| 17
February 2007: Another excellent day working on the Toad . The gang's two joiners Tom Windsor and David Edwards have completed the roof repairs and made a start on the non running line side too. This means that all repairs will be completed by next weekend. On the running line side and Alton end the sections of rotted timber have been cut out and treated with wood hardener and filled with two-pack filler. This should be sufficient for the next 4/5 years, but replacement of the planking will be needed when next the Toad is due for overhaul. Roy and Dave Andrews are working on Sunday to sand down these sections and treat with aluminium primer Chris Willis |
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| Two photos (17th February 2007): Henry O'Dwyer | |
| 10th
February 2007: David Andrews has completed the fitting of the roof hoop on Toad whilst David Edwards and Rob Score have been fitting the new roof boards. Trying to marry the new with the old timber has not been easy, but with perseverance and hopefully with Tom Windsor with us next Saturday, I feel sure that all the new woodwork will be completed by then. This will just leave some minor repairs to the running line side to complete by the end of February, weather permitting. On the CCT Roy Andrews has fitted the new glazing and mouldings, one to each side of the van. It is always good to keep them watertight; a stitch in time Report and photos (10th
February 2007): Chris Willis
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| 7th
February 2007: A couple of photos of the low sided wagon M 460001 at Alton today. The creosote substitute applied to the floor and internal sides a couple of weeks ago had soaked in, so I removed the "tent", and the finished article is ready to be shunted out. I await BR steel highfit B 481682 and SW Tar Distillers tank wagon to arrive from the Meon siding Report and photos (7th
February 2007): Chris Le Corney
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| 3rd
February 2007: With superb weather today the wagon gang was able to make considerable progress with Toad. The roof has joined the sides with all the rotten timber now stripped, and the newly arrived timber has all been treated with aluminium primer which we bought today. The Brake Van has not been missed out either with the newly repaired roof given a coat of gloss paint. Our visits to Medstead are on Saturdays so why not come down to M4M and see what the wagon gang is all about? Report, appeal and photo
(3rd February 2007): Chris Willis
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| Chris
Le Corney's remarkable achievements at Alton deserve some recognition.
Chris has taken on the task of repairing and painting some of the
four-wheel wagons and trucks we have on the Railway and his output in
the last year or so has been amazing; one only has to look at the
Bennett's siding to see this Report and photo
(December 2006): Chris Willis
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| 22 December 2006: The containers in Kent this morning. The "A" type is in white primer with a new roof. The "AF" container roof can be seen in the foreground of one of the pictures. |
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| The
roof fittings have been removed for refurbishment/replacement at home,
in anticipation of winter. The roof of the "A" looked like
this
a couple of months ago, but with some new ply and torched on roofing
felt you can just about spot the difference! The "A" will be going into original 1950's BR crimson livery and the "AF" into slightly later ice blue. Report and photos (22nd
December 2006): Chris Le Corney
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| 17th
December 2006 On the final working day of the year, David Edwards and David Andrews have all but completed the outer roof of the Brake Van, and Roy Andrews has made a start on removing the old paint from the inner roof. Meanwhile in the Building Dept shed, Dennis Grace has had no luck with opening the old safe, but has had mixed fortunes with a metal gate post he was trying to straighten. Dennis could not understand why the lower part of the post would not get hot when applying heat; it was only when he cut a hole in the base that he realized it was full of water and a huge jet of steam gushed out. Dennis quipped, " The next metal post to arrive at platform one, will be the 12.16 to Alton". It only remains for me to say a huge thank-you to the ever growing team, for there have been some remarkable achievements since the group started in April 2006. A Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to everyone Report and photos (17th
December 2006): Chris Willis
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| 10
