Scientific Services

Railways are all about the practical application of scientific theory. Every so often, the Moseley Railway Trust gets to participate in the advancement of science. We have recently participated in two such experiments. Adam, the son of the MRT's Permanent Way Engineer, has been developing a spray weedkiller system as part of his college course. This particular system, rather conveniently, is designed to mount onto one of the Trust's wagons - this one came from the former nursery railway at Poppelton, near York. But how to demonstrate that it evenly distributes the spray across the formation? The answer was to conduct a series of careful tests. An area was marked out, and a bar placed across. Filter papers were then attached to the bars. The sprayer was then towed across the marked area using a locomotive. The filter papers soak up the spray, and hence a distribution can be plotted of the amount of spray against the position transverse across the track formation. His PhD is, we feel, virtually in the bag.

Meanwhile, atop a workshop not unadjacent to this activity, another experiment is taking place. How many times have you lain in bed, unable to sleep, your mind racing as you consider the Question - What has the greater form drag - a 40HP Protected Motor Rail, or a WDLR Water Tank Wagon? Well, for your slumbering enlightenment, one of the MRT's talented members has designed an experiment which will allow this Question to be answered.

It also tells you which way the wind is blowing.

For deeper scientific discussions, such as how many loco names can be spelt using the contents of a tin of Alphebetti Spaghetti, join the MRT and read our magazine, Moseley Matters. Four times a year, and easier to digest than "A Brief History of Time". Contact us here for further details. Or come along to Apedale and see what the team of brilliant scientists are up to. For further enlightenment of life's great unanswered questions, see here.

Knothole Worker - not now a not-worker

One of the best aspects of narrow gauge preservation is that the relative small size and affordability of the locomotives means that it is possible to preserve several of each type. Thus, the development of a particular manufacturer's product line can be traced as production evolved over the years. One of the best-known such manufacturers is, of course, Motor Rail of Bedford. They had produced very successful petrol, then diesel, locomotives which had changed little since the First World War. However, the design evolved, rather than transformed. Such an evolutionary step can be seen with the two locos featured in the first of this week's photos - No.40 to the left and No. 14 to the right. No.40 is Simplex Mechanical Handling 40SD516, and was one of the very last locos to be produced, after Motor Rail renamed itself. It is a "40S" type loco. No.14 is one of the earliest 40S locos, works number 22045 of 1959; this loco is named "Knothole Worker". The main design changes on the 40S compared to earlier locos included a fully welded, rather than riveted, frame; this frame is also slightly shorter, to allow locos to be placed sideways into an ISO shipping container for export.

"Knothole Worker" came to the Moseley Railway Trust from the London Brick Company's works at Warboys, Cambridgeshire. The claypits at Warboys were known as Knotholes, but exactly why is unclear; one suggestion is that it refers to harder parts of the clay deposits, which are like knots in wood.

"Knothole Worker" has not run satisfactorily for a while; investigations showed that it suffered from a badly contaminated fuel tank. This has now been cleared out, and it's now a runner again. As you will see from the first photo, our CME seemed to be intent on reenacting the Torrey Canyon during this process. As ever, we'd love to here from you here.

Giz a Lift

As the Moseley Railway Trust edges towards opening a passenger railway, an area receiving increasing attention is that of training. We obviously need to ensure that we have people with the appropriate knowledge and skills (or "competencies" as they're known in the trade) to carry out the multiplicity of jobs on the railway. And it's not only the railway. The MRT has a number of items of heavy plant, which are invaluable to the railway building effort, but could cause serious harm in the hands of an ill-trained operator. And so a batch of four intrepid members spent last Saturday being trained to drive and control the Trust's crane. The unwilling participant in all of this was loco No.34 - Ruston 164350. Delivered in May1933, this Ruston is one of the oldest in existence, and is one of the rare "front tank" types - which use a mass of water for cooling rather than the more conventional water/air heat exchanger. Why did it have the starring role - well it happened to weigh just the right amount to allow testing of the crane overload system - a procedure which had the MRT's safety officer going for a nice cup of tea and sit down afterwards. Nonetheless, a vital test and perfectly safe when administered by competent people. Before you all ask, yes, all four members passed the course. The crane, by the way, is a Coles Speedcrane. We can only assume that the name was invented before the advent of the Trades Description Act and after a long liquid lunch.

The point of all of this is to illustrate one of the paybacks of volunteering for the Moseley Railway Trust - we will provide training in all sorts of areas, and much of that training is transferable to outside activities. Why not get in touch here or come and see us at Apedale?

Another One Bites the Dust

A number of visitors to the Moseley Railway Trust's open days at Apedale (September & November last year) observed that it is more conventional for railway track to be IN the ballast, rather than ON the ballast. To which we kept replying that thank you, we know that, the railway isn't finished yet. Yesterday 28/2/09 we took a small, but significant, step towards finishing the railway. We have been loaned a rather fine ballast hopper wagon by our friends at the Golden Valley Light Railway, who are located on the Midland Railway Centre site in Derbyshire. The wagon has had some modifications at Apedale to improve ballast discharge into the area between the rails. Forming the ballast shoulders outside of the rails was more of an issue, but we discovered that with careful selection of the wagons, and equally careful loading, standard side-tipping skip wagons would deposit their load into more-or-less the right place. And thus was born the Apedale Valley Light Railway's ballasting train, powered by fleet no. 65, Ruston 223667. This 20DL loco is ideal for this job, as it is very controllable at low speeds and will creep along quite happily as the hopper discharges its load. Loading is accomplished using a member's Fordson Super Major tractor, which has shown that it is more than equal to the job despite its advancing years. A bit like some of the MRT's working members, really.

Of course, most railway people will know that ballast hoppers and the like are traditionally given codenames which are based on marine life. It is proposed that the hopper is known as the Great Crested Newt, after a certain breed of amphibians which have given us some local difficulties. If you have a better idea, or fancy coming along and leaning a hand, then get in touch here. Meanwhile, both of our regular readers will be pleased to learn that the writer may have resolved his Freddy Mercury obsession.