Taken 11/01/16; There will be a number of 'Lion'; running days, including a Diesel Weekend, on the Mid-Hants Railway this year;
www.watercressline.co.uk/product.php/43/class-50-lion-run...
Taken 11/01/16 on a very grey day on the way to Guildford: Yet to turn a wheel on the Mid-Hants Railway, the following potted history can be found on their web-site:
"E828 was one of a class of 25 heavy freight locomotives designed for the Southern Railway by the Chief Mechanical engineer, R.E.L. Maunsell at a cost of £10,500 each. The design was based on that used by his predecessor, R.W. Urie of the L.S.W.R., This had already proved successful, but Maunsell added improvements and modifications to Urie's design, making it one of the most advanced freight engines of the period. Fifteen were out-shopped from Eastleigh, including E828 which was built in July 1927, with a further ten of the class being built in 1936.
The class was steadily withdrawn from service from 1962, with 30828 being withdrawn in January 1964 and dispatched to Woodham Brothers Scrapyard at Barry in June that year. E828 stayed there until March 1981 when, with the help of a grant and loan from Eastleigh Borough Council, the locomotive, complete with an eight wheeled bogie flare top tender was purchased by the Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society for £10,500 and returned to the place where she was built fifty-four years earlier to be restored.
The restoration was completed in 1994 and E828 returned to steam with a successful running in period at the East Somerset Railway and then followed a return to the main line. In 1996 and after the passing of Harry Frith, E828 was named Harry A Frith in his honour after his efforts since the engine was purchased back in 1981. The loco was moved to the Swanage Railway where she remained until the end of her boiler ticket in 2002. In 2004 E828 was moved to Ropley where the second major overhaul commenced."
preservation.watercressline.co.uk/stock/view/30828-sr-s15...
Taken 29/05/16; Although the light was fading by this point, the tenders of Schools Class 'Stowe', an S15 and 'Lord Nelson' caught my eye.
Taken late into the evening of 29/05/16; No. 41312 recently returned to service on the Mid-Hants Railway, having been withdrawn for overhaul after the 2009 Spring Steam Gala.
Taken 17/10/16 during a brief stop at Ropley en route to Guildford to see my daughter and watch Surrey Smashers in the National Badminton League.