Persistence is its own reward

There are some days when it all seems to fall into place easily and to plan. Conversely, there are days when everything seems to be a struggle. The Moseley Railway Trust's CME seems to have had one of the latter days. The job was to fit a Klaxon warning horn to the Hudson brake van. Not really needed, but authentic and a nice finishing touch. His personal manservant, Sergei, assured him that the job was "simples". And doubtless, some considerable number of hours later, the task seemed "simples". He seemed happy enough with the job in the end. By the way, we have some spares of the Hudson transfers used on this vehicle - if anyone wants one, get in touch. The perfect compliment for a modern dining room, I'm sure you'll agree. Meanwhile, an outside gang spent the day dodging the downpours, but seemed to have some success with installing some rather splendid section signs made for us by our friends at Leander Architectural, to whom many thanks. As ever, get in touch here.

The Sins of the Past

A sign of a moderate hint of intelligence is the ability to learn from the past. At the Moseley Railway Trust, we nowadays place some store on valuing the artifacts which are placed into our care. It is fair to say that the historical significance of narrow gauge railway equipment and (in particular) diesel locos has not always been fully appreciated. Indeed, the much revered tracks of the MRT in its days at the Margaret Danyers college once carried such horrors as a steam-outline conversion of a perfectly respectable Ruston loco. A few photos have recently come our way showing Motor Rail 2197 when it was at the Cadeby Light Railway; as can be seen, the livery is not entirely accurate, and the nameplate was made up for the benefit of Rich Morris, of Narrow Gauge Enterprises and Gloddfa Ganol fame. The current owner of the loco can honestly claim no involvement in this. The photo was taken in 1974, and he was only just out of nappies. You will all be greatly relieved to know that the loco has now got a rather more appropriate appearance, as can be seen in the second photo. We all live in fear of a midnight raid by the Authenticity Police. Help us fend off that day - get in touch here.

Clearing the way

The day edges ever closer when the Moseley Railway Trust's Apedale Valley Light Railway opens to the public. A slightly embarrassing recent discovery was that we didn't have sufficient siding space to accommodate the fleet of wagons. The wagons have been stored on the main line during the construction phase, and used during the open weekends (this year's being 18 & 19 September - book the date now). However, having rafts of wagons on the main passenger running line is not really compatible with running passenger trains. HMRI take a dim view of that sort of thing. So, a swift programme of building extra storage sidings has been instituted. One of the plus points of narrow gauge railways is that storage sidings can be rapidly laid using preassembled Jubilee track panels. So, in the space of an afternoon, we turned an existing point through 180 degrees, which allowed a previously disconnected siding to become part of the general network. A second point was then manhandled into place, and another siding laid from that. What could be easier? In the First World War they did this sort of thing under shellfire. All we had to worry about was when the Heritage Centre ice cream store would be closed. Meanwhile, work has also progressed swiftly on the Hudson Toastrack coach; it now has completed airbrakes, and the flooring is mostly completed. The only way is upwards now for that project. Contact us here.

Coaching Progress

No, we've not become management consultants. With the majority of the railway infrastructure completed on the Moseley Railway Trust's site at Apedale, attention is now largely focussed on completing the vehicles needed to carry our hordes of paying passengers (with particular emphasis on the "paying" bit). The Hudson brakevan has been masked for sparying MoD Green. Everyone seems to have an opinion on the colour, but I don't like to argue with the MoD. They've got more firepower than we have. Once the painting is complete, it just needs two windows fitting and the job's a good'un. Meanwhile, the Hudson toastrack coach replica is also storming along. Half the floor has now been fitted, and the other ends just awaits sorting out a few trivial details on the bogies - like the brakes. But no matter, we can deal with such issues. As ever, get in touch here.