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.
