Moseley Railway Trust - Latest News

Contractor's Delight

2012-02-08T20:07:00.001Z

The Moseley Railway Trust (MRT) is pleased to announce that the 2012 September Gala will be themed around Contractor’s Railways. Until the advent of the dumper truck, most major civil engineering projects would have a narrow gauge railway for materials movements on site – and indeed some still do, especially in the field of tunnel construction.

The Gala will be held on Saturday and Sunday 8 & 9 September 2012. It will be open from 1100 to 1700 on each day. Admission will be £6 adults, £3 for children aged 2 to 15.

As usual, there will be steam and diesel trains on the 2’0” gauge Apedale Valley Light Railway, along with trade stands, model railways and lots of other exhibits to interest young and old.

Phil Robinson, MRT Chairman, said "This year, we will celebrate the role which the narrow gauge railway played in building the UK’s infrastructure – roads, dams, housing estates, the list is endless. This is a little known facet of the history of railways in the UK, and part of the mission of the Moseley Railway Trust is to educate and inform our visitors about this aspect of industrial heritage”.

Further details will be announced in time. The MRT’s event team would be particularly pleased to hear from vintage plant owners who may wish to exhibit and hopefully demonstrate their machines. The Apedale site is under continuous development, and the Trust is hoping that it may be able to have some site roads built during the event!

Cold

2012-02-05T21:28:00.001Z

It was, as they say, reet chilly down t'valley this weekend. But despite this, the intrepid arctic warfare division of the Moseley Railway Trust continued their endeavours. A slight re-plan of the day was needed after the Fordson tractor declined to participate despite best endeavours to produce enough amps to start the thing. So, most members retired to the Station Building for a spot of extreme decorating - and it's starting to look somewhere near finished. Just the floor to paint now, chaps.... Meanwhile, a pick-up goods-cum-rubbish clearance train was seen to set off, stating its destination as Bleath Gill. I never saw it return, and we expect to be able to make a fortune by publishing the memoirs of the traincrew (if they are ever found). The Outdoor Engineering Department seemed to be enjoying making bits for Project Pluto. If you're not sure what Project Pluto is, then you'll just have to keep visiting to find out. Get in touch here.

Pit Progress

2012-01-28T20:26:00.002Z

Another very productive weekend at Apedale has seen significant progress on two fronts. Firstly, an elite team has been working on finishing off the station building interior; it is most important to us that this looks as good as possible. This will be, both figuratively and literally, our shop window - the first point of contact the public has with the Trust. Secondly, a slightly less elite team has been working on the pit project. This has included using skip wagons and locos to move fill material from elsewhere on site. As you can see, the track layout includes another Point to Certain Oblivion - these have been something of a feature of the Apedale track layout over the years - but they are always there for good reasons. The photos show some of the Civil Engineering gang, who gave their names as Raymond Throat-Wobbler Mangrove and Jethro Q. Walrustitty. Or at least that's what I wrote down. Using these wagons as God intended has given us a bit of an idea for the September Gala. Keep watching this space. Get in touch here.

Busy weekend

2012-01-22T18:53:00.005Z

It's been a very productive weekend at Apedale. Rather cynically, it was decided that the unseasonally warm weather is unlikely to last much longer, so everything with untreated water in it was drained.This has probably raised the local water table level by a about a foot, which may provoke complaints from our mining colleagues at the Heritage Centre. The first track was laid on the made-up land which leads to the site of the inspection pit, and a loco was duly parked thereon. The voices of doom expected the loco to sink into the mire, never to be seen again. However, the mire seemed rather unresponsive today, and precisely nothing happened. If there's one thing we're good at it's making sure that nothing happens. The more well-informed may wish to note which locomotive was used for this little piece of exploration. I'll tell you more about that when I get another moment. Get in touch here.

Down t'pit

2012-01-07T22:26:00.000Z

The major winter engineering project at the Moseley Railway Trust site at Apedale is the conversion of what was, at one time a weighbridge, into an inspection pit. This project has taken on a certain degree of urgency with the realisation that the newly-commissioned Joffre steam loco needed a pit in order to be able to carry out the annual boiler exam. Hence no pit would lead to the loco being newly de-commissioned. It's been a big job so far, with a new retaining wall built, and then the land built up by backfilling behind the wall. A slight hitch was encountered just before Xmas when it was noticed that the existing sheet-piled wall alongside the weighbridge was bulging in places where bulges should not be. Although not on the scale of the Chicken Curve and being completely unrelated to poultry, action was needed. The root cause was the land slipping into the pit, particularly ballast from an adjacent siding. As a first step to curing the problem, concrete sleepers have been placed and then pinned into place to reinforce the top of the bank. The next step is to reinforce the sheet piling, and hopefully that will solve the problem. As ever, get in touch here.

Happy New Year

2012-01-03T20:55:00.000Z

Firstly, the second part of the Quiz. I've seen three correct sets of answers, and I have to say I'm most impressed. I didn't think anyone would get all of them. The 2012 Xmas quiz is going to have to be really fiendish - "Spot the Fishplate" or something. Anyway, the answers are:
6:- WHHR Porthmadog
7:- Welshpool and Llanfair, Llanfair Caerinion
8:- Cappy, Froissy, Dompierre, France
9:- Durango (Durango and Silverton), Colorado, USA
10:- Kelmsley Down, Sittingbourne & Kelmsley
11:- Jenbach, Austria - home to the Zillertalbahn and the Achenseebahn.
It's been a funny end to the year, with big "Ups" and big "Downs". The Santa trains at Apedale were extremely successful, with very full trains loaded with happy, and fare-paying, passengers. Even the Treasurer was heard to be muttering positive comments about cashflows and business models and the like. But then we heard of the death of a long standing and much respected member, John Lucas. John is seen in characteristic pose at Amberley in 2008 (thanks to Cliff Thomas for the photo). John will be greatly missed within the railway family. Hopefully 2012 will see plenty of Ups and not many Downs. We re-open to the public on Saturday 31/3/12, and look forward to seeing you then. Keep checking in here for all the latest news and Apedale happenings, and maybe the odd giggle. Get in touch here.

Christmas Quiz Part Two

2011-12-23T22:08:00.002Z

A few of you got the answer to Part One. They were:-
1 – Ffestiniog Railway Boston Lodge
2 – Statfold Barn Farm
3 - Leighton Buzzard Light Railway Stonehenge works
4 – West Lancs Light Railway, Hesketh Bank
5 – Our twin museum, the Frankfurt Fedbahn Museum

Some of the more over-confident said they wanted something more challenging. So, we've sent the MRT SR-71 out again, and it's come back with another batch of photos. Set your sherry and mince-pie addled brains working on this lot. Get in touch here with your answers and/or pathetic cries for help.

Number 6

Number 7

Number 8

Number 9

Number 10

Number 11

Christmas Quiz - Part One

2011-12-19T18:41:00.000Z

To challenge your brain cells whilst eating brussel sprouts and watching James Bond or the Queen or whatever on the telly, the Moseley Railway Trust proudly presents the Christmas Quiz. Using the awesome technology of Google Earth, we have satellite reconnaissance photographs of a number of locations of interest to those knowledgeable about narrow gauge railways. All you need to do is identify the places. Simples. The first four are a gentle warm-up exercise, with the fifth being rather more challenging. There's no prize, but if you want to check your answers, get in touch here (Meerkat-obsessive CMEs need not apply). I'll publish the answers and Part Two in a few days.

No.1 & No.2

No.3 & No.4

No.5

As darkness falls....

2011-12-14T22:56:00.002Z

As darkness falls, the Apedale Valley Light Railway springs into life. We don't normally operate during the hours of darkness, because the Apedale Valley is a little remote from civilisation, and it is VERY dark (barely a photon or Higgs Boson to be seen). However, we ran a few trains tonight for a pre-boooked party. Doing the risk assessment took longer than we actually ran for, but that's life. With the train all lit up with fairy lights, and seriously powerful headlights on the loco frying anything which flew into their path, it was rather a magical evening. As ever, get in touch here.

Santa Claus is in the building

2011-12-11T18:16:00.002Z

The Santa Special Season is in full swing at Apedale - and we've certainly been busy. Full trains full on excited kids, excited mums & dads and seen-it-all-before older siblings. Saturday was very bright and very cold - the first train arrived at Apedale Road with a distinct bow-wave as the wheels broke through the layer of ice on the railheads. Returning trains were greeted by a very odd cornucopia of characters - monkeys, elves and Fairy Godmothers. Anyway, it was all good clean fun, and we're doing it all next weekend as well. Some trains are now very full, so it would be best to check beforehand if you plan to come any distance. Check here or by e-mail here.

Santa Claus is coming to town

2011-12-03T20:17:00.005Z

All over the Apedale site, Moseley Railway Trust members have been getting ready for the Santa campaign 2011. Booking are significantly ahead of this time last year - which was our first year of visits by the Bearded One - so it looks like we're going to be busy. Finishing touches have been applied to the Grotto by a team who really cannot be described as Elves. Perhaps a bit more like those funny Goblin things that they had in Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or something. This will be the first year we've has the use of Silverdale station, so work has been progressing with making that all seasonal, including commisioning of a coal burning stove. It was a bit of a struggle but I think the pyromaniac in charge got a flicker of life out of it in the end. There's still space on a few of the trains - but booking are coming in thick and fast. If you fancy roasting your chestnuts by the station stove, check here for booking - or here to get in touch.

Autumnal endeavours

2011-11-20T19:51:00.005Z

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

2011-11-13T23:48:00.015Z

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

2011-11-02T22:00:00.006Z

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.

The beast awakens (or not)

2011-10-22T22:05:00.004+01:00

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

2011-10-18T21:31:00.004+01:00

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

2011-10-11T23:04:00.005+01:00

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

2011-10-01T22:33:00.003+01:00

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.

Moseley Railway Trust delighted with 2011 Gala

2011-09-19T22:27:00.005+01:00

The Moseley Railway Trust is delighted to report on the success of the 2011 Gala. Visitor numbers exceeded those for the 2010 Grand Opening Weekend – more than a thousand people visited the 2’0” gauge Apedale Valley Light Railway during the weekend.

It appears that the unexpectedly good weather, combined with the Made in Staffordshire theme captured the public imagination. The Made in Staffordshire theme was reflected by the use of four Staffordshire built steam locomotives – two Apedale resident Kerr Stuarts, a Bagnall and a Hunslet built at Statfold. The Bagnall was
Isabel, visiting from the Amerton Farm railway, courtesy of the Staffordshire Narrow Gauge Railway Society. The Hunslet Engine company brought Statfold, a recently built locomotive to the Quarry Hunslet design. Last, but by no means least, Roy Etherington enthralled the crowds with the UK’s only compressed-air powered locomotive, named Sid. The MRT wishes to thank the owners and the crews of the visiting locomotives for their assistance and support.

Despite a few minor problems on the Saturday morning, the train service on the AVLR ran very well. Phil Robinson, the MRT’s Chairman said:- We were particularly pleased by the performance of the Kerr Stuart Joffre locomotive. This was the first time the locomotive had been steamed in public, and the first time it has hauled trains in the UK since leaving
Stoke-on-Trent in 1916. The Engineering Department have burnt much midnight oil on this project – they only finished testing the loco on the Friday before the Gala. With its distinctive spark arrestor chimney, the Joffre looked and sounded in fine fettle.

The profits raised from the Gala will be put towards the MRT’s next major project, which is to commence constructing the foundations on the museum of industrial narrow gauge railways.

The Apedale Valley Light Railway will operate every Saturday until the end of October, normally using diesel locomotives. However, on Saturday & Sunday 8th & 9th October, steam traction will be used. Subject to any problems, it is planned to steam both of the Kerr Stuart locomotives Stanhope and the Joffre. This will give the rare opportunity to see two Kerr Stuart locomotives in operation together, just a handful of miles from where they were built. It is expected that this will be last public steaming for the Joffre in 2011.

The AVLR will be operating steam-hauled Santa Specials on 10 & 11 December, and 17 & 18 December. Pre-booking is strongly recommended for these trains, and full details can be found here.

Let's hear it for the boys.....

