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'Bodmin' approaches Ropley, October 2001. Photo © Henry O'Dwyer |
Without the volunteers there would be no Mid Hants Railway. From the first idea of its preservation up to the present day, volunteers have built, restored and run it, doing everything from laying the track to driving the engines.
Some spend a day a month with us, some a few days each week. Some fit their MHR days around the shift patterns of their full-time work. Some join us when they retire. We have many volunteers who regularly travel from over 100 miles away to lend a hand at Mid-Hants Railway. Some even come from abroad and spend weeks with us each year.
Why? It's not just altruism. Working with a common purpose alongside like-minded people is hugely rewarding and enjoyable and keeps you healthier
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So what would you like to do to help keep steam trains running in this country? |
Here are some ways to get more information about helping at MHR:
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Tel No: 01962 733810 Fax No: 01962 735448 e-mail: information@watercressline.co.uk |
| Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Department
is responsible for restoring, maintaining and running these vehicles.
Training is given as required. Commitment and aptitude may result in
your selection, training and rostering for footplate duties.
Loco Shed Pages show in detail what we do at Ropley Motive Power Depot |
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Traffic Department provides Station Staff, Shunters, Guards, Signalmen, Booking Clerks, Travelling Ticket Inspectors and Stationmasters. You start as a Porter and progress with training through the ranks. Frontline staff need the natural courtesy and charm for which MHR is famous
Alresford Traincare, under John Dunkerley and Jim Lawrence, do normal maintenance on our carriage sets, and Paul Hamilton sorts out the cleaning. (Paul is in the foreground of this photo)
An enthusiastic Wagons Group is renovating trucks at both Alton and Medstead & Four Marks and we have an ever-lengthening goods train which draws much admiration, especially at our Gala events
Vintage Carriage Group own and are renovating three pre-1948 Southern Railway coaches
Infrastructure and Permanent Way Department installs and maintains track and signalling equipment, working in all weathers. They are a jovial lot, get about by Wickham trolley and are particularly welcoming
Building Department, based at Medstead and Four Marks, is responsible for most of the new building work, building maintenance tasks and civil engineering around the railway. The volunteers also undertake restoration of railway artefacts such as platform items (e.g. benches, trolleys, lampposts, etc.) and heritage railway signs together with the manufacture of iron, steelwork and carpentry items as required. People of all skill levels are welcome as there is work to suit most abilities. For more information please contact the Department Manager: Mark Walden via information@watercressline.co.uk
Catering Department prepares and serves meals on the dining trains, the West Country Buffet at Alresford and the T-Junction at Ropley, and also serves in buffet cars on our service trains
You may have noticed how lineside clearance has opened up magnificent views for our passengers across the Hampshire countryside. Andy Ford (023-807-83195) and his colleagues would welcome your help with this constant task. You would get training in track safety, and probably also in the use of chainsaws and strimmers
The Wednesday Gang keeps Ropley Station shipshape
Some of the Wednesday Gang at work |
AND ...
Of course our Booking Offices, Shops, General Office, and Information Office, are all also staffed mainly by volunteers
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work" - Thomas Edison
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Tel No: 01962 733810 Fax No: 01962 735448 e-mail: information@watercressline.co.uk www.watercressline.co.uk |
Graphics: Henry O'Dwyer
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Myra is a regular volunteer in the boilershop at Ropley. She describes her recent first footplate day Movie (4.3MB, 24th February 2009): Tony Wood
Here's a little story that might interest anyone thinking of volunteering for the Mid Hants.
I've been a member of the Preservation Society since the early days but
apart from a couple of stints in the booking office at Ropley in the
mid 70s I'd never been much more than an armchair enthusiast. I always
tried to keep up to speed with what was going on at the Mid Hants, but
in the 1990s the railway seemed to have lost its way and become
synonymous with in-fighting and general ill-feeling so I let my
membership lapse for a while. Lately though, things seemed to be on a
more even keel again and with a bit more leisure time at my disposal, I
decided to take a chance and ask to join the Loco Department. I figured
this was asking quite a lot considering I have no engineering
background and my only first-hand experience of steam locomotives was
limited to a couple of Footplate Experience courses on the West
Somerset Railway. To put it bluntly I wasn't in the position to offer
anything much that would potentially be of use to the railway, and I
fully expected my general lack of knowledge to be greeted with
indifference or worse still derision.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Since joining the Loco Department in November, Frank and the guys have
been absolutely fantastic and I couldn't possibly have received a
warmer welcome.
The order of the day at Ropley Manor seems to be that they believe you
CAN do things, not that you can't, and I've been chucked right in at
the deep end doing tasks I would never dreamed of attempting before.
