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. And, as usual, do get in touch if you want to help or just for a chat here.
