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.
January - August 2003
30th August 2003: Very pleasant BBQ at Ropley this evening; a 'thank you' from Railway directors to volunteers and staff who helped over the Thomas event (and their partners). The station was overfilled with an eleven-coach train ready for the morning*, and a gleaming Standard Five° was steaming gently on the pit road under the floodlights, altogether a pleasing picture to which my camera would not do justice. Big Keith and Clive Meech, duty 'nightwatchmen' in the yard, turned up briefly in their overalls for one of Jim's Specials straight off the grill. Despite Mars being bright and ascending over the southern horizon, peace reigned. (* Special hiring) (°sic)
29th August 2003: Network Rail have today LIFTED the steam ban (imposed 22nd August 'due to fire risk')
Weymouth Boat Train, 23rd August 2003: SS
Shieldhall (Photo: Jan Glasscock,
Assistant Purser, SS Shieldhall
23rd August 2003)
(Travel on Shieldhall is a delightful experience: silent, utterly vibration-free,
and none of the usual boat smell of diesel. Recommended ...
tw)
| You can see this only 15 minutes walk from
Alresford station
Photo (26th August 2003): Tony Wood
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Bus Rally 2003 report on our Bus Rally event
Webpage reporting our Days Out With Thomas in August 2003
| 14th August 2003:
Latest photo received today from Henry O'Dwyer of MHR Green Train crossing M25 on last Cathedrals Express run to Warwick & Stratford-on-Avon Nice one Henry! Photo (9th July 2003): Henry O'Dwyer |
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| 13th July 2003:
Michael Topham caught this shot of today's excursion as it passed through Tonbridge, Kent this morning. #73096 making nice sounds, to judge from the heads out of windows
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| 5th April 2003:
The Nene Valley Rambler at Woking, showing off the cleaning job done by Leo Kennedy (our record-breaking, long-distance loco shed volunteer) Photo (5th April 2003): David Charlesworth |
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| BR Standard Class 5MT #73096 makes appropriate drama with the
Cathedrals Express on
15th March 2003
Two photos (15th March 2003) © Henry O'Dwyer |
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| 22nd March 2003:
Service train arrives at Alresford Photo (22nd March 2003): Brian Simmons |
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| If you are a regular
browser of this website and wish you too could join in all this manifest
fun, why not become truly a part of MHR by:
(1) Becoming a member of the Mid-Hants Railway Preservation Society (ideal if you really do live too far away to offer practical help); (2) Helping us finance the restoration of our recently purchased Black Five; (3) Lending a hand* (if you are over 12 and under 85 years of age, and live near enough); (4) Being a customer: Buy a ticket to explore our line for a day, come to one of our special events, do a footplate course, take a ride on an excursion, treat Mum to Sunday lunch on The Countryman, join real ale enthusiasts on a RAT, or give any of these as a present. *As an enjoyable hobby it even beats mucking about in boats! ... tw |
Steam Gala Sept 26th - 28th 2003: guest locos will include: A4 #60009 Union Of South Africa & Bluebell Railway's E4 0-6-2 Birch Grove
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Photos taken Sunday 2nd March 2003 by Henry O'Dwyer 9F #92212 and also 73096 and 34016 at Ropley: © Henry O'Dwyer |
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24th February 2003: Down train at Butts junction - Photo (24th February 2003, 149KB): Stephen Newell
20th January 2003:
DMU (13.40 ex Alresford) and steam (13.30 ex
Alton) crossing at Ropley ...
Photo (19th January 2003): David Charlesworth, who also wrote: B&W photo (8th July 1967) © Keith Lawrence see also Correspondence Rangers Newsletter (April 03) (and details about joining) Note: 'Rangers' are 12 - 16 year old volunteers at Mid-Hants Railway
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| The Watercress Line, The Railway Station, Alresford, Hampshire,
England, SO24 9JG Tel 01962 733810 Fax 01962 735448 info@watercressline.co.uk |
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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. |
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The Watercress Line, The Railway
Station, Alresford, Hampshire, England, SO24 9JG |
