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.

Halloween HiJinks

This weekend has seen the first ever Halloween event at Apedale, and the general consensus is that it's been a great success. Although, to be fair, we did have a problem with convincing some of the customers that they hadn't passed into an afterlife (of their choice, dependant on religious views or persuasions). Firstly, none of them seemed concerned that they were only being sold single tickets. Secondly, one would have thought the Spectre of Death walking up and down the platform may have caused some concern. Thirdly, the presence of Salmon Mousse on the menu of the Heritage Centre cafe. Fortunately, our Spectre of Death had read Terry Pratchett, and consequently ONLY EVER SPOKE IN CAPITAL LETTERS.Our band of happy, and hopefully slightly uneasy customers all seemed to have a jolly good time, and the volunteers who played the various roles all seemed to quite enjoy themselves. Indeed, some of them fell into the roles so naturally that it looks like the next Trust AGM could be significantly more entertaining than previous years. It's quite rare for a membership's democratic opinion to be expressed by a flaming torch and stake wielding mob, but it's all about freedom of expression really isn't it? Anyway, that's about it now for the 2013 operating season until the Santas. Hopefully, you've made your booking here by now? All being well, no-one will get confused between the various events because SANTA SPEAKING IN CAPITAL LETTERS could be quite frightening to the little ones. As ever, get in touch here (unless you are selling Salmon Mousse).

Going out on a high

This coming weekend is the last operating days of the season - hasn't the year just flown by? In previous years, the season has ended with rather a dull diesel operating Saturday, then the train is put in the shed, and that's about it until Santa. Not this year. Oh no. This year we're trying to go out on a high with the First Ever Apedale Halloween special. The Legend of the Lost Engine is writ large, and hopefully we'll see throngs of punters just itching to find out what horrors lurk down at Apedale. Actually, the horrors are there most weekends working in the workshop, it's just this time they are being allowed to meet the public. It's some sort of Care in the Community initiative, apparently. Check out the AVLR website for more details, but suffice to say that the Halloween Specials will be running from 4pm to 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
On the off chabce that we survive our excursion into the Dark Side, the next Big Thing will be altogether less scary - Santa. The Santa Special booking system is now up and running on the AVLR website, and this year is fully automated. I gather it is run by HAL9000. In the event that you get an e-mail asking about opening pod bay doors, it is probably time to get quite worried. Do feel free to get in touch here if you feel worried, and we'll pretend to be concerned.

Who Ya Gonna Call??

Another busy weekend at Apedale. It was a training weekend, so various pieces of knowledge were imparted into various brains. It's the look of the bright, eager young faces which makes it all seem so worthwhile. Meanwhile, elsewhere, the restoration of the Big Hudswell diesel took a major step forward with the re-unification of the wheelsets and the frames. It's the first time something has been re-assembled - as distinct to taken apart - so this was a big day for the project. It was noteworthy that the the wheeled frame rolled a lot more easily than before, and then horrendous screaching from one of the axleboxes has gone away, suggesting that we are heading in the right direction with the project. Speaking of horrendous things, and moving on the from the recent invasion of the Killer Tea Cups, the shed appears to have become invested with Monster Mutant Spiders, which have colonised the Joffre. There have been a lot of spooky goings-on at Apedale, and these are expected to reach a peak for the first-ever Halloween weeked - the 26th & 27th of October. Check out the AVLR website for details. We think we need some sort of Ghost-busting service. We have some old vacuum cleaners, so we might try and give it a go ourselves. As ever, get in touch here.