Form an orderly queue.....

On behalf of our colleagues at the Apedale Heritage Centre, the Moseley Railway Trust is selling a Ruhrthaler diesel loco; 750mm gauge, it's a big beast, weighing in at 12 tons. It's on e-bay here.

The objective is to raise money to allow the completion of the reconstruction of the North Staff Rly station building from Silverdale - this will be the point of departure for the MRT's Apedale Valley Light Railway. If you're interested, or can support completing this building, get in touch here.

Air Power

The Moseley Railway Trust has passed a milestone in the work to complete the Apedale Valley Light Railway. Yesterday, 23/1/10, we ran our first air-braked "passenger" train. Passengers in inverted commas, because the only people carried were Trust volunteers - or "test subjects" as they were more correctly termed. We have to carry out an extensive programme of testing in order to confirm that both the railway, and the vehicle used on it, are as safe as possible when we finally allow non-test-subjects to board our train. The other advantage to allowing non-test-subjects onto the train is that, hopefully, they will pay for the privilege and thereby instantly transform the Trust's finances. If you fancy helping us to transform the finances, get in touch here.

The Eagle Has Landed

For the first time in what seems like an age, we have actually managed to find the railway at Apedale. Apparently it's the wood & metal thing which has been buried in the deep freeze. This revelation has allowed track laying to recommence. This week's project has been to install one of the rebuilt points. Using the Moseley Railway Trust's crane makes this sort of thing relatively easy. Anyone who has been to the Apedale site will recognise the Aurora North storage shed in the background, which is slowly but surely being surrounded by 2'0" gauge railway. The point has gone in on the east side of the building, and now forms part of a downhill ramp. Ultimately, this will form the route down into the bottom yard and thence to a recreated industrial railway; in the short term, we'll be storing the wagon fleet here. In case you're looking at the photos and assuming that we have finally gone mad (a reasonable belief, I grant you), the point will eventually lead to a siding over an inspection pit. A fair bit of ground make-up is needed before that can happen. In the meantime, the point will need to be firmly clamped into the normal position to avoid the mother of all derailments! If you want to lend a hand at avoiding such horrors, get in touch here.

King Coal

Winter has maintained its unrelenting icy grip down in the Apedale Valley. At times, parts of the site began to resemble a submarine film as burst pipes showed themselves as sprays of water, followed by desperate fumbling for an isolation valve. There was never any risk of the workshop descending below hull crush depth. On days like this, it's amazing how many indoor jobs suddenly show themselves. One such was moving a loco which is a resident in the Heritage Centre's museum building. There is a need to carry out some repairs to the floor area where Hunslet 9056/82 stands. This is a fairly chunky loco, tipping the scales at 4 tonnes, and came to us from Calverton colliery. Some temporary track was laid, and the loco pushed to its new resting place.

This movement allowed a rare glimpse of the full glory of the backdrops, painted some years ago when the loco was put on display. They are based on photographs taken of Ruston & Hornsby locos at Lea Hall colliery and at Sandhole colliery. As ever, we'd be please to here from you - get in touch here.

Winter Wonderland

Today has seen an appreciable snowfall down in the Apedale Valley. Consideration was given to breaking out the Snowplough, but it all seemed a bit difficult to clear 1/2" of snow from the railhead. So, instead, we decided to use the awesome pushing power for which the SMH "G" class is noted, all 20HP of it. Despite members resembling the cast from Ice Station Zebra, a fair bit of work was carried out. Commitment, or what? If you fancy being commited, contact us here.

Into the new decade

Despite the snow and ice, work has continued at Apedale. Our tame groundworks man has made progress in the Bermuda Triangle area, and the trackbed formation can now be clearly seen, rising like the Lady of the Lake (clad in the purest shimmering samite) from the swamp. Of course, farcical aquatic analogies are no basis for a system of railway construction, there is clearly some work to do before the drainage is sorted. However, the location of the loop (where the Apedale Road platform will be located) can now be clearly seen. Hopefully January will see this completed, and track down in this area - weather permitting. Come along and give us a hand - get in touch here.