Making an Exhibition of ourselves

An important aspect of the Moseley Railway Trust's work which has not featured on this pages before is the regular outings of the sales stand. This is Important for two reasons:-

1:- It gives a chance for the public to part with their cash in exchange for a selection of reasonably priced and good value products (more details of which can be found here and follow the link to the Shop where Dawn is ready to take your cyber-orders).

2:- It raises the profile of the Trust, and allows us to preach the word about Industrial Narrow Gauge railways to the general community at large - even the people who believe that the railway world begins and ends with copper capped things built in Swindon.

Today (Saturday 29/3) the Sales Stand has been at the 16mm Association National Garden Railway Show at Stoneleigh, near Coventry. Nice venue, good access, decent food and toilets. As a slight departure from the norm, it was decided that if the Warley show can be built around a full-size loco, then so could this one. Thus, the MRT was invited to take one of locomotives in the collection. Practicality ruled out any of the larger locos, so a lightweight Lister went, as this could be trailer'd behind a large car. The loco was Lister Blackstone 52610 of 1961, which had been on an extended visit to the Golden Valley Light Railway at Butterley. After the show, it has returned to the owner's house, where it will receive a little cosmetic TLC before (hopefully) an epic visit to the Amberley Lister gathering in July. This week's photos show the MRT's ace sales team, Mel & Rob, with the stand and the loco.

I'll try to post advance notice of future sales stand outings, as your money is (probably) as good as anyone else; building a railway is an expensive business - trust us!!

Easter Teamwork

Easter dawned with the Moseley Railway Trust team facing a daunting prospect; the concrete runners had been poured for the storage shed base, and the contractors were itching to carry on (and in their world, time is BIG money). Just one thing missing to allow them to carry on - the track around which the next concrete batches will be poured to give a nice level base for the shed to be erected on. Who's going to lay the track - guess!! And it had to be done over Easter. So no pressure, then.

The statistics are a little scary; there are 24 panels of track in the shed, each 18' long - that's 430 feet of track. Or just over 1000 feet of rail - more than you may first expect, as one of the three shed roads is laid dual 2'0" and 2'6" gauge, and hence has three rails.

MRT members have been cleaning up old but usable rail for some weeks now, and pre-assembling the track panels in the workshop by welding steel strip between the rails as sleepers. That's 336 individual welded joints, by the way (or almost a whole box of welding rods!).

Good Friday saw the team scratching their heads about how to move the panels from the workshop to the shed site - a good few yards away. After some thought, a true narrow gauge solution was developed - a temporary railway and a trolley; load the trolley with a panel, push down the temporary railway to the site and unload. What could be easier? This fine piece of railway infrastructure is seen in the first picture - perhaps the only known picture showing the full extent of this classic contractor's line and its entire roster of rolling stock.

The panels have been bolted to the base (a good workout for the SDS drill), and fishplated together - not as easy as it sounds, as some of these simply did NOT want to fit. Steel angle is welded into each panel to protect the flangeways from the all consuming concrete. That's another 190 or so welds (or two complete drums of MIG wire!). The final stage is to temporarily pack the flangeways with sand to keep the concrete out.

Did we make it? Of course. Inevitably, there's a few bruises - both physical and egos - but everyone can stand back and reflect on a major job well done. At the end of the day, it REALLY IS about teamwork - not some management excercise or buzz-phrase, but real teamwork.

If this doesn't inspire you to come along and see for yourself, well nothing will (or maybe our next amazing adventure). Read it here first, and you can always get in touch here.

Serious Storage

The Moseley Railway Trust has one of the UK's largest collections of narrow gauge locos and other vehicles - the stocklist counted more than sixty at the last round-up. Following the move-out from the Cheadle school site in 1998, all of this rolling stock has been in store at various locations around the UK (and, in a few cases, overseas).

An overarching priority for the development of the Apedale site has been the construction of a large storage shed, which will allow the collection to be brought out of storage at the dispersed locations, and re-united again. We are also fairly sure that a few of the UK's railway enthusiasts may be pleased for the opportunity to see locos which have been out of the public gaze for a decade.

