Normal Day - C2C Day 4

Well it was a normal day for me, I visited a heritage railway!

This time it was the Mid Hants Railway, better known as The Watercress Line. The first puzzle of the day is what's happened to the camera battery I charged up yesterday. It's not in the camera bag or the charger, and I can't find it anywhere else. As they only go in an elastic pocket on the front of the bag I can only assume it fell out at some point. No point worrying about it, I've got two more it's just a nuisance as I'll have to make sure both are charged overnight.

The railway itself is similar to many, they do at least open the buffet well before the first train so I had a mug of coffee. You get an all day ticket so, starting from Alresford I went up to Alton, back to Ropley, up to Alton again and finally back to Alresford.

The reason for that is the main engineering sheds are at Ropley. They have a well marked heritage trail which takes you up past the sidings and there are viewing platforms for both the engine and carriage workshops. They are one of the railways that repair and restore engines for other owners, to raise funds, as well as their own work. The sandwich I had from the shop there was slightly disappointing, in date (just) but certainly not freshly made.

The loco for the day was a common or garden Black Five (an LMS one, not a 5MT), this seems to be their main loco as it's powerful enough to haul a decent size train up the 1:60 gradient to Medstead and Four Marks station but small enough to be reasonably economical. You can tell when it's pulling up the hill from the exhaust beat.

There​ was an issue on the final journey back from Alton, the loco stopped on the run around loop for a long time, then still had to go all the way back past the signal box (a good 100 yards beyond the points) before coming forward to pick up the carriages. It turned out to be a signalling problem, the run right back was probably required before the system would unlock the points again.

I ended the afternoon with a wander round Alresford, restocking the meat supplies (minted lamb burgers for tea, sausage for breakfast) and doing a bit of other shopping. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day.