We have been busy again during a long hot summer.
The Railway holds a stock of original carriage destination boards that used to be fixed along the roofline of designated named trains in the days of steam. A small team have been retrieving these from various locations and partly cleaning them off from the accrued grime so that the lettering can be more clearly read. One of these boards was from the original Royal Wessex dining train that used to run from Waterloo from 1951 until 1967. The board has now been wall mounted in the West Country Buffet from outside of which the steam hauled current Watercress Line ‘Royal Wessex’ dining service departs on certain dates during the running season. A descriptive notice has been placed below the board to give a brief outline of the history of the original Royal Wessex train to customers in the buffet.
A job that has been somewhat delayed by other tasks is the installation of a new door and frame to the upper store of the Diesel Traction Depot at Ropley. The door and frame are of a bespoke size so had the be constructed from new timber in the workshop at Medstead. The heavy door and hardwood frame were transported by the RRV to site and hoisted into place at last giving secure and weatherproof access to that facility.
Following the installation of the water feed to the new platform extension at Alresford we have now added insulation to the full length of pipe from the stop cock on platform 2 to the train watering point on platform 1. This covered about 100 feet of pipe and was fed on in three lengths for one end to the other. This should now give some protection from frost and ensure continuous supply for train watering during the winter months.
In between the above jobs we have also been carrying out a refurbishment of the interior of the original signal box at Medstead. As this box is currently not in operation it provides an excellent interpretive feature for visitors to see what the inside of a signal box looked like from the early days of railway signalling. Descriptive material and information has been displayed to explain the workings and gives added interest to the ‘tours’ now provided at times when station staff are available in between train stopovers.
On the signal box theme, scaffolding has been erected around three sides of Alton signal box in order to do a comprehensive repair and repaint of the exterior. It has been several years since anything significant has been undertaken on this box and it was showing signs of being in need of some attention. Hopefully, the weather will be kind to us and allow a fairly continuous pattern of work to take place. The front of the box nearest the track will await attention when we can devise a plan for when trains are not running so suitable safety equipment can be erected.
At Alresford new sign boards advertising the gift shop in the Old Goods Shed have been made, painted and lettered. They are located in the car park and on platform and replace some time expired boards and the new ones now give a more prominent appearance.
Bob Brooks
