Tag: Steam

Tracks to the Trenches…

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways...Leave a comment

Baldwin at Apedale…was great fun – an excellent afternoon’s entertainment provided by the Moseley Railway Trust at their Apedale Valley Railway. There really were 2’0″ gauge tracks running to real trenches, WW1-style. It’s amazing how much railway equipment (a) has survived from the First World War, and (b) was assembled at Apedale for the event.

There will be many more photos, on the Rail Diaries, in due course – but not for a day or two. Tomorrow it’s Statfold. In the meantime, here’s a sample – Baldwin 4-6-0T no. 778 (BLW 44656 of 1917) in action on the Apedale main line.

Apedale Valley Light Railway

A welcome return to steam

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DSC_0826There have been some remarkable restorations and rebuilds in recent years (some wonderful new builds too). Surely the most unlikely rebuild to date is this one – Hudswell Clarke 1238 of 1916 fell into a river in Ghana, during a storm in 1948. It lay there, abandoned and forgotten, for 48 years. Today, at the Statfold Barn Railway, it made its formal return to active service for its owners, the Moseley Railway Trust. For more on today’s events, visit “1238 – Welcome Back” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries, and for more details of the project, visit this page on the Moseley Railway Trust’s Fleet List.

Moseley Railway Trust
Apedale Valley Railway
Statfold Barn Railway

Rainy day, sunny day at Statfold

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I had a feeling, when I booked the tickets, that it was going to rain on the 7th June, for the Statfold open day. It did, too – the forecast had been dire all week, and we were woken by a thunderstorm in the early hours of the morning. Happily, the BBC thought things were going to improve in the afternoon, and they were right.

A (fairly brief) “Rail Diaries” page will follow in due course; meanwhile, here are a couple of tasters.

Statfold Barn Railway

Steam in the Landscape

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44932 - Steam in the Landscape thWe’ve had one or two steam-hauled specials in Shropshire recently – this would be the last for the immediate future. It should have been a Britannia, then it was going to be Duchess of Sutherland. In the end, they were all indisposed, and the duty fell to humble Black 5 no. 44932 – an ideal subject for “steam in the landscape” shots…

(A few) More photos and video at “Steam in the Landscape” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries