Autumnal endeavours

It doesn't seem like five minutes since the end of the running season, and yet Apedale was enlivened by the beginnings of the Santa season - the inevitable hunt for all the bits of the Grotto. We'll soon be finding out who has been naughty and who has been nice. Meanwhile, outside the workshop, was one of the more elusive members of the fleet - the Hunslet "Twusk". It is rarely a good sign when a loco is stood with its engine crankcase doors off, and an even worse sign when our CME is peering into the innards with a puzzled look. "Twusk" achieved brief fame by becoming one of the first locos from the Scrapyard in the Sky - also known as Gloddfa Ganol - to operate after the dispersal of that collection. However, it has a rather unfortunate tendency towards seizing its engine, which is not considered ideal. It seems to have an oil pump issue, and time will tell if its a Naughty issue or a Nice issue. Meanwhile, down at the Pit Project, lumps of concrete sleepers were being hacked off with an angle grinder - that well-known civil engineering tool.

I should mention that you can book for our Santa Specials here or come down in person on the next two Saturdays. Be seeing you? Get in touch here.

Remembering

This weekend our thoughts turn to remembrance of the sacrifices made by those who fought so bravely to defend our way of life. Sadly, all those who served in The Great War are no longer with us, making it all the harder to imagine the circumstances in which they found themselves. This was brought home to me when I recently visited Sanctuary Hill Museum, near the Hill 60 memorial in Belgium.

Hill 60 overlooks the town of Ypres, which was completely destroyed during the war and painstakingly rebuilt thereafter. The Hill 60 museum site is now one of the few places on the Ypres Salient battlefields where an original trench layout can be seen in some semblance of what it might have looked like all those years ago. Even though the troops and the guns have now gone, the scene provides an eerie vision of what those troops had to endure. The photos show the muddy trenches and the flooded shell-holes that characterised this form of warfare.






At the Moseley Railway Trust we also have some artefacts from "The War to End All Wars", and it so happened on Saturday that we decided to operate one of these. This was partially because we needed to do some testing and also for the benefit of some VIP visitors who were meeting with us on site. Kerr Stuart 3014 was ordered by the French Commission for their artillery railways, and came with a good number of optional extras for the harsh environment in which it had to operate, such as spark arresting chimney, a set of four jacks for re-railing and also a set of equipment for drawing water from convenient sources such as rivers, canals and, more likely, flooded shell holes. One of the planned tests was on this "water lifter" equipment. This consists of a Gresham and Craven ejector and a long flexible hose with a filter on the end, which is normally carried coiled up on the roof of the cab.

To illustrate this the photo below, taken in September 1917, shows a Kerr Stuart locomotive having got into trouble whilst hauling some portable track sections across a stretch of unstable track near Proyart in the Somme area. The driver can be seen, presumably waiting for assistance to be sent out. The water lifter hose can also be clearly seen, as can the various lifting jacks. It is possible that excessive water in the tanks has contributed to the driver's undoing, as full side tanks will raise the centre of gravity of the locomotive.



Not having restored the Apedale canal (yet), we chose to test the water lifter using our H class water tank wagon. You can see where the hose attaches on the final photograph: the device on top of the tank just in front of the cab is the ejector. All went very smoothly and it was remarked that the last time this particular performance was carried out on one of these engines was probably 93 years ago. After a successful test, when putting the hose back on the roof, it also became clear that whoever did this would become a sitting duck for any enemy sniper in the viscinity. Perhaps that is why some of the contemporary photos show the hose being carried behind the cab. Another reminder of the horrifying conditions that surrounded the purpose of these machines.



One of our key aims is to preserve equipment such as this, so that it can continue to tell its own story to current and future generations. If you want to help us in that mission, contact us here.

The start of a new era

Although it is sometimes difficult to believe, there is actually a Grand Plan for the Moseley Railway Trust's Apedale site. Phase One was to build the Apedale Valley Light Railway as far as Apedale Road - this was opened to the public in August 2010. Phase Two is the building of the National Industrial Narrow Gauge Railway Museum. Fundraising for the Museum has been somewhat challenging - thanks in no small measure to the activities of Fred the Shred and his pals. Anyway, we've scraped together the cash to at least begin the foundations. The contractors have arrived on site to begin driving the steel piles into the ground which are needed due to the site being riddled with mine shafts and the like. The yellow machine they've been using has attracted some interest. Partially this is because we're all big kids at heart, but mainly because it was delivered by Thunderbird Two. Meanwhile, the running season on the AVLR has come to an end, giving us a much-needed break for track and vehicle maintenance. We will next be running for the public (and for a fat bloke in a red suit) in December - 10,11,17,18 to be precise. You can get full details of this here. As ever, get in touch here.