2011-09-13T21:46:00.009+01:00

Let's hear it for the boys - and the girls - who have worked so hard this weekend to make the Made in Staffordshire gala at Apedale such a success. It's sometimes hard to remember all the effort which goes on in the less glamorous parts of running an event such as this. So, to the people who made the tea, emptied the bins, marshalled the carparks, staffed the shop, drove the locos, pulled points, worked the PA and so on and so on - well done. But also give thanks to the team who work through the endless organisational issues - the form filling, the method statement writing, handling the booking forms, stamping the tickets just to name a few. We must also remember the exhibitors who brought their cherished vehicles, displays or model railways for our visitors to admire. Perhaps this year we should single out the Perkins Engines heritage group who brought an extremely impressive stand. We must also express our thanks to the owners of the visiting engines - the Staffordshire Narrow Gauge Railway Society for the Bagnall "Isabel", Statfold Barn for the Hunslet "Statfold" and Roy Etherington for the compressed air loco "Sid". Finally, we hope that everyone who came to see us enjoyed the weekend. If anyone has any ideas for next year's event, get in touch here.

End of Day One.....

2011-09-10T21:59:00.010+01:00

At the end of Day One of the Made in Staffordshire Gala at the Apedale Valley Light Railway, there's a few aching limbs. Despite a few "challenges" early on in the day, the day got rapidly better and we believe that a good time was had by all. Including some of the working members. There's another day of this yet, and we'll be doing it all again from 1100 to 1700 on Sunday. So, don't miss out - we'd hate to see that - come along and see where it's all happening.

The day before they came

2011-09-09T22:15:00.005+01:00

There's been a lot of hours out in at Apedale in the last few days, but it's looking good now for the Made in Staffordshire gala. All the visiting locos are on site - "Isabel", "Statfold" and "Sid". The new Kerr Stuart Joffre is now looking really quite good. To be honest, it's been rather touch and go with that loco, and things were not looking good at all on Thursday. However, the team have really pulled this project round, and the loco has been working well, sounding good and pulling hard today. It's passed the critical braking tests this evening, so barring any further problems, it will be in full use this weekend - first time steamed in public in preservation, and first time steamed in Staffordshire since leaving Stoke 95 years ago. The Made in Staffordshire gala is open 1100 to 1700 both days. Get in touch here - be seeing you??

A New Industrial Railway?

2011-09-02T23:21:00.012+01:00

One of our members recently took the attached photograph, showing several wagons on typical roughly-laid peat works track. These types of temporary railways were once widespread in the UK, the peat industry often being the most haphazard, both in terms of trackwork and locomotives. Narrow gauge railways of this type continue to survive (just) to this day, primarily because peat bogs are unsuited to all but the most expensive of modern road and tracked vehicles. However, the photo is not quite what it seems. We have been busy creating the first stage of our planned "industrial demonstration railway" at Apedale. This will be used to show some of our exhibits in an environment representative of their former life. In this case the wagons are indeed from the peat industry, being some of those acquired from Midland Irish Peat earlier this year. The new industrial railway will be one of the attractions to view at our Gala next weekend 10-11 September. Of course, there'll be plenty more "made in Staffordshire" stuff to see, including our brand new station building and the debut of the restored Kerr Stuart Joffre locomotive, No 3014, together with visiting engines from Amerton and Statfold, model railways and other attractions. We are looking forward to showcasing some of our latest developments. See you there! Details here.

Happy Birthday

2011-08-21T11:44:00.012+01:00

It's official. The Apedale Valley Light Railway is One today. We had our first day of passenger trains on August 21 last year - although we did sneak in a train the previous Saturday. So, the AVLR should be getting rid of its dummy, moving onto solid food, and seriously contemplating walking. Much has changed in what has been a very short year. Probably two of the main achievements have been the arrival of the Joffre steam loco, and the near completion of the station building. The photo shows where we were with the station last year. You can, of course, come along and see the progress we have made at the "Made in Staffordshire" September Gala - now just a couple of weeks away - September 10 & 11. All being well, the Joffre will be in operation and the station building will be open for business. There MAY still be time to get tickets in advance if you're quick - check here. Even if you can't get along the Gala, we running all three days over the bank holiday weekend, with steam on the Sunday & Monday. As ever, get in touch here.

The Joffre Arrives

2011-08-14T20:59:00.007+01:00

The Moseley Railway Trust is delighted to announce the arrival of Kerr Stuart steam locomotive no.3014 of 1916 at the Apedale Valley Light Railway, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. This locomotive is known as a Joffre type; it arrived at Apedale on the morning of 13 August 2011.

The locomotive was built locally – the Kerr Stuart works were just a few miles away in Stoke-on-Trent. This loco was ordered by the French Commission for their artillery railways, and was delivered new to Nantes, France. After the war, it was sold from Verdun to a dealer, Brunner & Marchand of Borray, Seine & Oise. In October 1930, it was sold on to Societe Anonyme des Carrieres de la Valee Heureuse et du Haut Banc, Marquise Rinxent in the Pas de Calais area of northern France. This was a stone quarry, and had at least four other similar locos. By August 1956, the locos on this site were derelict. It was repatriated to the UK onboard the ferry Free Enterprise VII on 11/10/74.
It was moved to the abortive museum project at Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry, North Wales, and then on to the Gloddfa Ganol slate quarry museum complex, near Blaneau Ffestiniog. Here, it was mounted on a plinth by the museum operator's house, and became a familar site to passing motorists as they struggled up the lengendary Crimea Pass road out of Blaneau to the north. Following closure of the Gloddfa Ganol museum, the loco joined the MRT collection in 1998. It has been subjected to a long and thorough restoration over the last thirteen years.
The locomotive is owned by a small consortium of MRT members. Although a number of finishing-off jobs are still to be completed, the locomotive has been test-steamed and has moved under its own power.

The Joffre joins Stanhope (Kerr Stuart 2395) on site; together, these locally-built locomotives will form the centrepiece of the Made in Staffordshire gala to be held at Apedale on September 10 & 11. Further details are available here.

Phil Robinson, MRT Chairman, said "We are delighted to welcome a second Kerr Stuart locomotive to Apedale. We hope that many people will come to our event at Apedale in September to see the locomotive in steam in the UK for the first time in more than ninety years"

The Apedale Drought

2011-08-14T20:32:00.004+01:00

What an exciting week we have had at Apedale. Our regular Wednesday working party discovered that the water supply was somewhat less than its usual self. This caused some considerable consternation, since we were heading towards the steam weekend. One thing steam locos need in some considerable quantity is water (if you don't know why, wikipedia is the place for you). As the week progressed, it became clear that no-one (especially the water people) quite understood how the water supply to the site worked, and consternation begain to turn to near-panic. Fortunately, our friends at the Heritage Centre managed to sort out a temporary piped supply, but the root cause of the problem remains under investigation. Meanwhile, we must record our gratitude to the local fire service who turned out to fill the tank on the steam loco "Stanhope". Other heroes of the hour include various locally-based members who turned out at all hours to let in plumbers and other water-related professionals. Thus far, fixing the problem has cost over £1000 and that bill is only going in one direction. You will have noticed the "donate here" buttons on the main wesbite - they are not there for decoration. They are there because every so often, we will have a crisis such as a Drought, which will eat into the reserves and make the Museum project even more challenging. I could say that every donation is a drop in the ocean, but perhaps not in the circumstances. You can see the temporary water supply in the photo. You may also notice something else creeping in, but more about that in a day or two. Contact us here.

Open Weekend Model Railways

2011-08-09T20:11:00.009+01:00

The model railway line-up for the Moseley Railway Trust’s September Open Weekend has been confirmed as listed below. The Open Weekend is on September 10 & 11th, at the Trust’s site at Apedale, Newcastle-Under-Lyme. The event is open from 1100 to 1700 both days.

#1: Royal Gunpowder Mills - Scale 6mm/ft - Tony Barratt

For 200 years the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey, Essex, manufactured gunpowder and in later years cordite. An extensive canal system was used for transport within the factory and sailing barges took finished products to Woolwich Arsenal. The Royal Gunpowder Mills museum has been open to the public from 2001 - for more information visit: www.royalgunpowdermills.com

This layout features an 18 inch gauge railway system which was first installed in 1917 and then extended in the inter-war period, using diesel and battery powered locomotives. On the model a few of the hundreds of explosive production and storage buildings have been re-arranged to form a linear diorama. All buildings, trains and boats are scratch built from original drawings, direct measurements and photographs.

#2: New Haden Colliery - Scale 4mm “EM” Gauge - Stafford Railway Circle

New Haden Colliery is a long-term project to faithfully reproduce, in model form, a part of your rapidly disappearing industrial heritage. The prototype for this layout was situated one mile South West from the North Staffordshire town of Cheadle. The mine complex was served by a purpose built branchline, which left the North Staffordshire Railway’s Stoke to Derby line at Creswell.

The model is built to ‘fine-scale’ standards and all the buildings are scratchbuilt, from photographic evidence and field surveys of the remaining site. Watch out for the automatic loading of the coal wagons beneath the main screens buildings in the centre of the yard.

#3: Dwarven Mining Railway - 1/50^th (9mm track gauge) - Jonathan Tansley

The dwarfs, a proud race of miners, are no longer as powerful as they once were, but in this small mining community the dwarfs are at their full force. This gorge contains a vast array of underground tunnels. In its centre the forge constantly pumps out armour for the marauding dwarf army, while the brewery keeps the army “fuelled”. The miners mine endless amounts of coal, tin, copper and the most valuable of metals, mythril. That is, when they’re not protecting themselves from the hordes of goblins and ogres in the area who also want these supplies. All locos are freelance, based on early prototypes, built to a 1:50 scale (well, near enough!). Figures are from the “Warhammer” range, suitably modified. Buildings are scratch-built, using foambord as a base.

#4: Fallgate - 4mm Scale, 9mm track gauge (009) - Stephen Little

Fallgate is an 009 layout representing Fallgate station and yard on the 60cm gauge Ashover Light Railway near Chesterfield and Matlock, sometime in the late 1930's. This layout was originally created by Brian Love in 1998 and it has been extensively exhibited throughout Southern and Eastern England. Since 2009 it has been based in Manchester and owned by Stephen Little and Matthew Barrett. They are now bringing Brian's excellent achievement to new audiences.

#5: The Wetlands Light Railway - 7mm scale – 16.5mm track gauge (O16.5) - Tony Pritchard

The Wetlands Light Railway (WLR) is set in the border country between North Wales and Cheshire/Shropshire during the 1950/60s. In this era narrow gauge railways were in decline, derelict or being restored to what have now become known as Heritage Railways. The WLR is still struggling along taking goods for the companies who still haven't changed to motor transport, along with the occasional passenger train, usually on market day - and sometimes combined with the cattle wagons.

#6: Birches Barn Extension Railway - Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers

The Birches Barn Extension Railway is a small 16mm scale, 32mm gauge layout representing 2’ narrow gauge trains. The emphasis is on the operation of small live steam hauled trains. Several models of Staffordshire built locomotives will be featured and the layout is operated by members of the Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers.

The Sistene Chapel

2011-08-07T15:08:00.003+01:00

Builders are not easy people to deal with. Imagine Pope Julius II's reaction when he saw Michelangelo's bill. All the pontiff actually wanted was a nice artex ceiling finish on the place and a couple of wall lights. The Moseley Railway Trust's very own team of Michelangelos have been at work with a vengeance this weekend. The Silverdale station building project is now very close to conclusion, and our own Pontiff (or the Chairman, as he self-styles) determined that the walls should be painted. Fortunately, the ceiling has yet to be fitted, so at least that was one debate that wasn't needed. And so an army of willing-ish volunteers armed with rollers, brushes and a rather nifty paint spraying machine got to work and watched a large number of litres of large paint soak into the walls. Perhaps surprisingly, it wasn't seen to ooze out the other side, but that can only be a matter of time. What will be the shop area now has white walls, all the better to display the produce in. The store room, on the other hand, was painted with some surplus paint, in a nifty combination of red and blue. But we think the final effect works really, really well. So, before long, you will be able to not only buy train rides, but also participate in a retail experience the likes of which Mary Porta can but dream of. Next weekend is a Steam Weekend, so you can look out at Stanhope through the newly painted window frames. You just can't beat that, now can you? Get in touch here with ideas for ceiling frescos.

