Getting it Back Out of the Box

Our Saturday working day this week saw considerable activity and a healthy turn-out of willing volunteers. Whilst we sat in the Apedale Heritage Centre at lunchtime consuming tea and oatcakes (the staple diet in these parts), our Chairman Phil showed us part of a DVD he is preparing showing the final days at our former Cheadle Hulme site and the early progress in constructing the railway at Apedale. It is now nearly ten years since we vacated Cheadle and it seems longer! The video (see photos) showed the final open day with a good variety of rolling stock on show, followed by some shots of track recovery using the former Ashton-under-Lyne Sewage Works Hudson locomotive "Chaumont". The DVD will be available to buy later in the year.

Dismantling a railway and "putting it back in its box" (as Phil explained to a young passer-by at the time) is much easier than building it again. Anyone who has ever been involved in restoring anything will know that the easy (and cheap) bit is dismantling it. However by far the most rewarding part is putting it all back together. This is how it feels at Apedale now. Virtually every week there is visible progress on the site, the buildings and the railway and the stage is now set for another major project to commence in the next couple of weeks. We are about to start erecting a brand new storage building that will house the ex-Cheadle locomotive collection, allowing these engines to see the light of day once more. We are looking forward to being able to show off the entire collection again and with that in mind we are making plans for a railway open day later in the year. The passenger line won’t be ready by then but that won’t stop us putting on a good show - we’re itching to crank-up a few engines that haven’t been run since they left Cheadle.

If you’ve got some time on your hands and fancy getting involved, pop down to Apedale on any Saturday and join in the fun. It’s hard work but it’s rewarding and there’s plenty still to do. Membership details can be found here.

Press Release - Progress at Apedale

The Moseley Railway Trust is making good progress on developing its site at Apedale, near Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire. A small but dedicated band of volunteers are working on constructing a 2’0" gauge passenger carrying railway from the Apedale Heritage Centre. The objective of the Phase One railway will be to a station at Apedale Road, a distance of 500 metres from the Heritage Centre. Later phases will see the railway cross Apedale Road and storm up a 1 in 50 ruling gradient to a terminus at Apedale Country Park, giving a run of nearly 2km.

Significant assistance has been provided with the groundworks, ballasting and other activities associated with the passenger carrying railway by a grant from Lafarge Aggregates, administered by the Derbyshire Environmental Trust. The Moseley Railway Trust wishes to publicly acknowledge this, and thanks both Lafarge Aggregates and the Derbyshire Environmental Trust for their support for the Apedale project.

A further key priority for the Moseley Railway Trust in 2008 is to construct a large storage shed at Apedale. This will then allow the movement of the trust’s large collection of locomotives and other vehicles currently stored elsewhere. The locomotive fleet is one of the UK’s largest, numbering approximately sixty, and many of these have not been on display to the general public since the MRT vacated its original site at the former Moseley Grammar School site at Cheadle, near Stockport.

An opening date for the railway has not yet been set, as there is a considerable amount of work yet to be done, both physical and on the inevitable paperwork mountain. However, the MRT is planning an open day later in the year. The date for this will be publicised in the next few weeks, and this will be an opportunity for visitors to see progress at Apedale.

The Moseley Railway Trust’s Apedale Appeal remains open and donations large and small are sought to further the MRT’s site development aims at Apedale.

Phil Robinson, the Moseley Railway Trust’s chairman said "The trust has made stunning progress - in just a little over a year, we have taken a derelict site, renovated the buildings, and made a real start on building a new passenger railway. This will provide a major new attraction for the North Staffordshire area, and will mark a step-change in the regeneration of the Apedale valley".

Edward Sholto Update

The Moseley Railway Trust has one of the UK's largest collection of narrow gauge locos. Some of these are owned directly by the Trust, but the majority are owned by small consortia or individuals. Many of these locomotives have yet to arrive at the Apedale site, generally awaiting the construction of a storage shed. One such locomotive is Hunslet number 996 of 1909 "Edward Sholto".

"Edward Sholto" is one of the famed Quarry Hunslets. She is actually described as a Large Quarry (Penrhyn) type, and was the last new steam loco procured for Penrhyn quarries. When new, she cost 600 pounds. She was named after Edward Sholto Douglas-Pennant who inherited the Penrhyn estates upon the death of his father in 1907. The loco worked at the quarries until laid up around 1956. She was one of the first locos to leave Penrhyn for preservation, being exported to Canada in October 1961. She never steamed in Canada, and changed hands several times before being acquired by a prominent member of the Moseley Railway Trust and returned to the UK in July 2006. The loco was in poor condition. However, she had left the quarry early on, and had not been restored or tinkered with during her "preservation" career, and therefore was still in a totally original condition - perhaps uniquely for a Penrhyn quarry Hunslet. The owner has built a small team who have worked very hard on the loco, and hopes are high that the loco will steam again during 2008. The photos show the frames, fully restored and awaiting reassembly, and the saddle tank. The tank was massively corroded and has been rebuilt by a true craftsman - it's a work of art!! As ever, visit our main website here, or e-mail us here.

Wonderful Wagons

The Moseley Railway Trust's mission statement includes the words "preserve, conserve and interpret locomotives, vehicles and other artefacts pertaining to the industrial narrow gauge railway". We take all aspects of this very seriously, and this week we'll have a look at the unsung heros of the railway world - the humble wagon.

On any railway, the stars of the show tend to be the locomotives (with steam at the top of the pile), then perhaps a few nice Victorian coaches. Wagons tend to be relegated to being useful services vehicles. A few railways are now seeing wagons as interesting vehicles in their own right - the Tanfield Railway and the Great Central's Windcutter set of 16 ton mineral wagons are examples which stand out.

The narrow gauge used very diverse wagons; the railways tend to be specialised by industry, and each industry became very adept at designing vehicles which were the most efficient means of acheiving the specific transport objective. Aesthetics were never a huge consideration - which explains a fair bit!

At the MRT, we have amassed a goodly collection of wagons, and hopefully we will be able to represent at least a selection from each of the main industries which used industrial narrow gauge railways. This weeks photos show a few of the wagon fleet. Above is a large ex-MOD bogie flat wagon, manufactured by Hudson of Leeds, and which is used to transport rail panels; then, below, last Saturday's Heavy Freight with Motor Rail No.20 hauling a train of wagons which needed to be shifted from the bottom yard. There's at least two types of skip, the remains of an RAF Fauld bomb wagon, and an open ex MOD Eastriggs. Hiding at the back are a flat from a quarry at Bakewell.

The invitation remains - come and join in the fun! Visit the main website here, or e-mail us here.