It's been the Annual General Meeting of the Moseley Railway Trust today at Apedale. In many ways, this AGM represents a turning point for the Trust. Previous AGMs (certainly all the ones I've been to) have been some hall or other, often in the Stockport area which represented the spiritual home of the Trust. This year, things changed. For the first time in ten years, the MRT is back in the Railway Business. The railway at Apedale is a long way from finished, and a long way from being able to carry passengers, but what we can do is demonstrate to our members just how much progress has been made in the last year or so. This progress is most visibly represented by the loco collection being demonstrated on the railway which has been laid so far.
Today. we ran MR7710, MR8748, SMH104G063, FH2306, the RL1 O&K (perhaps 3444), the Wingrove battery loco and best of all the ancient Deutz 10050. MR2197 was used as a buffer stop - the brakes still work, even if nothing else does. The other five locos on the railway (OK4588, RH198297, MR1320, Bg1695 and HC D558) were all hauled from the shed and placed on display. In the case of the Ruston, hauled kicking & screaming as it tends to seize its brakes on when stood still for more than ten minutes. The Deutz hasn't been run since the Cadeby days (I think its last outing was in mid 2005) - and it's GREAT to see it making its characteristic way along the railway with gears and rods clanking, flywheels spinning and haze of exhaust. You can see the video on YouTube here
All too soon, it was time to pack away and attend the AGM - which seemed to go well, with the Trustees emerging relatively unscathed. It was really nice to see the room so full, and everyone seemingly so upbeat and positive about the progress made. It was also encouraging to see many new faces in the crowd. We are always trying to recruit new members - for details, contact us here. Everyone is more than welcome, active working members especially so.
All we need to do now is to chose a name for the railway......
