With all that Santa stuff behind us, and the winter PW Works maintenance programme complete, attention has returned to a few long-open projects. The ex-Ffestiniog Railway van, you will recall, is being refurbished to act as a support vehicle for the PW department at Apedale, and in particular to provides facilities such as tools, workshop, stores and messing for the construction of the next phase of the railway. Work had ended with the old, very rotten, floor, being cut out. The new floor has now been fitted, and we have started welding it into place. Getting the floor sheets into place was interesting, to say the least; at one point, we were grateful for the hole in the roof which allowed the crane access. However, a little perserverance saw the sheets in place and the Electric Glue to be deployed in full fury. It's beginning to feel like we've broken the back of this project by now. For the benefit of anyone on-site at Apedale today, we can confirm that no Robins were harmed during the work on this van.
The Trust's aim is to build a museum and a railway to display its collection of industrial narrow gauge equipment that has been gathered from various industries around the UK in the last 30 years, and in doing so we aim to educate and entertain both the general public and the railway enthusiast.
The Industrial Narrow Gauge Railway is an unusual aspect of British Industrial Heritage that is now almost extinct. These small, self-contained railway systems were often hidden away from the general public and served such diverse industries as brickmaking, sewage works, munitions factories, mines, civil engineering and many more.
With all that Santa stuff behind us, and the winter PW Works maintenance programme complete, attention has returned to a few long-open projects. The ex-Ffestiniog Railway van, you will recall, is being refurbished to act as a support vehicle for the PW department at Apedale, and in particular to provides facilities such as tools, workshop, stores and messing for the construction of the next phase of the railway. Work had ended with the old, very rotten, floor, being cut out. The new floor has now been fitted, and we have started welding it into place. Getting the floor sheets into place was interesting, to say the least; at one point, we were grateful for the hole in the roof which allowed the crane access. However, a little perserverance saw the sheets in place and the Electric Glue to be deployed in full fury. It's beginning to feel like we've broken the back of this project by now. For the benefit of anyone on-site at Apedale today, we can confirm that no Robins were harmed during the work on this van.