The beast awakens (or not)

With the museum site handed over to the pile driving contractors, the volunteers of the Moseley Railway Trust have taken cover with various workshop based activities. The War Department Light Railways Class "D" bogie wagon has been worked on, and completion is looking close. We have had a set of drop-sides for one of these wagons in store for some years. They were actually virtually the first things to ever arrive on site at Apedale. Hence they were now behind/underneath everything else on site, so extracting them from their storage hole was not the simplest job in the world. But once extracted, they fitted remarkably well, considering that they came from a completely different wagon - and they look the part as well.

Meanwhile, the 2011 entry in the "How many people can look at a Target Trolley" contest was well under way elsewhere. Despite the enormous array of engineering talent which had been deployed on the vehicle, it was looking distinctly dubious for an engine start when your writer drew stumps and went home. But, to be fair, it wasn't quite dark, and it is a well known fact that dubious petrol-driven rail vehicles can only ever operate after dark. Ask anyone who ever worked on the Baguley at Cadeby. The Target Trolley used to be at the Lydd ranges in Kent, and was initially preserved at Bala. There's a lot more information about this interesting little vehicle on the Bala Lake Railway's site here. Get in touch with us here.

No time for posing

A very busy weekend at Apedale has finally seen the site of the Museum building cleared in readiness for the arrival of the Pile Drivers. In preparation for what promises to be rather like something out of a Terminator film, we have had to move yet another container. Even heavier than the last, our more physics-minded member have a theory that they contain miniature blackholes. He has a particle accelerator in his garage, so he should know about these things. It was also necessary to partially demolish the edge of the "temporary" platform which has served us well for our first full season. Trains now stop adjacent to the station building, allowing our hoards of visitors some shelter from the sub-tropical weather for which Staffordshire is noted. The concrete sleepers have been quickly recycled into forming part of the retaining wall for the loco inspection pit project. As can be seen in the photo, the Forklift truck proved remarkably adept at demolition. Because we obviously weren't busy enough, we also took delivery of an ex-MoD van, and a Wickham Target Trolley. If you don't know what a Wickham Target Trolley is, you'll have to come along and have a look. Or you could get in touch here.

The Circle of Life

Whilst the next major stage of the Apedale development plan is due to start very shortly, there are a couple of projects that have recently completed. Last weekend provided an opportunity the show them off as part of our industrial trains weekend. Firstly, of course, the Kerr Stuart Joffre locomotive (No 3014 of 1916) had another opportunity to stretch its legs, this time paired with a couple of authentic World War One wagons. These were our Class H tank wagon and a newly-assembled Class D drop side wagon (although the latter has still to have its sides fitted). The weekend not only provided the last opportunity for visitors who could not make our gala weekend for whatever reason (North Wales Superpower indeed!) to see the new loco in action, but also allowed our staff a little bit more experience with some of the different aspects of its operation. One of these was the Detroit hydrostatic lubricator, an original fitting on this type of locomotive. Having located a suitable set of instructions for this and remanufactured some of the missing fittings, this magical device seemed to operate perfectly. This was probably a good thing as the non-original mechanical lubricator (known for their greater reliability) seemed to have stopped working altogether.

Additionally we took the opportunity on the Saturday to show off our newly-restored "Apedale Apprentice" wagons. These wagons, originally from ICI's Shevington explosives works, have been fully restored over the last few months by our junior members and were operated behind a 20DL Ruston locomotive from the same location. The photo shows two of the apprentices, Nathan and James, posing proudly next to their completed train set.


Next comes the rather more daunting project of constructing our museum building. If you fancy posing proudly next to this or another of our projects, we'd love to hear from you. Follow this link for details.

Finding the Floor

It's been a busy day down at the well-known October suntrap which is the Apedale Valley. Marking out the corners of the site for the new museum buildings, it was noticed that a group of containers were rather inconveniently stood in the middle of the site. With the remarkable foresight for which the Moseley Railway Trust is well-known, it was realised that this could make the pile-driving a tad challenging. So they had to move. Unfortunately, they were full of stored locomotives. So, we spent the day dragging a few of the more camera-shy members of the fleet out into the sunshine, only to dash their hopes of a quick restoration by putting them back into another container elsewhere on site. A Ruston's lot is not a happy one. The second container proved to be rather heavier than expected. It is suspected that the framework was built from depleted uranium. Interestingly, once moved, a huge source of cups and saucers was discovered, giving rise to the belief that the long-lost Apedale Tea Set Mine had been re-discovered. Apparently that's why the area is known as the Potteries. Next weekend, before we forget, will be your last chance to see the Kerr Stuart "Joffre" in steam - both Saturday & Sunday from 1100 ish - the last steam weekend before the December Santa freeze-fest. Get in touch here.