Mid Hants Railway / The Watercress Line - Vintage Vehicles (Part 2) | 11/06/23

Sunday 11th June 2023 was the final day of the Vintage Vehicles Weekend at the Mid Hants Railway (The Watercress Line), saw some vintage vehicles visit the railway, such as some full-size traction engines, and two miniature Burrell traction engines were seen in the lower car park at Ropley station. Train services for the Sunday were run by D8188 (20188) owned by the Somerset & Dorset Locomotive Company and part of the home fleet of diesel locomotives at the MHR along with LSWR Urie S15 Class 506 owned by the Urie Locomotive Society and part of the home fleet of steam locomotives at the MHR. Stone crushing demonstrations outside Ropley station were provided by the Goodwin Barsby ACME Rock Breaker No. 4292 built in circa 1900, driven by the 1918-built Ruston Proctor SCD-Class 5NHP Compound Steam Tractor No. 52453 ‘The Lincoln Imp’ (registered OR 8501), based at Derek Marder's Contractor's Yard in Picket Piece near Andover and owned by Daniel March of Andover. Several of the full-size traction engines that were there at last year's event returned, which included the 1912-built Foden 7NHP Compound General Purpose Engine No. 3384 ‘Wattie Pollock’ (registered SN 1646) and owned by Peter Snell of Wimborne Minster, along with the 1932-built Fowler B6 10NHP Compound Showman’s Road Locomotive No. 19782 ‘The Lion’ (registered UB 9763) and owned by the Saunders Steam Collection in Stotfold. At Ropley, new exhibits and demonstrations for this year’s Vintage Vehicles display included a short traditional road-making demonstration in the afternoon with tarmac as the material using the 1926-built Aveling & Porter C-Type 4NHP Steam Road Roller No. 11454 ‘Remus’ (registered PE 9234) and owned by Izzy Nelson of Swallowfield, in addition to wood/log sawing demonstrations. The rack saw bench was driven by the 1922-built Burrell Double Crank Compound 7NHP General Purpose Engine No. 3935 ‘Surprise’ (registered NK 4450) and owned by Peter Mellersh of Petworth, whilst the logs were lifted and lowered onto the rack saw bench by the 1955-built Taylor & Hubbard 10-Ton Steam Crane DS.58 part of the MHR home fleet; this also provided steam crane demonstrations at Ropley Yard.