Looking back, looking ahead

Another year draws to a close, with (it seems) an extra second added. Looking back on the activities of the Moseley Railway Trust at Apedale in 2008, three particular highlights come to mind. Firstly, the project to repatriate to the UK from Ghana the Hudswell Clarke steam loco no.1238 of 1916, and the epic task of organising this. Secondly, the construction and fitting out of Aurora North, the large new storage shed at Apedale. This has allowed the MRT's collection of more than fifty locomotives and other artifacts to be gathered from a variety of storage locations and brought together for the first time in ten years. This had the peripheral benefit of producing a VERY good year for certain road haulage contractors! Finally, we opened the site to the public on two weekends, in September and November. This demonstrated that we have the organisational abilities to operate a significant tourist attraction in a professional and sustainable manner.

I had hoped that we would now be recovering from running our first Santa Specials on the passenger railway, but sadly this was not to be. Issues with land leases and a footpath diversion have taken very much longer to resolve than was expected, and so the passenger railway is currently some considerable away from completion. However, we have learnt a lot from the railway construction completed so far, and also from the experiences gained at the Open Days. Moreover, we are optimistic that the final hurdles are close to being overcome, and that the final push on construction will see the railway final opening at some time in 2009. Money and labour remain tight, so if you can help in any way (although money & labour are particularly valued, there are other ways in which you can support us!) get in touch here. The photos used this time try to capture a few of these key moments.

Happy Christmas from the Moseley Railway Trust

As you can see, a few stalwarts of the Moseley Railway Trust have put on their best suits and gathered round one of the fleet to send all our readers festive greetings. But since it's Christmas, let's forget the trains for a few minutes and have a laugh at an MRT board member who really should know better at his age......

Joffres

One of the lesser-known members of the Moseley Railway Trust fleet is No.5 in the steam fleet, Kerr Stuart 3014/16. This locomotive was one of the "Joffre" class, named after the famous French general of the First World War. The loco is an 060 well plus side tank, with two 8 1/2" x 11" cylinders. Kerr Stuart supplied seventy of these locos in three batches; the design was closely based on similar locos being built by the French builder Decauville. The similarity is understandable when one learns that the French government provided KS with all the drawings for the locos. No. 3014 was supplied new to Nantes in 1916, for use on French government artillery railways. It was purchased, from Verdun, by a dealer, and resold to a stone quarry SA des Carrieres de la Vallee Heureuse, along with at least four similar locos. Derelict by 1956, it was repatriated in 1974, along with four other Joffres, and became part of the now-defunct Gloddfa Ganol collection. It spend many of the following years on a plinth alongside the famous Crimea Pass road out of Blaneau Ffestiniog (see top photo). In 1998, the loco became part of the MRT fleet. As will be appreciated, 40plus years of dereliction has taken a severe toll, and it will be a long haul back to service for this loco. However, great strides are being made. 3014 is not yet at Apedale; its restoration is progressing off-site. It will be a great day when it returns to a site no more than five miles from where it was built and hauls a passenger train. We have been inspired recently by the return to steam of one of the other ex-Gloddfa Joffres, this one number 2451 at the Lynton & Barnstaple group's base at Woody Bay. Our friends at the West Lancashire Light railway own a Joffre (no. 2405) which was part of the 1974 import batch but escaped incarnation at Gloddfa. There is a website here which gives lots more Joffre-related information. We have been lent some slides, taken in 1963 by Mr D. Trevor Rowe showing two of the Joffres at the stone quarry - one of the shots is shown below.

As ever, get in touch with us here.

Bums on Seats

The issue of bums on seats, specifically fare-paying bums (with rest of valued customer attached) is one which pre-occupies any operator of a passenger railway. As the Moseley Railway Trust works towards the hoped-for opening of the Apedale passenger railway during 2009 (watch this space!), the issue of where our potential passengers are going to park their bums has been high in our minds.