A Signal Success

2011-07-24T22:43:00.004+01:00

The Apedale Valley Light Railway has recently branched out in a new and exciting direction - signalling. Signals on narrow gauge railways are a controversial area - some like them, other see them as one stop away from a pit of Hell. However, nonetheless, the AVLR now has one signal post. Before we start getting strongly-worded e-mails from ORR, perhaps I should clarify that this signal is not actually particularly close to the railway, and is in fact purely cosmetic. The aim is to make the railway more visible to the hoards of punters strolling round the Apedale Community Country Park wondering how they can spend their hard-earned cash on a transport-related entertainment. In a classic piece of railway re-cycling, the signal and its components are on at least their third home. The post is ex-Midland main line, then the Cadeby Light Railway, and now Apedale. The hardware and arm are Great Northern Railway, from Leicester Belgrave Road, and then Cadeby. Yes, we do know that GNR equipment is fairly inappropriate for a site in North Staffordshire, next to a North Staffordshire Railway station building. However, it's a nice, compact signal, and we don't have an NSR signal. So there. The second picture shows the signal at Cadeby, being passed by "Isabel", visiting from Amerton. In a curious non-coincidence, "Isabel" will also be visiting us at Apedale for our "Made in Staffordshire" gala, on the 10&11th of September. Get in touch here with offers of signalling hardware or to point out other historical anomalies on the site.

Industrial Railways

2011-07-17T23:29:00.005+01:00

At the Moseley Railway Trust, we are actually quite interested in railways. A well-kept secret I accept, but it cannot be hidden. In particular, we quite like industrial narrow gauge railways. Like most people with a passion for a subject, we are perhaps a little guilty of failing to see the bigger picture. After WW1, these railways became pre-eminent for any site where large amounts of stuff needed to be moved from A to B. This would include civil engineering contracts, for example. What we tend to forget is that when Nuttall or McAlpine or any of the other big civils companies decided to use a railway on a site, they did so because they wanted to move lots of stuff from A to B as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Contrary to popular belief, they didn't use railways because they were fun things, or because the staff liked playing trains, or because it would give people something to preserve in many years time. We have been reminded of this recently at Apedale. One of the current major projects is to provide an inspection pit. To do this, the rails need to be above ground level. There are a number of ways of achieving this. One is to lower the ground. Another is to start from a place where the ground is already low, set the rails at a given height, and then build the ground up to match. In the words of a well-known meerkat, simples. Well, yes, but this needs a lot of stuff moving from A to B. Gosh, that sounds familiar. So, we have been using our industrial narrow gauge equipment to actually do what it was first intended to do. So far, we've only trialled the process, but five skip loads of fill were moved quickly and with relative ease, so it's looking promising. Keep looking in, and we'll update you on how it goes. Get in touch here.

Deutz

2011-07-09T20:35:00.006+01:00

The Apedale Valley Light Railway attracts visitors from far and wide to the scenic delights of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It's called "Regenerating the area" and yes, we'd like a cheque from the Government to recognise our efforts at regenerating the area. £500k should be a start - make it payable to "Moseley Railway Trust". Anyway, today we saw a couple visiting us all the way from Cologne. Koln (as it is locally known) has quote a place in narrow gauge legend as the home of the Deutz company. Deutz were, at one time, a profuse builder of locomotives. They were never common in the UK (apparently warranty support was not very good between 1939 and 1945), but exist in large numbers throughout many European countries. The Bord Na Mona peat harvesting operations in the Republic of Ireland used Deutz locos in very large numbers, and many of them still exist over there. The Moseley Railway Trust is fortunate to have one third of the UK population of Deutz locos in the collection. Number 10050 worked in the glamorous surroundings of a sewage works in Dartford before being preserved. It's had some engine problems of late, but should hopefully be back in business before long. This has been achieved with the assistance of our friends at the Golden Valley Light Railway, Butterley. They have a Deutz of their own, number 10248 (the blue loco in the pictures). The third Deutz in the UK is number 19531, which is in the care of the Amerton Railway.

Deutz not only built locos, but also engines which other companies used in locomotives. Three locos at Apedale have Deutz engines - the Simplex 4oSD "Sludge", the tiny "G" class Simplex and also the Ransomes & Rapier loco. The R&R loco seems to have gained this engine at some point in its "interesting" past. So, all in all, there's a lot to thank the Germans of Koln for! As ever get in touch here. We're running steam tomorrow (10/7/11) and then the Simplex No.13 will be in use next Saturday. That assumes its recent electro-mechanical difficulties are finally cured. If only everything in life was as reliable as a Deutz.

Made in Staffordshire

2011-06-27T22:40:00.004+01:00

The Moseley Railway Trust is pleased to announce details for the 2011 September gala at the Apedale Valley Light Railway, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. The gala, entitled “Made in Staffordshire”, will be held on September 10 and 11 2011.

The event will focus on the Staffordshire-based locomotive builders. Staffordshire supported a variety of railway engineering companies, and most of these will be represented. From Kerr Stuart of Stoke-on-Trent will be the resident “Stanhope” and, all being well, the MRT’s newly restored “Joffre” locomotive. The restoration of the “Joffre” is now in its final stages. There have been a number of last minute snags, as is inevitable on a locomotive which has not steamed since the 1950s, but the owning group are very much hoping that these will be resolved in time for the September event.

Representing the WG Bagnall company of Stafford will be “Isabel”. Built in 1897, “Isabel” is normally based at the Amerton Railway. This locomotive was for many years preserved in gardens near Stafford railway station. The MRT is very grateful to the Amerton Railway and to Stafford Borough Council for allowing Isabel to visit Apedale.

However, it is important to also be aware that there is still a vibrant manufacturing industry in Staffordshire – and one which still builds steam locomotives. The Hunslet Engine Company will loan one of the recent build locomotives to the classic “Quarry Hunslet” design – 108 years younger than Isabel, and demonstrating that Staffordshire remains a centre for engineering excellence. Again, the MRT wishes to thank Graham Lee, Henry Noon and the team at Hunslet for facilitating this visit.

The final major locomotive builder in Staffordshire was Baguley of Burton on Trent; the MRT has two Baguley locomotives in the collection, built over a 54 year timespan. There may also be a special surprise additional Burton-built locomotive – details are under negotiations currently.

Building on the success of previous years, there will also be a supporting cast of model railways, vintage vehicles and a wide range of traders. The MRT would be pleased to hear from individuals or groups who wish to exhibit – particularly anything with a Staffordshire theme.

The event will be open from 1100 to 1700 on each of the days. Admission this year will be £6 for adults, £3 for children – each admission ticket will also include a train ride on the railway. Further rides can be purchased if required. There is a buy-in-advance option available for the first time this year – this gives a worthwhile discount on the on the gate price. Further details are available here. Get in touch here.

Behind The Scenes

2011-06-14T20:42:00.002+01:00

Behind any organisation like the Moseley Railway Trust lays many levels of support. On one level we have our visitors, who part with their hard earned cash in exchange for a train ride to the scenic delight of Apedale Road (and back, if all goes to plan). Then we have the members of the Trust. Many support us by paying the membership and receiving our splendid magazine "Moseley Matters" every so often. Others contribute by volunteering at Apedale. The members in this category tend to be the most visible in these pieces. However, there are also the members who are less regular at Apedale, but nonetheless make a major contribution behind the scenes. One such is Brian, who looks after the website and internet and stuff like that. I have a vision of him entering cyberspace to advance the Moseley Railway Trust cause, a bit like some charecter in Neuromancer. Brian has been busy of late, and has now developed the Apedale Valley Light Railway's own website, here. The idea is that this will give simple-to-access information to the casual visitors, whereas the hardened railway enthusiast will click appropriately and visit the main MRT website. Cute, eh? Both websites need include the details of the September Gala. A new feature this year is the ability to book in advance, which offers a useful discount on the pay-on-the-day price, will avoid the queues, and helps our cashflow situation. All of which are Good Things. So, well done and thank you, Brian - MRT's own Jonny Mnemonic. I'm afraid I can't include a photo of the internet, beacuse it's too big and wouldn't fit in the view finder, so we'll have to settle for Stanhope and Ruston No.37 last Saturday. Jack-in to the MRT here.

Internal Combustion Update

2011-06-09T20:20:00.004+01:00

It's probably about time we had a quick update on happening with the internal combustion fleet at Apedale.

Ruston No.37 has been a long-term resident of the workshop suffering from a rather porous coolant system. It's now been reassembled and seems not to leak, which suggest two possible options. Either the holes have been fixed, or someone has changed the laws of physics to increase the viscosity of water. Given the size of the holes in the radiator tanks, my money is on the second one. Either way, it's good to see it back. The bent-frame Motor Rail 2197 has had a bit of spruce-up in preparation for a visit to Wicksteed Park. It's Steam in the Park combined with Wicksteed at War. As you can see, the loco is not going unarmed, and expects to be able to hold its own in any foreseeable Kettering-based conflict scenarios. Rumours that the boxes contain Enhanced Paveway IIIs "borrowed" by the CME can be neither confirmed nor denied. Finally, Sludge (the ex-Minworth Simplex 40SD) has had its starting problems hopefully fixed (again). The photo shows it surveying the site of the pit. Before long, most of the foreground will be submerged under fill.

In between times, we still managed to operate the Apedale Valley Light Railway. It's a Steam Weekend this Saturday & Sunday 11 & 12 June - 11.00 to 1630 both days with (all being well) some of the IC fleet stretching its legs on the Industry trains on the Saturday. Get in touch here, or better yet come and see us.

Today's News

2011-05-26T18:54:00.007+01:00

....is, of course, tomorrow's chip paper. Delving into chip papers of the past, a few photos have come to light showing a memorable operation from 2007 - the early days at Apedale. When the Moseley Railway Trust arrived on site, there were many, many obstacles in the way. One of those was a metal building, inevitably christened the Tin Tabernacle. Said building stood exactly on the site of the storage shed - or (to put it another way) totally in the way. Being short of covered storage, we were loathe to demolish it, so a more creative solution was reached. The first two photos give a context - then and now - note the coal conveyor in the background of both shots. The building had a cradle built around it, and was then craned complete onto a large trailer. It was then driven to near its new home, and craned off onto a ready-built foundation. What could be simpler?

By the way, I should mention that the Apedale Valley Light Railway is running all three days over this bank holiday weekend, with steam on Sunday and Monday. We will also be running steam traction on the following two Saturdays (4th June and 11th June) and Sunday 12th June. The 4th June is in connection with a caravan rally, and the 11 & 12th is our usual steam & industry trains weekend. It's been a bit quiet on some days recently, so please do come along and see us - check out the main website for details. As ever, get in touch here.

Hudswell Update

2011-05-23T22:50:00.000+01:00

It's been a little while since we heard anything about the Moseley Railway Trust's Hudswell Clark steam locomotive no.1238. You may recall that this loco was repatriated from Ghana in 2008. After spending a while at Apedale, the loco went on display at the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway (to help mark their 90th birthday) and then went into hiding - right? Well, sort of. When the loco was repatriated, there was no clear plan for its restoration. However, a very generous bequest from the estate of the late Terry Stanhope has allowed the project to progress earlier than we perhaps dared to hope. The restoration of the loco is now progressing apace. The loco had an exciting existence in Ghana, ending up upside down in a river with a dead driver (which probably rather spoiled his day). The condition of the loco after being stripped and assessed by competent engineers was "rough". We pay these people by the word, like lawyers.

The loco dates from 1916; the main frames are only 1/2" thick, probably as a wartime economy measure. Consequently, they are rather flimsy (by steam loco standards), and have needed a lot of corrective work. Equally, maintenance standards may not have been all that one could hope for - for example, a wheel had rubbed for many years on the frame and cut a significant groove into the frame. Amongst many other activities, the cylinders have been bored out and generally overhauled. The wheels have had their journals turned and the tyre profiles machined back on. A full set of new axlebox castings are now available along with new coil and leaf springs. The cab has also been dealt with. So, all-in-all, the project is not too far from being a rolling chassis. The next big step is to order a boiler, and we're hoping to do that before much longer. The obvious big question is when will it be finished and hauling trainloads of happy punters up the Apedale Valley? The simple answer is "it depends". It depends primarily on money - there's still a funding gap, and work is ongoing to find means to close that gap without detracting from the site development projects for Apedale. Obviously, if you've just won the lottery, we'd be quite keen to hear from you - although (to be fair) we're happy to hear from anyone - get in touch here.