December 2006: Ian Johnson from the Bluebell Railway made a welcome visit to our team today. Ian, a professional engineer, was able to give us some expert advice on PMV and the Brake Van, and I am delighted to report that in his opinion the PMV is repairable and he had worked out in five minutes the correct way to repair it. Thanks Ian; your help is very much appreciated. Whilst on the subject of the Brake Van, David Edwards with Roy and David Andrews have completed 90% of the roof repairs with completion hopefully before Christmas, weather permitting. Meanwhile in the Building Dept shed, Pete Cutler continues work on the coal wagon by cleaning and painting all the ironmongery. With Dennis Grace for company and a nice warm stove, what could be better? As a footnote Dennis and others were trying to open an old safe. I understand this safe is one of the few original artefacts from British Railways days, but so far it has resisted their attempts to open it. More of this interesting saga next week. |
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| From:
Le Corney Sent: 05 December 2006 12:02 Subject: Low Sided Wagon M 460001 Tony Please find attached photo of low sided wagon M460001 at Alton yesterday. Originally the wagon was an oil tank apparently, but was converted some years ago to it's current guise. Just needs the last rotten floor boards replacing and some final touching up. The temporary green tent like sheeting has kept the wagon dry since work started in October, and surprisingly has not blown down (yet ......) with the winds of the past week or so. The warm weather has also assisted with painting outside at this time of year. There is only one thing worse than doing the lettering and numbers, and that's doing it when it's cold! Regards Chris Le Corney |
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| 18th
November 2006: On the PMV David Edwards has turned his talents to making new long stepboards and cutting off the rot on the old ones to make four new shorter ones in his home workshop. Nothing is wasted within the wagon group. For our next project, the CCT, David has also made four new sets of window mouldings out of some salvaged mahogany and new backing for the slate boards. David, your efforts are very much appreciated. Meanwhile on the Brake Van, Tom Windsor and David Andrews have taken out the damaged roofboards for repair whilst ... |
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... Roy Andrews and
David Edwards
have been working inside the van in a similar vein. Altogether a very pleasant and constructive day with the added bonus of trains running which we were not expecting. Report and photos (18th November 2006): Chris Willis |
| 5th
November 2006: The coal wagon corners were rescued from halfway down the embankment at Medstead for de-scaling and repairs - this project is very much long term but this will make things easier later. Father and son team Roy and David Andrews spent a very successful day de-nailing and priming the brake van so it is now ready for David Edwards' joinery expertise. David Edwards has also been cutting down the old long step boards to make new short ones, and making new long stepboards out of new timber |
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| Pete
Cutler continues bringing the new and
old mouldings up to a gloss standard and Geoffrey Snow has been
scouring the Railway looking at van and carriage numbers to trace to
make a set of numbers for the signwriting. Meanwhile the PMV is not forgotten with the solebar being bought up to gloss, and Dennis Grace kindly cutting four new tread plates for just inside the double doors Photos (5th November
2006): Chris Willis
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| 3rd
October 2006: BR plywood sided vanfit B 786834, completed at Alton on 3rd October 2006 Report and photo (3rd
October 2006): Chris Le Corney
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| 24th
September 2006: Wagons
restorers
Photo (24th September
2006): Chris Willis
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Brake van
Photo
(24th September 2006): Dave Andrews
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| 10th
September 2006:
The wagon groups are now helping each other where specialist skills are needed, and now include a couple of experienced joiners to guide them. Photos (10th September
2006): Dave Andrews
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| 2nd
September 2006: Despite the foul weather, today has been an exceptional one for progress. Firstly, thanks must go to Frank Twine and co for the shunting in the siding: we can now go ahead with plans for all three vehicles. Secondly please welcome Tom Windsor and David Edwards to the team - both have experience in joinery work. The first two photos show Tom making great inroads with the new floor with 75% completed. As previously reported, the floor has been laid in loose so at any time it can be lifted for work to be done below the solebar. |
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| David
has been making the new door within the confines of the buildings
shed and with a little help from Tom towards the end of the day, the
