STORES AND SPARES – OR “FACILITIES (MICRO) MANAGEMENT”

With no Saturday blog this week, instead we have a very timely and well written post to add to our Special Articles list.

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When Kevin joined Carriage and Wagon he quietly took on the role of our Stores and Spares custodian, something that we had never previously had, and over the years he has created a comprehensive system which has made our work throughout the Department a great deal easier. So much is now organised and labelled, and there is a chart which details where spares are kept, which has proved to be so useful time and time again. As Kevin explains, there is an awful lot more to good storage than just tidying up and a bit of labelling.

Well done Kevin and a hearty thank you from us all for what you have achieved.

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I’m Kevin Broughton and I look after ‘Stores and Spares’ at the Carriage and Wagon (C&W) Department at the railway. I’ve written this article for the C&W Blog which I hope provides an insight into the work I do and which may be of interest to our readers, members and volunteers.

I started volunteering at C&W in April 2015 – I was previously a volunteer at the Electric Railway Museum (ERM) in Baginton, Coventry, for a few years. Following the realisation that the ERM site was closing due to redevelopment of the area, I looked elsewhere for ‘choo choo’ volunteering opportunities and found the GWSR. At the ERM, I pretty much worked on coaches as most of them were Electric Multiple Units (EMUs), so GWSR’s C&W Department made sense to apply to.

At that time, C&W had quite an ‘open’ approach to volunteers regarding their skills, though these days we are quite discerning about what skills we need from volunteers. For me, it was fortunate that the volunteering policy was ‘open’ as I had zero engineering skills or even much DIY experience – I work full time, mainly at a desk, as a researcher at Coventry University. So I don’t have the history of practical skills that other volunteers have. But I’ve always been interested in old trains and heritage.

When I first started at C&W, for a couple of years I helped others with lots of things, but it took a while to find my ‘niche’. This happened when I went to help the late Peter Bennett get a spare passenger door from one of our various ‘storage wagons’ in our Winchcombe sidings. On entering the ‘Elephant Van’ (a huge ‘covered’ wagon) I noticed that – being diplomatic – the spares in these wagons were, ahem, somewhat disorganised. And I like making things tidy! So a new role was born for me – stores and spares. Over time, this expanded to broader ‘housekeeping’, caretaking or even Facilities Management – i.e. organising the various storage areas in the Works too.

Over time, in my niche role, I have tried to develop a ‘stores and spares strategy’ so that I wasn’t just bumbling around in the dark (though this appears to be part of my role too). So below I outline my own stores and spares strategy and what each element involves. I can’t attest to how successful this strategy has been – you’d have to ask my volunteer colleagues. But I haven’t been sacked, so I assume people are happy to let me get on with it.

It should be noted (again) that – whilst I have had appropriate safety training – I have no formal experience in storage, carriage spares, engineering equipment or facilities management. So I’m very happy for people to make suggestions on improving my learning further. Please note – If you don’t like ‘detail’, do not continue! If you are scarily nerdy (like me) – read on and enjoy.

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THE STRATEGY

So what was my first ‘task’ in my new ‘Stores and Spares’ role? Well, after being shown the rather disorganised storage wagons, a lot of the spares and equipment we used had (historically) just been ‘put’ in these wagons, as volunteers had to prioritise operational refurbishment and restorations. And in the ‘old days’ of salvaging spares from coaches being scrapped, volunteers had horrendously tiring and long days involving taking everything they could off a coach in a scrapyard in the middle of nowhere, then driving it all back to the Works and putting it in a wagon at Winchcombe. By that stage they just wanted to go home! There was little time for follow up organisation of all this stuff – keeping the coaches in operation comes first, so the wagons remained quite disorganised.

