Press Release - Progress at Apedale

The Moseley Railway Trust is making good progress on developing its site at Apedale, near Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire. A small but dedicated band of volunteers are working on constructing a 2’0" gauge passenger carrying railway from the Apedale Heritage Centre. The objective of the Phase One railway will be to a station at Apedale Road, a distance of 500 metres from the Heritage Centre. Later phases will see the railway cross Apedale Road and storm up a 1 in 50 ruling gradient to a terminus at Apedale Country Park, giving a run of nearly 2km.

Significant assistance has been provided with the groundworks, ballasting and other activities associated with the passenger carrying railway by a grant from Lafarge Aggregates, administered by the Derbyshire Environmental Trust. The Moseley Railway Trust wishes to publicly acknowledge this, and thanks both Lafarge Aggregates and the Derbyshire Environmental Trust for their support for the Apedale project.

A further key priority for the Moseley Railway Trust in 2008 is to construct a large storage shed at Apedale. This will then allow the movement of the trust’s large collection of locomotives and other vehicles currently stored elsewhere. The locomotive fleet is one of the UK’s largest, numbering approximately sixty, and many of these have not been on display to the general public since the MRT vacated its original site at the former Moseley Grammar School site at Cheadle, near Stockport.

An opening date for the railway has not yet been set, as there is a considerable amount of work yet to be done, both physical and on the inevitable paperwork mountain. However, the MRT is planning an open day later in the year. The date for this will be publicised in the next few weeks, and this will be an opportunity for visitors to see progress at Apedale.

The Moseley Railway Trust’s Apedale Appeal remains open and donations large and small are sought to further the MRT’s site development aims at Apedale.

Phil Robinson, the Moseley Railway Trust’s chairman said "The trust has made stunning progress - in just a little over a year, we have taken a derelict site, renovated the buildings, and made a real start on building a new passenger railway. This will provide a major new attraction for the North Staffordshire area, and will mark a step-change in the regeneration of the Apedale valley".

Edward Sholto Update

The Moseley Railway Trust has one of the UK's largest collection of narrow gauge locos. Some of these are owned directly by the Trust, but the majority are owned by small consortia or individuals. Many of these locomotives have yet to arrive at the Apedale site, generally awaiting the construction of a storage shed. One such locomotive is Hunslet number 996 of 1909 "Edward Sholto".

"Edward Sholto" is one of the famed Quarry Hunslets. She is actually described as a Large Quarry (Penrhyn) type, and was the last new steam loco procured for Penrhyn quarries. When new, she cost 600 pounds. She was named after Edward Sholto Douglas-Pennant who inherited the Penrhyn estates upon the death of his father in 1907. The loco worked at the quarries until laid up around 1956. She was one of the first locos to leave Penrhyn for preservation, being exported to Canada in October 1961. She never steamed in Canada, and changed hands several times before being acquired by a prominent member of the Moseley Railway Trust and returned to the UK in July 2006. The loco was in poor condition. However, she had left the quarry early on, and had not been restored or tinkered with during her "preservation" career, and therefore was still in a totally original condition - perhaps uniquely for a Penrhyn quarry Hunslet. The owner has built a small team who have worked very hard on the loco, and hopes are high that the loco will steam again during 2008. The photos show the frames, fully restored and awaiting reassembly, and the saddle tank. The tank was massively corroded and has been rebuilt by a true craftsman - it's a work of art!! As ever, visit our main website here, or e-mail us here.

Wonderful Wagons

The Moseley Railway Trust's mission statement includes the words "preserve, conserve and interpret locomotives, vehicles and other artefacts pertaining to the industrial narrow gauge railway". We take all aspects of this very seriously, and this week we'll have a look at the unsung heros of the railway world - the humble wagon.

On any railway, the stars of the show tend to be the locomotives (with steam at the top of the pile), then perhaps a few nice Victorian coaches. Wagons tend to be relegated to being useful services vehicles. A few railways are now seeing wagons as interesting vehicles in their own right - the Tanfield Railway and the Great Central's Windcutter set of 16 ton mineral wagons are examples which stand out.

The narrow gauge used very diverse wagons; the railways tend to be specialised by industry, and each industry became very adept at designing vehicles which were the most efficient means of acheiving the specific transport objective. Aesthetics were never a huge consideration - which explains a fair bit!

