My BF50 Challenge update 25

16/9/15

Halfway there and working on the cellar team at York beer festival.

Far too busy working and drinking beer.

Here are some photos:

37324 on MHR 12 September 2015

In a break from beer festival attendance I had some MHR duties to do today. As part of my day down there I had received permission from the Operations Manager to travel in the cab of 37342. Big thanks to Steve the Driver and Bob the Secondman for putting up with me on the journey from Alton to Alresford.

There are some video clips here, they are presented as shot, unedited, taken with my usual little camera. They are not brilliant but gives you the viewer and idea of how our loco drivers see the line.

Photos and videos are shown in chronological order.

So we start at Alton.

train arrives at Alton on the 1010 from Alresford

324 running round to form 1115 fromAlton

Leaving Alton

Signal AT54

Driver Steve

Between Alton and Medstead

Boiler controls

Driver's controls

Approaching Ropley

Approaching Alresford

Steve waiting for Bob to finish uncoupling

Signal clear to attach to coaches

324 waits to depart on the 1602 Ropley to Alresford

At the end of the day service, 324 shunts coaches at Alresford for the 2 evening services

324 brings the Real Ale Train coaches from Alresford sidings, having already puleed the Watercress belle coaches into the other platform

Real Ale Train ECS to Ropley

My BF50 Challenge update 24

11/9/15

The first beer festival at the Antelope in Surbiton. See also this.

I sampled 10 of the beers from the outside stillage, 9 of which were very tasty.

here are the tasting notes

My BF50 Challenge update 23

10/9/15

My first visit to the relatively new Castle Tap (formerley Horse & Jockey) in Reading for their first beer festival.

A number of great tasting beers were imbibed here.


The outside of the pub

The main bar

The festival bar and stillage