Thank you very much

2011-05-15T21:07:00.007+01:00

...to Councillor Derrick Huckfield of Staffordshire County Council. Councillor Huckfield arranged a grant for the Moseley Railway Trust from the Staffordshire County Council Local Community Fund, and this was used to buy and erect a rather splendid noticeboard which now graces the entrance to the site at Apedale. The noticeboard was made for us by Leander Architectural, and it's a very nice job indeed. This Saturday, Councillor Huckfield visited us at Apedale and unveiled the noticeboard. Councillor Huckfield is seen on the right with our deputy Chairman, Richard Grey, on the left. They were then able to enjoy a ride through the scenic delights of the Apedale valley. We weren't overrun by visitors, as everyone in Stoke had either gone to Wembley or was sat around a TV. But at least we can now tell them about our trains using the new noticeboard, so all was not lost at the weekend. Get in touch here (unless you're a Man City fan).

Paxman

2011-05-09T21:16:00.000+01:00

Yes, it's the Moseley Railway Trust Spot the Similarity Contest!! Using your skill and judgement, state the similarities between the locomotives in the photos above. Here's a couple of important ones. They both have Paxman engines (although the Red one has since had a German heart transplant) and both were prone to overheating. This has been cured on the red one by fitting an improved set of radiators. Unfortunately, the green one could not be so easily fixed. Now, you will have probably realised by now that the green one is an Apedale resident, but the red one isn't. Spot on. The green one is Hibberd 2306, fitted with a Paxman 2RQ engine. The owner had, optimistically, hoped that thermal syphoning would be enough to circulate the coolant - wrong. So, it began to resemble a steam loco after about an hour - disappearing in a cloud of boiling coolant. The fix has been to reinstate a coolant pump which was originally fitted, but was not initially restored onto the loco. As can be seen, it's quite a piece of plumbing, but is fairly leak free. Time will tell how long it stays like that - the RQ engine generates quite a high vibration level. To be fair, the HST power cars were not noted for being leak free either. So that's OK then. Get in touch with us here - and no, we cannot accommodate any HST power cars at Apedale. They scare the horses, don't you know.

Apedale Apprentices

2011-05-04T22:18:00.005+01:00

Railways attract young people like moths to flames, and the Moseley Railway Trust’s site at Apedale is no exception to this. The devil makes work for idle hands, and we realised that we had better come up with a substitute for Satan. Which wasn’t difficult. So, Lucifer has developed a project for the newly named Apedale Apprentices. They have been put to work restoring some of the less-cherished wagons in the fleet. Wagon restoration is a wise choice because it is less demanding technically than (for example) a locomotive, and also produces a rewarding end-product rather quicker than can sometimes otherwise be the case. Instant gratification doesn’t really happen at railways, but restoring a wagon can come close. I imagine that Nintendo are working on it as their next game for the DS. The first victim (oops, sorry, project) is a nice little Hudson four wheeler. It came from the ICI Roburite explosive works at Shevington, near Wigan. It was acquired along with two Ruston & Hornsby locomotives when the works ceased to use its internal 2’0” gauge railways. A couple of interesting pictures of the site and the railways can be found here. As is so often the case with vehicles from explosive works, the bodywork was destroyed before the Moseley Railway Trust acquired it. This is done because the wooden structure becomes saturated with the products. Selling potential bombs onto the general public is generally frowned on by the H&SE. So, the project is to restore the vehicle and recreate the bodywork. We’re fortunate to have a few photos showing us what the bodywork looked like. Hopefully the Apedale Apprentices will Ace this Activity. For this and more tautologies, keep visiting or get in touch here.

By the way, did I mention that it’s steam train this Saturday the 7^th – a special steaming for a group but we don’t turn anyone away until their wallet is empty – and Saturday & Sunday 14^Th & 15^th are the now customary Steam & industry trains weekend. Be seeing you?

Wheely Good

2011-04-28T20:57:00.006+01:00

Despite the sub-tropical weather, the Moseley Railway Trust has not been idling down at Apedale. Two current projects have one thing in common - the wheels are a key ingredient. Some time ago a large Hudson bogie wagon arrived on site from the Bal a Lake Railway. It had previously been used to carry munitions at the large RAF depot at Fauld, Staffordshire. The wheels had annular rings welded on, to make them suitable for the slightly narrower track gauge at Bala. However, the

railway at Apedale is 2'0" gauge, and the wheels would foul checkrails and the like. Fortunately, the wheels would just fit into the lathe at Apedale, and hence we were able to machine off the offending rings. Once complete, the wheels were reassembled into the bogies. The bogies have been overhauled (largely using a paintbrush) and this allowed the wagon to be reassembled.

Meanwhile, the two 2'6" gauge Hunslets which recently arrived ex Scotland have started to make progress towards becoming a pair of 2'0" Hunslets. With the wheelsets out, the brake gear needs adjusting and the wheels themselves need to be pressed inwards on the axles. Never a job for the fainthearted, all we need to do now is get them to a friendly local wheelpress. As ever, get in touch here.

Ransomes & Rapier

2011-04-13T21:03:00.005+01:00

The Moseley Railway Trust is proud to announce that it has added a 1938 diesel locomotive built by Ransomes & Rapier to its collection.

The locomotive was built in Ipswich as Ransomes’s number 84. The locomotive is a Ransomes & Rapier 20HP type; when new, it was fitted with a two cylinder Ailsa Craig diesel engine. It was delivered in October 1938 to Murphy Bros Ltd, a firm of contractors in Dublin. Latterly, the locomotive worked for Midland Irish Peat at their works in Rathowen. The locomotive has received a number of major modifications over the years. It now runs with a Deutz diesel engine and a redesigned transmission, although much of the original Ransomes transmission remains in-situ, including the reversing box. Most unusually for a diesel locomotive, it is now fitted with rubber tyres.

Phil Robinson, Moseley Railway Trust Chairman, said “We are delighted to accept the Ransomes & Rapier locomotive into our collection at Apedale. This is a very unusual locomotive, and it is a type not currently represented in the collection. Moreover, it shows how such locomotives were modernised and adapted by the owners to suit the harsh demands placed on the equipment used on industrial railways. We expect that it will be a key exhibit in our planned National Museum of Industrial Narrow Gauge Railways”.

The Ransomes locomotive was accompanied from Ireland by a number of peat carrying wagons. The locomotive is in a fully operational condition and was test-run within a few minutes of the arrival onto the Apedale site on Sunday 10^th April 2011.

A conservation policy has yet to be confirmed for the Ransomes locomotive, but in the medium term it will remain in the condition in which it worked in Ireland. It will therefore form an interesting contrast to the only other surviving Ransomes & Rapier locomotive (number 80) which has been immaculately restored to as-built condition at the Amberley Museum in West Sussex.

Subject to the necessary acceptance procedures, it is hoped to operate the Ransomes & Rapier locomotive at a number of the forthcoming Steam & Industry Train weekends at Apedale. These are on the second complete weekend of each month, and see steam traction used on Apedale Valley Light Railway passenger trains, interspersed with demonstration industrial trains operated by the Moseley Railway Trust’s large fleet of internal combustion locomotives.

Passenger trains also operate on the Apedale Valley Light Railway every Saturday from April to the end of October, plus Bank Holiday Mondays. Check here for details, or contact us here.

The Little Dutch Boy

2011-04-09T21:49:00.012+01:00

It's been all go down the sunny Apedale Valley. Yesterday (Friday) saw the Kerr Stuart steam loco "Stanhope" having its first public outing this year, when we hosted a couple of group visits. Today has been the first "Steam & Industry Traibs" weekend of the new season. We run the steam loco on passenger trains, and let some of the diesel locos from the collection loose on demonstration freights, recreating the industrial trains of the past. But just to add to the busyness, the site has seen the arrival of two new locomotives - these are a breeding pair of 2'6" gauge Hunslets. Formerly stored at the ARPG site at Dalmellington, near Ayr, they both worked the ROF Bishopton munitions factory. Each is fitted with a Perkins engine. Hopefully the owner will be regauging them in the immediate future, and we can put them to work on the railway. Meanwhile, down at the workshops, Project Genesix has reached a milestone - the first engine start and moving under its own power. This loco, Motor Rail 7066, has come together very quickly - the photo shows the state in which it arrived on site in 2009. One outstanding issue is that the radiator is somewhat less than water tight, so the loco cannot venture too far from a water supply. The Dutch version of the CME, Johan Van Der Rowlands, is seen trying to plug the deluge. If you fancy plugging a deluge, get in touch here.

What's coming??

2011-04-05T23:07:00.001+01:00

A little teaser....

Opening Day of the Season

2011-04-03T10:29:00.003+01:00

Opening day of the season - magical words to any football fan. In the case of some teams (eg the one followed by the wife) it is also synonymous with the words "relegation battle". Perhaps fortunately, there isn't a league structure for Heritage Railways, although some of them to like to think of themselves as the Premier League. Although we at Apedale perhaps aren't at that level yet, we're trying to catch up as fast as we can. And the catch up is evidenced by the rate of change on site. Yesterday, for example, was the Opening Day of the passenger train season. It was also the first day of full passenger traffic for locomotive No.90 - the Baguley Drewry. It is really quite a superior locomotive, and just needs a few cupholders and an eight-track cassette player to make it complete in all regards. The photo shows it running round the train, pausing alongside the now almost complete Silverdale Station building. Hoefully, we'll be able to occupy the building in the not too distant future, which will make a major difference to the amenities we can offer to our customers. Meanwhile, not too far away, the initial bores for the Stoke-on-Trent extension of the London Underground Railway project were being started. I believe that this will be the Apedale Interchange on the Northern Line. It might be a bit of a wait for the Northern Line (no change there), but you can enjoy a ride on the Apedale Valley Light Railway every Saturday from now to the end of October, plus steam on the second complete weekend in the month - when we'll also run on the Sunday. Check the main website for full details. Get in touch here.

AGM day

2011-03-26T20:56:00.009Z

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

2011-03-22T21:40:00.006Z

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

2011-03-20T19:06:00.007Z

...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

2011-03-13T21:35:00.005Z

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......

2011-03-07T19:15:00.006Z

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.

Strictly Kango

2011-02-19T19:37:00.007Z

A busy day at Apedale has seen a lot of track maintenance carried out. A key part of the track maintenance programme has been tamping the ballast to ensure firm support for the railway. The length of the railway now mandates the use of generators to provide power for the Kango hammers. It's hard going, and the team can perhaps skip tonights trip to the gym. See, we're all heart. Meanwhile, back at the workshops, an uber-shunt took place to allow Stanhope to be converted to a temporary 040 for a boiler inspection. Who knows, we might decide we like it and it can stay like that. Our neighboring shotblasters had dealt with a WDLR bogie frame for a wagon project. Unfortunately, the forklift is hors-de-combat currently, so more innovative means had to be used to get the bogie back onto the railway for work to continue. All part of the rich tapestry which is a day at Apedale. You don't have to be good at tapestry to come along and help - just get in touch here. Finally, a blatant advert for a publication which we advertise in - follow this link.

The changing of the seasons

2011-02-13T19:53:00.006Z

When I was at school....Before we go on, let me clarify two points. 1:- It wasn't THAT long ago (really), and 2:- It was NOT a famous/infamous Grammar school in the Cheadle area of Manchester. Anyway, when I was at school every so often an enormous Bell & Howell film projector would be hauled into the in the main hall. It was a big thing, and I always imagined the scene was a bit like dragging the stones used to build Stonehenge. The teacher would throw a switch and the bulb would start to warm up. All over the area street lights would dim due to the current draw. Drax power station would light extra boilers - you get the idea. Eventually, a Disney wildlife documentary would be screened. This would create the lasting impression that Lemmings commit mass suicide.Of course, we now know that to be rubbish - it is (of course) Meerkats which commit mass suicide. Simples. At some stage in the film, a gravelly voice would say "...and the eternal cycle of the seasons, spring follows winter....". We finally saw some signs at Apedale that Spring may be seriously considering following Winter this year. Firstly, we've got the snowplough out, thereby guaranteeing no snow for the next ten years. Secondly, it was actually sunny yesterday. This allowed us to finish brake testing on the Baguley Drewry and therefore permit its entry into passenger service this season. These days, there's no reassuring man from HMRI to sign everything off; in the ROGS era, one has to verify for oneself that the thing is safe. Hence we tend to be pretty thorough. The final test was with the loco, all the passenger coaches and a five-ton Motor Rail on the back simulating the weight of the passengers - the whole ensemble making a pretty impressive site with the mighty Perkins diesel fighting to the upper reaches on the power curve as it fights to reach 10mph downhill. So, with seven weeks to go to start of passenger service, we now have two passenger diesels. Thankfully, we also now have a crest for the railway. Thanks to an international design competition, we have produced what you see below. Nice isn't it? If you think it's nice, get in touch here. If you don't like it, then please remember what happened to the Lemmings.

