Apedale Stoke Steam Special

Plans are well advanced for the Stoke Steam Special weekend at the Apedale Valley Light Railway, operated by the Moseley Railway Trust (MRT). This weekend will be the 14 and 15th of September. This weekend will be a celebration of all things narrow gauge railway. An intensive service of steam trains will run on the Apedale Valley Light Railway. In addition to the resident steam locomotive Stanhope, a visiting engine is expected to be Jack Lane. This locomotive will be visiting from the Statfold Barn Railway, and the MRT wish to express sincere thanks to Graham Lee and the Statfold team for providing this locomotive.
Demonstration freight trains will be in operation, and the popular Field Railway, debuted in 2012, will once again be running.
The Aurora North shed will be packed with model railways and other displays – more than ever before. An innovation this year is that the entrance ticket will include unlimited train rides. Entrance will be £6 adults, £3 children.
The Stoke Steam Special will also see the launch of the run-up to the Tracks to the Trenches event in 2014 – this will be a major event marking the centenary of the start of the First World War, a conflict which changed the world, and one in which narrow gauges railways played a key role. As part of this, the Trust will be launching a new publishing venture in partnership with Railway Gazette International.
The popular Access all Areas passes will be repeated – these allow interested railway enthusiasts unprecedented levels of access to non-public areas of the site and outside normal opening hours.
Sadly, the second Apedale resident steam locomotive – the Kerr Stuart Joffre – will not be operational at the Stoke Steam Special. During preparation for a visit to the Golden Valley Light Railway in Derbyshire, cracks were noticed in one of the two steam cylinders. Recognising that the locomotive is almost a hundred years old, the decision was taken that the best interests of the locomotive would be served by taking it out of traffic for these cracks to be attended to. The locomotive owners are currently considering the best course of action, but a complete new cylinder is one option currently being explored. The Joffre will be available for public viewing at the Stoke Steam Special weekend, and provides an unusual sight as it currently has the affected cylinder removed.

The Stoke Steam Special promises to be another great event at Apedale. It will be open from 11am to 5pm on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September.

 

Just a quick follow-up on Simon's posting.
"The team at Apedale have spent the weekend preparing for the annual Big Weekend at he Apedale Valley Light Railway - this year christened the Stoke Steam Special. If can be be tidied, it's been tidied, if it can be cleaned it's been cleaned. One of our volunteers sat still for too long and ended up in a bin bag. These weekends have always been memorable, and we are sure next weekend will not disappoint. We have, for example, a record breaking collection of model railways, and for the hardened enthusiast, the last remaining parts of the rare Rhiwbach loco have been re-assembled (but don't get too excited!). " http://www.mrt.org.uk


In addition, we will be staging an official launch of our new book "Railway Gazette - Special War Transportation Number" (more details at www.ww1-event.org) at 3pm on Saturday 14th September (this Saturday) on the platform of our main station. There will be plenty of interesting photo opportunities!!

Advance copies of the books themselves will be available to inspect, but the bulk supply of sales copies are not due to be with us until early October.
However - we are offering the only opportunity to acquire one of the Hardback books about a month early! Please look out for the special raffle at our shop!

Cheers,
Gareth