Bad Weather!
Today’s Bad Weather has given a good excuse to publish a few pictures taken in 2011 of Ropley on the Watercress Line, in terrible weather conditions. Rather than snow, it was torrential rain on the day which made for some great
Sleeping Giants at Ropley
With the excuse of taking more pictures of Christmas steam (for material for the Locoyard Advent Calendar!) , last Sunday I spent a few hours on the Watercress Line. It was a fairly gloomy day, which really added to the already ample
Winter Scenes at a real Loco Yard
After several locomotives having returned from visits to other railways, Ropley loco yard is back to looking
Nellie, a Spam Can and a Hidden Streak
Following from yesterdays look at the Watercress Line’s resident ex-LMS Black 5 45379, today we complete the round-up from the visit to the railway on Saturday. We begin at Alresford (above and below) where 850 Lord Nelson (or Nellie; as it is nicknamed) ran
Epilogue – The Steam Engine Strikes Back
The previous post in this series described how the ball started rolling in my interest in steam resurfacing again. My wife-to be and I went on frequent fantastic adventures around the country that often resulted in visiting a steam railway or two. Not surprisingly the steam interest started to gain some momentum! These brief forays…
The Autumn Steam Spectacular 2012! Mid-Hants Gala, 2012
Yet another fantastic steam gala was held at the Watercress Line this weekend. The whole line was constant hive of activity, with seven locomotives (and one crane) in steam; working a variety of services, some double-headed plus demonstration freight services. There was also plenty on static display too; including a visitor from the National Railway…
Watercress Autumn Steam Spectacular 2012 Locomotive Line-Up – Updated
This Friday 7th to Sunday 8th September is an important weekend for the Southern steam enthusiast as it is the Watercress Line’s Autumn Steam Spectacular. In antcipation of this; today we look at the planned steam locomotive line-up for the event, in order of build date. UPDATED 4th September – S15 class 825 has been withdrawn and…
Old Ropley Favourites and a poorly Bulleid Pacific in Alresford
Fittingly after yesterdays blog post we move forward in time to the 22nd July and to another character from Thomas the Tank Engine and friends; 5 James! This is in reality the sole surviving Maunsell N class (31874) that was painted as the Thomas the Tank Engine character towards the end of its last stint in…
Loco Yard 