Diana at May Gala

The Moseley Railway Trust is pleased to confirm arrangements for the 2017 railway gala at the Apedale Valley Light Railway. This year’s gala, to be held on May 13 and 14, will mark the centenary of the Kerr, Stuart locomotive “Stanhope”. Kerr, Stuart were a Stoke-on-Trent based locomotive manufacturer – so “Stanhope” is now preserved less than five miles from where it was built. However, the intervening century saw it work in England, Scotland and Wales!

The gala will be themed around Kerr, Stuart products, and the visiting locomotive line-up will reflect this. The Trust looks forward to welcoming Phil Mason and his locomotive “Diana” to the railway. “Diana” will also mark its centenary in 2017, and is the only “Sirdar” class Kerr, Stuart loco in Europe; there is one other preserved in Namibia. “Diana” was used on the long-closed Kerry Tramway in Wales, and now operates on the Bala Lake Railway. The locomotive steamed again in 2015, 65 years after being taken out of traffic.

Further visiting locomotives are under negotiation and will be announced in due course; suffice to say that the Trust is aiming to have the largest-ever gathering of Kerr, Stuart locomotives in preservation at Apedale in May! There will be the usual supporting cast of model railways and trade stands, plus military re-enactors in the recreated World War One trench system.

The Trust will also be launching a new book telling the story of “Stanhope” and its’ astonishing survival - the loco owes its survival to an argument between two well-known personalities from the early years of narrow gauge preservation!

Phil Robison, Moseley Railway Trust Chairman said “We are all looking forward to bringing Diana home to Stoke-on-Trent; the Stanhope Steam Gala looks like being another really good weekend at Apedale. The MRT has developed a reputation for top-notch railway galas, and we are expecting this to be no exception!”

The “Stanhope Steam Gala” will be held on May 13 and 14. Admission will be £6 adults, £3 children.

Training on the Trains

We have had a Training and Assessment day at Apedale. This has focussed on re-assessing a group of mainline passenger drivers and Guards. We are required by law to have a training and assessment regime which is every bit as rigorous as a mainline operator. The days of "if the face fits, you can be a Guard" are long gone. Whilst this regime can be quite onerous, it does mean that both our volunteers and the management team know exactly who is authorised to do what job, and everyone is trained and assessed against a common set of standards - no favouritism and none of "clique problem" which afflicts some organisations. It also means that any of the volunteers can become part of the training process - but acheiving the necessary standard takes some time and commitment. A spin-off benefit is that we have documentation demonstrating the competence of our people, which is useful when Apedale locos visit other railways - we can demonstrate the competence of the crews which may accompany the loco. We are always looking for new volunteers, please get in touch here.

Driver Experience Dates

We have released the dates for the "Tracks to the Trenches Driver Experience" days for 2017 - they are Friday 24th March, Sunday 26th March, Monday 3rd April, Monday 24th April, Friday 8th June, Monday 26th June, Friday 7th July. We may add further dates later in the year depending on enquiries received. Full details are here. 

Let there be light

Another busy weekend at Apedale. A major shunt on Sunday was needed to extract the Howard petrol loco; this left the yard looking as though a diesel gala was in progress. The Diesel Gala isn't until 7 & 8 October, and hopefully will be rather better attended. The Howard needed to go onto the inspection pit for attention to its sanding gear. Meanwhile, in the shed, the Ffestiniog Coach has gained its first working light fitting (the previous lights were recovered by the FR for their own vehicles). We are using 12v LED fittings, which will run off an on-board battery. As you will note, electrical lighting caued some wonderment to one of our members. He comes from Manchester, so not too surprising. Very much a prototype fit, we will now proceed to fit all six such lights. As part of the testing/development phase, a non-battery 12v supply was needed, so hence the writer's ancient train set controller was extracted from the loft and pressed back into use. This controller is, in fact, older than the coach itself (or the coach body at least - the underframe dates back to 1926).

