The beast awakens (or not)

With the museum site handed over to the pile driving contractors, the volunteers of the Moseley Railway Trust have taken cover with various workshop based activities. The War Department Light Railways Class "D" bogie wagon has been worked on, and completion is looking close. We have had a set of drop-sides for one of these wagons in store for some years. They were actually virtually the first things to ever arrive on site at Apedale. Hence they were now behind/underneath everything else on site, so extracting them from their storage hole was not the simplest job in the world. But once extracted, they fitted remarkably well, considering that they came from a completely different wagon - and they look the part as well.

Meanwhile, the 2011 entry in the "How many people can look at a Target Trolley" contest was well under way elsewhere. Despite the enormous array of engineering talent which had been deployed on the vehicle, it was looking distinctly dubious for an engine start when your writer drew stumps and went home. But, to be fair, it wasn't quite dark, and it is a well known fact that dubious petrol-driven rail vehicles can only ever operate after dark. Ask anyone who ever worked on the Baguley at Cadeby. The Target Trolley used to be at the Lydd ranges in Kent, and was initially preserved at Bala. There's a lot more information about this interesting little vehicle on the Bala Lake Railway's site here. Get in touch with us here.

No time for posing

A very busy weekend at Apedale has finally seen the site of the Museum building cleared in readiness for the arrival of the Pile Drivers. In preparation for what promises to be rather like something out of a Terminator film, we have had to move yet another container. Even heavier than the last, our more physics-minded member have a theory that they contain miniature blackholes. He has a particle accelerator in his garage, so he should know about these things. It was also necessary to partially demolish the edge of the "temporary" platform which has served us well for our first full season. Trains now stop adjacent to the station building, allowing our hoards of visitors some shelter from the sub-tropical weather for which Staffordshire is noted. The concrete sleepers have been quickly recycled into forming part of the retaining wall for the loco inspection pit project. As can be seen in the photo, the Forklift truck proved remarkably adept at demolition. Because we obviously weren't busy enough, we also took delivery of an ex-MoD van, and a Wickham Target Trolley. If you don't know what a Wickham Target Trolley is, you'll have to come along and have a look. Or you could get in touch here.

The Circle of Life

Whilst the next major stage of the Apedale development plan is due to start very shortly, there are a couple of projects that have recently completed. Last weekend provided an opportunity the show them off as part of our industrial trains weekend. Firstly, of course, the Kerr Stuart Joffre locomotive (No 3014 of 1916) had another opportunity to stretch its legs, this time paired with a couple of authentic World War One wagons. These were our Class H tank wagon and a newly-assembled Class D drop side wagon (although the latter has still to have its sides fitted). The weekend not only provided the last opportunity for visitors who could not make our gala weekend for whatever reason (North Wales Superpower indeed!) to see the new loco in action, but also allowed our staff a little bit more experience with some of the different aspects of its operation. One of these was the Detroit hydrostatic lubricator, an original fitting on this type of locomotive. Having located a suitable set of instructions for this and remanufactured some of the missing fittings, this magical device seemed to operate perfectly. This was probably a good thing as the non-original mechanical lubricator (known for their greater reliability) seemed to have stopped working altogether.

Additionally we took the opportunity on the Saturday to show off our newly-restored "Apedale Apprentice" wagons. These wagons, originally from ICI's Shevington explosives works, have been fully restored over the last few months by our junior members and were operated behind a 20DL Ruston locomotive from the same location. The photo shows two of the apprentices, Nathan and James, posing proudly next to their completed train set.


Next comes the rather more daunting project of constructing our museum building. If you fancy posing proudly next to this or another of our projects, we'd love to hear from you. Follow this link for details.

Finding the Floor

It's been a busy day down at the well-known October suntrap which is the Apedale Valley. Marking out the corners of the site for the new museum buildings, it was noticed that a group of containers were rather inconveniently stood in the middle of the site. With the remarkable foresight for which the Moseley Railway Trust is well-known, it was realised that this could make the pile-driving a tad challenging. So they had to move. Unfortunately, they were full of stored locomotives. So, we spent the day dragging a few of the more camera-shy members of the fleet out into the sunshine, only to dash their hopes of a quick restoration by putting them back into another container elsewhere on site. A Ruston's lot is not a happy one. The second container proved to be rather heavier than expected. It is suspected that the framework was built from depleted uranium. Interestingly, once moved, a huge source of cups and saucers was discovered, giving rise to the belief that the long-lost Apedale Tea Set Mine had been re-discovered. Apparently that's why the area is known as the Potteries. Next weekend, before we forget, will be your last chance to see the Kerr Stuart "Joffre" in steam - both Saturday & Sunday from 1100 ish - the last steam weekend before the December Santa freeze-fest. Get in touch here.