AGM day

It's been the Moseley Railway Trust's Annual General Meeting. Held in the conference room at the adjacent Heritage Centre, it's the annual opportunity for the membership to hold the Trustees to account, and thereby set strategic policy for the organisation going forward. Or something. Anyway, it was good to see many members who (in some cases) are not regular visitors to the site. A small milestone was reached with the news that the membership number has now surpassed the 200 barrier. The "ST" Stoke-area post codes now predominate, which illustates the change in the organisation from a few years ago, when SK-ites (from Stockport) predominated. After a remarkably calm and well-ordered meeting, there were relatively few entrails to scrape off the meeting room walls, and everyone went outside to run the trains. If you fancy setting a bit of strategic policy of a Saturday afternoon, get in touch here. More importantly, next Saturday 2/4/11 is the FIRST DAY OF THE 2011 RUNNING SEASON - passenger trains from 1100 (all being well). Oooh, I can 'ardly wait.

Made in Staffordshire

The Moseley Railway Trust is pleased to announce that the theme for the September 2011 Gala weekend will be "Made in Staffordshire". The Gala will be on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September 2011, at the Moseley Railway Trust’s Apedale Valley Light Railway, based in North Staffordshire. The event aims to celebrate the rich industrial heritage of Staffordshire. Central to the event will be the two Kerr Stuart steam locomotives which will be operating on the 2’0"gauge Apedale Valley Light Railway. These will be the newly-restored "Joffre" locomotive, dating from 1916, and 1917 built locomotive "Stanhope". Kerr Stuart were, of course, based just a few miles away from Apedale in Stoke on Trent.

Negotiations are continuing for other visiting locomotives, but it is hoped to have representatives from other Staffordshire based locomotive builders at the event. As ever, there will be a full complement of displays, sales stands and attractions to entertain and delight all the family, young and old.

Phil Robinson, MRT Chairman, said "The return to steam for the "Joffre" locomotive allows us to celebrate all that is "Made in Staffordshire". We are planning another great gala weekend".

The Moseley Railway Trust continues its search for surviving employees of Kerr Stuart, and a number of interesting leads are being followed up currently.

The Trust would be pleased to hear from potential exhibitors, especially those whose exhibits have a Staffordshire connection. Get in touch via the MRT website, http://www.mrt.org.uk/, or come and see us at Apedale any weekend. Passenger Trains commence running on the Apedale Valley Light Railway from Saturday 2^nd April 2011.

The Gala will be open from 11.00 to 17.00 on each day. Further details will be announced as they become finalised.

Friends

...the one where lots of trains run up the Apedale Valley.

During the ten years when the Moseley Railway Trust had no railway of its own, various other organisations helped and supported us by allowing visits and the like at other railways. Yesterday was an opportunity to say "thank you" to the many individuals and organisations who helped the MRT during the wilderness years. We welcomed people from, amongst others, the Golden Valley Light Railway, the West Lancashire Light Railway, the Amerton Railway and Alan Keef Ltd. We ran a significant number of locomotives; courtesy a a recently amended rulebook, we were also able to run a more intensive service of demonstration goods trains on the main line. For the spotters out there, the locos run were:-

Steam - KS2395 Stanhope and vertical boiler "Paddy". Battery locos No.2 (WR C6716), 67 (WR D6912), 71 (CE5843), Petrol No.33 (MR7033), and diesels 7 (MR8663), 13 (MR11142), 20 (MR8748), 25 (HE6007), 29 (RH195846), 40 (SMH40SD516), 42 (MR7710), 43 (SMH104G063), 44 (HU LX1001), 58 (HC D558), 61 (MR1320), 62 (RH497542), 80 (LB52610), 81 (MR2197) and 90 (BD3756). I make that 21 in total - how many railways can turn out 21 locos without really trying too hard? Get in touch here!

Not Long to go

This weekend has seen steady progress on a number of fronts at Apedale. There's not long to go now until the first weekend on the 2011 running season - our first full year of running at Apedale - so it's been a case of tidying up and making ready. The station building at "Silverdale" station is making good progress. It seems that the CME didn't quite understand when the builder said that the brickwork was almost complete, it just needed the pointing doing. Bless 'im, they've just changed the medication. The station building is a project managed by our neighbours at the Apedale Heritage Centre. The building itself came from the former Silverdale station, on the North Staffs Railway, and was used to shelter many a traincrew whilst they brewed up in between loading MGR coal trains at the adjacent colliery loader. Hence the building surviving long after the branch closed to passengers. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the hordes of interested members attending our imminent MRT AGM day, one or two of the rarer seen locomotives have had a quick outing - the photo shows petrol Motor Rail number 7033. This is the once-legendary Macclesfield loco -it lurked in a garage under a block of flats for many years, and had become something of a mystery amongst those who follow such things. That's the loco, not the flats. Finally, the C&W department seem to have been practicing for the Olympic "Name that Part" contest. If you can Name that Part, get in touch here.

The only constant......

A number of years ago, I had some delightful experiences working with management consultants. In between him telling the time using my watch, I was regaled with a litany of cliches. "The Only Constant is Change" was a particular favourite, right until the moment when we had the consultant shot. Harsh but fair, and he didn't do it again. With increasing years, one realises that may 0.001% of what he said had some truth in it. It's certainly true these days at the Moseley Railway Trust's Apedale site. The last few years have been about making new things - coaches, buildings, railways and so on. But with the opening of the Phase One railway, then we have seen a Change in the general scope of activities towards maintaining and improving things. A case in point is the Penrhyn Coach replica. It was built in-house by the MRT more than ten years ago, and used intermittently since. The main use was at Alan Keef Ltd's Open days - the picture shows it on a very damp day in September 2006. But it was getting a little shabby, so a team has set to work on rectifying the bodywork. Good progress is being made. Consideration is also being given to fitting a lightweight roof to cut down on the visitor/carbon particle interface issues we have seen in the past with steam locos. The team are going to need to crack on - it's only three weeks to go until the start of the running season for the Apedale Valley Light Railway on 2nd April sharp at 11.00. See you than - or get in touch here.