MOSELEY RailwayTrust’s September 16/17 gala at the Apedale Valley Light Railway featured six locomotives in steam. Visiting Keef familyowned DeWinton 0-4-0VBT Taffy joined Martyn Ashworth’s Avonside 0-4-0T Ogwen and resident steam locos Hudswell Clarke‘Ganges’class 0-6-0WT 1238/1916 (which has become known as Ashanti), Kerr, Stuart 0-4-2ST Stanhope, Orenstein & Koppel 50hp 0-4-0 5662/1912 andTheWar Office Locomotive Trust’s ex-WDLR Hunslet 4-6-0T HE 1215/1916 No. 303.
The steam locos rotated duties with three working a passenger set and a train of skip wagons in turn on the main running line, two shunting wagons on the Field Line, while the sixth paused in the yard.
Internal combustion locos also participated, hauling wagons from the yard onto the Field Line.
The token for Apedale Valley Light Railway’s (AVLR) main line is handed over as Orenstein & Koppel 50hp 0-4-0 5662/1912 arrives at Silverdale station on September 17 during Moseley Railway Trust’s gala. The loco was imported from Argentina in 2003 with the tender, which does not appear to be an O&K product. Restoration commenced in 2014 and it returned to service at AVLR last year. The restorers opted to complete the loco in ‘working clothes’ condition rather than give it a pristine ‘showroom’ finish. This certainly gives it a very authentic appearance at the head of a train of skip wagons.
CLIFF THOMAS
De Winton 0-4-0VBT Taffy heads to Apedale Valley Light Railway’s Silverdale station on September 17.
CLIFF THOMAS