Up periscope

2011-02-06T21:16:00.003Z

As you can see from the above film, the Motor Rail dumper (no.8389 of 1947) has managed to move under its own power. It lacks a few minor refinements currently, such as any forward visibility for the driver. However, we're planning an outing to Barrow in Furness where apparently there's something which may provide the answer. In the case of the dumper, the operational time is limited by how long the tyres stay inflated rather than such mundane matters as fuel and driver's hours. Meanwhile, some work has actually been done on the railway, including another Motor Rail, number 5038. The photos show it in the early 1970s at Ashchurch and as it is currently. The bonnets hide a multitude of ills - not least a mechanical conundrum with the clutch, which is hopefully now solved. Offers of redundant submarine equipment should be sent here, please.

No, really, you're too kind.....

2011-01-23T19:42:00.007Z

We're all getting out the penguin suits and polishing the best shoes. Why? The opening of the Apedale Valley Light Railway has been voted "Best Narrow Gauge Moment 2010" by the users of the National-preservation.com website. The runner up was some operation in North Wales - the opening of the Welsh Highland Railway or some such. We've got Gwyneth Paltrow to write an acceptance speech; strangely, the invitation to the glittering ceremony has yet to arrive, but it can only be a matter of time. Of course, such awards are always down to teamwork, and the team has been hard at work again down at Apedale. The team of happy carriage cleaners have been making the passenger train fit for the hoards of paying passengers who will be descending on us from the start of the season - which is April 2nd, by the way. The Road Motor division achieved a first start on the Motor Rail dumper engine after installation into the vehicle. As you may see, some minor adjustments are still needed to achieve Euro III emissions compliance. And the Baguley Drewry loco has started on the test programme needed to allow operation on the passenger trains. The photo shows the brake van being set up with just some of the huge range of sophisticated instrumentation used for this process. Not many people appreciate that NASA is largely funded through e-bay sales. I wonder who will give the award? I hope it's not Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood. Get in touch here (unless you represent Sam Fox or Mick Fleetwood).

Remembering things past

2011-01-16T19:35:00.003Z

It has been said that the Moseley Railway Trust is a bit like some of the better regiments in the British Army; it really does matter where you went to school. We were reminded of this when, during some work on MR7066 this weekend, two of the "old boys" of the Grammar School posed on the loco, recreating the days of the Moseley Industrial Tramway at Cheadle, in Manchester. The number of active members still directly associated with the School era is still considerable, but their numbers are being overtaken by people who never knew the delights of the Margaret Danyers college and its precursors. In those halcyon days, portable railways were rather less bound by red tape than today, and the second photo shows such an operation at the Hayfield Show some considerable number of years ago. The loco in the B&W photo is now a resident of Cornwall. What such scenes should remind us of is that today's Trust has its roots back in the last 1960s. A curiosity with the restoration of No.6 is that it is being done to a Preservation condition, not as it was in Industry. More than a few preserved locomotives have now spent longer in preservation than in industry - so perhaps we should be thinking about how we recreate some of the early preservation era? Get in touch here. Early Moseley Memories and especially photos are always welcomed.

Back to Reality

2011-01-09T21:41:00.003Z

After all the Santa jollifications and the excitements about Joffres and all that stuff, it was back to earth at Apedale this weekend. The former Elite Fencing Team have now been retrained and released back into the community as the Elite Fishplate Greasing Team. Meanwhile, wagons were mended, engines tinkered with and containers painted.The first wagon gingerly entered the C&W container for a little TLC to its floor, and the WDLR Water Tank wagon had an outing down the mainline to check that some modifications to the underframe set-up had been successful after a minor earth fault some while back. Get in touch here.

Joffre Announcement

2011-01-06T21:33:00.005Z

The owners of Kerr Stuart steam locomotive no.3014 are delighted to announce that the restoration of this locomotive has now entered its final phase. The locomotive will soon be moving to the Moseley Railway Trust site at Apedale, where it will be used to haul trains on the 2’0” gauge Apedale Valley Light Railway.

It is entirely appropriate that the locomotive is based at Apedale, which is just a few miles from the Kerr Stuart works where the locomotive was constructed in 1916. No.3014 was ordered by the French Commission for their artillery railways, and was delivered new to Nantes, France during WW1. Kerr Stuart built 70 locos of this type, known as the “Joffre” – named after the famous French General. After the war, it was sold from Verdun to a dealer, Brunner & Marchand of Borray, Seine & Oise. In October 1930, it was sold on to a stone quarry - Societe Anonyme des Carrieres de la Valee Heureuse et du Haut Banc, Marquise Rinxent in the Pas de Calais area of northern France. By August 1956, the locos on this site were derelict. In 1974, 3014 and four similar “Joffres” were repatriated to the UK onboard the ferry "Free Enterprise VII" on 11/10/74.

3014 and three of the other locos eventually resided at the Gloddfa Ganol slate quarry museum complex, near Blaenau Ffestiniog. Here, it was mounted on a plinth alongside the museum operator's house. It became a familar site to passing motorists as they struggled up the lengendary Crimea Pass road out of Blaenau to the north. Following closure of the Gloddfa Ganol museum, the loco was acquired by the 3014 Society. The locomotive has been restored at a number of sites, and was recently test-steamed for the first time in fifty years.

The key remaining activity on the locomotive is to complete the work on the side tanks, followed by detail finishing and testing. It is expected that the locomotive will be completed and moved to Apedale during Spring 2011.

Gareth Roberts of the 3014 Society said “This locomotive has been restored from a scrapyard condition, and it will be marvellous to bring it home to Staffordshire. The Moseley Railway Trust has a growing collection of vehicles from the First World War military railways, so 3014 will complement and add to this collection considerably”.

It is planned to hold a “launch day” for 3014 at Apedale; the date for this will be announced in due course. The Moseley Railway Trust is hoping to determine if there are any surviving Kerr Stuart employees – the company closed in 1930, so it’s JUST possible! Any leads in this regard would be appreciated.

The photographs are a Joffre works photo, 3014 approaching completion and when it was displayed at Gloddfa Ganol. Get in touch with the MRT here.

The last week of a memorable year

2010-12-27T20:31:00.004Z

We've just had what may be the last working day of the year at the Moseley Railway Trust site at Apedale. A few hardy souls turned out to brave yet more snow; however, we did get to luxuriate in the almost tropical (by recent standards) temperatures of PLUS (yes, honest, PLUS) 2 degrees. We've shifted a fair bit of work, including major progress on the construction of track into the new C&W workshop container. As is usual at this time of year, one can reflect on what has been a momentous year for the MRT at Apedale. This time last year, we had a part-finished main line which ended just before what can only be described as a bog. Now, we are in a position to run passenger trains to a terminus where that bog once bogged. 2010, of course, saw the approval and grand opening of the Apedale Valley Light Railway; we can't do that again in 2011, so next year will probably be one of consolidation. That said, there is plenty to look forward to. We should see the completion of the Silverdale station building, and hopefully a start on the MRT museum building. There's also some interesting news imminent on the locomotive front - so keep looking in here. In the meantime, it just remains to wish both readers a happy new year. Get in touch here.

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-18T21:11:00.006Z

We've reached the end of Day Three of the four day Santa campaign, and it's fair to say that today has been pretty challenging. A little snow overnight became a blizzard all morning. The result was some of the most challenging conditions imaginable for operating a railway. Coupled with a points failure, it's not been an easy one. But despite all that, the professionalism of the Moseley Railway Trust railway operating staff shone through, and all the booked trains ran, and all mostly to time, or close to. Beat that, Network Rail. We are available (by the way) for consultancy services at relatively reasonable rates. All of our visits seemed to go away happy, especially the kids. Who would not enjoy a train ride through a winter wonderland and then get to meet Santa? There's still a few seats left for tomorrow (Sunday 19/12), and it looks like the wonderland will still be there. Get in touch here. Finally, may we wish everyone a happy Christmas. If enough people request it, we may post a Youtube of a well-known Trustee doing something daft again. Up to you, dear readers.

Moseley Railway Trust announces twinning agreement with Frankfurt Feldbahn Museum

2010-12-15T23:02:00.007Z

The Moseley Railway Trust is proud to announce its twinning agreement with the Frankfurt Feldbahn museum, Germany.

The agreement was marked by a visit to the Moseley Railway Trust’s Apedale site by two representatives of the Frankfurt Museum, Ruediger Fach and Stefan Kaiser. The visit took place during the opening weekend for the Moseley Railway Trust’s new Apedale Valley Light Railway (September 18 2010).

Herr Fach made a speech in which he stressed the significant common ground between the Moseley Railway Trust and Frankfurt Feldbahn Museum. He said "We share not only the same narrow gauge of 2 feet or 600mm but also our love of the smallest "real" regular steam locomotives and especially military light railways". Herr Fach went on to observe that England is regarded as a model for the preservation of industrial heritage.

Phil Robinson, Chairman of the Moseley Railway Trust, presented Herr Fach and Herr Kaiser with a plaque marking the twinning agreement.

The Frankfurt Feldbahn Museum has been in operation since 1975. It has an extensive collection of narrow gauge steam and diesel locomotives, and is regarded as one of the premier narrow gauge railway centres in Germany. It operates on a site close to the centre of Frankfurt. The railway is 600mm gauge, and runs into the nearby Rebstock park. The Moseley Railway Trust also operates a 2’0” gauge (approx. 600mm) railway, and also operates in a park – in this case the Apedale Community Country Park.

It is planned that the twinning agreement will lead to exchange visits between members of the two organisations, together with interchange of technical and historical knowledge.

Ho, Ho, Ho

2010-12-11T19:56:00.004Z

We've just finished Day One of the Santa Season at Apedale, and it's gone really well. "Stanhope" performed with its usual aplomb on all the passenger trains - 7 in total today, and Santa performed with as much aplomb as he could sensibly muster in the Grotto-cum-Norwegian Spruce Forest. We've seen lots of passengers, and everyone seems to have lots of fun - especially the Chairman, who was seen dressed as some sort of cartoon cat. We're repeating the whole pantomime tomorrow and next weekend - check the main website for details. There's a book on the day option, and there are still seats to be had on most of the trains (although some are near to capacity). Get in touch here.

Ice Station Apedale

2010-12-06T19:16:00.003Z

Sadly, Patrick McGoohan is no longer with us to reprise his role in a classic cold war thriller, so the hardy members of the Moseley Railway Trust had to rely on their inner reserves instead. It's been a tad on the chilly side (-14 overnight), but despite that, we did actually make some progress. Construction of the new siding to the C&W container has continued - one of the two rails being curved, and a start made on the second. It was whilst finding the second rail in the icy wasteland of the materials store that one member made a rather unfavourable comparison to the retreat from Stalingrad.

In between times, opportunity was taken to have a play (sorry, testing and driver training) on the newly arrived Baguley Drewry. One was reminded of the late Teddy Boston's comment about the rather older Baguley petrol loco - he referred to this as the "beast that walks in the dark" owing to the length of time it took to start at Cadeby, and hence it always seemed to be dark when it ran. The BD ain't that bad, but it took a while. It just needs a few minor tweaks and it will be a great addition to the fleet, sharing some of the passenger hauling duties with the faithful 60S Motor Rail No.13. Anyway, get in touch here, and don't forget that we're running Santa Specials with steam trains over the next two weekends - there is still space on some trains, and there is a pay-on-the-day option.

