get a carriage to yourself.

On this occasion they definitely discourage the gift shop, only the goods shed at Alresford...  it’s a very hardy experience for those that persist you need at least 10 mins (No exaggeration) in walking time and a map of the one way system..for the building and the station..to visit the shop you have to circle the whole station area and car park, and be prepared to take verbal commands on stopping, standing, and being told which way around the shop you can walk, if you miss the book you want, you have to exit the shop and walk around again, it was a bit of extreme Halloweenesque comedy to watch... that was the fairground ride part.

Catering didn’t work either, it was order by text, but no one responded nor answered the phone and nothing was ready (though the staff at Ropley told us this wasn’t really working well when we arrived and said it’s only 50/50 success). As your only restricted to the train your on, the idea was good though, your supposed to order, food is ready when your train arrives, and you take it with you as it goes.

As it was clearly hard / stressful for retail or catering staff working in such circumstance it was easIer and pleasant enough to visit the cake shop and chippy at the end of the street... just enough time to do between run rounds (or wait 2 hours for the next train). It worked for some, but it seemed the lunch time trains were an issue.
 

At the end of the day we were there for the railway visit, not the catering / retail so it didn’t bother us, but it did look a bit hostile/unappealing..lf something needs improving that would be it.

 

The gala itself though was a great idea in how the trains / locos were planned and run.

 

Quote

Totally agree about the value offered at a MHR event compared to a mainline rail tour.  At a couple of their diesel galas I've done about 60 miles just in the afternoon for £20, riding behind four different heritage locos. 

Ah, so get me right here..

 

Yesterday was good compared to a Mainline railtour, but I wouldn’t pay more for an ordinary gala.
 

Yes ordinary galas are good value, but they can be scrums, people are like rats everywhere, on the train, platform, trackside. Getting a seat can be hard.

They are good value because they are Butlins cheap, and you put up with the scrum, run to grab windows, race place to place to share the experience and get the best spots. you win some, lose some.

 

Yesterday was good because there was no crowds, you had your own seat, the locos came to you. Even the trackside wasn’t crowded. Getting a picture didn’t involve climbing over people or getting abuse from someone who felt entitled to having an empty platform for his picture.

Rotating the locos mid-journey, so you got all locos was a good idea too. As it eliminated mass migrations of passengers over the footbridge at key points in the day.
 

it felt like a railtour, not a gala.

 

At one point yesterday, 4 locos were simultaneously moving around Ropley.. it looked like a BR Mpd.. one one, one coming off Shed, loco change, two trains departing..

You had 15 minutes to watch this activity take place, before reboarding your train. there was no scrum, plenty of space, no rush and you had your own seat to go back to.
 

That’s what I would pay more for, if there was the typical thousands of people that would be much harder to manage, as they’d need the extra coach set in service, and there would be less time for this activity, not to mention less safe to have the crowds walking around the shed area with that amount of activity.
 

it was a different feel to the more usual loco change at the end of the line, and planning your day around which to ride, and which to photograph.. you could easily do it all, and without the crowds.

Perhaps though in the future galas could consider a “club train carriage”..reserved seating for those who pay extra for it... Llangollen did it with the Elizabethan observation coach at the SSS galas a decade ago.

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by adb968008

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

Yesterday was good because there was no crowds, you had your own seat, the locos came to you. Even the trackside wasn’t crowded. Getting a picture didn’t involve climbing over people or getting abuse from someone who felt entitled to having an empty platform for his picture.

Rotating the locos mid-journey, so you got all locos was a good idea too. As it eliminated mass migrations of passengers over the footbridge at key points in the day.
 

it felt like a railtour, not a gala.

Actually this has been my experience of MHR Galas, I've not found them especially busy, in fact in the case of the diesel gala I was almost on my own on the last trains.  I normally avoid Gala events for exactly the reasons you describe, I'd rather travel on a normal operating day with the "normal" general public; they're much more polite than many "enthusiasts".  In fact some of my best visits to railways have been on non-operating days; check there's staff around that don't mind you having a wander, always leave a nice donation somewhere in lieu of a train ticket and just explore.  Rural stations often look much like they did in BR days - nobody travelling - and reflect why they were closed in the first place.  You can't get the same identical 3/4 view shots of locomotives that everyone is fighting to take on gala days but I don't tend to bother with them anyway.

[adb968008]

A few pictures from yesterday..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting thing learnt yesterday, is 76017 has a sprinkler system installed on the back top of the tender, above the footplate that sprinkles water over the coal, presumably to manage dust.

Edited May 16, 2021 by adb968008

[PenrithBeacon]

Nice that the 7F has come from the dark side

[adb968008]

On 18/10/2020 at 15:36, PenrithBeacon said:

Nice that the 7F has come from the dark side

The 7f is a great sounding machine.

ive been analysing my recordings today from yesterday, Ive 9 minutes of perfection repitition from Ropley to Medstead... and quite an angry bark from Alton to Medstead... still makes light work of it.

 

yesterday was only my second encounter with 53808, last time was 29 years ago on a railtour from Bolton to Minehead in April 1991.

 

 

interesting day that was, featured, now preserved, 47580 County of Essex to Bristol, a 47/8 which failed on the down fast at Taunton, we were rescued by Tauntons class 08 to The WSR, where 6106 and 4561 took over. Reverse Was 53808, another 47/8 and then 47580 back home.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by adb968008

[jimwal]

On 17/10/2020 at 21:27, adb968008 said:

Anyone know what happened at Ropley on the 1050 departure with 53808..?

 

Three of us enjoyed the gala for much the same reasons as you did. The 'reserved compartment' a definite plus, the only downside being restricted to the one train rather than the usual hop off and on different trains. As I believe all but two carriages were BR types it mattered less. 

 

Referring to the incident above, I presume when it stopped suddenly just after departure. We were on that train and were taken by suprise. We learnt later that the signal had been returned to danger before the loco had got past it, hence the abrupt stop.

Maybe the sharp sound of the 7F had the signalman thinking it was going faster than it was, it certainly sounded good on the banks!

[adb968008]

25 minutes ago, jimwal said:

 

Three of us enjoyed the gala for much the same reasons as you did. The 'reserved compartment' a definite plus, the only downside being restricted to the one train rather than the usual hop off and on different trains. As I believe all but two carriages were BR types it mattered less. 

 

Referring to the incident above, I presume when it stopped suddenly just after departure. We were on that train and were taken by suprise. We learnt later that the signal had been returned to danger before the loco had got past it, hence the abrupt stop.

Maybe the sharp sound of the 7F had the signalman thinking it was going faster than it was, it certainly sounded good on the banks!

I have viewed my footage today and think I see what happened.

 

best not to speculate or post the footage though.

 

The loco did stop partly past the signal, under the bridge.

A phone conversation followed between Crew and Signalman, followed by a footplate crew discussion, and finally a trackside discussion with the guard, before the train restarted.

 

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by adb968008

[adb968008]

Heres my video..

 

 

credits shared with my 10 year old daughter who videoed much of this footage too.