Charging

Plenty going on at Apedale at the moment; the closed season is when the rate of working needs to increase - if nothing else, it stops us freezing solid. The steam locos all had a ride around the yard today in order to get the Joffre ready for its boiler exam. It also took the opportunity to test a modification to a set of points which had caused that loco some issues in the past - all seems to be well now. Road 3 of the Red Shed is being re-configured to form a dedicated charging bay for the battery locos. In the past, we have had the chargers on a rail wagon. However, due to the linear nature of railways, getting the right loco near the charger wagon has proven to be nearly impossible. Battery locos are easy to drive and economical, and hence it makes sense to use them whenever possible for yard shunting. The Red Shed has been re-roofed recently (indeed, it now has a souble skinned roof), and hence is pretty dry, but a "tertiary roof" has been added over the site cleared for the chargers just to make sure that water and electricity don't meet. There's still more to be done - like actually installing most of the chargers - but it's looking good so far.

PRISM Grant

The Moseley Railway Trust is delighted to announce that they are the recipients of a PRISM grant from Arts Council England.

The grant, for more than £13,000, will be used to fund the restoration of a historic diesel locomotive in the Moseley Railway Trust collection. The locomotive was built by the Motor Rail & Tramcar Company Ltd of Bedford in 1918 as their number 1320. It was built as a 40hp locomotive intended for operation by the British military light railways which served the front lines of the First World War. No.1320 was a “protected” locomotive – that is, the bodywork was intended to give some protection to the crew from enemy fire. However, No.1320 did not leave Bedford until September 1918, and hence was too late to see any active service in the First World War (which ended in November 1918).

As with so many such locomotives, it was sold second-hand (having probably never been used by the military!) to a Hertfordshire gravel quarry, where it had a hard (but productive) life in industry until it was preserved in 1978. It is now owned outright by the MRT following a bequest by its late owner in 2012.

When new, this locomotive would have been fitted with a Dorman 4J0 petrol engine. However, when at the quarry, it was heavily rebuilt with the current Dorman 4DWD diesel engine. At, or around this time, the bodywork was changed to give the loco its current appearance.

The locomotive will be sympathetically restored to the condition in which it worked at the gravel quarries. The history of the locomotive that is the subject of this appeal typifies the whole history of narrow gauge railways in industry; it was built for military use, but spent its working life in civilian hands. The quarry company rebuilt and adapted the locomotive to meet their own needs.

When complete, loco 1320 will form an interesting contract with another 40HP Motor Rail locomotive in the Moseley Railway Trust collection – no.1369, which is still in “military specification” condition.

It is planned to complete the restoration of No.1320 during 2017, which will allow the locomotive to be demonstrated at the Moseley Railway Trust’s 2018 Tracks to the Trenches event, which will take place in July 2018.

Phil Robinson, Chairman of the Moseley Railway Trust, said We are really grateful to Arts Council England for their support. This restoration project will be delivered by our volunteer members, so not only will the loco be restored, but our members will be able to learn new skills and pass experience to our younger members.

Christmas Quiz - the answers

I We hope that you found the Quiz somewhat diverting and took your mind away from the truly awful telly offering. Inevitably, there are some debatable answers - but here goes with the "official" version. You will recall that the task is determine if the place is real or fictitous; if real - where? If Fictitous - where does it appear?

 1.  North Pole - a real place. Formerly the depot for Eurostar, it has now been taken over by Hitachi for maintaining the new InterCity Express trains. The depot is located alongside the Great Western mainline just outside Paddington. The depot was built on the site of North Pole Jcn, which formerly linked the GW mainline with the West London Line via Kensington Olympia. The junction itself was originally named after a local pub.

2. Lake, The Lake and Lakeside Loop (three places) - all three real. Respectively, on the Isle of Wight, one the North Warwickshire Line (Birmingham to Stratford) and the Rudyard Lake Railway.

3. Crouch End. An interesting one! The intent of the question was that it was a fictional place, and was the tube station shown in "Shaun of the Dead". However, there WAS a real station, on the line from Finsbury Park to Alexandria Palace. The platforms still exist, and the footpath is worth a visit!

