Open for Business

The Moseley Railway Trust, or (as it then was) the Moseley Industrial Tramway and Museum last ran a fare-paying passenger train on the site at the Margaret Danyers College, Cheadle (near Manchester) on 8/3/98. A mere 4,542 days later, the MRT is back in the passenger carrying business. This has been a truly historic weekend. We received the confirmatory letters of approval from the Office of the Rail Regulator on Friday (and a big thanks to them for putting a first class stamp on the envelope!). A formal sign-off of the trackwork was needed, along with completion of various minor works in the Apedale Road loop area. ORR had also requested some final checks on the train braking systems. After all this work had been completed, we got to about 1600, and a knot of people looking over the fence was noticed. This seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, so they were invited to become the first-ever passengers on the Apedale Valley Light Railway. For the record, they were a local man from Chesterton, Mr Middleton, and his guests from Market Drayton, the Brown family. Being a nice day, they chose the open Penrhyn coach. Once we worked out how the ticket system worked, we parted their money from them, and off they went.

The railway will now be in operation from 1100 to 1630 each Saturday from now to the end of October, plus a few extra days. Check the website for full details - but please be aware that it will take us a few days to update this to reflect the opening of the railway. The grand opening of the AVLR will take place over the weekend of the 18 & 19th September, when there will be a LOT going on - obviously, we'll be running both Saturday & Sunday that weekend. The photos show the first train, and then a group shot of just a few of the people who worked so tirelessly to make this all happen. As ever, get in touch here, especially if you fancy a bit of tireless working.

The final drop

The front wall for the platform extension on the Apedale Valley Light Railway has been completed. This, you will recall, is needed because the reconstruction of Silverdale station is still on-going - so there's scaffolding occupying the original platform. To allow the footings to be poured, a lot of the platform road ballast had to be removed. So, with the completion of the wall, it was time to put it all back using the side discharging hopper on loan from our friends at the Statfold Barn railway and a Wingrove & Rogers battery loco - not exactly the most suitable for ballasting, but its light weight was important on track where the ballast was missing from one side. All being well, this will be last time for a while that the familiar scene of the faithful Fordson tractor loading ballast will be witnessed. It's also one of the last few hurdles to the AVLR being brought into passenger operations, hopefully later this month. In anticipation of using the railway to separate money from visitors later this year, some very odd things have been seen in August in West Lancashire. If you want to know more, or fancy becoming an elf, reindeer or generic other-worldy folk, get in touch here.

Sludge's Busy Day

Simplex Mechanical Handling (SMH) were the successors to Motor Rail, who built so many of the Moseley Railway Trust's locomotive fleet. In 1979 they turned out their number 40SD516 - so called because it's a 40Hp Simplex with a Deutz engine. This loco worked for Severn Trent Water at Minworth, near Birmingham. This was a vast sewage works, treating the outpourings of millions of Brummies. A fleet of of locos were employed on a 2'0" gauge railway system. When the railway closed, 40SD516 joined the MRT fleet and acquired the name "Sludge". I imagine a good wash was also something of a priority. Sludge has always been a popular loco, being electric start and powerful. It's spent the day as the main shunt loco at Apedale. Following our recent successful visit from ORR, considerable effort is being put into training crews for the Apedale Valley Light Railway's passenger operation. The building operations which can be seen in the first photo mean we currently cannot run round in the loop at the Apedale Heritage Centre station, so Sludge was kept fully employed acting as "shunt release" loco to allow the training runs to reverse. Hence the rare sight of the passenger stock in the loop road. Later on, Sludge returned to more work it would be more familiar with - hauling skip wagons. These were moving materials to assist in the construction of an improved walkway to the Aurora North shed. This will form the focal point for the September 18th & 19th Grand Opening weekend. Fortunately for the MRT Chairman, these skips were filled with railway ballast rather than (errrrr) Sludge. If you want to know more, get in touch here.

A sigh of relief

To coin a phrase, it's been quite a week down the Valley. The Summer Working Week for the Moseley Railway Trust at Apedale has been and gone. It's called the Summer Working Week due to the traditional selection of the wettest week available between May and September. Many projects have made good progress, of which the most visible has been with the Hudson Toastrack coach. This is a reconstruction (not a replica, or a rebuild or any other words like that) of vehicles used on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland in the 1920s. The MRT vehicle now has the beginnings of a roof, and hopefully the first glimmerings of the light at the end of this particular tunnel are now in site. The first photo shows the team sitting down on the job. Honestly, anyone would think they'd been busy. Elsewhere, a lot of work was put into the track and generally sorting out the railway in anticipation of the visit from the Man from the Ministry. The MFTM has now been, and seen, and pronounced himself basically happy. There's a few minor issues to be sorted, but it looks like we have the green light for passenger carrying (or, as you can see below, perhaps a green flag is more appropriate). Therefore, the event on the 18th & 19th September really WILL BE the Grand Opening of the Apedale Valley Light Railway. As ever, get in touch here.

The Daily Grind

It's our Summer Working Week at Apedale. As is traditional, the Sun has done a bunk and been replaced by heavy rainclouds. Has that dampened spirits? Well, just a bit. However, the current main project, the replica Hudson Toastrack coach, is storming along. It had a brief appearance out of doors today before it headed back under cover in time for the project supremo to set to on his creation with an angle grinder. He is available for watch repairs and keyhole surgery at very modest rates. Meanwhile, certain individuals celebrated the end of the Ballast Shovelling project and had to be restrained from making a bonfire of all the spades and shovels. If you fancy getting involved in this sort of malarky, or are in need of amateur surgery, get in touch here.

Hudswell Update

Some may recall that the Moseley Railway Trust's Hudswell Clarke steam loco no. 1238 is now under serious restoration. This loco was imported from Ghana in 2008. It had a time on display at Apedale and then at Leighton Buzzard. Restoration has now started in earnest, and the loco is now almost fully dismantled. It's a bit of a curate's egg - some parts are good, some parts are shockingly bad. There does appear to be some evidence to support the story that the loco fell into a river and killed its driver - certainly the firebox has suffered a major failure at some stage which is consistent with the story. The first photo shows one of the loco mainframes being riveted and strengthened where wasted. The second photo is one of the cylinders being bored to take a liner. It's going to be quite some time before the loco is completed, and the project is NOT fully funded - we have a very generous bequest but it's looking unlikely that this will complete the project - so we would be very grateful for any support which we can receive with this. Get in touch here.

The Heat is on

Another day of progress on many fronts down in the sultry sub-tropical paradise which is the Apedale valley. The Penrhyn coach has now had the reinforcing bars installed, which was rather like trying to wallpaper your front hall through the letterbox. The first photo shows one of the bars being threaded into the underframe. Meanwhile, teams have been trying (and succeeding) at improving their overall fitness levels and muscle tone by packing and tamping ballast. The Toastrack coach continues to gain parts at a rapid rate, and a start has been on the start of construction of the platform extension. Finally, our friends up at the Apedale Heritage Centre have taken delivery of an enormous winding engine. This was the emergency winder from one of the local collieries (Hem Heath??) - I dread to think how big the day-to-day machine was! The Man from the Ministry is coming to look at the railway in 17 days - so the pressure is really on now to finish off the railway. Get in touch here if you can help relieve the pressure.