It must be Christmas

It must be Christmas, for three reasons. Firstly, Santa has been seen at Apedale. Secondly, we have had the Trust Xmas meal (thanks to Terry for organising it) and the CME was seen with a ridiculous dancing Meerkat toy. Thirdly, and most relevant, we have once again sent the Trust SR71 on a tour, and produced aerial photos. This time, they are well known (to be honest "not totally obscure" might be closer to the truth) railway stations. All you have to do is to identify the ten railway stations. Simples. Either a major clue, or for bonus points, is to identify the sites of well-known loco builders which are visible in two of the photos - and for the Smarty Pants award - who is the builder whose site is just off the edge of one of the photos? Good Luck, and get in touch here with your answers.

Station 1

Station 2

Station 3

Station 4

Station 5

Station 6

Station 7

Station 8

Station 9

Station 10

Hudswell Clarke progress

We've had quite a few posts on here about progress on the restoration of the Moseley Railway Trust's diesel Hudswell - but it's been a while since we have heard of the steam Hudswell. This loco, imported from Ghana in 2008, has been out of the public eye for some considerable time. It has been away from the Apedale site undergoing the major overhaul required to return it to steam. This restoration has recently taken a major step forward with the delivery of the new boiler. As can be seen the loco is almost unrecognisable from the rather challenging project which we found in Africa. Last weekend, a Works Open Day was held for Trust members to see how far the loco has progressed. It wasn't quite like a traditional Railway Works Open Day as apparently there was no stall selling railway videos and the Works brass band hadn't turned up. Despite these flaws, a good number of members made the visit, and everyone seems to have left well impressed. The Hudswell is very much on the last leg of the restoration journey now, and - barring disasters - we should see it hauling trains at Apedale during 2014. Keep watching here for more news on this, and get in touch here.

Bursting out of the ground

It's been a while since we have seen much tangible progress on the Apedale museum project. The reason for this is money. After Lehmann Brothers and Fred Goodwin managed to loose it all (presumably in a washing machine or a very large sofa) it's been even more difficult to come by than before. And building buildings involving deep piled foundations ain't cheap. But, we have managed to scrimp, save and raid corporate piggy banks to allow the next phase of the project to proceed. This is to build the walls which sit on top of the cast concrete beams which in turn are connected to the steel piles which The Mole from Thunderbirds put in a couple of years ago. Mr Builder has been busy, because bags of sugar in the local co-op have doubled in price, and the large piles of blocks are depleting nicely. Most of what you can see in the picture will be, eventually, underground. The next phase will be to complete the foundations, and lay a concrete slab into which the track will be set. This will be a key acheivement, because we can then use the area between building blitzes, rather than it simply being a large hole in the ground. We are aiming to get that complete by the September 2014 "Tracks to the Trenches" event - as we want the trenches elsewhere on site, thank you very much.
As ever, get in touch here.

Moseley Railway Trust accepts Woodhead Tunnel locomotive from National Grid

A battery powered electric locomotive is back on the rails following it’s donation by National Grid to The Moseley Railway Trust.

The locomotive, which weighs four tonnes, was built in 1998 by Clayton Equipment.  It has been used at the National Grid’s cable tunnels at Woodhead, high in the Pennines.  The Woodhead tunnels were originally built to carry mainline trains from Sheffield to Manchester. Following closure of the railway, the tunnels were converted to carry high-voltage cables to avoid the need for above-ground pylons through one of the UK’s most dramatic landscapes. National Grid use a 2’ 0” gauge narrow gauge railway for maintenance purposes.  A recent review of operations at Woodhead concluded that the Clayton locomotive was surplus to requirements.  The Moseley Railway Trust already had in its collection two locomotives which had worked in the Woodhead cable tunnels – a Hudson diesel locomotive and an older Clayton electric locomotive.  Both National Grid and the Trust wished to complete the Woodhead story in the Trust’s collection, and this led to arrival of the 1998 built Clayton at the Moseley Railway Trust’s Apedale site earlier this month.

Phil Robinson, MRT Chairman said “We are absolutely delighted with this new locomotive, and we wish to acknowledge National Grid’s support to our work at Apedale.  The locomotive not only fills an important part in the museum collection – but it is also in full working order. Most locomotives which arrive at Apedale need years of restoration work!”

David Smith, who is looking after the Woodhead Tunnels for National Grid said: "We are happy to have been able to donate the locomotive to the Railway Trust and we are delighted to learn that it will see active service on their line for years to come."

The National Grid locomotive will now be used on general duties on the Moseley Railway Trust’s Apedale Valley Light Railway.

Joffre update

What does the Moseley Railway Trust's Joffre and most steam roller have in common? The answer, of course, is that they both have only one cylinder. In the case of a roller, this is the design condition, and a huge flywheel overcomes the difficulties. In the case of the Joffre locomotive, this situation is considered to be 50% of the optimal condition. You may recall that we last saw the Joffre back in July having the problematic cylinder removed. Cracks had been noted in the offending article, and this led to the loco being stood down from service - and also missing a much anticipated visit to the Golden Valley Light Railway. Various avenues were explored for a repair to the cylinder, but in the end the bullet was bitten and a new cylinder is to be cast. Of course, the first step for an iron casting is a pattern. Thought was given to producing a pattern using a 3d printer or similar technology, but in the end a Very Clever Man called Alan Frodsham was commisioned to produce a wooden pattern. Alan is a stalwart of the West Lancashire Light Railway. This is a project of quite fiendish complexity, since the casting contains a valve chest, a cylinder bore and various internal passages allowing steam to flow and move the loco. The picture shows Alan with his handiwork. The next step is to produce a casting, have it machined and refit to the loco. Sounds easy when said quickly. All being well, the loco should be back in business for Easter 2014. In the meantime, should you own a Joffre and want to cast a RH cylinder off the pattern, get in touch here.

Rarities

A pleasant autumnal day down the Apedale Valley has seen all many of tasks happening. The Hudswell Diesel has taken a significant step forward with the fitting of the engine and gearbox back into the frame. The engine is a 4 cylinder Dorman which was fitted by the quarry where the loco worked in the 1950s. It is rated at about 40hp. The transmission was built by David Brown for the loco when new, and is probably rated at about 4000hp. Flushed with success from this little task, the team responsible then undertook to rebuild a WW1-era portable track panel in the manner which our forebears would have done it. This led to the How Many People Can Work on One Track Panel contest, followed by the ultimate rarity - the CME being seen to touch a piece of trackwork. Previous CME-related trackwork projects have usually ended in tears, so we can but hope that this will be OK. If you are at all concerned about this matter, or have been affected by any of the items in this entry, contact us here.

Back to work

Putting all the Halloween nonsense behind us, it was back to reality with a vengeance this weekend at Apedale. The closed season is all too short, and it is the key opportunity to carry out significant maintenance and renewals on the railway infrastructure. This weekend has seen a major project to re-rail a section of the main line alongside the Aurora North storage shed. The objective of the exercise was to generate a float of rails of the type used on the southern end of the railway; the concern has been that we had no spare such rails - so if one was found to be damaged, or cracked, then we were in potentially deep trouble. So, a team cracked on and changed the rails, which also allowed the fishplates to re-greased, rail gaps set correctly and preservative to be poured into sleeper fixing holes. It has to be said that it's always a slightly nervous time when there are huge holes in the railway, but at least we didn't have a large block in a black mac muttering threats about the Sleeper train being due in two hours time. As ever, get in touch here.