STRATEGY TASK 1 – TAKING STOCK FOR AN OVERVIEW

So the first task needed was to get an ‘overview’ of what we had, in general, and where it was across all the storage wagons in Winchcombe sidings. When I say ‘in general’ I mean things like ‘door stuff, window stuff, table stuff, electrical, plumbing, toilet ceramics stuff, seats stuff, wood trim, metal trim’ etc. Note that, in some cases, the ‘nature of the material’ was at least one potential way of sorting items – ceramic, wood, metal, textiles, etc. Another potential way of organising it was by the ‘skill’ of the item involved – electrical, plumbing, woodwork, metalwork etc. So, a number of years ago Peter Holt (C&W Maintenance – who also wanted to know what spares we had) and I went around and made a rough record of the ‘type’ of items we had in each storage wagon. So the first task in the strategy was ‘taking stock for an overview’. ‘Taking stock’ suggests we counted everything – but we didn’t have a spare decade, so we didn’t do that – just a rough guestimate of what we had around the site, e.g. most wood stuff is in wagon X, most seats are in wagons Y and Z, etc. 

  Taking stock: “Where to start?!” (‘before’)

 That’s better! (‘after’)

STRATEGY TASK 2 – ON-GOING COMMUNICATION

A short while after that, even though things were not sorted out, I developed a ‘Spares Location Summary List’ which provided information on where ‘most’ items appeared to be based. This was just a one-page table listing generic items (doors, windows, wood trim etc) and the specific wagon(s) that ‘most’ of that item were in. Apparently my volunteer colleagues found this rather useful (Dave Clark was ecstatic and laminated it for posterity). Ever since, this list has been updated and placed on our C&W notice board for people to refer to, although reminders that the List exists are regularly required. So things were going in the right direction.

Regarding ‘on-going communication’, a ‘constant’ for my role is the two most important tools in my armoury…

Best tools ever!

Not the most complex of equipment, I’m sure you’ll agree. But one of the biggest time-wasters in C&W (apart from me) is “not knowing where stuff is”. People can spend hours looking for stuff because we have so many items and a lot of places in which they might be stored. So a key thing I wanted to improve was to “help people to know where stuff is”. A good few years ago, we did not necessarily have ‘collective knowledge’ of where certain things were kept – “ask XXXX” was the usual answer – and if that person is not in that day?! Well, you’re in trouble! So, in addition to the ‘Location of Spares Summary List’, the most obvious thing was to put ‘labels’ on the various boxes and shelves around our Works and in our storage wagons, using a bit of masking tape and a sharpie. 

I have yet to find a better alternative to these two ‘tools’ – I know there are very snazzy label printers but these usually produce quite small font and none of us are getting any younger when it comes to our eyesight. Large label printers are a possibility still being considered, but they are not cheap and it takes a while to faff about typing stuff in and connecting to a computer/printer. But it only takes seconds to scribble on a bit of masking tape with a sharpie in big clear capital letters. And if things need to be moved around (and they do), just pull the masking tape off and do a new label – easy peasy. Printed labels are usually laminated so they don’t get smudged with oily fingerprints – which is helpful. My solution is to put some wide Sellotape over the masking tape. Whilst all of this doesn’t look ‘100% professional’, it does the job. So these two ‘tools’ remain the most important in my ‘everyday’ shenanigans at C&W.

One thing I should mention – the question about finding something is no longer “Ask XXXXX”, its usually “Ask Kevin”. For our C&W colleagues – if I am not around I suggest that people look at my ‘Spares Location Summary List’ on the Notice Board to the left of the signing-on area in the entrance lobby. I am on email if anyone needs me when I’m not in the Works – my email address is also on the ‘Spares Location Summary List’.

So ‘on-going communication’ is an important part of the strategy.

STRATEGY TASK 3 – IMPROVING ACCESS AND LIGHT

The third task in my strategy was “actually being able to get to the bloody stuff” that is stored in the wagons – i.e. ‘access’! A few years ago, things were piled up on top of each other, and it took hours to get to the part that was (inevitably) at the bottom of the pile. So a lot of work was done just to organise things in a way that people could just ‘get to it’ easily. So I spent many a Saturday moving everything to the sides and ends of wagons, creating clear pathways to get to each area and item. This was not an easy task – Arnold Schwarzenegger I am not – but we got there in the end. For those in the know, I never want to move a ‘metal-framed first-class compartment seat back’ ever again.

