Men and Sheds

Following from our recent news about importing a Hudswell Clarke steam loco from Ghana, the current rate of change for the Moseley Railway Trust at its Apedale site continues.

The current big project is the erection of a large storage shed. This is now nearing completion. Large means 42 metres long, and containing three tracks, one of which is dual 2'0" and 2'6" gauge. The concrete base was poured by contractors after the track, assembled by the Moseley team, was en placed. The building has now been constructed, and very fine it looks too. There's quite a bit of fitting out work to be done, which MRT members will undertake. We are always in need of more help, so come and have a look - we're on site every Saturday and some Sundays and Bank Holidays also. This week's work on the shed has concentrated on tidying up the site after the contractors departed - including extensive working at the Apedale Washer Quarry. Sand was used to protect the railway flangeways when the concrete was poured, and clearing this out has taken up a fair bit of time. This week's photos show an internal view of the shed before all the flangeways were cleared, and an exterior view showing the ex-Leighton Buzzard Motor Rails No.20 and 42 (8748 and 7710 respectively) contemplating their new home on what was a very pleasant spring evening.

We're all looking forward to showing off the Apedale site and our achievements at the Open Days on September 13 & 14 this year - make sure this is in YOUR diary. By then, we hope to have moved the MRT's main collection of locos and other rolling stock from its current storage site to Apedale - and some of these locos haven't been seen in public for ten years. As ever, we'd love to hear from you - contact us here.

Historic Steam Loco travels from Africa to Apedale

The Moseley Railway Trust (MRT) announces a major steam locomotive import project. After some years of careful negotiation, the MRT reached agreement with AngloGold Ashanti of Ghana to repatriate a unique Hudswell Clarke "Class G" steam locomotive. No other locomotives of this type exist in the UK. The locomotive arrived at the MRT’s Apedale site on 14 May 2008. It will be on display to the public at the MRT’s Open Days on 13/14 September 2008.

The locomotive was built by Hudswell Clarke at the Railway Foundry works in Leeds during 1916. It is to 2’0" gauge, weighs approximately 6 tons, and is an 060 well tank. This design was, at the time, being built in large numbers for the War Department Light Railways, which played a key part in providing the logistical support to the Allied armies during the First World War. Two additional locomotives, numbers 1238 and 1239 were despatched in September 1916 to the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation at their mining complex in the town of Obuasi, Ghana.

The locomotive worked until 1952, when it is said to have derailed in a storm, falling into a river and killing its driver. In 1995, it was recovered and placed on display outside a small museum at the Obuasi mine complex. It is believed that the preserved locomotive is Hudswell Clarke number 1238.

In more recent years, the museum at the mine closed and AngloGold Ashanti agreed to release the locomotive for repatriation to the UK. A key factor in AngloGold Ashanti releasing the locomotive to the care of the MRT was a recognition that the MRT is an organisation dedicated to celebrating Industrial Narrow Gauge railways and therefore was ideally qualified to preserve and interpret the unique locomotive.

A small team of MRT volunteers made the journey to the AngloGold Ashanti mine, and formally accepted the locomotive from Mr Kwesi Enyan, acting Managing Director of the Obuasi mine. The MRT team presented Mr Enyan with gifts from the children at Churchfields Primary School, located near Apedale, for the children who attend the mine’s schools in Obuasi.

The locomotive will be housed at the MRT’s Apedale site, near Newcastle-under-Lyme in North Staffordshire. It will be assessed for eventual restoration to full operational condition.

Phil Robinson, the MRT Chairman said "The locomotive is a significant addition to our already large and varied locomotive fleet, and, when restored, will be a valuable locomotive for use on our steeply graded passenger railway into the Apedale Country Park. This important project illustrates the credibility that the MRT has established throughout the UK railway preservation movement and, it seems, the world."

The MRT wishes to acknowledge the assistance of AngloGold Ashanti of Ghana, and Porterbrook Leasing Company in the UK, who sponsored the repatriation of the locomotive.

