Apedale Land Purchase Completed

Moseley Railway Trust and Apedale Heritage Centre have jointly completed the purchase 8.5 acres of land adjacent to the Heritage Centre on Thursday 13th April after an 18-month project to raise the funds and undertake various legal requirements including changing restrictive covenants on the use of this land placed there by the Coal Authority to protect the land from commercial development. Completion of the purchase has allowed Moseley Railway Trust to adapt some of the existing mines buildings on the site for new uses.

First of these was the "Red Shed" - a corrugated iron building with a steel frame, formerly used to house coal bagging equipment from when the site was one of the last working mines in the area. Conversion of this building has allowed MRT to house the Cadeby collection, which will start to arrive at the end of April 2006. The conversion has required removal of the coal hopper at the south end of the building, and removal of the south end wall and conversion into a pair of opening doors. Parallel with this, nine track panels have been constructed to stand the loco's on inside the shed using rail and steel sleepers acquired from the Woodhead Tunnel. This will allow the Cadeby locomotives to be unloaded directly onto a section of temporary track outside and rolled into the storage shed. Other work on the building has improved the weather protection and security of the building. It is envisaged that this building will eventually be demolished to make room for a purpose-built running shed once other covered accommodation has been constructed.

The next stage is to submit a formal planning application to allow construction on-site to commence in earnest, which will take about three months.Assuming this is granted without any delays, the first project will be to construct a new shed to house the MRT collection currently in store at Buxworth in Derbyshire to reduce the cost of storage. Once this is building is complete and loco's safely installed, delivery of other materials and construction of the running line and other infrastructure can commence - this should start towards the end of 2006, with an anticipated completion of the line sometime during 2007.

Cadeby Exhibits Move

The 2’0” gauge Cadeby Light Railway was founded in 1963 by the Rev Teddy Boston; following his death in 1986, the railway was continued by his widow, Audrey Boston, until the Railway held its last public open day in May 2005. Since May 2005, efforts have been made to find a new location for the Railway equipment at Cadeby.

On Tuesday 4th April, Mrs Boston’s two steam locomotives, the Bagnall “Pixie” (WB2090/19) and the standard gauge Peckett locomotive (P2012/41) were collected and moved to a new location. These two locomotives have been sold to a private individual, and it is anticipated that they will form part of the collection at the Hollycombe Steam Collection near Liphook in Hampshire.

The majority of the other 2’0” gauge equipment, including 16 historic diesel & petrol locomotives, will be moving shortly to the Moseley Railway Trust’s new location at the Apedale Heritage Centre, near Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire. This equipment is privately owned by a group of individuals. Speaking for this group, Simon Lomax said “We are looking forward to working as part of the Moseley team to develop the new museum and railway, and we wish to publicly express our gratitude to the Moseley Railway Trust for offering the Cadeby equipment a new home”.

It should be noted that there are currently four Moseley Railway Trust locomotives on display as part of the Apedale Heritage Centre museum, and this museum, together with its associated displays of local mining heritage, remains open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays between 10am to 4pm.

Mrs Boston continues to reside at the Old Rectory, Cadeby, although the property is for sale. The estate agents for the sale are Country Properties of Hinckley, tel 01455 890898. Readers are asked to note that Mrs Boston’s home and grounds are private property, and to respect her privacy.