At the MRT, we have amassed a goodly collection of wagons, and hopefully we will be able to represent at least a selection from each of the main industries which used industrial narrow gauge railways. This weeks photos show a few of the wagon fleet. Above is a large ex-MOD bogie flat wagon, manufactured by Hudson of Leeds, and which is used to transport rail panels; then, below, last Saturday's Heavy Freight with Motor Rail No.20 hauling a train of wagons which needed to be shifted from the bottom yard. There's at least two types of skip, the remains of an RAF Fauld bomb wagon, and an open ex MOD Eastriggs. Hiding at the back are a flat from a quarry at Bakewell.

The invitation remains - come and join in the fun! Visit the main website here, or e-mail us here.

Motor Rail 2197

This week, we'll have a look at the life and times of one of the locos which lurks within the shed at Apedale. The loco in question is Motor Rail 2197 .

This loco is the "bent frame" type Motor Rail, and its currently unprepossessing appearance belies a lot of history. It was built for the War Department Light Railways, WDLR, as a petrol loco. It was bought back from the French Disposals Board by Motor Rail on 1/4/22 for the princely sum of 360 pounds. The loco was reconstructed back at MR's works; depending on the degree of usage, this could have been anything from a total rebuild through to simply cleaning the dust from an unused locomotive still in its original packing crate. It was at this point that the loco was allocated its current number - MR2197. This has always raised the intriguing question of what was the original number? The records state this is not known, but the fact that this is not known suggest the loco may have had a fairly hard previous existence.

MR2197, still fitted with its original Dorman 2JO petrol engine, was purchased by Sir William McAlpine & Co, and dispatched to the Cambrian Railway station at Portmadoc. McAlpines then used it to assist in the construction of the Welsh Highland Railway.

McAlpine eventually sold the loco to Cleveland Bridge & Engineering; it may have returned to MR for reconditioning between the two. In 1930, Cleveland Bridge deployed the loco to their contract to widen the GWR Olton-Lapworth section. The loco was then sold on to Birmingham Tame & Rea District Drainage Board (BTRDDB) and employed on the very extensive railways which operated at the Minworth works, near Birmingham. BTRDDB re-engined the loco with its current Dorman 2DWD engine. In December 1965, the loco was sold into preservation at the Cadeby Light Railway in Leicestershire. It stayed at the CLR until that railway closed in 2006, and moved to the MRT site at Apedale that year.

When the loco arrived at Cadeby, it was believed to be no.3874 - and some books, such as the IRS West Midlands book, still show this. However, there was some doubt. A chance conversation between the owner and an "old hand" at Motor Rail's Bedford works revealed that locos "where we didn't know it's old number" had the new number stamped on the engine bearers; hot footing it back to Cadeby, 20 minutes with a scraper showed the loco to be stamped "Reb 2197".

All the years stood outside at Cadeby took its toll on MR2197, and it's quite sad looking at the moment. However, restoration has started, and the top left picture shows the loco (yesterday!) after the owner had removed the radiator for overhaul. The loco is stood on track which was laid the previous weekend, and now extends even further! The second picture shows the loco after its previous repaint, taken at Cadeby along with cousin MR4572.

All of which is a good example of how quickly locos and other exhibits can degrade if they live outside - which is why the MRT is currently working towards building a large storage shed at Apedale. We really need your help to get this project completed - either financial, sponsorship or physical assistance is very welcome. Get in touch via the homepage!

Tracklaying at Apedale

Despite the threatened, and occasionally delivered rainfall, tracklaying continues apace at the ever sunny Apedale in sub-tropical North Staffordshire. As you'll see in the photo, the main line (the track on the right) is now reaching ever onwards in its quest to reach the target of Phase One of the MRT's Apedale Project, which is a station at Apedale Road (so called because it's a road, and you can probably guess the rest). The current tracklaying record seems to be four 18' panels in a day. This has allegedly been beaten by our P-way engineer and his son, but they were using steel sleepers, so it doesn't really count.

We are currently using rail which was recovered from Woodhead tunnel in the high pennines between Sheffield and Manchester. In case you're now looking at the pictures and wondering how pairs of Class 76 locos and MGR wagons managed to wear down the rails THAT much, it's actually the next door Woodhead tunnel I'm referring to. This was the old "steam era" tunnels. In 1954, when BR moved into their all-electric shiny new bores, the CEGB took over the old tunnels and put the electricity grid transmission cables into them. To facilitate maintenance over the three mile length, they laid a 2'0" gauge railway. A few years ago, this railway was re-laid by Alan Keef Ltd, and the MRT managed to obtain the old rail. It's still in pretty good order.

