It all seems a long time ago now
Another trip down memory lane.
We have become so used to our extended Carriage and Wagon facilities in the Bill Ellesmere building that it feels as though we have been there forever, and yet it really wasn't all that long ago that we just had the Workshop, the Barn extension, and the little Mess Room and Office.
April 2009 - our Workshop in the old GW goods shed with the Door Team area just below on the left, Woodwork were underneath the mezzanine, the paint table, store, and entrance to the office and Mess Room in the top left area.
Each of those lights had a 400 watt rating. When eventually built the new Paintshop lighting was rated at less than 400 watts in total! The main Workshop and Barn lights were eventually replaced.
April 2009 - the original office with the box files, each one containing maintenance and other information on one of our coaches.
April 2009 - the little Mess Room - somehow we usually managed to get everyone in, but it was a sqeeze at times with the office acting as a temporary extension.
Taken in January 2014 before they could move into their new room, the Upholstery Team in their old workshop - the cramped north end of a BG 80893, which was later to become our Discovery Coach.
August 2012 - the overgrown back
siding has been cleared of rolling stock and the area taped off ready for the contractors
to arrive. It just remains for Buildings & Services (now Construction & Maintenance) to carefully dismantle the Mess Room (originally the Goods Shed office) and Permanent Way to remove the track.
August 2012 - the view from the Workshop - the toilet block and signal box seem a long way away!
March 2013 - a lot of progress with the footings completed, ballast down and sleepers in approximate position. The main frame is up and the bases of the external and centre walls are in place.
March 2013 - looking towards the Workshop with the scarred wall showing where our Mess Room had been. Note the remains of the fire place chimney and bricked up doorway to the old office.
March 2013 - a few days later and the rails have been laid. The base layer of ballasted ready mix will be next to give the final floor level.
(photo: unknown)
While all this had been going on, our temporary Mess Room was RBr 1675 which was stabled in the siding alongside the Works at the signalbox end.
June 2013 - the Woodwork and Doors Shop, and beyond that what will become the Lobby and Changing/Store Room. As with any new building, it all looks so small at the moment.
July 2013 - the blockwork for the Malvern side of the Paintshop is complete, ready for the translucent upper wall to go in.
July 2013 - the view from the Lobby through the Woodwork and Doors shop. The staircase has been inserted.
July 2013 - the view from the yard
July 2013 - the Paintshop with the translucent wall section and roof skylights now in place.
July 2013 - the view from the new office, through Upholstery and on to what will be the Mess Room at the end.The centre wall is nearing completion.
September 2013 - now externally complete with the cladding, doors and windows in place.
October 2013 - the wall painting took numerous coats of emulsion, but progress was steady and by now we were into the Landing, Upholstery Shop and Office area.
November 2013 - The almost completed Paintshop with heating, lighting, and the supports for the high safety wire awaiting the contractors to fit the wire. Wall sockets and the compressed air supply pipes are still to be fitted. It has already become a dumping ground, such is the need for space.
New Years Eve 2013 - installing the electric hoist that will be used by Upholstery.
January 2014 - with the floor painted and all that lovely space available, in come the trestles and almost half the Paintshop is in use already. Woodwork have a handy store for the extra long wood (in 2020 that area is still in use as such!).
(photo: Roger Bush)
January 2014 - a historic moment as the first coach, BSK 35308, is hand-shunted into the Paintshop. Just in case you thought this was being done by just two of our staff, out of sight there was a large gang pushing at the other end - I was one of them!
January 2014 - in the Upholstery shop the cladding is going on the dividing wall with the Office.
March 2014 - the Woodwork and Doors shop with just a bit of floor still to paint. The lighting and heating are in, but electric sockets still to be fitted. Various bits, including a newly made workbench for either the Door Team or Upholstery (several were made), have appeared.
June 2014 - the landing leading to the Mess Room. All the safety railings (made and constructed by our metalwork team) are in and being painted. The Mess Room has had marmoleum laid and the kitchen units are being installed.
June 2014 - the safety railings and gates for the Upholstery hoist shaft are in place and awaiting painting - the gates are further secured by a padlock when not in use and the hoist with loaded trolley is operated remotely. Protective brackets have been installed over the channeling and pipework.
June 2014 - the Mess Room facilities construction and and final painting are well underway.
July 2014 - the Office is beginning to come together.
November 2014 - the Mess room is up and running. By now we were making the most of our greatly extended facilties.
February 2015 - we are lucky in having qualified gas and pressure systems engineers amongst our volunteers, so the extension of our compressed air system to the new building is underway.
July 2015 - the view from the station footbridge - in the distance the new building merges in nicely with the old.
July 2015 - the building sign is in place, and we have even repainted the toilet block and had a general tidy up. Not that we wouldn't have done the latter anyway, but we did have a very good reason.
(photo: Ian Crowder)
A hearty thank you from everyone at Carriage & Wagon to Bill Ellesmere and the Friends of Winchcombe Station.
Absolutely fantastic achievement. And a first class blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mike. Most of the photos will have appeared in the blog reports for the period, but I don't think there has been a complete start-to-finish set of photos of the Bill Ellesmere building published before and, having trawled a number of times recently through the many years of photos that I now have of the Railway, it seemed like a nice thing to do. It was certainly very enjoyable putting it all together and it brought back many happy memories.
DeleteI think it was the Broadway team that took down the goods office. I was one of them!
ReplyDeleteHi Jo. With your prompt it's all coming back - yes I think you are correct. I do remember that it was done quite carefully with conservation of materials very much in mind.
DeleteThere must be a reason but why couldn't the blocks be skimmed and then painted?
ReplyDeleteHi Gordon. I don't think we really thought much about the job other than just getting it done as there was so much. There would have been the added expense of course to get it all skimmed - the surface area, when taking all the various spaces into account,, is enormous. This type of blockwork is difficult to cover but in the end we succeeded and on the whole the results looked fine.
DeleteTrips down memory lane are always good as when you see yourself you look so much younger !!
ReplyDeleteRegards, Paul.
Hi Paul, in addition to my own photos for the blog, there are 9 years of blog photos that Peter took, which naturally included ones of me, and I know just what you mean!
DeleteHello Dave,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the report and pictures. So good to see the new history of the line that is as important as the older history. So litteraly five years later and you could do with more room!, Having great facilities means you produce some outstanding work as my friends who used to work at Wlverton Works have said, "Better standard than e did!".....
Regards
Paul & Marion
Thank you Paul and Marion for the kind compliments. Yes, as they say, create a space and it's soon filled! That's very true with us as we continue to progress.
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