Maximum Effort

Before you start worrying, I can confirm that the Moseley Railway Trust is not now launching thousand bomber raids to Cologne – the title refers instead to just how much can be achieved in a busy day at Apedale. Time is now ticking until the season starts on 31 March, and there was still a lot to do. Some of these tasks needed access to the passenger railway, so could not be done after 31/3/12.

So, it was time for a Maximum Effort day. Let us review just what was done by a fairly small team of volunteers.

Two steam locos were washed out. The WOLT 460 Hunslet was extracted from the back of the shed in what was (rightly) described as a mega shunt. It was put on display at Silverdale station for the last time before its imminent dismantling. A wagon was sanded down for painting. The Station floor was sealed and painted (for what feels like the millionth time). Ballast was loaded, trammed to site, and dropped on the station loop shoulder and on the workshop headshunt. The wheels for Project Pluto were assembled and painted. The engine for the same Project Pluto was extracted from a stillage, taken to Silverdale sidings, and loaded onto a carrier wagon. The self-same engine was also freed off having been seized hard. The milling machine was fiddled with, reassembled and cried over (but we won’t mention that). The passenger coaches all had their annual examination.  After that, we a cup of tea.