The shed was seen as a prerequisite to allow all of this to happen - some of us have some experience of restoring vehicles which are then parked outside - they rot as quickly as they can be restored!

Finally, it's all beginning to happen. After a lot of debate, and no little soul-searching, the building is finally happening. The first photo shows the scene on Saturday 15th March, after the first phase of concrete pouring. The three linear strips are where the three shed sidings will be placed. The next phase is for the MRT volunteers to install the trackwork in the shed. This is no little task - it's a big shed, and there are almost 150 yards of track to be laid. The track has been made up from rail unfit for mainline use welded to steel to form panels, each 18 feet long. The second photo shows your author welding these panels. The eagle eyed will note that the panel is dual gauged 2'0" and 2'6" gauge, as the MRT and its members have stock of both gauges.

Hopefully, the shed will be finished shortly after Easter, which will be good news for the haulage contractors of northern England as the big influx of rolling stock starts!

The MRT needs more of everything at the moment - more volunteers, more money, the list goes on. If you can help in any way, please contact us here.

In any case, keep an eye of this website (have you bookmarked it? If not, why not?) - there are a couple of big announcements in the offing, and you'll read them here first. We try to update this every weekend, so keep coming and looking - it WILL be worth your time!

Marshaling our Resources

A miraculous break in the weather allowed the weekly Moseley Railway Trust team to remain dry all weekend. This always improves the productivity, as does the appearance of a freshly ballasted trackbed on which to lay track. Thanks to a very welcome grant from Lafarge Aggregates we have been fortunate to have been able to engage a contractor to do much of the groundwork preparation for the railway. As a result we have make relatively rapid progress and this weekend's working party was engaged in the construction of a track fan for the new storage building.

However, such has been the speed of progress over the last few months that construction is now overtaking the rate at which we can take delivery of further materials. For instance, we have now used all but two of the brand new turnouts that were constructed for us by Alan Keef Ltd a couple of years ago :- these last two will be needed for the run-round loop at our initial Apedale Rd Terminus. Hence, we have started to use some of the second hand turnouts acquired by us during the last few years. A consignment of former contractors Y pattern turnouts arrived on Saturday from long-term storage at the premises of one of our more understanding members and by the end of the weekend two of these were set-out ready to connect-up.

We also had several members working further afield to prepare more materials for delivery, emphasizing the fact that it is very much a team effort to make sure the project continues at its current pace. For further details on how you can get involved, contact us here.

Getting it Back Out of the Box

Our Saturday working day this week saw considerable activity and a healthy turn-out of willing volunteers. Whilst we sat in the Apedale Heritage Centre at lunchtime consuming tea and oatcakes (the staple diet in these parts), our Chairman Phil showed us part of a DVD he is preparing showing the final days at our former Cheadle Hulme site and the early progress in constructing the railway at Apedale. It is now nearly ten years since we vacated Cheadle and it seems longer! The video (see photos) showed the final open day with a good variety of rolling stock on show, followed by some shots of track recovery using the former Ashton-under-Lyne Sewage Works Hudson locomotive "Chaumont". The DVD will be available to buy later in the year.

Dismantling a railway and "putting it back in its box" (as Phil explained to a young passer-by at the time) is much easier than building it again. Anyone who has ever been involved in restoring anything will know that the easy (and cheap) bit is dismantling it. However by far the most rewarding part is putting it all back together. This is how it feels at Apedale now. Virtually every week there is visible progress on the site, the buildings and the railway and the stage is now set for another major project to commence in the next couple of weeks. We are about to start erecting a brand new storage building that will house the ex-Cheadle locomotive collection, allowing these engines to see the light of day once more. We are looking forward to being able to show off the entire collection again and with that in mind we are making plans for a railway open day later in the year. The passenger line won’t be ready by then but that won’t stop us putting on a good show - we’re itching to crank-up a few engines that haven’t been run since they left Cheadle.

If you’ve got some time on your hands and fancy getting involved, pop down to Apedale on any Saturday and join in the fun. It’s hard work but it’s rewarding and there’s plenty still to do. Membership details can be found here.

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.