Halloween HiJinks

This weekend has seen the first ever Halloween event at Apedale, and the general consensus is that it's been a great success. Although, to be fair, we did have a problem with convincing some of the customers that they hadn't passed into an afterlife (of their choice, dependant on religious views or persuasions). Firstly, none of them seemed concerned that they were only being sold single tickets. Secondly, one would have thought the Spectre of Death walking up and down the platform may have caused some concern. Thirdly, the presence of Salmon Mousse on the menu of the Heritage Centre cafe. Fortunately, our Spectre of Death had read Terry Pratchett, and consequently ONLY EVER SPOKE IN CAPITAL LETTERS.Our band of happy, and hopefully slightly uneasy customers all seemed to have a jolly good time, and the volunteers who played the various roles all seemed to quite enjoy themselves. Indeed, some of them fell into the roles so naturally that it looks like the next Trust AGM could be significantly more entertaining than previous years. It's quite rare for a membership's democratic opinion to be expressed by a flaming torch and stake wielding mob, but it's all about freedom of expression really isn't it? Anyway, that's about it now for the 2013 operating season until the Santas. Hopefully, you've made your booking here by now? All being well, no-one will get confused between the various events because SANTA SPEAKING IN CAPITAL LETTERS could be quite frightening to the little ones. As ever, get in touch here (unless you are selling Salmon Mousse).

Going out on a high

This coming weekend is the last operating days of the season - hasn't the year just flown by? In previous years, the season has ended with rather a dull diesel operating Saturday, then the train is put in the shed, and that's about it until Santa. Not this year. Oh no. This year we're trying to go out on a high with the First Ever Apedale Halloween special. The Legend of the Lost Engine is writ large, and hopefully we'll see throngs of punters just itching to find out what horrors lurk down at Apedale. Actually, the horrors are there most weekends working in the workshop, it's just this time they are being allowed to meet the public. It's some sort of Care in the Community initiative, apparently. Check out the AVLR website for more details, but suffice to say that the Halloween Specials will be running from 4pm to 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
On the off chabce that we survive our excursion into the Dark Side, the next Big Thing will be altogether less scary - Santa. The Santa Special booking system is now up and running on the AVLR website, and this year is fully automated. I gather it is run by HAL9000. In the event that you get an e-mail asking about opening pod bay doors, it is probably time to get quite worried. Do feel free to get in touch here if you feel worried, and we'll pretend to be concerned.

Who Ya Gonna Call??

Another busy weekend at Apedale. It was a training weekend, so various pieces of knowledge were imparted into various brains. It's the look of the bright, eager young faces which makes it all seem so worthwhile. Meanwhile, elsewhere, the restoration of the Big Hudswell diesel took a major step forward with the re-unification of the wheelsets and the frames. It's the first time something has been re-assembled - as distinct to taken apart - so this was a big day for the project. It was noteworthy that the the wheeled frame rolled a lot more easily than before, and then horrendous screaching from one of the axleboxes has gone away, suggesting that we are heading in the right direction with the project. Speaking of horrendous things, and moving on the from the recent invasion of the Killer Tea Cups, the shed appears to have become invested with Monster Mutant Spiders, which have colonised the Joffre. There have been a lot of spooky goings-on at Apedale, and these are expected to reach a peak for the first-ever Halloween weeked - the 26th & 27th of October. Check out the AVLR website for details. We think we need some sort of Ghost-busting service. We have some old vacuum cleaners, so we might try and give it a go ourselves. As ever, get in touch here.

Moseley Railway Trust announces second visiting steam locomotive for Tracks to the Trenches

The Moseley Railway Trust is delighted to announce that agreement has been reached for a second visiting steam locomotive for the September 2014 Tracks to the Trenches event. The North Gloucestershire Railway, based at Toddington, have agreed that their 1918-built Henschel “Brigadelok” locomotive will visit the MRT’s Apedale Valley Light Railway for the Tracks to the Trenches gala, to be held on September 12, 13 and 14 of 2014.

Almost 2500 of the Brigadelok locomotives were built. These served the German military light railways – known as Heeresfeldbahn – on all the fronts of the war. Despite being built for military service, they subsequently demonstrated their usefulness for many post-war operators. An innovative feature is the Klein-Lindner radial axles, which allow the locomotives to traverse tight radius curves despite the 080 wheel arrangement. The locomotive which will come to Apedale is Henschel 15968. After the end of the First World War, the locomotive worked at the Naklo sugar factory in Poland, hauling trains of sugar beet in from the fields to the factory for processing. In 1985, the loco moved from Poland to the UK, where it was restored to its current immaculate condition, carrying Heeresfeldbahn grey livery and the number 1091.

Phil Robinson, MRT Chairman said “We are extremely grateful to the North Gloucestershire Railway for loaning us this locomotive. When taken with the Baldwin loco which will visit from Leighton Buzzard, and the Moseley Railway Trust’s own “Joffre” and Hudswell Clarke steam locomotives, we now have engines representing all the main combatants in the First World War. Our event is all about commemorating all those who participated in this conflict, regardless of nationality, and we believe that representing the German forces is key to this”.

The Kerr Stuart locomotive “Stanhope”, normally resident at Apedale, will be making a reciprocal visit to the North Gloucestershire Railway during 2014.