Go Ahead for Hudswell

The Moseley Railway Trust is pleased to announce that a programme and funding has been put into place for the restoration of a 2’0" gauge Hudswell Clarke steam locomotive. The locomotive was built in Leeds in 1916, and was exported to Ghana. It worked for AngloGold Ashanti at their gold mines in Ghana until 1952, and was eventually put on display at the complex at Obuasi. Through the considerable assistance of AngloGold Ashanti, the locomotive was repatriated to the UK in 2008. Porterbrook Leasing sponsored part of the transportation costs from Ghana. Since 2008, the locomotive has been on display at the Moseley Railway Trust’s site at Apedale, near Newcastle under Lyme. In 2009, the locomotive was loaned to the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway in Bedfordshire to help mark the 75th anniversary of that railway. The locomotive has now moved to a private workshop facility where restoration to fully operational condition will take place. The work will be carried out by the team who have recently completed the overhaul of the Hunslet loco "Edward Sholto".
The funding for the restoration of the Hudswell Clarke locomotive has come from two main sources. Firstly, the family of Terry Stanhope has provided a substantial bequest. Terry, who died in 2006, was a life-long railway enthusiast and supporter of the Moseley Railway Trust. It is entirely fitting that he will have a permanent memorial in the form of the restored locomotive which will provide enjoyment and interest to many people. Secondly, a PRISM grant has been awarded, which recognises the importance of this locomotive to the UK’s industrial heritage.
There remains some funding yet to be obtained to complete the project, and the Moseley Railway Trust would welcome any further contributions towards the overhaul of the locomotive.
Phil Robinson, the Chairman of the Moseley Railway Trust said "Since AngloGold Ashanti kindly allowed the repatriation of this locomotive, we have been working to facilitate its return to steam. Through the kindness and support of the Stanhope family, and with the help of the PRISM team, we are now well on the way to achieving this. On behalf of the Moseley Railway Trust, I would like to express our thanks to the Stanhope family and PRISM".

Contact the Moseley Railway Trust here.

Industrial Interest

This weekend, the Moseley Railway Trust hosted the Annual General Meeting of the Industrial Railway Society. We're all about Industrial Railways at Apedale, so this was right up our street (or perhaps "siding"). I didn't keep count, but I am told that we operated something like 18 different locomotives, which is probably some sort of record for an IRS AGM! It was a glorious sunny spring day, and nothing went too badly wrong. Arguably the star of the show was Edward Sholto, which has now departed Apedale for the Ffestiniog Railway's "Quirks & Curiosities" event over the Mayday weekend. As ever, contact us here.

Annual General Meeting Day - and a puzzle

April 17th has seen the Annual General Meeting of the Moseley Railway Trust at Apedale, Staffordshire. It's the opportunity for the membership to give the Trustees a good kicking, although this year did seem to be rather a tame and well-humoured affair. Perhaps we're all getting older and wiser (or not). A much more probable explanation is that everyone wanted to get out into the glorious spring sunshine and play with the trains. We were very fortunate to host Andrew Neale's newly restored Hunslet steam loco "Edward Sholto"; this look simply glorious, and has gone down in history as the first steam loco to reach Apedale Road. We took advantage of a good number of our members being on site to conduct some brake testing on the passenger train. A necessary part of this was to take the

train down to Apedale Road - the photo shows the 60S Simplex No.13 running round the train. And now a puzzle. The nameplates on "Edward Sholto" have a full stop have the word Sholto - suggesting an abbreviation. The plates from "George Sholto" on display in the museum at Towyn also have the same punctuation. So, why? What is "Sholto" short for? And no, a quick Google won't tell you. Get in touch here with your answers (marking your entry "I'm a Know-All").

Grand Opening Gala - September 18 & 19

The Moseley Railway Trust has made good progress with the construction of the 2’0" gauge Apedale Valley Light Railway at the Apedale site near Newcastle-Under-Lyme, North Staffordshire. It is expected that the operation of public passenger trains will commence during the summer of 2010.
A Grand Opening Gala will be held at Apedale on 18 and 19 September 2010. During this weekend, the official opening ceremony will take place – and the MRT is planning that a VIP will "cut the ribbon".
It is hoped that at least one visiting steam locomotive will be in use, and there will be a wide range of traders, vintage vehicles and model railways. Our colleagues at the adjacent Apedale Heritage Centre will be running underground tours of their coal mine, and the café will doubtless be doing a roaring trade in its now legendary oatcakes.
The Moseley Railway Trust would be pleased to hear from potential exhibitors, especially vintage and veteran commercial vehicles. The Trust can be contacted here.

Further announcements will be made, so keep watching!

Ramping Up

The Easter blitz at Apedale has continued. There has been a bout of track laying; with the completion of the main running lines, members who like throwing sleepers about and heaving rail into place are now having to get their thrills in the more obscure parts of the site. The current scene is the so-called Ramp. This descends from the main yard area alongside the Aurora North storage shed, losing about 8 feet in height. Initially, this will be an elongated storage siding. However, in due course, the ramp will serve two functions. Firstly, it will provide a better location for loading and unloading rail vehicles from road transport. Secondly, it will be the link to the bottom yard and the "industrial" demonstration railway. As can be seen in the photo, at the moment the ramp ends in an earth bank and a large gatepost, so there's some scene shifting to be done first. In case you're wondering, the pipe leading from Simplex No.13 is allowing the loco air compressor to be used to drive the air tools which take a little (only a little) of the hard graft out of track laying. If you fancy contributing a little hard graft, get in touch here.

The Long Good Friday

Another busy day at Apedale has seen the completion of the ballasting of the main running line. Using a ballast hopper on loan (with grateful thanks) from our friends at the Statfold Barn railway, we have dropped about 30 tonnes of ballast today, mainly to form the shoulders of the running line, but some has also been spread around various siding to improve the track stability and walking conditions. The wagons have been loaded using the faithful (ish) Fordson Super Major tractor loader, which will now be taking a well earned rest for a while. The regular driver will also be taking a rest. Meanwhile, elsewhere on site, the Toastrack coach has progressed further, and work has also been done on both the Guard's van and the Penrhyn quarryman's coach. It's beginning to come together nicely. You can get in touch here.