10th Sep 2020 in Buildings
August Having prepared the spiked railing panels and posts for the upside if the Northside Lane foot crossing we took all the items to site by Wickham Trolley to begin installation. We thought we would have a good number in the ...
5th Aug 2020 in
1 August Well, where were we. Since the lockdown came in rather suddenly, things have been a little quiet on the building and maintenance front, but that’s not to say everything was on hold. Some preparatory work was carried on with ...
15th Jul 2020 in Loco Wednesday Gang
Ropley; Wednesday 15th July; the "New Normal" is becoming the normal normal as a smaller but a no less enthusiastic numbers of both staff and volunteers set about a slightly delayed deep Spring clean around the yard and the sheds.. Mr Sibley ...
10th Jun 2020 in Loco Wednesday Gang
Ropley; 10th June. A very strange environment these days though with a lot more life about the place than last week as the railway starts to ready itself for welcoming passengers and volunteers in the not too distant future. Last week there ...
8th May 2020 in
Today, 8th May 2020 marks the 75th Anniversary of VE Day. We had planned a bank holiday event full of 1940s music, dancing, picnics and of course steam, instead we're marking the occassion online. One of our lovely volutneers Pete Reynolds ...
3rd Apr 2020 in Carriage Works
An exciting landmark in the life of the Watercress Line happened at the turn of March, when the first part of the Canadian Pacific Project was launched into traffic in the shape of Bulleid open third carriage, No. 1456. Built in December 1947 ...
27th Mar 2020 in Ropley Tuesday Gang
The regular volunteer Tuesday Gang are a small (usually about six of us) group of fine chaps who get a thrill from hitting steam locomotives with sledgehammers when required in the course of maintaining the beasts. We are tasked with various maintenance ...
18th Mar 2020 in Loco Wednesday Gang
Well, here we are again in the middle of March – a traditional time for writing a blog about the goings-on in Ropley workshop by the world-famous Wednesday Gang. What’s that? “World Famous”? Surely not! Well, ...
16th Mar 2020 in Wagon Group
An update on Wagon Group activities over the past few weeks... At Medstead BY S 653 has been out and about a bit, partly for a photo charter and partly down to Ropley for some vac cylinder work. It is now ...
5th Mar 2020 in Can Pac Blogs, Carriage Works
What shall we do now…? Carriage workshop blog, March 2020 Well, there we have it. Passengers have travelled in Bulleid open third 1456 for the first time since the mid to late 1960s! I don’t know exactly when 1456 went out of ...
20th Feb 2020 in Wagon Group
An update from the past few weeks on wagons... Well there's been a bit of publicity recently about the Flying Scotsman, but with the recent weather a lot of our attention has been with the Flying Sheets! We have quite a ...
12th Feb 2020 in Can Pac Blogs, Carriage Works
Things have been a bit up and down in the carriage workshop this month, literally! We’ve known for some time that we have a bit of remedial work to do on the bogies of Bulleid open-third 1456 before it can enter ...
30th Jan 2020 in Can Pac Blogs, Carriage Works
An exciting year ahead! Carriage workshop blog, January 2020 First off, a very happy new year to you all! This year is shaping up to be a very exciting one here at the Watercress Line, with our impending reopening through to Alton, a ...
23rd Jan 2020 in Buildings
17 January We hope all readers had a happy Christmas and New Year holiday and best wishes for the coming year. Yes, into another year and we await in anticipation of running into Alton again over the new bridge at The Butts, and ...
15th Jan 2020 in Wagon Group
Happy New Year to our reader/s... It's been a couple of months since the last report... well with our Christmas lunch, the Christmas and New Year breaks, weather etc, time seems to fly by... Anyway, an update on recent activities.&...
15th Jan 2020 in Buildings
With just a few weeks to go before the start of the 2020 season attention at Alton has turned to getting the station ready to welcome our customers for the first time in over a year. There's much to do, not just ...