h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

(correction - it was her home, but not her birthplace)

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Entry: The Watercress Line Mid-Hants Railway - A87830184
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

The tender engines that use the line are seriously big tender engines, originally designed to be Southern Railway's most powerful locomotives. So though you are right, a tank engine would be heavier than a similar sized tender engine, the tender engines used on the line are huge. About 3 or 4 times the length of the terrier tank engines used on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.

I'd mentioned Jane Austen in the section describing the journey to Alton and have now added a link to the museum and added a little more. When I was writing this I was certain that h2g2 had an article on Alton, and I'm surprised we don't.

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I read this today

"rearrange Alton Station in order to allow their full access to the station " - I'm not sure what the problem was and how this solved it...

"the steam service had to be cancelled due to the urgent need to renew pads between the chairs and the sleepers." - that sounds really odd Perhaps it doesn't matter, though, as presumably pads, chairs and sleepers are technical terms in context...

The Thomas the Tank Engine section reads a bit funny - "There is no better way to describe this..." - describe what? The tank engine couldn't run on the Watercress Line, so did the changes enable it to do so?

Overheard from a two-year-old recently: "we were on a train but it didn't have any eyes".

I've reworded the two bits you mentioned. The problem with Alton Station was that the original station layout was now used by British Rail and had electrified track. British Rail did not want their electric track to mix with the heritage line's steam trains, as potential disaster could ensue. The heritage line needed to have 2 lines at the station, in order to allow the engine to run around and move from one end of the train to the other when changing direction. So after a bit of rearranging the national rail network use 2 platforms, and the Watercress Line use platform 3 and have a line they can use for run rounds.

'renew pads between the chairs and the sleepers'
No – they're not cushions to make people asleep on a chair more comfortable. I don't think we need to go into detail about this –all the reader needs to know is that there was a problem that affected the running of trains, but I don't want to get bagged down in superfluous technical detail which won't really benefit the article. If anyone wants to know more, there's no reason why they can't look it up.

I've also reworded the Thomas the Tank Engine section. The tank engine couldn't run on the Watercress Line, and after the changes still couldn't, but the adaptations did make it look nice. When I've been on Thomas the Tank Engine days, as the Thomas cannot traverse the whole line all they get it to do is go up and down the length of Ropley Station, which is flat. Going to Alton is out of the question, though.

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As everyone else seems to be writing 'any further comments' in their entries - any further comments?

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Aahhh found it looking good have you a photo yet.

If this gets picked by a scout I've got some photos that can be added - I found the ones of when I went in the 1980s the other day.

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I found an earlier one than that...

Show off

Was it a photo that you yourself took? Tell us more.

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Yes

http://www.panoramio.com/user/2477686?comment_page=1&photo_page=1
First photograph

http://www.panoramio.com/user/2477686/tags/Watercress%20Line shows a tank engine

So where and when were you when you took it?

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There is a Google earth tag on the photo taken summer 1976 to 1979

It was on the line from 1978 there is some connection with the South Devon Railway. It was named after the co of the Longmore army base LMR is Longmore military railway and the number was WD169 the WD is War Department.

It also stared in ac St Trinian's Train Robbery film its probably repainted black. It was sold in 2009 and can be found on a preserved Dutch railway now.

I didn't think they'd keep an Austerity tank engine. It would have been fine in the late 1970s when they were making do with what they could get and hadn't expanded over the Alps yet. The tank engine would have been fine for going back and forth between Alresford and Ropley, but they have much bigger engines now.

If you like War Department Austerity engines, her sister engines WD192 Waggoner and WD198 Royal Engineer are operational on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.

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So it appears I/we have stumbled upon a little known part of of the Mid Hants Railway history

Gives our ages away 40+ assuming you took your first photo after you were 10

Not quite over 40 yet – I said the photos I found were 'when I went in the 1980s' (after the line opened initially to Alton, but before it was closed again according to my Dad) but didn't say that I was the one taking the photos. My Dad did.

But yes, a photograph from the line's early days of restoration, before the 'unsuitable for tank engines' policy was introduced.

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