MHR Official Website Loco Shed pages comprise the original steam railway docusoap website, updated several times each week. Follow our volunteers as they work to keep steam alive - not dead in a museum! Watch over their shoulders as these wonderful machines are restored, maintained and run; as replacement parts are made and fitted; as MHR carries steam enthusiasts, families and footplate students faster, safer, more stylishly, month on month. Visit us, see, hear, and experience the thrill of powerful steam locos working really hard for mile upon mile up our long, steep gradients.

      October 2002 - January 2003

.       offers you NEW IMPROVED HAPPINESS ... because you're worth it                  How about ..         Doel family snapshot (27th December 2002) : proud father and daughter as volunteers on the same train - Julie on the footplate, Jim as a newly-qualified guard Alternatively .. Or perhaps .. For the enthusiasts ..     And if all else fails, there's always our ...

Robin Higgs & Peter Cutler Every participant of the sponsored walk is presented with a certificate to mark their achievement. An essential part of the safety arrangements for the walk - remember that moving trains and sponsored walkers do not mix well - is to have a 'sweeper' who follows the last walker and pronounces that each section of track is clear of people before the section is handed back to the Operations Dept. to start running trains again. Peter Cutler usually acts as a 'Sweeper' and out of necessity is the last person to complete the walk. Robin Higgs (MHRPS President) presents Peter (right) with his certificate - suitably endorsed to record the fact that Peter came in last. Report and photo (11th January 2003):  Jim Russell (MHRPS Chairman)
11th January 2003:   The line was closed today for the Sponsored Walk of the line in aid of MHR's restoration of Stanier Black Five #5379 It's a tough walk up the hill from Alton to Medstead & Four Marks, so walkers rest here midday before the downhill leg to Ropley and Alresford
A restored King Alfred Motor Services bus took walkers back to Alton Photos (11th January 2003): David Charlesworth

10th January 2003:   Gerald and Tilly live in the Ropley station house. Tilly likes Kyoichi Oda, our Japanese volunteer, but it took a lot of practice before he could correctly pronounce her name. Dogged determination won through.
Photos (at Ropley, 9th January 2003): Clive Holliday

14th December 2002: Dennis Halliwell is re-united with the loco he drove new

10th December 2002:   Photos and a video of Std Five #73096  hauling an excursion to Salisbury Photo (right) by John Childs

Ropley Vale from the loco yard, late afternoon (4th Dec 2002)    Bigger (193KB)

... and ... a bit to the left for our ex-pat browsers (191KB)

Photos (4th December 2002): Tony Wood

Photos added here (9th January 2003)

Photos from the Winter 1944-5 Event   (26 December 2002 & 1 January 2003)

Alton station page

28th October 2002:   #73096 was tested on the running line for the first time midday today, running up and down the line between service train movements.  No problems. More pictures same day Photo (28th October 2002): Tony Wood Also: David Charlesworth's photo: #73096 on a Santa Special, Alton, 1st December 2002

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The Watercress Line's own quarterly journal Mid-Hants News is available FREE to all Society members, or £2 plus 50p postage and packing to non-Society members.  MHRPS Membership Information