Listermania

One of the pleasures of any hobby is sharing a common interest with others. The relative portability of the smaller locos in the Moseley Railway Trust's collection means that it is occasionally possible to take them to other lines in the UK for a little visit. This is exactly what happened with Lister Blackstone 52610, which visited the Amberley Working Museum for their Railway Gala over the weekend of 13 & 14 July. It was not alone. There were no fewer than seven other visiting Listers - from as far afield as Gloucester and Ripon, North Yorkshire; these joined the museum's resident pair of such locos and a loco on site under restoration for its owner, making a total of eleven. Listers are characterful little locos, not least because they tended to lurk in out-of-the-way places, like small peatworks and the like. Their low power (around 8hp) meant that they did not get used at many large works or systems. These small works typically used one or two locos - leading to a debate about whether this event represented the greatest ever gathering of Listers in one place. One wonders how many were on the production line at Lister's factory in Dursley, Gloucs, at any one time? All in all, a splendid event, and all credit to Amberley Rail Group. More info can be found here and here. The photos show the Moseley Team gathered with LB52610, and then the world record breaking use of no less than nine (yes, count 'em) Listers on a passenger train on the Sunday. We won't be attempting anything quite like that at the MRT open days at Apedale on September 13 & 14 (details here) but you will be able to come along and see LB52610 and all its friends. As ever, contact us here.

Silent Power

With our new storage shed now full of locomotives, we're spoiled for choice over which one to use for shunting duties. One of our members suggested that we should use electric locomotives where possible, thus avoiding the noise and in particular the smoke that the usual diesels emit. The last thing we want to do is pollute our new building. Hence we started looking at our Pikrose battery-electric. This is the most modern loco in our fleet, having been produced by Pikrose, the successors to Wingrove and Rogers, in 1993. It is a WR20 model, number B0366V, weighing in at 3.5 tons. This locomotive was delivered new to the Kettering plant depot of Sir Robert McAlpine & Son Ltd, the well-known civil engineering contractor.

The locomotive is powered by 36 traction batteries, providing 72 volts in all. In use the engines are charged overnight from the mains and then a single battery pack should last for a day's shift. When in continuous use, a spare battery pack can be charging and swapped over when the first is exhausted. When acquired, our loco did not come with a charger and it was only recently that we obtained one of the correct voltage. With the batteries having lain out of use for some time, it has taken a little while to coax them back into life. Meanwhile, we have repaired the control system and freed-off the braking system.

Once charged, it was time to plug in the batteries and try for a test run. After a few false starts, the loco literally sparked into life again (this particular loco uses manual contactors to vary its speed). Its performance is quite impressive and although a little fettling remains to be done, this engine should prove a useful environmentally-friendly shunter. You'll struggle to hear it, but come down and see it in action on our open days later this year.

What we did on our holidays

Summer is here and it's the perfect time to take a week off work. Paid work, that is. This week, a loyal gang of Moseley volunteers booked a week's holiday and reported for duty. The task at hand was to fill our brand new shed at Apedale with the remaining part of our collection that has been in exile at Buxworth in Derbyshire. For the past few years, whilst our fleet has been in store, any shunting has had to be carried out with a fork lift truck. Now, for the last time, each locomotive was lifted to the door using a specially-made steel pallet and loaded onto a lorry for the 90 minute journey to Apedale. There were a lot of turned heads as our unusual loads headed across the hills towards their new home.

The result now is a fully populated shed, relief and a lot of smiling faces amongst our membership. We even managed to feature our new attraction in the local newspaper, the Newcastle Sentinel.

By the end of Wednesday, the major part of the mission had been accomplished and the rest of the week was used to gather up tools, wagons and other smaller items. As people departed at the end of their working holiday they left exhausted but satisfied that all had gone according to plan. So, the stage is now set for our open days at Apedale on 13-14 September when the public will be invited to view the entire collection in one place for the first time in many years. Don't forget to book the date in your diary. Contact us for further details.

Ingenuity

It's been another busy weekend at Apedale, the home of the Moseley Railway Trust. The Great Shoft has continued, with another lorry load of locomotives arriving to take up residence in the Aurora North storage shed. The first was a modern Simplex Mechanical Handling loco, 40SD516 of 1979. This loco worked for Severn Trent Water at their Minworth works near Birmingham. The top photo shows the loco in industrial days at Minworth, crossing the road (probably at a speed somewhere near Warp factor five) which bisected the Minworth site. The second arrival was a large 48DL Ruston, 235730 of 1943 - this one worked for most of its life at the Royal Naval Armaments depot at Broughton Moor in Cumbria. The third arrival was a 2'6" gauge battery electric, also with an explosive past - it spent its industrial career at the Royal Ordnance Factory at Bishopton, Scotland. This is one of the rare Brook Victor locos, number 565 of 1970. This loco posed a slight problem on arrival. It is 2'6" gauge, and with great foresight, we built 2'6" gauge track for it to run on. Unfortunately, the loco was unloaded at the wrong end of the site for this part of the railway. Ingenuity was therefore employed to move the loco a few hundred yards on two 2'0" gauge flat wagons to the safety of the shed. One of our members was heard to comment that it looked like an electric version of a Shay logging loco. The final photo shows the Ruston and 40SD516 sitting outside their new home in the company of long standing stalwart MR8748. All of these delights and many more are yours for the taking (of photos, that is) at our open days on 13 & 14 September - details here. And, as usual, do get in touch if you want to help or just for a chat here.

