Preservation News

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A Handy Bridge For Ropley

Wednesday 12th June; it’s cold, it’s wet. That probably means we’ll be working outside! The usual banter over our first cuppa at 08-00 was fuelled a bit more than usual by the discussions regarding the opening ceremony of the "Harry Potter” bridge,...Read more

Don't Fence Me In

Friday 7th June - Building Department Blog The wooden picket fence panels and gates that we have been constructing and painting at Medstead workshop have now been installed around the work compound at Alresford. The old spiked fencing pa...Read more

45132 Update

It’s been a while since I’ve been down due to exams but there were five of us today. Dave spent the day cleaning and topping up the lead batteries used to power the peak. As you can see, these come in racks of 96 and haven’t been replaced for over ...Read more

Loco Wednesday Gang – 5th June 2013

Here we are again, happy as pigs in a picnic area! Yes, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, not a cloud in sight, so naturally all this weeks jobs were indoors. Never mind, I had a lovely day on Old Winchester Hill yesterday so I’m not short...Read more

Wagon Group Report 30 May

Monday saw Chris and Malcolm having a break from BY door repairs and overhauls at Medstead... and making a start on constructing some notice boards for the Wagon Group and Medstead station. Tuesday saw the first serious work on the Milk tank at Al...Read more

Still Life alias Wednesday Loco Gang at Ropley

Wednesday 29th May It’s half term and Peppa Pig is attracting lots of families to our railway this week; I was TTI on Mondayand I’ve never seen the train so full; standing room only! As part of the attraction for the week we have an animal f...Read more

Water We Doing With Tower?

Wednesday 22nd May. Another grey overcast "Spring” day greeted the Ropley Loco Gang regulars as we vied for space in our car park; even at 08-00 it’s nearly full! I’ve been AWOL last couple of weeks and have a bit of a Sun Tan from spending ...Read more

Building Department Surfboard Installed

Tuesday 21 May - Building Group Report The ‘surfboard’ mentioned previously, which is actually a new blockshelf front panel, has now been installed in Ropley signal box, and very fine it looks too. A joint effort between the Building Depar...Read more

MX Wagon Group Working

21 May - Wagon Group Report No one was working on Wagons on Monday, the only non working day this week! On the Tuesday the new armoured cable for the electricity supply at Medstead to the Alresford end of the yard ...Read more

Block Shelf and the Sergeant Major

Monday 20 May - Signal Engineering Update Two weeks ago saw a major project underway in Ropley Box... the replacement of the Block Shelf with a new, deeper version to be able to accommodate the additional signal repeaters and backlock key releas...Read more

Loco Wednesday Gang Report 15th May

No picnics today – a little rainy and very cold, so most of us were togged up with fleeces under boiler suits! Dave-the-blog has gone AWOL so you’ll have to put up with my scribblings this week. Frank appeared with a long list of bits an...Read more

Mallard Arrives at Alton!

Tuesday 14 May - Wagon Group Report Once again a good week of progress all round, although so much seems to be going on it is getting difficult to record it all... At Medstead Brian Chipping assisted by David Sandford and Chris Hancock have laid ...Read more

Loco Wednesday Gang Report 8th May

Back to Ropley with a spring in my step and joy in my heart! I’ve been laid low for a couple of weeks so it was great to get out of the house and enjoy what might be the last day of summer at Ropley – complete with picnic! Thanks to Dave-2Ja...Read more

Building Department Surfboard Production

April - Building Dept Report One of the current workshop jobs elicited the enquiry that the Building Department might be going into the production of surfboards, a nice thought but no. The item in question is a new block board shelf front for Ropl...Read more

Non Electrical Wiring

Tuesday 7 May - Signal Engineering Department Report Following many months of installing, terminating and testing new wiring for the Phase 2 work at Ropley, last Thursday saw the installation of new wiring of the non-electrical kind by Bob Howes a...Read more

Another Busy Week on the Wagon Front

Tuesday 07 May - Wagon Group Report Spring arrived at last and a mainly dry and warm week for a change... Tuesday saw Dave Edwards, Dave Vella and Tom examining LMS van M 514791 in the Meon siding, and measuring up for the new steel wor...Read more

May Day, May Day!

