Week after week, the work to develop the Moseley Railway Trust's site at Apedale continues. The primary objective now is to open the Phase One passenger railway. It's running a little behind schedule, but will hopefully open during 2009 - watch this space for further details. The primary objective of opening this railway is a fairly brutal one - we need to carry passengers, who will pay fares, which will generate an income stream and allow us to continue to develop. Until the railway opens, that income stream has been rather hit and miss (more one than the other). We have had some successes in attracting commercial sponsors; this week we'd just like to recognise three of these. National Grid very kindly sponsored the recent fencing project - the photo at the top shows one of their employees standing on the Clayton battery electric loco which used to operate in the Grid's cable tunnels at Woodhead. Porterbrook Leasing sponsored part of the repatriation from Ghana of the Hudswell Clarke steam locomotive last year, and also donated locomotive nameplates; these were auctioned and the funds made a significant contribution to the costs of building the new storage shed at Apedale (the photo below shows our Chairman with Karen Jackson from Porterbrook). Finally Lafarge Aggregates assisted with the groundworks and ballasting for much of the current railway.
To these organisations (and all the others who space precludes a mention), the MRT records its sincere thanks; these organisations have made a significant contribution to the Apedale project and the regeneration of a corner of North Staffordshire. As you will guess, we are always on the look out for more - if you think your organisation may be able to help, get in touch here. Right now, anyone who could lend us a couple of Kango hammers for ballast packing would be our new best friend. We know you're out there.
