Work starts on new heritage railway museum

Work has started on a museum which will tell the story of part of the country's industrial transport heritage, according to a charity.

Bosses at the Moseley Railway Trust, which runs the Apedale Valley Light Railway, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, say they have one of the UK's most complete collections of rolling stock and other items from narrow-gauge railways.

The new museum will tell their story and is being built next to the trust's existing station building.

It will be modelled on a traditional railway building and contain three tracks and be "truly transformative for the Apedale site", interim trust chair Simon Lomax said.

"It cannot be overstated how important this project is to the Moseley Railway Trust, the local community and the UK industrial heritage generally."

The project was a long-held ambition of the group, he added.

Narrow-gauge railways, as their name suggests, are those railways where the tracks are closer than a standard railway.

They have been used across numerous industries including waterworks, peat bogs, mining and the military.

Funding for the new museum has mostly come from a bequest from the family of a trust member.

Mr Lomax said more than £500,000 had been raised towards the cost of the project, along with a donation of the bricks needed.

This will see the building made weather-tight but trustees estimate a further £50,000 is needed to complete the job and create a working display space.

The Apedale Valley Light Railway was officially opened in September 2010 and offers rides at weekends between spring and autumn each year.

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