War Department Light Railways

In these notes we have mentioned the WDLR organisation a few times. This was the War Department Light Railways organisation, formed during the First World War by the British. 2008 is, of course, the 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War, and thus many thoughts inevitably turn to this conflict. The early years of WW1 compelled a revolution in military logistics; the war had bogged down into a static slogging match. In such a war of attrition, the rate of consumption of material is huge, and this caused major problems. Most of the combatants had foreseen these issues - the Germans and the French being perhaps most advanced, although with different philosophies deriving from their intentions; the French saw their railways serving fixed defensive positions, whereas the Germans intended to use railways to serve an advancing front line. Narrow Gauge railways, with their inherent limited requirements for civil engineering and their flexibility, were the ideal tool for moving material from standard gauge railheads to the front lines. Furthermore, it was also rapidly discovered that steam locos with their all-too-visible smoke emissions, were far too visible on a battlefield with very active artillery spotters on both sides. This gave the impetus to the development of the very earliest internal combustion locomotives.

The British WDLR, although late in recognising the benefits of narrow gauge railways, adopted a number of new and existing locomotive designs, both steam and internal combustion. The full weight of the colossal British manufacturing industry started to churn out locomotives, wagons and other equipment. The unexpected collapse of the German military in late 1918 produced huge amounts of surplus railway equipment, both in France and in huge dumps in the UK (which truly must have been a sight - bring on the time machine!). Much of this equipment formed the machinery used in the industrial narrow gauge railways which sprung up and modernised after the war - many a quarry or factory used WDLR surplus locomotives. The equipment was astonishingly long-lived and robust considering the short expected life of military railways and their vehicles. This meant that a number of WDLR locomotives and wagons came to be preserved, and the Moseley Railway Trust is slowly gathering such equipment at its Apedale base, in North Staffordshire. The upper photo shows a "Protected" Motor Rail 40HP loco, maker number 1369, which is part of the MRT collection (on loan from Leeds Museums). This loco was restored as part of the Salvage Squad TV programmes a few years ago. These locos were fitted with bodywork to improve the protection for the crew when running in dangerous areas. The second photo shows Motor Rail 1320, which began life similar to no.1369, but was heavily rebuilt in civilian life at gravel quarries in Hertfordshire. All being well, both of these locos will be on show at the Moseley Railway Trust's open days in September, see here. As ever, we'd love to hear from you - here.

The Great Shoft begins

Those of you who have been following these postings on a regular basis will be up-to-date with all the latest happenings at Apedale. The new storage shed is now all but complete, and is now known as the Aurora North Shed (I'll explain why another time). In the same way that nature abhorrs a vacuum, preservationists abhorr an empty shed. The MRT has a collection of more than sixty locomotives, mainly 2'0" but a few other gauges also, and these are scattered around the UK - with many in a storage unit in the Peak District. The Great Shoft, which will bring the collection under one roof at Apedale, has now commenced. Yesterday, Saturday 7/6/08, saw a trial load arrive from store, which conveyed two locomotives - a Class M Orenstein & Koppel petrol loco - OK4470 of 1930, and a 60S type Motor Rail, number 11142 of 1960. The Motor Rail is a good runner, and will be the prime passenger loco for non-steam trains - and also the mobile air compressor for non compressor fitted locos - especially steamers. It's a bit of a beast to drive!

Also arriving on 7/6/08 was a Hibberd, FH2586 of 1941, which had been in store at a member's house in Yorkshire. This one is perhaps best described as a long-term project. Anyway, it's all jolly exciting.

The influx of locos now looks set to accelerate over the next few weeks. The best opportunity to see all that's happening at Apedale is our September Open day, check out details here. As ever, we'd be glad to see new members - especially workers - get in touch here.

And why a Shoft? Well, let's just say we're not employed for our typing skills.

A Working Museum

The history of the Simplex locomotive is strongly tied to the evolution of the Dorman engines with which they were fitted. Early locomotives had petrol engines but the development of small oil engines in the late 1920s revolutionized their performance and economy and these soon became the norm.

Locomotives still fitted with their original Dorman engines can often be recognised by a characteristic "hunting" of the engine on tickover. No. 42 (opposite) spent its working life hauling trains of sand at Leighton Buzzard and is fitted with a 2DL engine delivering 42 Horsepower at 1800 rpm. It is seen here outside the workshop of the Moseley Railway Trust's Apedale base in Staffordshire. Click on the picture below to hear how it sounds when idling.

The video illustrates how the character of these little engines cannot be fully appreciated from a photograph or static display. That's why the MRT aspires to be a working museum dedicated to demonstrating how this equipment served the needs of all kinds of industries. No. 42 (Motor Rail 7710) will be in action on our open days on 13th and 14th September, when we aim to show this and other preserved engines working in the former industrial setting of the Apedale Valley.

In the meantime we continue to use our engines in construction of the passenger railway that, from next year, will allow visitors to experience first hand the charm of the narrow gauge railway on a trip through the attractive surroundings of the Apedale Country Park. Do you want to help us build or run it? If so, contact us here.