New Arrivals

2010-12-02T18:46:00.005Z

Two locos arrived at Apedale on Tuesday despite the weather. They are Hibberd 3582 of 1954 and Baguley Drewry 3756 of 1982. The Hibberd was built as a mines loco, and as such is a unique survivor of the type. It worked at Commonwealth Smelting at Avonmouth, then passed through dealers ME Engineering and Alan Keef Ltd before ending up at the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.
The Baguley, by contrast, is the youngest loco on site being ex-works on 18/3/82. It is fitted with a 60Hp Perkins engine. As a 2’6" gauge loco, it was delivered to Royal Navy armaments depot at Trecwn, Dyfed, Wales. It moved 11/4/94 to the depot at Dean Hill, Hampshire. When Dean Hill closed, the current owner acquired it and regauged it to 2’0" gauge. As the photo shows, it is a rather shocking yellow. Get in touch with us here.

Shivering

2010-11-28T19:50:00.003Z

It's been a bit cold down the Valley again, and it's fair to say that I think we've seen the last of the alleged snake for a while. That said, we did take advantage of the conditions for a quick photo shoot for next year's Santa Special leaflet. Which does remind me that there are still a few seats to be had on this year's Santa Special trains - 11 and 12, and 18 and 19 December. Check out the main website for full details. Meanwhile here's a little teaser for you. Here's the CME violating the Working at Height safety procedure. Fortunately, he wasn't doing this at Apedale, so that's OK then. But what is he so excited about? Watch this space..... Contacting us here won't get you an answer, but we'd still like to hear from you!!

The Amazing Revolving Wingrove

2010-11-20T21:55:00.004Z

The project to connect up the Container which will form the Carriage & Wagon workshop to the railway at the Moseley Railway Trust's Apedale site has continued unabated. The track in the container is off-set, to create a bit of space. So, one doesn't have to be a genius to realise that the access to one side of the wagons will be better than on the other side. What's the answer? A turntable, of course. Previously, both readers will have seen it being pushed into place. It's now bolted down, and track connected. For some reason now lost to my memory, the construction of the turntable was likened to that of am Avro Shackleton. Which is pretty tenuous, but at least we can have a picture of a Shackleton. Returning to reality, it was inevitable that the turntable needed to be test-run, so one of the Wingrove battery locos was placed on the deck and given a spin. And, despite the dire predictions of one member, it all passed off without such much as a hitch.

Meanwhile, some serious tinkering has taken place with the fuel system on the RL1B Orenstein & Koppel in an attempt to increase the engine top revs. A day's spanner twirling was suitably rewarded by an increase in maximum speed from 4mph to 4.001mph. Such is life. If you fancy having a twirl or a spin, you have two options. Strictly Come Dancing, or coming down to Apedale. Sequins and fake tan are optional for Apedale. Get in touch here (unless you're trying to sell sequins and fake tan).

Positive Progress

2010-11-19T20:19:00.003Z

Last weekend saw some interesting developments at the Moseley Railway Trust site at Apedale. Our friends at the Apedale Heritage Centre are continuing their project to rebuild Silverdale station building. This, you will recall, was a late-surviving North Staffordshire Railway structure. It survived because it provided a convenient bothy for traincrews whilst loading MGR trains at Silverdale colliery next door. The big recent development has ben putting on the roof trusses, which makes it look MUCH more finished. The end finally seems to be in site for this project, and hopefully next season, we will be able to part visitors from their cash from a station building (and obviously drink tea, that being the main purpose of any station building). Meanwhile, at the other end of the site, an interesting new arrival. This is the mortal remains of a War Department Light Railways Ambulance Van. This has been in storage for some years at the South Tynedale Railway, but has now come to Apedale to join the growing collection of WDLR equipment in the care of the MRT. As you can see, it's a bit of a fixer-upper, but this holds no fears for the team who built the Apedale Valley Light Railway's Toastrack coach.

As ever, get in touch here. Did I mention that there's till time to book for Santa Specials at Apedale (if you've been good all year, that is)? Check the main website for details!

Turntables and Dormans

2010-11-15T18:41:00.005Z

Been a bit busy of late, so apologies for the late post. All being well, we'll have two updates this week. Weekend of the 6th saw a couple of interesting achievements at the Moseley Railway Trust's Apedale site. A cast-iron wagon turntable, late of the Cadeby Light Railway, was extracted from the storage area, and loaded onto a wagon. Hindsight suggests that a slight more fit-for-purpose wagon would have been wise, but that's life. As can be imagined, being cast iron, it's a weighty lump. It's final journey to position was accomplished by sliding it down an existing siding, pushed by the 40HP Simplex "Sludge". It will now form part of a siding to be used to connect to a container. In turn, this will form a carriage and wagon workshop. This will become important, as an identified priority over the next year or so is to improve the condition of the wagon fleet. The origins of the turntable are rather lost in time, but has been suggested that it originated at Maenofferen quarry in North Wales.

Meanwhile, down in the bottom yard, something stirred. The something was a Dorman 2DWD engine which is for the Motor Rail dumper. Running on a cone of fuel and a block of water, the engine managed to prove to the CME's satisfaction that there was nothing seriously wrong with itself. Considering that it last ran in 1975, that's not too bad. The radiator, fuel tank and brakes on the dumper have been dealt with, so it's making steady progress.

As ever, get in touch here.

A Voyage Into the Unknown

2010-11-01T20:29:00.004Z

It is fair to say that the Moseley Railway Trust is a Northern organisation. Whilst few of our members own whippets, there are a smattering of flat caps (aren't there, Phil?) and someone was once heard to comment that they "quite liked" black pudding. So it with some trepidation that we answer the annual call to the South East which is EXPO-NG. This show is organised by the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Railway Society. After an epic trek south, including crossing the biggest canal I've ever seen on a humpback bridge where you have to pay (what on earth was all that about, I still wonder), the joint MRT/NGRS task group set out its wares and dealt with the throng of willing (ish) customers. And we all had a really good day. I'm not into model railways, since I have held the view that if it can't be fixed using a welder or chisel then I don't want to know. But the craftsmanship that goes into these models is truly amazing. Moreover, being an exclusively narrow gauge show, it's like seeing models of the Moseley fleet all around - check the photos. Hopefully, we may be able to get or two of these talented people to bring their models to Apedale for next year's September event - 10&11 September 2011. Put that one in your diary - NOW! So, it's a big thank you to Hazel and the GDNGRS team - we'll see you next year. Meanwhile, it's back to big trains next week at Apedale. Get in touch here.

The Hole Story

2010-10-30T22:04:00.017+01:00

We seem to have been developing holes in things this week. First we had to investigate the radiator on one of our Ruston diesels. No 37 came from ICI at it Shevington explosives works near Wigan. Although otherwise in working order, since arrival at Apedale it has refused to hold water. Having stripped the radiator down and then shovelled out the thick layer of sand that seems to have got in there (we assume it's sand although we were careful not to go too near it with a match) we discovered that the bottom tanks were not very healthy at all. One of our recent recruits, Kev, set about making a patch and brazing it all back together.

We have also resolved to do more work on our fleet of wagons, which have been somewhat neglected in recent years. We have a container on site that was specifically acquired for use as a wagon workshop, so we decided to clear this out and give it a good coat of paint. Hence, a quick go over with the needle gun to get the loose paint and rust off. This revealed a further set of holes, this time in the roof. No wonder it has seemed a little damp in there at times. A quick repair and it was then time to get some primer on. You can see this work in the picture, which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "a box of Terrys".

Meanwhile, today was the last day of the running season and thoughts have turned to planning events for 2011. However, there are still Santa Specials to look forward to. Don't forget to book here.

Last Chances and new beginnings

2010-10-24T21:23:00.002+01:00

For the Apedale Valley Light Railway, there's just one operating day left in this year's season - next Saturday 30/10/10. If you've not had a chance to savour the scenic vistas of the Apedale Community Country Park, then why not come and see us? After that, we're running for Santa Specials on 11 & 12 and 18 & 19 December - see booking details here. The running season, after a start rather later than hoped, has gone very well, with the railway, the people and the equipment all performing as the Trust had hoped. Most days - even the wet ones - have seen a steady flow of visitors wanting their rides, so it's all been worthwhile.

Meanwhile, out in cyberspace, we've made some tentative steps into social networking - see our Facebook page here. It's early days with this yet, so be gentle. This is also linked into something called Twitter. I imagine Stephen Fry is shaking in his boots. As ever, get in touch here (even if you're not Stephen Fry).

Another Sunny Day

2010-10-19T23:09:00.003+01:00

This weekend has seen the second of the Steam & Industrial Trains sessions. The Apedale Valley resonated to the sounds of two steam locos - "Paddy" and "Stanhope". The observant will notice that the loco was running minus nameplates, displaying its class name "Tattoo". We also managed to run a number of demonstration freight trains using the large Ruston "Annie". This is a 33/40HP Ruston, number 198297 of 1939. It spent most of its working life at an explosive works at Croesor, North Wales - a former slate mine. Hence, it seemed appropriate to use it to haul the train of restored Dinorwic slate quarry wagons.

Meanwhile, a couple of fine photo collections have come to our attention - check these here and here.

We're running trains, with a diesel loco, until the end of October, and then it's Santa Specials in December - see here and a booking form here. As ever, get in touch here.

Steam mini-gala

2010-10-11T22:26:00.003+01:00

October is a bit of a steam mini-gala down at the Apedale Valley Light Railway. We're running with two steam locos on the 9th & 10th, and then on the 16th & 17th, from 1100 to 1630 both days. The reasons for this are many and varied, but mostly involve a foul-up within the publicity department - for which the guilty have been promoted out of harms way, and the innocent shot. Harsh but fair. It has also been observed that, given that we are running from a coal mine, it may be cheaper to run steam locos than diesels. Unfortunately, that's not quite true, as a bizarre restrictions means that coal cannot be extracted from the coal mine. Yes, I know, don't ask. We're also taking the opportunity to train some new people on the steam locos. It would seem that the controls are a little more challenging than on the diesels. Also, the starter motor is rubbish - it took two hours to start "Stanhope". Why not come down and have a look? We'll be gently chuffing up and down the valley, trying to remember the lyrics to the song in Chigley. Get in touch here.

Hello, Goodbye

2010-10-02T18:52:00.006+01:00

After all the excitement of the Opening Weekend, it's back to reality at the Apedale Valley Light Railway. Today has seen the departure of the Hunslet steam loco "Edward Sholto" back to its base at the Statfold Barn Railway, moving on Hunslet Steam's rather splendid lorry. The lorry arrived with three Dinorwic slate wagons, which had been restored in the last days of the Cadeby Light Railway, and then placed on loan to Statfold for operation with their new-build Hunslet quarry tank steam locos. In addition to "Edward Sholto", a side-discharge ballast wagon went back to Statfold. We're all very grateful to Graham, Henry and the team at Statfold for their help with this. Meanwhile, we have a Mini Steam Gala to look forward to. As a consequence of the need to train crews on steam locos, and also as a consequence of a typo in the publicity department (we all make mistakes), we will be running steam locos next weekend 9 & 10 October AND 16 & 17 October - four days in total. We will be running the Kerr Stuart "Stanhope" and also the visitor "Paddy", still with us after the Opening Weekend. We also hope to let the heritage diesels stretch their legs with freights down the mainline. What more could you want - and let's face it, there's not much else to do in October, is there?? As ever, get in touch here.

An Away Mission

2010-09-27T22:11:00.004+01:00

Just occasionally, we get time off for good behaviour, and the Moseley folks are allowed to leave Staffordshire. Such an event was last Saturday, when we took the NGRS/Moseley sales stand to the open day of Alan Keef Ltd, down near Ross on Wye. Another splendid day, with three locomotives in steam - vertical boiler locos "Chaloner" and "Taffy", plus the Kerr Stuart Wren "Peter Pan". The Hayfield coach, one of the stars of last weekend's Grand Gala Opening, was in use. The yellow colour seems to work well in sunshine. Strangely, we hadn't noticed that at Apedale. The elite sales force managed to empty the pockets of a few willing customers, and we saw lots of old friends. The next outing is to Expo NG, Swanley, Kent. Apparently that's in the South, so we will start saving now for the Dartford toll. See you there, or come along to Apedale? Get in touch here.

