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 firs
t 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 7th – a special steaming for a group but we don’t turn anyone away until their wallet is empty – and Saturday & Sunday 14Th & 15th are the now customary Steam & industry trains weekend. Be seeing you?