The MRT already has one passenger coach. This (seen above) is basically a re-build of a vehicle used on the Penrhyn railway in North Wales to transport quarrymen to and from their work. This vehicle is currently being fitted with air brakes by our friends at Alan Keef Ltd. Anyone who has been to a Keef open day in recent years will have seen and travelled in this vehicle. However, this vehicle has a couple of drawbacks - it has limited seating capacity and it has no roof. It has, on the odd occasion, been known to rain in North Staffordshire.

We also have a much more "original" Penrhyn coach, but that is more of a museum exhibit, although we may explore how to sympathetically modify it for passenger carrying in the future.

Attention has therefore been given recently to a second vehicle, which a steel brakevan built by Hudson as recently as 1991; it was built in Ilkeston after Hudson closed their famous Gildersome work, and merged with the mining equipment company of Becorit. The vehicle was new to RAF Chilmark; it then spend a while at Eastriggs, near Carlisle, before joining the MRT collection. It is in need of some cosmetic work and a re-trim. The bogies have now been removed, as seen in the picture, for overhaul and adjustment of the wheelsets - Dave the Gauge is seen determining how much the wheelsets need adjusting to "fit" the railway correctly and safely. The vehicle also needs to be fitted with air braking equipment. It remains to be seen how it performs in traffic - being basically a steel box, it may be necessary to issue ear plugs to passengers!

The third element in the MRT's passenger fleet will be a replica of a Hudson Toastrack coach, similar to those still in use on the Ffestiniog Railway. Under construction currently, this vehicle will solve our passenger carrying issues for the foreseeable future.

As ever, please contact us here.

Mostly Montanias

The vast majority of the Moseley Railway Trust's fleet of locomotives are, naturally, UK-built. However, a small number were constructed overseas. This week, we'll take a look at an overseas works with a lot of history. Orenstein & Koppel were a very long established German engineering company, and they survived as an entity until very recently - visit a shopping centre and there's a fair chance that the escalators will say "O&K" on them. O&K built very large quantities of railway equipment in their various works in Germany. As far as the narrow gauge is concerned, prior to WW2, there were two key works. Steam locos, and a few of the larger diesels were built in the "Drewitz" works, in the Babelsburg suburb of Berlin. Chillingly, the business changed its name to MBA after 1935 - Orenstein, a Jewish name, was unacceptable to the Nazi regime. After the arrival of the Russians changed the political landescape somewhat, this works evolved into "Lokomotive Karl Marx" - so no mistaking the political allegiance there.

The smaller narrow gauge internal-combustion locos were built at a works in Nordhausen, in the Harz mountains, and were marked under the "Montania" brand - it being the Montania works. O&K took over this works in 1912, and ran the place until it closed in January 1942. During this period, 9371 locos were built. Perhaps slightly surprisingly, a good number were shipped to the UK; O&K had an agent, William Jones, who seems to have been very adept at selling things without getting into unfortunate discussions about where they came from and why can't we understand the funny writing in the instruction book. The MRT has three such Montania/William Jones locos in the collection - two petrol locos, types MM and M, and a diesel RL1B. The MM seems to have been built only for UK customers, and the loco in the collection is the only known survivor. Similarly, the RL1B again seems to have been specific to the UK market. There has always been some suspicion that the locos were shipped from Germany as kits, and final assembly was done by Jones. The top pictures show the MM (left) and the RL1B (right).

Nordhausen later gained notoriety as the centre of manufacture for the Nazi V1 and V2 rockets; even this factory used narrow gauge railways, and the remnants of a steam loco used in the works, and the associated forced labour camp, is preserved as a memorial (photo below). This loco is like the O&Ks in the MRT collection - it is an object through which future generations can understand the past; in some cases a pretty unpleasant past. Find out more here.

The MRT is hoping to take the MM O&K on a rather happier foreign outing next year - see here for details.

In the meantime, you are more than welcome to contact the MRT here.