Uncertainty Principle

Slowly but surely, the Kerr Stuart "Joffre" at Apedale is coming back together. You may recall that the loco was taken out of traffic due to minor worries about a crack in the cylinder, which turned into serious concerns about several cracks, and which turned into a new cylinder being needed. The owners are pretty confident the loco will be back in business before long - the new cylinder is being cast this week, and will then go for machining. Which is where the uncertainty comes in. The old cylinder was noted to have a slightly puzzling taper of 1/8" front to back - in other words, it looked as though is could be sitting incorrectly aligned to the loco. However, the loco ran quite happily with said cylinder, and the large end bearing was not wrecked or anything nasty like that. So, the question was - should the new cylinder have the same taper machined on it? This caused some thought and contemplation. Eventually, the CME stopped talking about Meerkats, and came up with an answer. The old cylinder was refitted to the loco - a useful practice for fitting the new one in due course - and fitted with two carefully aligned dummy covers. Each cover had a tiny hole in it, drilled such that it is exactly in the cylinder centreline.  A pointer was then equally carefully set-up some way in front of the loco, with a bright light behind it. If one could look through both holes, and see the pointer in the centre of the dot, then clearly the cylinder was aligned correctly. It was, so the new cylinder will have the taper applied. What the CME failed to take into account was the wave-particle duality - was the light acting as a wave or as a particle when it shone through the cylinder? Only time will tell if the failure to grasp basic principles of quantum mechanics will be important when this steam loco is re-assembled. And I'll bet that's a sentence never written before. In the meantime, please feel free to get in touch here and tell us all about your pet cat, called (one suspects) Schrödinger.

Hudswell Update

The race is on....The Moseley Railway Trust's Hudswell Clarke steam loco is approaching completion off-site, and at Apedale, the 1930 diesel loco by the same maker is also getting there. Not perhaps on the finishing straight, but maybe the last lap (provided the lap is some really long track, like Le Mans or the Nurburgring). The cab is now in place. Bodywork on vintage locos is always an entertaining element of the project. Whatever one does, it never quite fits together. In this case, the issue manifested itself as a slight inability to close the cab doors. After some deliberation and debate, a solution was worked out, albeit one unlikely to find favour with the British Coachbuilder's Association. The cab doors now close with (to paraphrase Douglas Adams) the smug air of a job well done. With that little task complete, attention has turned to refitting the cab with the various controls. The cab is a little snug, especially after a Heritage Centre All-Day Breakfast, and some of the controls are a little peculiar. In particular, the throttle control is a tad over-engineered. We suspect that Hudswell Clarke may have borrowed the design from the Death Star.The next steps are to finish fitting out the cab, install the fuel tank and its cradle, and replace various pipes which suffered rather horribly during the dismantling phase. There is also a small problem with ensuring that the coolant system is leak-proof. So, come on, steam team - the gauntlet is down. As ever, get in touch here (unless you are Darth Vader wanting the throttle back).

High Speed Link

The subject of high-speed railways running through the Midlands is quite a popular one currently. Down at the Apedale Valley, we have been doing our bit to prove some of the technology. The curve leading to Apedale Road (scene of the new Transport Interchange) had been quite troublesome with expansion in warm weather. We did have to check the records, and apparently warm weather is what happens when it isn't raining. The resulting expansion produced more of a corner than a curve, which could be rather uncomfortable for our passengers. If they'd wanted a white knuckle them park, we'd re-brand ourselves as Apedale Towers and charge ten times the price. Now there's a thought.  Anyway, whilst we remain a Light Railway, something had to be done. So, the elite P-Way team swung into action and re-laid the affected section with the curvature spread over a much longer transition, and decent expansion gaps left. Hopefully, this eased curve will solve the expansion problem. Better yet, it has allowed the lifting of a speed restriction, bringing the linespeed to a consistent 110mph or the maximum speed of "Stanhope". The obvious lesson to learn is that HS2 should be built to 2'0" gauge and operated with Kerr Stuart steam locos. But will they listen - no. Closed to new and novel technology, it's always the same. If anyone from HS2 wants to offer a consultancy contract, get in touch here.