Sometimes people of great skill and knowledge don't want to share it,
so the patience, understanding and first-rate tuition that's been shown
to me at Ropley is rare indeed. Didn't know how to take the
streamlining off a Bulleid Pacific or remove a brake ejector but I do
now.
We railway enthusiasts often very wrongly assume we know a lot about
the subject from our vantage points on the other side of the fence, but
until you confront a working railway hands-on you'll never know
quite how much you don't know.
The Loco Department isn't for everyone and standing up to your knees
with a shovel in a filthy and flooded inspection pit won't appeal to
some, but the point of this e-mail is to assure anyone thinking of
volunteering that the Mid Hants is now a really friendly and
flourishing line, and if you want to get out of your armchair and
really learn something about railways this is a great place to do it.
All the best
Martin Orford
(Bishops Waltham, Hampshire)
13 January 2008
From: Martin Orford
Sent: 30 August 2008 00:55
Subject: A Volunteer's Tale - update
Well it was way back in January when I wrote to Tony with my "Volunteer's Tale", and little did I imagine that it would end up on the Mid Hants website. But it did, and though it was more intended as a "thank you" to the people in the Loco Department who made me so welcome and have become good friends since, perhaps it's time for an update. I try to get up to the railway once a week whenever that's possible, and many others do likewise, more if they can. I very much enjoy working in the shed and there's always something interesting and challenging to do, though the jobs are always carefully chosen by Frank Boait to tailor them to our various skills (or lack of them). For quite mysterious reasons (or possibly sheer genius), it always seems to work out fine, and everyone gets to have a good day.
But with the summer coming on, and more trains running, I decided to try my luck for some footplate work. The first stage towards this goal involved getting a Mid Hants ID card and a PTS (Personal Track Safety) qualification, but the railway runs many instructional courses to help volunteers with this, and it's basically common sense anyway. The next step was to ask Bob Deeth if I could take the Cleaner's exam. The exam is mostly about signalling and safety (quite rightly so, considering the duty of care to the public that's involved), and the first time around I failed it, though Bob was kind enough to explain in some detail what it was that I needed to learn. Many hours with the BR 1950 Rule Book (on which the Mid Hants rule book is based) ensued, but the re-take in April was more successful, and I was now in a position to put my name down for turns as a Cleaner on the footplate roster which is posted on the board in Ropley Manor. Naturally the turns are very well subscribed, and being around at the right time generally results in a mad scramble for the roster sheets from a willing multitude with pens in hand!
I've now done seven turns on the footplate, and being a Locomotive Cleaner is quite considerably better than it sounds. Of course you need to clean the engine at the start of the day, though education is never forgotten, and for the first couple of turns I was taught the basic operational principles of how the line works, elementary route knowledge if you like. But even from day one the Cleaner has a real part to play, looking out for signals, exchanging tokens, and of course making the tea (without which any self-respecting railway would no doubt grind to a halt).
As the crews get to know you, they will generally let you do a little bit more every time, provided you don't overstep the mark and try to get too clever. A real thrill for me was firing the Ivatt for over 50 miles last week and being allowed to do it pretty much on my own initiative, but with a great deal of encouragement and support from my driver (Dougie) and fireman (Alec). Thanks guys! And I still have an ongoing bet with Rod Tye that I will gladly put money in the Black 5 fund if he ever catches me letting an engine blow off, though he hasn't caught me out....... yet! Of course there is so much still to learn, but what a fantastic year it's been; halcyon days never to be forgotten.
Martin Orford
Happy the man
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
he who can call today his own:
he who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul, or rain or shine
the joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself, upon the past has power,
but what has been, has been, and I have had my hour
Father Daniel, a monk in a German monastery, has his fortnight's 'holiday' with us each summer;
Rich Walters drives over from Switzerland to help in the loco shed when he can;
Leo Kennedy came (April 03) from Melbourne, Australia, to lend a hand; and
Kyoichi Oda comes to us several times each year from Japan.
If you need basic, cheap accommodation at MHR on our accommodation coaches, contact Nigel Bulpitt on 07771 544525 a few days in advance to book
| 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 locos: Black Five or Standard 4; (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, treat Mum to Sunday lunch on The Countryman, join real ale enthusiasts on a RAT, or give any of these as a present. Details *As an enjoyable hobby it even beats mucking about in boats! ... tw |
If you are sight-impaired and have difficulty reading this webpage, e.g. by OCR to voice, please supply details via e-mail to webmaster@watercressline.co.uk. Thank you.