Wednesday 1 May - Wednesday Loco Gang Well, as I arrived at Ropley on this bright spring morning I could see that no one was in peril, however, Colin was still in distress and Dave the Scribe was missing! Having said that, there was still ...Read more

Wagon Group Report 29 April

Tuesday saw Dave Vella, David Taylor and Paul at Medstead working on the SR insulated container in the lower yard. A bit more inside support work done, screws in the exterior zinc sheeting and finishing off the new ply sheeting on the roof. &nb...Read more

Containers, Doors and a Milk Tank!

Tuesday 23 April - Wagon Group Report Another busy week for the Wagon Group... Wednesday saw David Edwards, Dave Vella, Adrian, Paul, Roger and Harvey up at Medstead working on the SR insulated container in the lower yard. The new pl...Read more

Alton - Watch This Space!

Thursday 18 April - Signal Engineering Department Report Work still continues at Ropley as part of the phase 2 work and all new multicore cables that run between lineside location cases have now been terminated (at last!) Likewise the cables th...Read more

Wednesday Loco Gang Bring Spring To Ropley

Wednesday 17th April, Spring seems to have sprung at last as the late shift (me) arrived just in time for tea-break; I got back from 13 hour flight from Shanghai the night before so my body clock is somewhat up the swanny; that’s my excuse anywa...Read more

Alton Towers Competition!

Tuesday 16 April - Wagon Group Report Up at Medstead they have been concentrating on the doors to BY S 653. With carpenters Chris and Malcolm solely doing woodwork, others have been stripping the old paint and removing the ironmongery to doors fou...Read more

P-Way Report January - March

January eventually started for us on the 7th and we carried on with our tree clearing and bonfire activities. This time our work area was around Boyneswood Bridge so that made it easy for a few return trips to Medstead for tea and cakes to ease us ...Read more

Ropley Loco Wednesday Gang 10th April

Wednesday 10 April First to the important matters. Today’s cakes were supplied by Jim and Welsh Pete, and very nice they were, too. Today’s apology was supplied by yours truly for inadvertently re-christening Derek as Adrian in l...Read more

Busy Week On The Alton And Medstead Fronts

Tuesday 9 April - Wagon Group Report Another good turn out last Tuesday at Alton, and a welcome to Paul Muammar. BR brake van B 953701 with the stove was still there and once again David Taylor had the stove alight in good time for...Read more

Ropley Loco Wednesday Gang

Wednesday 3 April Breaking News!!! Its freezing. Yes, you know that already. The same Arctic wind that was freezing us on the footbridge a couple of weeks ago, is still heading straight for Ropley yard, and is then accelerated by...Read more

Wagon Group Report

Wednesday 3 April A bumper turn out on Wednesday at Alton, with welcome to new members Adrian Lord and Harvey Stokes. Not much change in the weather, but at least BR brake van B 953701 with the stove was still there, and David Taylor ha...Read more

New Loos For Old

Building Group Report Some of the boys have descended on Alresford loos in the station building recently in order to renovate them. They have been looking a bit down at heel lately (the loos not the boys) with damp, new pipe work having being...Read more

The Terminators!

Friday 29 March - S&T Group Report Terminate! Terminate! …that was again the message for the Monday Signal Engineering lads last week. We found ourselves back at Ropley on another cold morning terminating internal wiring in lineside location c...Read more

They’re 62, they’re 64, they’re 66, they’re 68, The Wednesday Gang are really great!

Wednesday 27 March. My Wireless told me as I drove in through the arctic conditions that it was 50 years ago today that Dr. Beeching, Civil Servant extraordinaire, published his now infamous report on Britain’s Railways. I wonder what all ...Read more

Wagon Group Report

Tuesday 26 March Chris Powell and Malcolm Green continue with the timber repairs to the BY internal doors at Medstead. They have mostly completed Door 2, excluding minor finishing off. The photo shows the repair to the worst damage on this d...Read more

Anyone Got A Spare Battery?