What a Weekend!

2010-09-22T21:38:00.011+01:00

The Grand Opening Gala at the Apedale Valley Light Railway has been and gone. And what a weekend! We welcomed more than a thousand people through the gates. The passenger train service began to resemble the Circle line on a busy day! It's really difficult to pick out the highlights, but for me it was seeing many, many happy people on the train. A lot of them were local to the North Staffordshire area, and we look forward to seeing many of them again.

Saturday saw the marking of a twinning arrangement between the Moseley Railway Trust and the Frankfurt Feldbahn Museum in Germany. Two senior members of the FFM had journeyed over to see us. There were the speeches and unveiling of plaques. Sunday saw the formal opening of the AVLR by Sir James Hawley, the Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire, with the Mayor of Newcastle Under Lyme, Councillor Mrs Ann Heames also in attendance. Sir James drove the loco "Stanhope" through a paper banner. Unlike certain railways, we managed to properly rip our banner thanks to judicious use of a Stanley knife beforehand. Sir James seemed rather keen on driving the engine, and it was looking as though we could send the regular crew home at one stage! Once extracted from "Stanhope", Sir James and Councillor Heames unveiled yet another plaque.

If you came to see us over the weekend, I'd like to say a big thank you. If you're one of the MRT's volunteers or one of our exhibitors, I'd like to say an even bigger thank you. It's been a real team effort to get us this far.

And now onto the next challenge. With all these plaques, we need some more walls on which to mount them - and that means building a museum. All we need is somewhere between £250k and £500k. So, if you can help, get in touch here. We accept all major credit and debit cards.

Grand Opening Gala - Day One

2010-09-18T21:57:00.008+01:00

Well, Day One of the Grand Opening Gala dawned sunny and bright, and it's all gone very well. We've been busy all day, the passenger trains have been full with with happy customers, the freight trains have run up and down entertaining people. There's been no great dramas, so all is well in the world. Have a look at a few photos, and we'll see you tomorrow?

Quorate

2010-09-16T19:46:00.003+01:00

The final steam loco of this weekend's trio has now arrived safe and sound at Apedale - it's the vertical boiler loco Paddy. Along with Stanhope, Paddy will work the passenger trains. We have a challenging freight duty lined up for the Hunslet quarry tank "Edward Sholto". All we need is the crowds and a bit of sunshine! Be seeing you?

Getting Ready

2010-09-12T22:26:00.005+01:00

The Grand Opening Gala is now less than a week away - and the plans are beginning to slot into place. We've spent the weekend testing and confirming that everything works as it should. This has included the Kerr Stuart steam loco "Stanhope" which has been test-run on passenger trains (for real next weekend!). We've also assembled our entire stock of passenger coaches into one train for the first time, and tested that formation. All remarkably undramatic - it even fits the platform - just! The mixture of shapes and colours makes for a characterful train sauntering down the Apedale Valley. Certainly the biggest, and the brightest, amongst them is the Toastrack; after a herculean effort by the team building it, the vehicle should make its debut next weekend. All this to see, and just a fiver to get in? We must be mad. The event is on both days, from 11.00 to 17.00 - see you there. Get in touch here.

Preparing for the Big Day

2010-09-04T22:09:00.018+01:00

As the big grand opening weekend draws closer, some of the visitors have already started to arrive. First was a coach on loan from the Hayfield Railway Group. This coach was constructed to serve the annual visit of Peter Pan to the Hayfield Sheepdog Trials, but unfortunately the trackbed has not been available for use over the last few years and hence the coach has been based at the Amerton Railway. It has also been out and about with Paddy, a vertical boiler locomotive built by Dave Potter and friends. Coach S is essentially the same design as our own Penrhyn slate quarry coach, with the addition of a roof, a luxury not afforded to the quarrymen. As we are still constructing some of our own coaching stock, this coach will provide(hopefully) much needed capacity at our open day.

More recently, we have cleared the workshop out to make room for two former Penrhyn steam engines, Edward Sholto and Stanhope. These have now both arrived from Hesketh Bank, where Edward Sholto was visiting after a spectacular photo shoot at Threlkeld Quarry. Stanhope has, of course, been resident at the West Lancashire Light railway since the completion of its restoration in 1999. Now, Stanhope becomes the first permanently resident working steam engine at Apedale, and it will be in action at the September open weekend and on the second weekend of the month for the rest of this season and in 2011.

Stanhope and Edward Sholto loaded up at Hesketh Bank bound for Apedale.

As for Paddy, we are expecting it shortly, giving us three working steam locos for the open weekend on 18-19 September. Added to the other attractions including vintage vehicles, model railways and other displays, there should be plenty to interest any of our readers who fancy a visit in person. We look forward to meeting you both there. Details can be found here.

First passenger service day

2010-08-22T20:59:00.003+01:00

After last Saturday's one-off passenger train, this Saturday 21st August) saw the first full day of passenger service operated on the Apedale Valley Light Railway. As is traditional, the service was launched (sliding majestically down a greased slipway?) using a bottle of finest vintage champagne. I'd like to say that the bottle had been in careful storage since being carried on the last train at Cheadle. But I can't - it was bought on Tuesday in Tescos. The Moseley Railway Trust's crane was used to provide the necessary skyhook, and at the third attempt, the bottle was no more. And that was that - a steady stream of passengers saw us through to the conclusion of a successful day. Let us hope that there are many more to follow. Trains will be running every Saturday until the end of October, with the Grand Opening Gala on September 18 & 19th. As ever, get in touch here.

Open for Business

2010-08-15T20:10:00.004+01:00

The Moseley Railway Trust, or (as it then was) the Moseley Industrial Tramway and Museum last ran a fare-paying passenger train on the site at the Margaret Danyers College, Cheadle (near Manchester) on 8/3/98. A mere 4,542 days later, the MRT is back in the passenger carrying business. This has been a truly historic weekend. We received the confirmatory letters of approval from the Office of the Rail Regulator on Friday (and a big thanks to them for putting a first class stamp on the envelope!). A formal sign-off of the trackwork was needed, along with completion of various minor works in the Apedale Road loop area. ORR had also requested some final checks on the train braking systems. After all this work had been completed, we got to about 1600, and a knot of people looking over the fence was noticed. This seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, so they were invited to become the first-ever passengers on the Apedale Valley Light Railway. For the record, they were a local man from Chesterton, Mr Middleton, and his guests from Market Drayton, the Brown family. Being a nice day, they chose the open Penrhyn coach. Once we worked out how the ticket system worked, we parted their money from them, and off they went.

The railway will now be in operation from 1100 to 1630 each Saturday from now to the end of October, plus a few extra days. Check the website for full details - but please be aware that it will take us a few days to update this to reflect the opening of the railway. The grand opening of the AVLR will take place over the weekend of the 18 & 19th September, when there will be a LOT going on - obviously, we'll be running both Saturday & Sunday that weekend. The photos show the first train, and then a group shot of just a few of the people who worked so tirelessly to make this all happen. As ever, get in touch here, especially if you fancy a bit of tireless working.

The final drop

2010-08-04T18:45:00.004+01:00

The front wall for the platform extension on the Apedale Valley Light Railway has been completed. This, you will recall, is needed because the reconstruction of Silverdale station is still on-going - so there's scaffolding occupying the original platform. To allow the footings to be poured, a lot of the platform road ballast had to be removed. So, with the completion of the wall, it was time to put it all back using the side discharging hopper on loan from our friends at the Statfold Barn railway and a Wingrove & Rogers battery loco - not exactly the most suitable for ballasting, but its light weight was important on track where the ballast was missing from one side. All being well, this will be last time for a while that the familiar scene of the faithful Fordson tractor loading ballast will be witnessed. It's also one of the last few hurdles to the AVLR being brought into passenger operations, hopefully later this month. In anticipation of using the railway to separate money from visitors later this year, some very odd things have been seen in August in West Lancashire. If you want to know more, or fancy becoming an elf, reindeer or generic other-worldy folk, get in touch here.

Sludge's Busy Day

2010-07-25T22:29:00.004+01:00

Simplex Mechanical Handling (SMH) were the successors to Motor Rail, who built so many of the Moseley Railway Trust's locomotive fleet. In 1979 they turned out their number 40SD516 - so called because it's a 40Hp Simplex with a Deutz engine. This loco worked for Severn Trent Water at Minworth, near Birmingham. This was a vast sewage works, treating the outpourings of millions of Brummies. A fleet of of locos were employed on a 2'0" gauge railway system. When the railway closed, 40SD516 joined the MRT fleet and acquired the name "Sludge". I imagine a good wash was also something of a priority. Sludge has always been a popular loco, being electric start and powerful. It's spent the day as the main shunt loco at Apedale. Following our recent successful visit from ORR, considerable effort is being put into training crews for the Apedale Valley Light Railway's passenger operation. The building operations which can be seen in the first photo mean we currently cannot run round in the loop at the Apedale Heritage Centre station, so Sludge was kept fully employed acting as "shunt release" loco to allow the training runs to reverse. Hence the rare sight of the passenger stock in the loop road. Later on, Sludge returned to more work it would be more familiar with - hauling skip wagons. These were moving materials to assist in the construction of an improved walkway to the Aurora North shed. This will form the focal point for the September 18th & 19th Grand Opening weekend. Fortunately for the MRT Chairman, these skips were filled with railway ballast rather than (errrrr) Sludge. If you want to know more, get in touch here.

A sigh of relief

2010-07-20T20:24:00.005+01:00

To coin a phrase, it's been quite a week down the Valley. The Summer Working Week for the Moseley Railway Trust at Apedale has been and gone. It's called the Summer Working Week due to the traditional selection of the wettest week available between May and September. Many projects have made good progress, of which the most visible has been with the Hudson Toastrack coach. This is a reconstruction (not a replica, or a rebuild or any other words like that) of vehicles used on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland in the 1920s. The MRT vehicle now has the beginnings of a roof, and hopefully the first glimmerings of the light at the end of this particular tunnel are now in site. The first photo shows the team sitting down on the job. Honestly, anyone would think they'd been busy. Elsewhere, a lot of work was put into the track and generally sorting out the railway in anticipation of the visit from the Man from the Ministry. The MFTM has now been, and seen, and pronounced himself basically happy. There's a few minor issues to be sorted, but it looks like we have the green light for passenger carrying (or, as you can see below, perhaps a green flag is more appropriate). Therefore, the event on the 18th & 19th September really WILL BE the Grand Opening of the Apedale Valley Light Railway. As ever, get in touch here.

The Daily Grind

2010-07-14T21:14:00.003+01:00

It's our Summer Working Week at Apedale. As is traditional, the Sun has done a bunk and been replaced by heavy rainclouds. Has that dampened spirits? Well, just a bit. However, the current main project, the replica Hudson Toastrack coach, is storming along. It had a brief appearance out of doors today before it headed back under cover in time for the project supremo to set to on his creation with an angle grinder. He is available for watch repairs and keyhole surgery at very modest rates. Meanwhile, certain individuals celebrated the end of the Ballast Shovelling project and had to be restrained from making a bonfire of all the spades and shovels. If you fancy getting involved in this sort of malarky, or are in need of amateur surgery, get in touch here.

Hudswell Update

2010-07-10T20:41:00.005+01:00

Some may recall that the Moseley Railway Trust's Hudswell Clarke steam loco no. 1238 is now under serious restoration. This loco was imported from Ghana in 2008. It had a time on display at Apedale and then at Leighton Buzzard. Restoration has now started in earnest, and the loco is now almost fully dismantled. It's a bit of a curate's egg - some parts are good, some parts are shockingly bad. There does appear to be some evidence to support the story that the loco fell into a river and killed its driver - certainly the firebox has suffered a major failure at some stage which is consistent with the story. The first photo shows one of the loco mainframes being riveted and strengthened where wasted. The second photo is one of the cylinders being bored to take a liner. It's going to be quite some time before the loco is completed, and the project is NOT fully funded - we have a very generous bequest but it's looking unlikely that this will complete the project - so we would be very grateful for any support which we can receive with this. Get in touch here.