The MRT can be contacted at 11, Ashwood Road, Disley, Stockport, Cheshire SK12 2EL or contact us here.

Apedale Update

It's been a little while since we had an Apedale Update, so here goes. The main activities currently are related to the great Storage Shed project. The completion of this building is a key strategic objective for the Moseley Railway Trust, as it will allow the Trust's large collection of narrow gauge locomotives and other artifacts to be concentrated on the Apedale site. Currently, the collection is stored in a number of locations - scattered the length and breadth of the UK, and, believe it or not, France! The Trust's volunteers have laid three tracks into the shed site; one of these is dual, 2'0" and 2'6", gauges. These have now been enrobed in concrete, creating a nice smooth floor for us all to walk on. Hopefully, erection of the steelwork will commence this week. This will be done by contractors, as all the working at height involved is a bit scary for the MRT health & safety department. The first picture shows one of the Apedale workhorses, MR8748 (Leighton Buzzard No.20) contemplating the site of its new home.

Meanwhile, we have been building track panels to link the fan of points to the shed, and these will be installed once a ballast drop has taken place to achieve the correct levels needed. The second photo shows one of our loyal team of volunteers, David, contemplating his handiwork.

Work has also taken place rebuilding a bogie wagon, and the North Staffs heats of the UK's Worst Bricklayer championship have produced a winner.

Perhaps best of all, we've seen an increasing number of new faces recently at Apedale - more are always welcome. We're at work every Saturday, and some Sundays, so (to coin a phrase), Come on Down. Get in touch here. You might (just might) want to have a look into the website a little later this week. You never know what might happen.

A remarkable survivor

The Moseley Railway Trust exists to preserve, conserve and interpret locomotives, vehicles and other artifacts from industrial narrow gauge railways. Often everything we do is in the past tense - the industrial railway narrow gauge is all but extinct in the UK, other than a few pockets of resistance at peat works and the like.

So, this week, I thought I'd turn attention slightly further afield and look at such a railway still running. The pleasent small Swiss town of Bruggen is located on the main Gotthard pass railway line running from Zurich through the famous tunnel to Italy. The Holcim cement works in Bruggen uses a 750mm gauge railway to convey the raw product for cement making - limestone - from a quarry which is about 2km from the works itself. As you might expect in Switzerland, the railway is a model of modern efficiency. It uses two modern Diema locos, built in Germany, and these shuttle from the automatic loader to the automatic unloader via a railway which runs through pleasant Alpine meadows, past cows with bells (because their horns don't work), across a main road and underneath the main line railway. The most unusual feature is the use of tiny "driving trailers" - the locos don't run round at each end, the trains are worked push-pull with the driver in the driving trailer or the locomotive.

There will be a fuller account of this railway in a forthcoming edition of Moseley Matters, which is the quarterly journal produced by the Moseley Railway Trust. Receiving Moseley Matters is just one of the many benefits of membership - a snip at 15 pounds a year. Contact us at here for more information. Big News is coming - keep looking here regularly and be the first (maybe the second at a pinch) to know!!

Simplexes at Work

One of our correspondents has recently sent us some photographs of a narrow gauge diesel locomotive hard at work at a banana plantation in Brazil. Nilson Rodrigues reports that the locomotive is at use at Ararau banana farm near Santos. Simplex locomotives of this type were produced in Bedford, England in their thousands and exported worldwide for use in mines, quarries and plantations. Due to their simple and robust construction, they proved extremely reliable and easy to maintain and repair. This example is at least fifty years old and has been re-engined to keep it in service but the original 2-speed reversing gearbox is still present. There are 4 similar locomotives all working in the same industry in this region.

Building on the successful deployment of the first prototypes on tactical light railways in the First World War, the Simplex loco soon found a ready market serving industry throughout the UK. Although they are now virtually extinct in UK industry, many examples have been preserved and continue to earn their keep in different ways. At the Moseley Railway Trust's site near Chesterton in Staffordshire, Simplex locomotives are helping the Moseley Railway Trust build a new narrow gauge railway and museum in the Apedale Country Park. The second photograph shows one of our collection that spent its working life in the sand quarries of Leighton Buzzard.

