WATERCRESS WAGONS
How the Mid-Hants Railway makes the most of its freight stock
When preservation of the Mid-Hants Railway began in the early 1970s, various wagons were acquired, which were useful both for storage and engineering purposes. In those early years, however, the priority was the restarting of passenger services, so the restoration of locomotives and carriages tended to take precedence over wagons. With the passage of years and the completion of re-laying the track to Alton in 1985, the railway’s objectives have evolved. No longer does a steam railway survive just by running passenger services from A to B. The modern-day passenger (or ‘customer’), wants decent-looking engines, carriages, toilets, catering facilities, shops, dining trains, real ale trains and heritage stations. But sidings full of rotting rolling stock covered in green mould don’t exactly project the right image. We thought that we could solve this problem and enhance the experience by running occasional demonstration freight trains, educating our visitors about what they were used for, while making sidings look a lot more attractive. The Mid-Hants was fortunate – the Urie Locomotive Society (ULS) had acquired a number of wagons, and the group, led by Nigel Hanwell, carried out much sterling restoration work in the yard at Medstead & Four Marks in the 1980s/90s. Around this time, however, the railway was experiencing financial difficulties, and running demonstration freights and shunting out wagons for overhaul didn’t feature too high on the agenda. But the MHR turned the corner, and in 2005 a new Wagon Group was formed, working at both Medstead and Alton. The great thing about wagons is you can de-rust and paint one in a relatively short period of time. Soon we had a rake of three wagons and a Southern brake van looking good again, which made its debut as a demonstration freight train at a steam gala weekend. This, combined with regular blogs on the Mid-Hants website, encouraged others to come along and join us. From little acorns big trees grow, and we now have about 50 volunteers in the Mid-Hants Wagon Group. Not everyone physically works every week – some only help out on the sales stand, some only help out with administration. We have a few carpenters and one or two welders. Most have some basic DIY skills, but we never turn anyone away, and always try to find something appropriate for their skills. After all, you can’t do too much damage with a hand-held wire brush! The important thing is that volunteers can go home at the end of a day, probably a bit dirtier than when they started, but having enjoyed a bit of banter and made a contribution to our objectives.
HAVE A BANANA
What are our ambitions? Most of the wagons on the Mid-Hants were built as a result of the BR modernisation plan of 1955, so we have relatively few pre-nationalisation wagons. Therefore, our main objective is to create a typical Hampshire freight train from circa 1960. This was initially a local pick-up freight, but has expanded to include, for example, a fast freight from Southampton Docks to Feltham marshalling yard or Nine Elms goods depot. We have some 60 wagons in total on the railway. Just under 40 of these are ex-revenue earning wagons, and the balance are ex-engineering. To date we have largely concentrated our efforts on the former, and these are the basis of our demonstration freight trains. Operationally, the Mid-Hants is limited to running trains of about 20 SLU (Standard Length Units), owing to length restrictions in run-round loops at stations, so not all wagons can run at the same time and, indeed, owing to their age, some restored wagons are already awaiting remedial steel work or repairs to their timbers. In recent years we have acquired more vehicles, such
as two ‘Conflat As’ from the Great Central Railway (Nottingham). These have been loaded with restored BR ‘A’ and ‘AF’ containers which Network Rail and South Eastern Trains were persuaded to donate, as they were a liability rather than an asset to them at Margate station! At that time we had no container-securing chains for them, but subsequently we were offered 20 original securing links from Southampton docks that had been stored in a garden shed for the previous 30 years. We try to make our freight train look as authentic as possible and this includes: Correct lettering and numbering of wagons. Variations in shades of BR bauxite/grey in an attempt to recreate weathering and general dirt and grime of the Sixties. Authentic loads, loaded on the correct wagons and appropriately roped (with traditional hemp ropes), or chained down. Customer labels such as BOCM, ICI Fertiliser, Fyffes Bananas, and Carr’s Biscuits – Carlisle on the sides of the vans. A BR canvas wagon sheet, featuring appropriate identification/markings. Chalked-on shunter markings on the sides of vans. To complement this effort, the old parcels shed on Medstead station has recently been restored and is being converted into an interactive display of freight handling.
FIT FOR A QUEEN
Maintaining the wagon fleet is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge, and the wooden-bodied vans and opens need refreshing at least every five years. When you see the same wagons coming back again for overhaul you need some other motivation, and that’s why we have taken on some new projects. These include constructing a new BR ‘D’ type open container from scratch and continuing to search for an available cattle van, an example of which we’d been trying to source for some years. But very few of these exist and none of the owners wanted to part company, so we took the plunge and converted an LMS sliding door van (we had two other examples) into an SR-design cattle van. Yes, the wheelbase is a foot shorter than it should be, but it still looks pretty good! To maintain a variety of subjects we have overhauled a GWR milk tank (on long-term loan), converted a BR plywood-sided van into a BR banana van, acquired and overhauled an SR ‘Queen Mary’ brake van (very popular for rides, especially when it’s immediately behind the locomotive going up the 1-in-60 gradients either side of Medstead!). Most recently, our mechanically skilled volunteers at Medstead have restored a Ferguson tractor as a demonstration load. Not content with just restoring it cosmetically (it had stood in a field for 30 years and that looked daunting enough), they were determined to go the whole hog and make it operational. We don’t just have wagons – there are also several parcels vans to look after. These include two SR Covered Carriage Trucks (CCT) and a Parcels & Miscellaneous Van (PMV) which are nominally operational, and an SR ‘Van C’/BY, which is nearing the end of a major overhaul. The latter has a guard’s brake area and, when it’s complete, we will be able to run it in an authentic parcels train. Facilities at Alton and Medstead are basic, and we have no cover for wagons, so the work depends very much on the weather. We also have a shortage of siding space, which means
we can’t access wagons for overhaul until the current ones have been completed and shunted out.
NeveR A dull momeNt
All these challenges are predictable, but we never have a dull moment and there are always hurdles to overcome. Like a number of other railways, we have suffered from depressed OLEO buffers (after 60 years or so the warranties have presumably expired!), but we have managed to source some spares. Will we ever run out of fresh projects? Not for a while… We recently took delivery of a BR 21-ton mineral wagon, part of which needs a rebuild after it was cut up for display purposes. There is talk of another milk tank wagon coming (on loan) and then there will be the engineers’ wagons to address. Furthermore, if anyone has a rare wagon which might enhance our collection, then please do get in touch. Running demonstration freight trains is not exactly a great revenue earner for today’s preserved steam railways, but we believe it is all part and parcel of explaining and educating the public about how things used to be. Remember that in 1960, BR earned twice as much revenue from carrying freight than it did from passengers… A large number of people have complimented us for what we have achieved, and that is hugely satisfying. The freight train will next run at the MHR steam gala on February 9-11 – come along and see it for yourselves.