The Heat is on

2010-07-03T22:18:00.006+01:00

Another day of progress on many fronts down in the sultry sub-tropical paradise which is the Apedale valley. The Penrhyn coach has now had the reinforcing bars installed, which was rather like trying to wallpaper your front hall through the letterbox. The first photo shows one of the bars being threaded into the underframe. Meanwhile, teams have been trying (and succeeding) at improving their overall fitness levels and muscle tone by packing and tamping ballast. The Toastrack coach continues to gain parts at a rapid rate, and a start has been on the start of construction of the platform extension. Finally, our friends up at the Apedale Heritage Centre have taken delivery of an enormous winding engine. This was the emergency winder from one of the local collieries (Hem Heath??) - I dread to think how big the day-to-day machine was! The Man from the Ministry is coming to look at the railway in 17 days - so the pressure is really on now to finish off the railway. Get in touch here if you can help relieve the pressure.

Drilling Down

2010-06-29T19:02:00.005+01:00

Some years ago, the Moseley Railway Trust built a replica of a Penrhyn Quarryman's Coach. The vehicle has had a few public outings - at the Alan Keef Ltd open days, and on a temporary line at the Hayfield Sheepdog Trials. However, the vehicle has needed a fair bit of work to make it ready for front line operation on the Apedale Valley Light Railway. Probably one of the trickiest operations has been the inserting of tie rods into the underframe. These were deemed necessary to provide additional strength to the underframe. Obtaining 12' long steel bars, threaded each end, proved to be challenging in its own right - not many people have lathes that big, and steel bar comes in standard lengths of 3 metres. Fortunately, our friends at the Hunslet Steam Company at Statfold came up with the goods. It was then simply a question on making a series of closely aligned holes through the vehicle underframe, taking care to miss the air brake pipes and other minor details. What could be simpler? Nuclear Fusion, for a start. Fortunately, we were able to call on the World's Largest Electric Drill, needing a crew of three to operate safely. We borrowed it from BP who said that they "weren't planning on drilling anywhere for a while". The job isn't finished yet, but we have got a method for doing it now, and another day should see the vehicle back in business and read for service on the Apedale Valley Light Railway. Get in touch here.

Modeller's Mecca

2010-06-22T20:41:00.005+01:00

As both regular readers know, the Grand Opening Gala for the Apedale Valley Light Railway will be on the 18th & 19th September. Amongst other attractions, we're planning a record number of model railway layouts this year.

These will be in a variety of scales from the delights of Hull Miniature Railway Society’s ‘Barrowfleet’ (009 and 00) and Hazel Grove MRC’s penultimate outing of "The High Peak Tramway" (O16.5) right up to ‘Hookers Junction’ in 1/12th scale. The photos, courtesy of Hazel Grove MRC and Paul Harrison, show the High Peak Tramway. Rumour has it that the CME can be seen pointing at something in one of the scenes.
This is the perfect opportunity for narrow gauge modellers of any scale to get ‘up close and personal’ with camera and tape measure to a considerable range of locomotives and is not to be missed.
Further announcements will be made, so keep watching the press and here for more details of what will be one of the Narrow Gauge "events of the year". The ‘how to find us’ button on our website provides maps and useful sets of directions. As ever, get in touch here.

Testing times

2010-06-12T23:10:00.006+01:00

As both of you will realise, we have to obtain approval from the ORR (or HMRI to old folks) for both the passenger railway - the Apedale Valley Light Railway - and the vehicles which run on it. The days of running narrow gauge passenger trains depending solely on the loco brakes are well and truly over; those of us who recall running passenger trains down slippery grades with minimal brakes breathe a sigh of relief at that. These days, the sighs come from the air brake system. ORR require that we can demonstrate that the train can stop at 0.7ms/s/s or 7% of g for those from the Big Railway. Proving this has not been easy. Our trains do not have speedometers fitted, and the low speeds mean that resolution errors cause significant problems. On the other hand, the low speeds do mean that the simple equations of motions can be employed; we are not subject to Einsteinian relativistic effects, although time dilations have been noticed on site, especially during busy periods in the cafe. The key issue is knowing accurately what the speed of the train is when the train brakes are applied. We tried using GPS devices; both a car sat-nav and one designed for hikers didn't really work very well. We suspect the steep sides of the Apedale Valley meant that the devices couldn't "see" sufficient satellites. That was one item which was, shockingly, overlooked in the railway risk assessment. Anyway, we have now cracked the problem using a perception head device sold for bicycles, and (to everyone's relief) it is clear that the brakes are working just fine. In the top photo you can see the train testing engineer hard at work; we need a spreadsheet to do the maths these days. If you fancy reading a bit more about train testing, see here.

Elsewhere on site, the CME has found something else to point at; it's the cab from one of the ex-Wolverhampton battery-electric locos, currently being treated for severe tinworm. As ever, get in touch here if you fancy learning how to point.

Breakthrough

2010-06-06T20:34:00.008+01:00

As many will know, especially MRT members, one of the problems which had inhibited our ability to open the Apedale Valley Light railway to the public was the rather inconvenient matter of a public footpath crossing the site. After a considerable period of time whilst the County Council considered the matter, and consulted with everybody (and we really do mean everybody, and in alphabetical order), a footpath diversion order was finally made. This is the apparently innocuous thing being pointed at by the CME (No.2 in the series "The CME Points"). This allowed us to finally close the gaps in the fenceline, thereby protecting the public from being savaged by the fire breathing dragons which lurk on the railway. The Elite Fencing Squad took some satisfaction in driving in the final nail, and a big thank you to the EFS for building the whole thing. Meanwhile, the CME has decided how to number Motor Rail 7066. We THINK he's decided it should be No.6, but we're not entirely sure. What do you think? If you are increasingly in need of glasses to read small numbers, get in touch here.

Persistence is its own reward

2010-05-29T20:11:00.005+01:00

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

2010-05-25T20:22:00.004+01:00

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

2010-05-17T19:10:00.006+01:00

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

2010-05-08T18:42:00.004+01:00

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.

Go Ahead for Hudswell

2010-04-30T20:52:00.004+01:00

The Moseley Railway Trust is pleased to announce that a programme and funding has been put into place for the restoration of a 2’0" gauge Hudswell Clarke steam locomotive. The locomotive was built in Leeds in 1916, and was exported to Ghana. It worked for AngloGold Ashanti at their gold mines in Ghana until 1952, and was eventually put on display at the complex at Obuasi. Through the considerable assistance of AngloGold Ashanti, the locomotive was repatriated to the UK in 2008. Porterbrook Leasing sponsored part of the transportation costs from Ghana. Since 2008, the locomotive has been on display at the Moseley Railway Trust’s site at Apedale, near Newcastle under Lyme. In 2009, the locomotive was loaned to the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway in Bedfordshire to help mark the 75th anniversary of that railway. The locomotive has now moved to a private workshop facility where restoration to fully operational condition will take place. The work will be carried out by the team who have recently completed the overhaul of the Hunslet loco "Edward Sholto".
The funding for the restoration of the Hudswell Clarke locomotive has come from two main sources. Firstly, the family of Terry Stanhope has provided a substantial bequest. Terry, who died in 2006, was a life-long railway enthusiast and supporter of the Moseley Railway Trust. It is entirely fitting that he will have a permanent memorial in the form of the restored locomotive which will provide enjoyment and interest to many people. Secondly, a PRISM grant has been awarded, which recognises the importance of this locomotive to the UK’s industrial heritage.
There remains some funding yet to be obtained to complete the project, and the Moseley Railway Trust would welcome any further contributions towards the overhaul of the locomotive.
Phil Robinson, the Chairman of the Moseley Railway Trust said "Since AngloGold Ashanti kindly allowed the repatriation of this locomotive, we have been working to facilitate its return to steam. Through the kindness and support of the Stanhope family, and with the help of the PRISM team, we are now well on the way to achieving this. On behalf of the Moseley Railway Trust, I would like to express our thanks to the Stanhope family and PRISM".

Contact the Moseley Railway Trust here.

Industrial Interest

2010-04-26T20:45:00.008+01:00

This weekend, the Moseley Railway Trust hosted the Annual General Meeting of the Industrial Railway Society. We're all about Industrial Railways at Apedale, so this was right up our street (or perhaps "siding"). I didn't keep count, but I am told that we operated something like 18 different locomotives, which is probably some sort of record for an IRS AGM! It was a glorious sunny spring day, and nothing went too badly wrong. Arguably the star of the show was Edward Sholto, which has now departed Apedale for the Ffestiniog Railway's "Quirks & Curiosities" event over the Mayday weekend. As ever, contact us here.

Annual General Meeting Day - and a puzzle

2010-04-18T20:21:00.007+01:00

April 17th has seen the Annual General Meeting of the Moseley Railway Trust at Apedale, Staffordshire. It's the opportunity for the membership to give the Trustees a good kicking, although this year did seem to be rather a tame and well-humoured affair. Perhaps we're all getting older and wiser (or not). A much more probable explanation is that everyone wanted to get out into the glorious spring sunshine and play with the trains. We were very fortunate to host Andrew Neale's newly restored Hunslet steam loco "Edward Sholto"; this look simply glorious, and has gone down in history as the first steam loco to reach Apedale Road. We took advantage of a good number of our members being on site to conduct some brake testing on the passenger train. A necessary part of this was to take the

train down to Apedale Road - the photo shows the 60S Simplex No.13 running round the train. And now a puzzle. The nameplates on "Edward Sholto" have a full stop have the word Sholto - suggesting an abbreviation. The plates from "George Sholto" on display in the museum at Towyn also have the same punctuation. So, why? What is "Sholto" short for? And no, a quick Google won't tell you. Get in touch here with your answers (marking your entry "I'm a Know-All").

Grand Opening Gala - September 18 & 19

2010-04-04T19:47:00.003+01:00

The Moseley Railway Trust has made good progress with the construction of the 2’0" gauge Apedale Valley Light Railway at the Apedale site near Newcastle-Under-Lyme, North Staffordshire. It is expected that the operation of public passenger trains will commence during the summer of 2010.
A Grand Opening Gala will be held at Apedale on 18 and 19 September 2010. During this weekend, the official opening ceremony will take place – and the MRT is planning that a VIP will "cut the ribbon".
It is hoped that at least one visiting steam locomotive will be in use, and there will be a wide range of traders, vintage vehicles and model railways. Our colleagues at the adjacent Apedale Heritage Centre will be running underground tours of their coal mine, and the café will doubtless be doing a roaring trade in its now legendary oatcakes.
The Moseley Railway Trust would be pleased to hear from potential exhibitors, especially vintage and veteran commercial vehicles. The Trust can be contacted here.

Further announcements will be made, so keep watching!

Ramping Up

2010-04-03T23:04:00.003+01:00

The Easter blitz at Apedale has continued. There has been a bout of track laying; with the completion of the main running lines, members who like throwing sleepers about and heaving rail into place are now having to get their thrills in the more obscure parts of the site. The current scene is the so-called Ramp. This descends from the main yard area alongside the Aurora North storage shed, losing about 8 feet in height. Initially, this will be an elongated storage siding. However, in due course, the ramp will serve two functions. Firstly, it will provide a better location for loading and unloading rail vehicles from road transport. Secondly, it will be the link to the bottom yard and the "industrial" demonstration railway. As can be seen in the photo, at the moment the ramp ends in an earth bank and a large gatepost, so there's some scene shifting to be done first. In case you're wondering, the pipe leading from Simplex No.13 is allowing the loco air compressor to be used to drive the air tools which take a little (only a little) of the hard graft out of track laying. If you fancy contributing a little hard graft, get in touch here.

The Long Good Friday

2010-04-02T20:20:00.006+01:00

Another busy day at Apedale has seen the completion of the ballasting of the main running line. Using a ballast hopper on loan (with grateful thanks) from our friends at the Statfold Barn railway, we have dropped about 30 tonnes of ballast today, mainly to form the shoulders of the running line, but some has also been spread around various siding to improve the track stability and walking conditions. The wagons have been loaded using the faithful (ish) Fordson Super Major tractor loader, which will now be taking a well earned rest for a while. The regular driver will also be taking a rest. Meanwhile, elsewhere on site, the Toastrack coach has progressed further, and work has also been done on both the Guard's van and the Penrhyn quarryman's coach. It's beginning to come together nicely. You can get in touch here.