Joffre Announcement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.