Autumnal endeavours

It doesn't seem like five minutes since the end of the running season, and yet Apedale was enlivened by the beginnings of the Santa season - the inevitable hunt for all the bits of the Grotto. We'll soon be finding out who has been naughty and who has been nice. Meanwhile, outside the workshop, was one of the more elusive members of the fleet - the Hunslet "Twusk". It is rarely a good sign when a loco is stood with its engine crankcase doors off, and an even worse sign when our CME is peering into the innards with a puzzled look. "Twusk" achieved brief fame by becoming one of the first locos from the Scrapyard in the Sky - also known as Gloddfa Ganol - to operate after the dispersal of that collection. However, it has a rather unfortunate tendency towards seizing its engine, which is not considered ideal. It seems to have an oil pump issue, and time will tell if its a Naughty issue or a Nice issue. Meanwhile, down at the Pit Project, lumps of concrete sleepers were being hacked off with an angle grinder - that well-known civil engineering tool.

I should mention that you can book for our Santa Specials here or come down in person on the next two Saturdays. Be seeing you? Get in touch here.

Remembering

This weekend our thoughts turn to remembrance of the sacrifices made by those who fought so bravely to defend our way of life. Sadly, all those who served in The Great War are no longer with us, making it all the harder to imagine the circumstances in which they found themselves. This was brought home to me when I recently visited Sanctuary Hill Museum, near the Hill 60 memorial in Belgium.

Hill 60 overlooks the town of Ypres, which was completely destroyed during the war and painstakingly rebuilt thereafter. The Hill 60 museum site is now one of the few places on the Ypres Salient battlefields where an original trench layout can be seen in some semblance of what it might have looked like all those years ago. Even though the troops and the guns have now gone, the scene provides an eerie vision of what those troops had to endure. The photos show the muddy trenches and the flooded shell-holes that characterised this form of warfare.






At the Moseley Railway Trust we also have some artefacts from "The War to End All Wars", and it so happened on Saturday that we decided to operate one of these. This was partially because we needed to do some testing and also for the benefit of some VIP visitors who were meeting with us on site. Kerr Stuart 3014 was ordered by the French Commission for their artillery railways, and came with a good number of optional extras for the harsh environment in which it had to operate, such as spark arresting chimney, a set of four jacks for re-railing and also a set of equipment for drawing water from convenient sources such as rivers, canals and, more likely, flooded shell holes. One of the planned tests was on this "water lifter" equipment. This consists of a Gresham and Craven ejector and a long flexible hose with a filter on the end, which is normally carried coiled up on the roof of the cab.

To illustrate this the photo below, taken in September 1917, shows a Kerr Stuart locomotive having got into trouble whilst hauling some portable track sections across a stretch of unstable track near Proyart in the Somme area. The driver can be seen, presumably waiting for assistance to be sent out. The water lifter hose can also be clearly seen, as can the various lifting jacks. It is possible that excessive water in the tanks has contributed to the driver's undoing, as full side tanks will raise the centre of gravity of the locomotive.



Not having restored the Apedale canal (yet), we chose to test the water lifter using our H class water tank wagon. You can see where the hose attaches on the final photograph: the device on top of the tank just in front of the cab is the ejector. All went very smoothly and it was remarked that the last time this particular performance was carried out on one of these engines was probably 93 years ago. After a successful test, when putting the hose back on the roof, it also became clear that whoever did this would become a sitting duck for any enemy sniper in the viscinity. Perhaps that is why some of the contemporary photos show the hose being carried behind the cab. Another reminder of the horrifying conditions that surrounded the purpose of these machines.



One of our key aims is to preserve equipment such as this, so that it can continue to tell its own story to current and future generations. If you want to help us in that mission, contact us here.

The start of a new era

Although it is sometimes difficult to believe, there is actually a Grand Plan for the Moseley Railway Trust's Apedale site. Phase One was to build the Apedale Valley Light Railway as far as Apedale Road - this was opened to the public in August 2010. Phase Two is the building of the National Industrial Narrow Gauge Railway Museum. Fundraising for the Museum has been somewhat challenging - thanks in no small measure to the activities of Fred the Shred and his pals. Anyway, we've scraped together the cash to at least begin the foundations. The contractors have arrived on site to begin driving the steel piles into the ground which are needed due to the site being riddled with mine shafts and the like. The yellow machine they've been using has attracted some interest. Partially this is because we're all big kids at heart, but mainly because it was delivered by Thunderbird Two. Meanwhile, the running season on the AVLR has come to an end, giving us a much-needed break for track and vehicle maintenance. We will next be running for the public (and for a fat bloke in a red suit) in December - 10,11,17,18 to be precise. You can get full details of this here. As ever, get in touch here.