Some of you may have noticed that this blog post was originally published too early, revealing a brief and unplanned behind the scenes view of locoyard! Hopefully this time you’ll see the post in it’s finished state… We often talk a lot about the engineering ingenuity, expertise and brilliance of our railways, but perhaps not as…
Unlike Stanier’s competing express passenger locomotive class; the LMS Coronation class, the streamlining of Sir Nigel Gresley’s LNER A4 class was more than skin deep. Therefore when wartime and the following nationalisation of the country’s railways brought with them a more austere and pragmatic management approach, the streamlining of the A4’s remained, being intrinsic to…
70000 Britannia was one of two visitors at the Watercress Line’s Spring Steam gala 2015. The locomotive has featured on this blog several times in the past as I’ve had the pleasure of seeing it in action on many occasions. The odd thing for me is that despite seeing it many times, I am yet…
I’m no expert (by any means) on when the seasons start and finish, but I’m fairly sure that spring has not sprung yet. Therefore it was interesting when the Watercress Line moved the date of their Spring Steam gala of 2015 back to mid-February. Perhaps renaming it a Winter gala may have been more apt? …
Good evening, I had the pleasure of attending the Mid Hants Railways Spring Steam Gala this year with fellow LocoYard writers Dave and Alex and it has to be said that the Watercress Line held another fantastic steam gala. With us attending the gala being on Valentines Day we weren’t sure what to expect,…
Good evening, Regular readers might remember that in May 2014, Dave visited the Watercress Line where Britannia had just had her forward driving wheels removed in the Ropley wheel drop. He jokingly called her the “BR Standard Atlantic” and that nickname has stuck. However after some hard work and elbow grease this week she is no…
Good evening, today I am writing about something rather different. Instead of focusing on a steam locomotive I will be looking at a tender, in particular tender 3116. Tender 3116 Tender 3116 was one of the first series of 5,000 gallon Bulleid tenders built at Ashford works. It entered service in December 1942 behind 21C6,…
Good evening, With the beginning of a new year people tend to reflect on the past and their aims for the future. So with that in mind I thought I’d look at my first ever visit to the Mid Hants Railway in October 2011. Having the family in tow I didn’t get chance to take…
With all but one very special advent calendar blog post on its way, today we look at the full set of pictures taken on the Watercress Line whilst it operated it’s Santa Services just over a week ago. Steam motive power was provided by the ever reliable BR Standard 9F 92212 and ex-LMS Black 5…
Good evening, Todays post is rather special as it will be the first one I have done since I have completed my first year volunteering on the Mid Hants. My actual first year was completed at the end of September but with my wife giving birth to my second child in September, yesterday was the…
Loco Yard 