door was ready to be primed. Report and photos (2nd
September 2006): Chris Willis
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1st
September 2006: BR Plywood vanfit B 786834 at Alton Currently in white primer and grey undercoat, it should be completed in BR Bauxite by end of September It appears (foreground) that Colin Chambers has been busy painting buffers on his crane DS 1580 Report and photo (1st September 2006): Chris Le Corney |
| 27th
August 2006: John Rich and Geoff Snow worked wonders inside the PMV with 75% of the old floor ripped out and the old bolts ground and knocked out. We are now ready to cut to size and lay the new floor on a temporary basis until work beneath the solebar has been completed. There remains some metalwork repairs to do and replace the buffer packers once we get them. Report and photo (27th
August 2006): Chris Willis
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| 20th
August 2006: Progress in the last couple of weeks has been the removal of the old decollate floor and preparing the outside for its final coats of paint and start the undercoating. As you can see from the first 2 photos, there is some wastage in the underframe which will have to be attended to, so the new floor will be put in temporarily so it can be lifted anytime to work underneath. This also means that we can work on the interior when there is bad weather. The exterior is really coming on now with the final undercoat in dark green. On a lighter note , I am amazed just how many wagon "gricers" there are on the railway for today our team must have had nine visitors who came to see progress and give their moral support. Add to this the shouts from the passing service trains from crews and passengers alike, it all adds to the pleasure of a good day and long may this continue. |
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 Report and photos (20th August 2006): Chris Willis |
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| 1st
August 2006. Completed gunpowder van at Alton. Like most wagons which came to the railway via the MOD, they seemed to like removing original identification plates. There is however a "Cambrian Wagon" builder's plate, and research from photos and dimensions suggests it was one of a batch of 25 built in 1939 - numbers 105761-85. Assuming this is the case there is a 4% chance I have picked the right number! Report and photo (1st
August 2006): Chris Le Corney
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| 23
July
2006 With Peter Cutler helping with preparation in the morning, John Rich was able to finish work on three out of the four door openings in the afternoon. Meanwhile Geoff Snow finished the preparation work to the inner ceiling and finished the priming to the ceiling, an ideal job for a man of Geoff's height A large section of the walls have been prepared and undercoated - Chris Willis |
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| Progress this week has been to finish the clearing of the interior and make a dent in the work needed on the interior roof'. Roy Fletcher was was so impressed with his completion of sanding down and first undercoating of the exterior that I thought a photograph was in order to say a job well done, especially working in the stifling heat |  |
 Reports and photos (16th
July 2006): Chris Willis
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| 9th
July 2006: We've had very good progress of late: the exterior is really coming together now and the glazing is ready to be fitted once the window mouldings arrive. As you can see from the interior shot, Peter Cutler is making good progress with the roof with exactly half of it rubbed down and primed Report and photos (9th
July 2006): Chris Willis
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14th June 2006: Chris Le Corney writes: The Mid Hants Railway has over 50 wagons in its sidings at Alton, Medstead, Ropley and Alresford. Some are currently operational and used for demonstration goods trains, some are operational and used for engineering works on the line, and quite a number are non-operational and in need of repair and repainting.Wagons do not have the revenue-earning capacity of a passenger coach so it is difficult commercially to justify spending large sums of money on them. Our railway tries to recreate the sights, sounds and atmosphere of a Hampshire railway during steam days. Passengers buy tickets to ride our trains and will learn a something of the railway's operations in years past. They see the engines, stations, signal boxes, track etc; but goods traffic too was an integral part of railway operations. |
 The local goods, Alresford Cattle Dock siding Photo
(3rd March 2006): Chris Le Corney
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| But
how many people realise
that goods traffic was the backbone of the railway
system? In 1961 for example, British Railways’ passenger
revenue amounted to £162m, but goods revenue was
