
Saturday, 31 December 2016
Happy New Year

Sunday, 18 December 2016
Christmas Quiz 2016
OK, folks, here it is. Your
challenge this year is related to stations and other railway-related locations.
For each location, you need to determine if it is real or fictional.
If you think it's a real place,
tell us where it is located (with some degree of accuracy). Extra points will be allocated for wit and verve rather than obsessive accuracy.
If,
on the other hand, you think it’s a fictitious location – then in what
film/book/song does it exist? Again, correct amusing answers will score higher than correct dull answers.
So,
for example, Apedale Road is a REAL station and is one terminus of the Apedale
Valley Light Railway.
The
vast majority of the locations are in the UK (note careful choice of words).
As
noted above, extra points will be allocated to amusing and educational answers;
this therefore makes the concept of “winning” rather an arbitrary one, which is
the way it is intended to be and hence differentiates this quiz from the Boxing
Day game of Monopoly. OK? Brace yourselves:-
1. North
Pole
2. Lake,
The Lake and Lakeside Loop (three places)
3. Crouch
End
4.
Hobbs
End
5.
West
Ashfield
Bonus question:- 4 & 5 can be found in
close proximity. Where?
6.
Junction
Road Junction
7.
North Haverbrook (bit of a clue - not actually a railway as such....)
8.
Westbourne Oak
9.
Mobil Avenue
10.
Bungalow
11. Gorsafawddacha'idraigodanheddogleddollônpenrhynareurdraethceredigion
Bonus question:- What would this score in Scrabble?
12. Milford
13. Hatley
14. Hollerton Junction (which is also
served by which heritage railway?)
15. Grumbly
16. Pen Cob
17.
Decoy
18. Arlesburgh West
19.
Vauxhall
Cross
20.
Mornington
Crescent
Answers will be published here in a couple of weeks time. Exam papers may be e-mailed to info@mrt.org.uk or to Mr L's e-mail address for those who know it. Good luck!
Santa Restrospect

Certainly on the Nice List are all the people of the Moseley Railway Trust who make all this happen. It's worth taking a moment to remember the people who are on site at 0615 each morning to get the steam loco from the shed and light the fire. And the people still locking up late in the evening. The shop staff who are front and centre with all our visitors. The people who spend the day inflating balloons which are treasured by young ones. The team who designed and created the best-ever Grotto. The Guards and traincrew, and those who restore and maintain the trains and tracks. Did I mention those who spend every evening doing admin work? So, to you all - WELL DONE and HAPPY CHRISTMAS. When you get bored with watching Mary Poppins for the nth time in ITV4, have a look at the MRT Christmas Quiz which will be appearing here in just a moment.....
Sunday, 11 December 2016
Santa - First Weekend

Sunday, 27 November 2016
FR Coach bogies

Sunday, 13 November 2016
Co-Op Community Fund
The Moseley Railway Trust is delighted to announce that
they are the recipients of a grant from the Co-Op Community Fund.
The Co-Op Community Fund allows communities to support
local good causes. Every
time a Co-Op member buy Co-op branded products and services - from buying a
loaf of bread to planning a funeral - 1% of their spend goes to a local cause.
The Moseley Railway Trust will be using the money from the
Community Fund to support the overhaul of a new coach for the Apedale Valley
Light Railway. The railway is a 2’0” gauge narrow gauge railway which is
operated by volunteer members of the Trust. The coach was acquired in 2015 from
the world-famous Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales. However, the coach has
needed extensive work to allow it to operate at Apedale. This work is
continuing, but it includes overhaul of the running gear, a new braking system,
a new electrical system and a really good clean! This coach will be first
fully-enclosed passenger vehicle to operate on the Apedale Valley Light
Railway. All of the work will be carried out by volunteer members of the
Moseley Railway Trust, thus providing useful learning and training
opportunities, particularly for the younger members.
Phil Robinson, Chairman of the Moseley Railway Trust, said “We
are really grateful to the Co-Op for their support. Our customers have told us
that they would like an enclosed coach for the journey, and hopefully we can
provide that for them. So, we need local people to register as Co-Op members
and select the Moseley Railway Trust as their chosen Good Cause”.
The Apedale Valley Light Railway will be operating Santa
Special trains on December 10, 11, 17 and 18 2016, and will then open for the
2017 Season on 1st April 2017.
Saturday, 12 November 2016
Winter Maintenance
Today was also notable for the being the first time that the ex-Ffestiniog Railway PWay van has been deployed to Apedale PWay duties following its overhaul and refurbishment. Interior fitting out continues, but it really is quite homely. Just needs a few scatter cushions and a lava lamp to finish.
Sunday, 6 November 2016
Member's Day
It was member's day at Apedale yesterday for all members of the Moseley Railway Trust. It was the opportunity for a bit of introspection about the 2016 season - what went well, what didn't and how we can improve. The Trustees presented about plans for the future, both long term and immediate, and there was healthy debate about many areas. Despite the date, there weren't really any fireworks. After lunch, the opportunity was taken for members to operate some of the lesser seen members of the loco fleet. The grey Motor Rail "Lord Austin" demonstrated its considerable turn of speed by coming up behind a passing jet fighter and flashing its lights in a rather passive-aggressive sort of way. It's time to knuckle down to winter maintenance next week!
Saturday, 22 October 2016
Catherine of Aragon moves on

