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.