Wednesday 20th March; officially the first day of Spring; the Spring Equinox is tomorrow, half way between Mid Winter and Mid Summer. My wireless told me this morning that on this day last year, it was 20 degrees warmer than today. Whatever happene...Read more

Wagon Group Overseas Visit!

Tuesday 19 March - Wagon Group Report Resources at Alton were split to Wednesday and Thursday this week and LNER open E 276733 now has a completed south side door, filled and undercoated. Internally everything has been creosote substituted, th...Read more

All Change At Alton

Monday 18 March - Building Group Report Network Rail plan to install a new footbridge with a lift at Alton which means some alterations to the MHR set up on platform 3. The engineers and surveyors from Network Rail have marked out the floor plan a...Read more

A Bridge NOT Too Far

Feb 2012 - Building Report The fencing team have managed to install more of the round top panels at Ropley as the 'old current bun' has been a little more in evidence recently. It's amazing how a bit of sun gives them impetus and they could fix pa...Read more

Wadebridge Tender Frames

13 March Wadebridge has made a big leap forward on our new tender build project with the decision to send the tender frame up to the Boro' Foundry's machine shop in Stourbridge to have the axle cut outs machined. This will save 6 m...Read more

Beware the Ides of March!

Wednesday 6th March 2013 – Ropley Loco Wednesday Gang Well, not quite the Ides of March as that’s 15th March – or 26th March if you forgot to wind your watch back 11 days in 1752! Anyway, for those amongst you who go fishing ...Read more

Suffering From The Clamps!

Tuesday 12 March - Wagon Group Report Following the excitement and cold of the Gala last weekend, it’s back to normal this week... Dave Edwards and Vella were continuing internal timber repair works on the SR container at Med...Read more

Let There be Light!

Monday 11th March - Vintage Carriage Report From my point of view this week was a real milestone on Bulleid S 4211 when with Tony, Les and myself tidied up the security of a number of cables, reworked a new section of metal trunking to g...Read more

Extreme Signal Engineering

Monday 11th March 2013 Signal Report Today has been a case of "Extreme Signal Engineering”... when I looked out at 6.45 am this morning, Liss had a dusting of snow and it would have been quite easy to climb back into bed with a nice morning cuppa....Read more

75079 February Report

11th March Our blog here at the 75079 team is currently in a rolling author format, and this month I am pleased to say we have moved on at a great pace since Christmas. As previously reported by the Wednesday Gang, the b...Read more

Spring has come (Aaargh!)

Wednesday 6th March 2013 Several of us had done TTI turns during last weekend’s Spring Gala, which had been enjoyed by trains full of enthusiasts and families. Amongst the locos appearing were four NRM Southern locos – Cheltenham, ...Read more

BUSY GALA WEEKEND

Tuesday 5th March Well I have been off during the week on domestic duties, with my wife recovering from an operation... but this did not stop the planning for work at Alton, and a comprehensive list of things to do (Nos 1-11)...Read more

ULS – Platework Ordered

499 Work since my last post has mainly focused on the cab roof. The platework and rolled angles have been sourced, shaped, cut and dry fitted. Once we were happy with the finished product, the whole lot was taken down as one piece, we...Read more

WW2 American Light Tank at Ropley

WW2 tank at Ropley? What’s he on about? Answer at the end of these ramblings, if you are even vaguely interested... Anyway, Wednesday dawned overcast, cold but dry at least as the usual suspects yawned their way i...Read more

Wagon Group Gala Preparations

A cold start to the day at Alton on Tuesday with early mist, but once the sun broke through it was almost pleasant... After removing the London end planks to E 276733 we left David Taylor and Clive Youngs cutting, priming and installing new ...Read more

Vintage Carriage Report

The Thursday gang appears to be growing and growing with no less than seven volunteers working on Bulleid S 4211 at Ropley last week, that included Bryan Chipping, David Sandford, Chris Hancock, Ian Johnson, Andy Day and his son ...Read more

Paving The Way

Jan 2013. Building Department teams continue to hit the road (rails) eager to attack the on-going projects with gusto- gusto is a new feature for 2013 but it will probably not last. The fencing team continue to do battle with the tree ...Read more