It has been decided that this will be used to convey various generators around the site for next weekend's Halloween event - this gave a considerable impetus to finishing the wagon. After all, it doesn't do to keep the undead waiting. Meanwhile, the Trench Tramway wagon is now basically complete. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, this wagon is typical of the vehicles which would have been on the very "last mile" of the WW1 railway operations - on the bits where it was too dangerous, or the track was too light, to send a locomotive.
Finally, the ex- Ffestiniog coach continues to progress. The project team have been fighting a bit of a battle with the drawgear - it needed to be lowered to match our locos and reflect the use of different bogies. The drawbar will now emerge under the vehicle headstock, rather than through a "letterbox" in the end of the vehicle. The next stage is to start assembly the bogies, and then we can find out if it will fit through the shed doors again!
Tuesday, 4 October 2016
Santa Claus is coming to town

Sunday, 2 October 2016
Boldly going where no man has been before......

Saturday, 24 September 2016
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived


Saturday, 10 September 2016
All dressed up and somewhere to go.....

All dressed up and somewhere to go - Stanhope polished to within an inch of its life and with Penrhyn couplers fitted, ready to head back to Penrhyn for next weekend's jolly. Hopefully it will emerge from Penrhyn afterwards in a slightly better state than when it left previously. Behind Stanhope is the Hayfield coach, which is off to Alan Keef Ltd's Open Day on the 17th, where it will once again be used as the passenger coach on their demonstration line.
Meanwhile, the Hudswell is home from Leighton Buzzard and licking its wounds slightly; all things considered, it performed admirably on what is almost certainly England's most demanding narrow gauge railway. Please read that last sentence carefully before complaining.
Meanwhile, the Hudswell is home from Leighton Buzzard and licking its wounds slightly; all things considered, it performed admirably on what is almost certainly England's most demanding narrow gauge railway. Please read that last sentence carefully before complaining.
Sunday, 4 September 2016
Michelangelo comes out of retirement

Elsewhere, a couple of wagon projects have been progressing nicely. An explosives wagon is just about finished - the lads pushing it around did check it was empty first, and a wooden Trench Tramway wagon is also nearing completion. This arrived as a kit of parts, and was immediately compared to an IKEA bookcase, leading to some speculation as to what daft name IKEA would have given it were they to move into selling railway rolling stock.
Next weekend it's steam both days with the Joffre having an outing. The Hudswell is enjoying a stay at Leighton Buzzard, and the Stanhope has been prepared for a trip to the Penrhyn Railway, complete with Penrhyn couplers - so it cannot couple to the passenger train at Apedale at the moment.
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
Classic Cars

Saturday, 6 August 2016
Olympic Games

Wednesday, 20 July 2016
Andrew Barclay

Of the other locos in the batch - 554 and 555 ended up on the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, 557 at the Almond Valley Railway near Edinburgh and 561 at the ARPG at Dalmellington. 562 seems to have succumbed - but six out of seven survivors isn't bad?
Sunday, 10 July 2016
Forthcoming attractions

Aimed firmly at
families with younger children, August 13 and 14 sees the Teddy Bear’s Outing
weekend. We’ll be running steam train on both days – and children who bring a
cuddly friend will get to travel free! There will also be a Bear Spotting Quiz,
with small prizes for children who manage to spot all the bears on their
journey to Apedale Road and back.

Our autumn
enthusiasts event is the Steam Centenary Weekend, on October 8 and 9. This
event will mark the 100th birthday of two of our steam locomotives –
the Hudswell Clarke and the Kerr, Stuart Joffre loco. Apart from sharing the
same year of construction, their subsequent careers had little in common; the
Hudswell worked in Ghana before coming to a nasty end in a river during a
rainstorm. Halfway across the world, the Joffre worked rather closer to home
in a quarry in Northern France. The birthday boys will be supported by our
other steam loco Stanhope, a mere stripling at just 99 years old. The fleet
of internal combustion locos will be out performing, and it will be possible to
visit our storage sheds.
Finally,
October 29 and 30 sees the Halloween Spooky Specials, with things that go Bump
in the night…..
For all of the
events, entry will be by purchasing a train ticket – great value at just £2.50
adults, £1.50 children. Trains run from 1130 to 4pm – later into the night at
Halloween.
Santa will, of
course, visit the railway again in December – watch for more details.
Looking further
ahead, May 13 & 14 2017 will see the Apedale Valley Light Railway’s annual
steam gala; 2017 will see the centenary of Stoke-built steam loco Stanhope, the
flagship of the AVLR fleet. The event will mark this anniversary, and will be
focussed around a major exhibition of model railways. It is hoped that a model
railway-led event will become a fixture in the Apedale calendar in years to
come.
As ever, the
team at Apedale would be pleased to hear from potential exhibitors at any of
these events – get in touch.
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