A necessary part of owning and operating a railway is the need to carry out maintenance. The track - laughingly referred to as the Permanent Way - is no exception. The Permanent Way is anything but - the passage of trains (always the enemy of the railway cvil enginer) will always cause movement and distortion in the track. In time this manifests itself as a poor ride, and if left uncorrected can lead to derailments. So, we use the winter closed period to correct any problems. The ideal day to do this would be a nice Summer's day - but life ain't like that, which led our determined volunteers to brave the snow showers and sort out the various minor defects which a season's hard usage produces. It's fair to say that a day on the PW gang obviates the need for an evening in the gym!
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.
A necessary part of owning and operating a railway is the need to carry out maintenance. The track - laughingly referred to as the Permanent Way - is no exception. The Permanent Way is anything but - the passage of trains (always the enemy of the railway cvil enginer) will always cause movement and distortion in the track. In time this manifests itself as a poor ride, and if left uncorrected can lead to derailments. So, we use the winter closed period to correct any problems. The ideal day to do this would be a nice Summer's day - but life ain't like that, which led our determined volunteers to brave the snow showers and sort out the various minor defects which a season's hard usage produces. It's fair to say that a day on the PW gang obviates the need for an evening in the gym!