The CEGB used to have a battery electric loco. This is shown in the second picture, courtesy of John Lucas, taken on a visit to Woodhead many years ago. The loco is Clayton 5843 of 1971. This loco is also now in the care of the MRT, and is currently in store. However, it is hoped that in a few months, it will be at Apedale and will be unleashed to run on its original metals once again.

Serious Heritage

Anyone from Stoke and the Potteries area will tell you of the local delicacy - the Oatcake. The Apedale Heritage Centre cafe, beloved of the Moseley Railway Trust's working members, serves a mean oatcake. There is a relationship between oatcake consumption and yards of track built in a day, but I've yet to put numbers to it. You will therefore appreciate the horror with which we greeted the news shown in the photo.

The news story (see The Sentinel's site, long link at the bottom) is all about the heritage value of Stoke's last surviving "hole in the wall" oatcake shop, in Hanley. Heritage is an overused word, but it is worth reflecting on the history of the Apedale site. The coal seams which are deep under this part of North Staffordshire rise close to the surface in the Apedale valley. Thus, it was a natural choice to build ironworks here - iron making uses huge amounts of coal. The first ironworks opened at Apedale in 1784, and the site expanded to use six blast furnaces, three 65' high, the others 55'. Each could produce 280 tons of pig iron a week. There was a huge coal works, with 82 ovens. Latterly, the works was owned by Midland Coal, Coke & Iron Ltd (MCCI), but the site failed to survive the slump at the end of 1920s, and closed in 1930. A bizarre use of the site after WW2 was the storage and re-sale of ex-military vehicles. AHC's more senior volunteers still tell of seeing the amphibious DUKW vehicles being tested in the remains of Apedale Canal.

A number of small coal mines survived the closure of the MCCI business; such small mines are known as Footrails in North Staffs. Most of the buildings now in use by the MRT date from the Footrail colliery era, although our main workshop building is much older, and certainly dates from the Ironworks. No-one seems to know the function of the building in Ironworks days; perhaps (just perhaps) it was related to the very extensive standard-gauge railway network - the building dimensions are certainly about right for a small loco shed or similar.

Incidentally, one Ironworks loco survives - a 1901 Manning Wardle named "Newcastle". This is believed to be in a secretive private collection on a farm in Hertfordshire, and there are few photos of this loco in recent years (contact us if you can add anything!!).

The Stoke area seems to be in uproar about the heritage value of an oatcake shop; the MRT is trying to bring back to life a site with a vast industrial heritage and pedigree.

Want to help? Contact us here, or come and see us on a Saturday (or occasional Sundays). If there's no-one around, we'll be in the cafe, eating oatcakes.

The Hole in the Wall shop story is here:-

http://www.thesentinel.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=158767&command=displayContent&sourceNode=158593&contentPK=19521931&folderPk=87654&pNodeId=158324

A Grand Day Out

There are occasions on which the Moseley Railway Trust team has a Day Out. Such was last Saturday when a good number of members descended on the Snibston Discovery Park at Coalville, Leicestershire. The simple pleasures of looking around this interesting site are, of course, not sufficient to amuse the hardened working members of the MRT. No, we were on a mission. Specifically, to dismantle a load of 2'6" gauge track which has been donated by the Snibston people to the Locomotion museum at Shildon. What was MRT doing? We were asked to help by Locomotion, as we know quite a lot about narrow gauge track. Hopefully, the Locomotion people will repay the favour in the not too distant future.

And so, on a not-too-cold and not-too-wet January day, we set to. Pandrols were hammered out, sleepers stacked, baseplates unscrewed and bolts ground off until everyone was fit to drop. And then we did some more. Who needs a New Year gym membership? Join the MRT, it's cheaper than the gym!

All in all, a very successful day, and hopefully our efforts have reduced the transport bill hugely, by ensuring that only the useful parts are transported.

As ever, we need all the assistance we can get, so why not get in touch here.

The photos show one of the Snibston battery locos in front of the headgear, and one of our members getting down'n'dirty with Mr Anglegrinder.

Snibston's website is at http://www.leics.gov.uk/museums/snibston and Locomotion is at http://locomotion.sedgefield.gov.uk/ccm/portal/.