Looking back, looking ahead

On New Year's Eve, it is customary to review things past and think about things yet to come.

2008 will be notable as the tenth anniversary of the MRT's final train at the original site, at what was the Moseley Boys School, Cheadle Hulme, Manchester. The last train, shown in the picture, was run on the 12th of April 1998, using LBT class Ruston loco "Mavis" (makers no. 7002/0967/6 of 1967). This loco is now resident at Threlkeld Quarry, near Keswick. Since that day, the MRT has had two storage sites before finally arriving at the permanent site at Apedale, Staffordshire (see "How to find us" on the homepage).

As you can read and see elsewhere in these notes, progress has been steady and solid at Apedale during 2007, and we are optimistic that 2008 will see the operation of a passenger train service at Apedale.

Our key objectives for 2008 are to complete Phase One of the passenger railway, and to erect a large storage building which will allow the MRT's large collection of locomotives and other artifacts to emerge from ten years of storage.

There's a lot of work to do to achieve this, and all help is welcome - we're at work on Saturdays at Apedale, plus occasional Sundays (contact us here for details). I don't think we'll be able to run a passenger train on 12 April 2008, ten years to the day after the Last Train at Cheadle, but with a concerted effort, later in the Summer may be possible. Why not come along and help us meet this goal (or maybe a donation - perhaps Santa was generous this year?).

Apedale Update

It's been a cold and wet month at Apedale, but we've managed to make some good progress on a number of projects. The G Class Simplex is now fully electrocuted. Our Orenstein forklift truck developed a nasty habit of covering the driver's knees in hydraulic oil. A worldwide search for a suitable alternative steering valve led us to a company just around the corner from the Deputy Chairman's house. The new valve is fitted, and early indications are that the driver's knees are currently unlubricated.

Work has continued on the buildings. The World's Worst Bricklayer has moved onto to becoming the World's Worst block-layer, and thus has been created a tool store room within the main complex. Hopefully, this will facilitate a general clear-up of the workshop area.

A hitherto unmentioned project has been quietly growing - this is a mock-up of a concrete pipe for use in the museum display area. Amazing what can be done with hardboard and timber offcuts.

What will 2008 bring? A renewed focus on the need to construct Phase One of the railway down to Apedale Road. Groundworks are making progress, and we can recommence track laying in the next couple of weeks.

As ever, we'd love to hear from you, (contact us here), or better still, why not come and see us (and maybe do a bit of railway-building) - we're at work every Saturday and a few other days as well.

This week's photo is a recent shed shunt. MR7710 (No.42) is seen struggling to move two of the bigger locos - MR1320 and Hudswell D558; these latter two don't see out-of-doors too often.

On behalf of the MRT, can I wish all readers a happy Christmas.

Stanhope Status

Kerr Stuart 2395 "Stanhope" is, some would say, the flagship of the Moseley Railway Trust's loco fleet. Built in 1917 to the makers Tattoo class design, the loco worked at Penrhyn quarries until withdrawal. Stanhope entered preservation in 1966, but was not fully restored until her first steaming in preservation during 1999.

This, of course, seems like just yesterday to many of us - but the loco's tubes, of course, do not work on fallible human memory. And, in the words of Chief Engineer Scott "You canna change the laws of Physics".

Stanhope is normally based at the West Lancs Light Railway, at Hesketh Bank, near Southport. However, she has visited many other railways. Notable excursions have include the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland railways, and also places such as Amerton and Statfold.

However, it was her recent outing to the South Tynedale Railway at Alston which was to be her undoing. The high pennine fells, and the famous climbs to Shap and Beattock tested many a standard gauge loco; the STR was no less a stern test for Stanhope. Unfortunately, during the STR visit, the tubes began to leak fairly seriously. The inevitable could not be postponed.

Shortly after return to base at Hesketh Bank, the boiler was removed from the locomotive and dispatched to a local boilersmith, Johnson's, based at Banks (also near Southport). Whilst being re-tubed, the boiler has also received all the necessary work for a further ten years service. The work done has been to retube the boiler, manufacture and fit a new smokebox. The new smokebox is of rather heavier gauge material than the standard design, although the Kerr Stuart drawings show that some original customers also favoured this option on their Tattoos.