The end of an era

Today has seen a little bit of history made down at Apedale. Silverdale Station East Sidings are no more. This temporary group of sidings were conceived and executed in a big hurry back in 2010 when it was suddenly realised that having the mainline chock full of wagons was not conducive to the safe and efficient operation of passenger trains. Hence, any passing piece of temporary track was pressed into service along with a couple of points and levers. The area later found fame at the 2012 Gala as the entry point to the Field Railway which gave everyone so much fun and enjoyment. However, time marches on, and the Museum project is now encroaching on the area. So, goodbye SSE Sidings. In between the torrential thunder storms (a rarity in January, surely?), we have cleared the sidings and dismantled the track ready for lifting. A few panels have made new homes for themselves in the wagon store, but most of the rest will be stored for now. A final train to remove the last couple of wagons attracted no interest whatsoever.No wreaths, no speeches from local dignitaries, no strongly worded editorials in the local press. Just Mick and "Sludge" sauntering off into the distance. But, it's all change. Goodbye SSE, Hello Museum North. For in the place of the bodgy temporary sidings will be the fan of tracks for the museum approach - proper points, proper track and maybe even ballast. From this fan will also spring Field Railway Mk2, which will hopefully play a key role in September's big WW1 event. Meanwhile, if you wish to contribute to the fledgling Silverdale Sidings Preservation Society, please get in touch here.

Riveting

It's a strange thing, but somehow it always seems to be that, on a cold day down at Apedale, there is always an urgent job to do which involves the gas torch. And so it has proven to be this weekend. The rear cab sheet on the Hudswell diesel was pretty badly corroded, and quite a number of the reinforcing members had either rusted beyond use, or had their joints forced apart by corrosion. So, all had to be taken apart and thoroughly cleaned or renewed. It was then just a question of putting it all back together. This involves riveting. Riveting is a job for which subtlety and delicacy of touch are NOT the key attributes. A certain level of experience, effective teamwork and a large hammer are, however, essential. If we had been building these locomotives on a production line, it would have been worthwhile setting up an air riveter, or maybe investing in a hydraulic rivet closer. Neither were necessary for the thirty or so rivets in the cab.  The first phase of the job was to straighten the cab sheet - wavy steel doesn't sit well on straight steel sections. And then away we went with the gas torch and the big hammer. The end result is pretty good, and smug feelings all round. Next weekend, it's back to mending the track. Let us hope the weather forecast is wrong. As ever, get in touch here.

Orienteering

Yesterday - Saturday 11th - was Member's Day at Apedale. This is an informal day which is intended to give Moseley Railway Trust members an opportunity to hear about how 2013 went, review plans for 2014 and be kept generally informed about what the Trust is up to. What it isn't is a formal meeting! In the afternoon, a group of members took the opportunity to head North across Apedale Road. This is a fabled area, marked on many maps with the words "Here Be Dragons" and the like. However, in a few years time, it will be graced by Apedale Valley Light Railway trains. Hopefully the trains will face less mud than did yesterday's explorers. Once the trains cross Apedale Road, they face a steady climb to an intermediate station at Birley Shales. The first photo shows the site of the Birley Shales station. From here, trains will go on to a final terminus at Miry Pools, just over a mile from the current railway terminus at Silverdale. The first-time visitors to this area (and your author was one of them) took away many impressions. Amongst those what there are  few civil engineering issues, certainly as far as Birley Shales. Secondly, the gentle climb should make a nice challenge for the engines, but not so much as to be scary - typically, the climb is around 1 in 50. Thirdly, the landscape changes rapidly from the rather "post-industrial" environs of Apedale to rolling countryside; from Miry Pools, we could see hills which - a knowledgeable individual informed us - were in Wales. One member claimed he could see a train climbing to the top of Snowdon, but we didn't believe him because - as everyone knows - the Snowdon Mountain Railway doesn't run in January. The issue of curvature of the Earth wasn't on his side, either. As ever, get in touch here.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from everyone at the Moseley Railway Trust. It is promising to be a Big Year at Apedale, with the return to traffic of the Joffre loco, the first entry into traffic of the ex-Ghana Hudswell, further progress on the museum, and the Tracks to the Trenches mega-event in September. But the thing you've all been waiting for is, of course, the answers to the Quiz. We have had two winners - you know who you are, so well done Alan & David. The answers:-

 1a) 9 3/4
  b) Hogsmeade Station (for Hogwarts School)
  c) Euston - JKRowling said that she had pictured the station as Euston, but actually wrote (in error) Kings Cross. Platforms 9 and 10 at KX are the undistinguished suburban platforms, so this does make some sense.

2) The Train

3) Trans-Europe Express. As an aside, the episode of Father Ted "Think Fast Father Ted" where four Irish priests impersonate Kraftwerk is probably one of the greatest TV moments ever.

4) Chris Rea and Deltics. I am told that F88 is a reference to the name of another band  managed by Chris Rea's manager, and involving musicians with whom Chris had collaborated. And not the predecessor the the F101 "Voodoo" as I thought.

5) The Fugitive

6) The Blues Brothers. If you don't believe me, look for the scene where Carrie Fisher confronts Jake with an assault rifle. The 1950 film was "Union Station".

7) Source Code. Explanations as to what on earth is actually going on welcomed.

8) Homeward Bound.

9) Neverwhere

10) Eric Lomax was a Japanese P.O.W. who worked on the Thai-Burma railway. Hence his involuntary employer was the Japanese government.