4.    Hobbs End. Fictitious - this was the station used for Quatermass and the Pit (what ever happened to B&W telly??).

5.    West Ashfield  - fictitious. This is a mock-up station used by LUL to train staff. It is located in Ashfield Houe in West London. It is astoundingly life-like.

Bonus question:- 4 & 5 can be found in close proximity. Where? The answer is derived from the fact that Hobbs End is also one of the station names used on a model railway used by LUL to train staff, and is also located in Ashfield House.

6.    Junction Road Junction. How could that be anything other than Real? On the Gospel Oak - Barking line near Gospel Oak (north London), provides a link to the Midland Main Line.

7.    North Haverbrook (bit of a clue - not actually a railway as such....). This was the town in The Simpsons episode "Marge vs the Monorail". An object lesson in urban transport planning for us all. It was a documentary - right?

8.    Westbourne Oak. Fictitious - a tube station used in the film version of Paddington.

9.    Mobil Avenue. Also fictitious - an american transit station used in The Matrix Revolutions. The name is an anagram of Limbo, and hence will be familiar to any commuters on the Brighton main line.

10. Bungalow - real, on the Snaefell Mountain Railway. Frequently seen in videos of the TT races just before the crash and the subsequent air ambulance bit.

11. Gorsafawddacha'idraigodanheddogleddollônpenrhynareurdraethceredigion. Real - sort of. A commercially-inspired re-name of a station on the Fairbourne railway. Wikipedia tell us that it translates to the Mawddach station and its dragon under the northern peace of the Penrhyn Road on the golden beach of Cardigan Bay. 

Bonus question:- What would this score in Scrabble? This question caused some head scratching. There are several versions of the correct answer.

Nil - because the word is far too long. Good answer to a daft question.

Nil - because the word has too many "D" letters to be played. Also true.

108 - a good answer in the spirit of the question.

But it was then pointed out that as this is a Welsh place name, the Welsh scrabble set should be used. The word is still far too long, and cannot be played (but this time because you run out of the letter G). The score would, I believe, be 103, but that is open to some debate depending on how the various digraphs are counted. However, this news story would seem to suggest that not many Welsh scrabble sets have been sold. 

12. Milford. The intent was Fiction, it's the station in Brief Encounter (filmed, as everyone knows, at Carnforth). However, it was overlooked that it's also a station on the Portsmouth Direct line near Guildford. I wonder if that station is also in black and white and populated by people with smuts in their eyes?

13. Hatley. Fiction - the station used in "Oh Mr Porter", shot on the Severn Valley Railway.

14. Hollerton Junction (which is also served by which heritage railway?). Fiction - The Archers, and it's served by the Blackberry Line. Young Henry has been taken for a trip on the Blackberry line and sadly was not pushed under the wheels of the train.

15. Grumbly - Fiction. The headquarters of the  Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, who operated Ivor the Engine. 

16. Pen Cob. Real - a short lived station on the Ffestiniog Railway near Boston Lodge.

17. Decoy. Real - a still extant set of sidings just south of Doncaster. Allegedly got its name because it was intended as a "decoy" to attract enemy bombers from the main marshalling yards. Since it was very close to the main yards, and WW2 bombers counted "in the same county" as a direct hit, it is unclear how much of a decoy it really was.

18. Arlesburgh West. Fiction - the terminus of the Arlesdale Railway on the Isle of Sodor (where Thomas lives).

19. Vauxhall Cross. Fiction - seen in the Bond film "Die Another Day".

20. Mornington Crescent. Obviously fictional, unless one is in Nip, in which case......I will offer a relatively safe Gants Hill.

So, a winner? Not an easy one. Mr Alan Fryer, the Trust PWay Engineer was the first person with a nearly full set of answers. But Mr Geoffrey Ingram raised the issue of Welsh Scrabble. So I'm going to call them Joint Winners. Well done, chaps and a (serious) thank you to those who also entered. Sadly, I do not have a picture of Mr Ingram, but Alan can be seen in characteristic pose explaining reality to a buffer stop.