The Moseley Railway Trust traces its roots back to a horse named “Tim” and a short tramway at the Moseley Hall Grammar School, near Cheadle (Stockport). “Tim” hauled a home-built tram which conveyed passengers at the 1970 school Garden Party, and this was deemed to have been a great success.
Later in 1970, the school re-located a short distance away, and became the Cheadle Moseley Grammar School. The railway project also moved, and had developed ambitions to grow. That growth was supported by the acquisition of a succession of 20 inch-gauge locomotives from a works in Lincolnshire.
By 1976, the limitations of the unusual 20 inch gauge had become apparent, and a project began to convert the railway to the more common 24 inch gauge, as now used at Apedale. This led to the disposal of the 20 inch gauge locos and rolling stock – but after many adventures, two of these original locos are back in the care of the MRT now resident at part of the MRT collection at Apedale (read about them here and here). The railway developed substantially through the 1980s; this period saw a slow transition from a school railway society to a more adult-orientated heritage organisation. Various re-structuring within the educational sector saw the railway being asked to vacate the premises, by then known as the Margaret Danyers College. The final train at Cheadle operated in 1998. The organisation had transitioned into a formal Trust, then known as the Moseley Industrial Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Trust – the name was truncated some years later.
The equipment was then moved into various storage locations, primarily in Whaley Bridge, and later in Buxworth, Derbyshire. After a prolonged and extensive search for a new permanent home, an agreement was reached with the Apedale Heritage Centre. This led to the Trust (by this time a registered charity) moving onto the Apedale site in 2008, and the first public passenger trains operating in 2010.