Part of our mission is to explain how the little-known industrial narrow gauge railways served the needs of industrial Britain. The ubiquitous Simplex locomotive is a part of that story. To learn more you can read the Simplex story here. If you would like to help us preserve these machines for future generations, we would be delighted to hear from you. Contact us here.

Top photograph courtesy Nilson Rodrigues

Open day - First Chance to see the Moseley Collection in ten years!!

The Moseley Railway Trust (MRT) will hold Open Days at its new Apedale site on 13/14 September 2008. This will be the public’s first opportunity to visit the site and see the MRT’s large and varied collection of industrial narrow gauge locomotives for 10 years.

The MRT has been working on the Apedale site since 2006 and significant progress has been made. The most notable achievements have included laying a significant amount of 2’0" gauge railway track, and the construction of a large storage building. This has allowed the movement of the MRT’s collection of rolling stock and other artifacts to the Apedale site. Most of the MRT’s rolling stock has been in store since the MRT left its previous site, at a school in Cheadle near Stockport, in 1998. The collection is one of the largest in the UK, if not the world, numbering more than 50 locomotives. These locomotives include steam, diesel, petrol and battery power, and were used on the industrial narrow gauge systems which once thrived in the UK, and contributed so much to develop the world in which we live today. Sadly, these systems are now almost extinct.

The weekend will see the operation of the first steam-hauled trains at Apedale, using the MRT’s Kerr Stuart locomotive "Stanhope" (Kerr Stuart number 2395 of 1917). Although it will not be possible to offer passenger train rides in September, the MRT collection will be on display and it is planned to operate demonstration goods and works trains. It is hoped that the weekend may produce one or more "surprise" guest locomotives.

Admission prices have yet to be fixed, but the site will be open from 11.00 to 17.00 on both days. There will be sales stands and refreshments will be available in the cafe run by the Apedale Heritage Centre, the MRT’s partner in the Apedale development. The Apedale site is close to the village of Chesterton, in Newcastle under Lyme, North Staffordshire. It is easily accessed from the M6 (junction 16) and many other major roads. There is public transport access using a frequent bus service to Chesterton village.

You can always contact us here.

AGM Day - Playing with the Trains

It's been the Annual General Meeting of the Moseley Railway Trust today at Apedale. In many ways, this AGM represents a turning point for the Trust. Previous AGMs (certainly all the ones I've been to) have been some hall or other, often in the Stockport area which represented the spiritual home of the Trust. This year, things changed. For the first time in ten years, the MRT is back in the Railway Business. The railway at Apedale is a long way from finished, and a long way from being able to carry passengers, but what we can do is demonstrate to our members just how much progress has been made in the last year or so. This progress is most visibly represented by the loco collection being demonstrated on the railway which has been laid so far.

Today. we ran MR7710, MR8748, SMH104G063, FH2306, the RL1 O&K (perhaps 3444), the Wingrove battery loco and best of all the ancient Deutz 10050. MR2197 was used as a buffer stop - the brakes still work, even if nothing else does. The other five locos on the railway (OK4588, RH198297, MR1320, Bg1695 and HC D558) were all hauled from the shed and placed on display. In the case of the Ruston, hauled kicking & screaming as it tends to seize its brakes on when stood still for more than ten minutes. The Deutz hasn't been run since the Cadeby days (I think its last outing was in mid 2005) - and it's GREAT to see it making its characteristic way along the railway with gears and rods clanking, flywheels spinning and haze of exhaust. You can see the video on YouTube here

All too soon, it was time to pack away and attend the AGM - which seemed to go well, with the Trustees emerging relatively unscathed. It was really nice to see the room so full, and everyone seemingly so upbeat and positive about the progress made. It was also encouraging to see many new faces in the crowd. We are always trying to recruit new members - for details, contact us here. Everyone is more than welcome, active working members especially so.

All we need to do now is to chose a name for the railway......