The boiler was hydraulically tested this week - this is in progress in the photo, and the boiler inspector pronounced himself happy. There was a moment of panic at the amount of red ink being put into his notes - until it was revealed that Mr Inspector had only brought a red pen with him!

Stanhope will now be reassembled at Hesketh Bank, where the loco will continue to be based until the MRT's site at Apedale is ready to accommodate this loco. We hope that this will be during 2008, when the MRT is planning to open Phase One of the railway at Apedale.

The West Lancs website is at http://www.westlancs.org.

You can read more about Stanhope at http://www.mrt.org.uk/stanhope/

As ever, we would be pleased to hear from you - contact us here.

A Wet Day

It's been a cold & wet day at Apedale, but despite this, a hard band of MRT members still managed to turn out and progress things at Apedale. More work has been done on the buildings, and yet more wiring has gone into the G class Simplex. It now has broadly the same functionality as the Starship Enterprise.

The continuous rain brought to mind a memorable Moseley event; this was the Tin Turtle event held at the Ffestiniog's Minffordd yard over May Day 2005. A Tin Turtle is a Motor Rail loco built for service in World War One; dependant on the type, these locos can carry a body which resembles (some say) a turtle.

The FR event brought together four of these charecterful locos. These were the FR's own Mary Ann - MR596, MR435 which had been repatriated from St Kitts a few years earlier, Leighton Buzzard's MR1377 , and the Moseley Railway Trust's MR1369. All the locos spent the weekend shuffling around Minffordd yard to a lesser or greater extent; Mary Ann did decide to explore aspects of parts of the trackwork which are normally frowned on for most locomotives. Despite the wet & cold weather, a good time was had by both visitors and participants. The photo was taken from the FR's cherrypicker, and shows MR1369 on the diamond, facing MR1377. Mary Ann is top right, MR435 bottom left. 280 years of railway history in one photo - not bad!

Interested? Contact us here and find out more. Who knows, one day you could be participating in this sort of thing!

Apedale Notes and News

It's been a while since we updated the World Wide Web on progress with the Moseley Railway Trust's project at Apedale. Hopefully, we'll be making more regular updates in the future, time permitting, so keep watching this space.

What's been happening at Apedale? The short answer is Plenty. The slightly longer answer begins here....

Trackwork now extends from the Red Shed (so called because it's a shed, and it's red) to the station site near the Apedale Heritage Centre. This will allow the operation of the MRT's locomotives, currently stored in the Red Shed. There's a long way to go yet, though. The next major issue to be tackled is to divert a footpath, which currently runs through the middle of the site, onto a new alignment. The new alignment will hopefully be easier and safer for all users of the path. A useful by-product is that it will be a great vantage point when trains start running - get the cameras ready!

Work has also continued on the former mine buildings. These need extensive clearing out and decoration to convert them to become the MRT's centre of operations. Amongst other things, an office has been created to hold the mountain of paperwork which any railway needs these days. We are also currently hosting the UK heats of the World's Worst Bricklayer Championships.

Through all of this, some work even occasionally gets done on locomotives and wagons. For example, the G Class Simplex (the yellow loco in the picture) has had its electrical system given a good seeing to, and it can now charge its own battery. Work has also started on the mechanically good but cosmetically disastrous Motor Rail 2197 (this is behind the G class in the picture); hopefully this will be finished in time for a planned outing to a certain Welsh railway in 2009.

As you can imagine, this all keeps a hard core of members pretty occupied. If you fancy lending a hand, we're on site most Saturdays from 10.00, and (from January 2008), also on the 2nd Sunday of each month. So, if you want to see more, come along - Apedale is just off the A34, north of Newcastle Under Lyme. Questions? Contact us here, and we'll do our best to help.

We cannot post this without mentioning the Heritage Centre which is invaded by MRT members keen to sample the latest tricks with oatcakes (aka The Tunstall Tortilla). Apparently it sells some other foodstuffs beyond oatcakes. We will investigate and let you know.

Keep checking this website (have you book marked it?), and we'll try to give you something new to read every couple of weeks (or more often if we have the time, the inclination or something interesting happens).