£256m. Over recent years our goods wagons have been somewhat neglected but we are now restoring wagons for operational and static display. We plan to restore typical wagons which operated in Hampshire up to around the 1960s. Why this period? Well it fits the Mid Hants Railway heritage time we want to re-create. New British Railways types of wagons were introduced from the “1955 Modernisation Plan” , whilst many older pre-1948 nationalisation wagons were still operating. The “Reshaping of British Railways Report” of 1963 ('Beeching Report') which led to the closure of many country goods yards and elimination of the local goods train was still to come. |
 30698 ambles down to Alton with the 09.45 goods from Ropley with 4 empty 16 ton mineral wagons, 2 vans, and BR brake van. Photo C. Small 26/7/1961
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| At
this time virtually every station had its own
goods yard with a daily goods train bringing in coal for the local coal
merchants to deliver to our homes and new agricultural equipment and
fertiliser for the local farms, and taking out local produce to
markets in London and beyond. Bricks, timber, beer, cattle, fruit,
grain, meat, oil, wines, manure, butter, cement, confectionery, and
almost any other product you can think of, were carried by the local
goods train. They ran to and from bigger yards (Woking, Basingstoke,
Guildford, Eastleigh, Salisbury) where the
wagons would be shunted into trains for the next stage of a journey
to Nine Elms, the massive Feltham yard, Exmouth Junction, Southampton
Docks, or indeed off the Southern to other marshalling yards such at
Willesden, Brent, Temple Mills, Bescot, Tinsley and Severn Tunnel
Junction. In 1960 there were over 1,000,000 goods vehicles and containers on British Railways, and the average turn round time of a wagon from one load to the next was over 10 days. It may not have been particularly efficient, and indeed many country goods yards only handled a few wagons a week; this represented a gentler way of life, now overtaken by massive modern block freight trains of 2,000 tonnes or more, or 38-tonne juggernauts racing up and down the M3 and M25. At present, demonstration goods trains mainly operate on the Mid Hants only on enthusiast days, but we hope that in 2007 they will be operating more often. |
 E 267733: after restoration Photo:
Chris Le Corney
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| We intend restore typical wagons seen on the local goods train and those on the goods trains running between the main yards in Hampshire. If you would like to help us restore a wagon to add to our railway's atmosphere and recreate a bit of our history, please give us a ring; we can do more wagons more quickly, the more people who help us. Please contact: Chris Le Corney on 01843 843215 or mobile 07789 021511, Chris Willis on 0208 540 3669 or mobile 07801 930870, Pete Cutler on 01962 733294 | |
| The
really big news is that four new volunteers came to spend a day with us
last Sunday (11th June 2006) to see what we are about: Geoff
Hacket, Geoffrey Snow, John Rich and Roy Fletcher. I was impressed with
what they did. Progress this week: 1 All but one destination chalk boards re-instated and masticked watertight; 2 Most small holes made good with 2-pack wood filler and a start made on the sanding down of the sides; 3 Repairs made to the running side and one end with softwood timber; 4 Measured up for the missing and broken glazing and for the 1" thick exterior plywood which will be needed to replace the Decolite floor as this is completely rotten. Aside from the banter and the "gricing" at intervals (Medstead is the perfect place to see service trains climbing over the Alps) a good day was had by all; we retired to a hostelry for some well-earned refreshment. Photo (11th June 2006)
and report: Chris Willis
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| 19th
May 2006: Chris Le Corney sent these photos taken in February 2006 and on 17th May 2006 of S47777 just completed at Alton. Work starts 'next week' at Alton on the Gunpowder Van. |
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| 25th
April 2006: Dave Andrews has brought his brake van B953701 to MHR from Bressingham and has started renovation in wagon sidings at M4M. More about this restoration on Dave's own website |
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| It
arrived
at Alresford on 3rd April 2006. Photos (3rd April 2006
and later): Dave Andrews
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Carriage Restoration News in 2003 Vintage Carriage Group of MHRPS |
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Copyright © 2006 -
2007: Tony Wood and others as
acknowledged Title logo by Henry O'Dwyer |
| The Watercress Line, The Railway
Station,
Alresford, Hampshire, England, SO24 9JG Tel 01962 733810 Fax 01962 735448 info@watercressline.co.uk www.watercressline.co.uk/tw |
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