Access: “It’s just under that pile, right at the very bottom” (‘before’) 

 Access: “well that’s a bit better” (‘after’)

Another issue, particularly where storage wagons have no electrical supply (i.e. almost all) is the lack of light. What would we do without our mobile phone torch app? So I always try to store things in ways that don’t block the wagons’ windows (if they have them) – not easy to do when stacking lots of large doors. But that bit of extra light really helps, especially on grey winter days. Even just cleaning the windows can make a lot of difference. Shelving and racking should also be light or even white in colour – yes it shows the dust and rust, but it reflects the light and when you’re trying to look for a tiny part in the depths of winter in a little box full of bits, every little helps. Where an electrical supply is available, LED strip lights offer a very bright light for a fraction of the usual energy use (e.g. those now installed in our ‘Container 1’).

 MAXIMISE THE LIGHT: Grey winter days are not ideal for searching storage wagons.

STRATEGY TASK 4 – CONSOLIDATION

What I also realised in my early endeavours was that the same kind of items could be found in about 5 different wagons, all dotted around the sidings. Ask any volunteer at C&W how much they ‘walk about’ and they’ll tell you that they certainly get their steps in for the day. We constantly fetched stuff from here and there around the sidings and the Works, only to find it’s the wrong part and then we’d have to traipse out again to find the right part. So anything that can be done to reduce that wasted time and effort helps a lot. Obviously it makes more sense to put all the same or similar parts in one place. So we needed to work out the best location for consolidating all ‘similar’ items in one wagon. When we started the consolidation process, being practical because of the amount of moving work involved, it was a case of seeing where the majority of that item was already, and then working out if ‘it would do for now’ to bring all of the other similar items to join the critical mass. Also, as mentioned, the nature of the material and the nature of the skills involved also helped to determine where items ought to be consolidated. So items made of wood ideally should be in one wagon, and items made of metal in another, electrical, gas and plumbing supplies in one wagon, all seats ideally in a couple of wagons, and so on. So the fourth task in the strategy was ‘consolidation’ of spares in a way that made sense for their use for our volunteers.

Consolidation: “There’s one here, another in t’other van, one in t’other sidings…” (‘before’)

 

Consolidation: “Whatever we have of that is in here”. (‘after’)

Some of you may be wondering why I am ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’ with this ‘storage strategy’. Why not just get lots of shipping containers and boltless shelving, sort it out, and that would be the end of it? Well, first, we are not made of money and shipping containers are not cheap. Second, the Winchcombe site does not have endless acreage and it already has many sidings, functions, buildings, car parking etc, so space is actually at a premium. Third, the size, weight and shape of some spares makes it very challenging to store these efficiently. And the stock we have (think a lot of timber) changes constantly as new projects require different stuff – meanwhile a surplus of unused and older stuff builds up and takes up more space (but we don’t want to get rid of it because “it will come in handy one day” – which it often does, though at times things verge on hoarding!). This requires on-going management – spares storage is an eternally moving feast that can be challenging to manage as it ebbs and flows. This brings us to disposals and swaps.

STRATEGY TASK 5 – PARTS MANAGEMENT THROUGH DISPOSALS AND SWAPS

I’m sure many people who work on preserved railways use the old phrase “we’ve got 10 of everything except the part you need”. We are no exception – we have a lot of stuff that we only need a few of, and not many of things that we need quite a lot of. And what once was a common part now seems to be made of ‘unobtainium’. We can, and do, make our own stuff, but being able to swap parts with other heritage railways is vital and can save a lot of money and effort. Sometimes we also have donations of items from other various organisations or individuals which are a real boon and can save us a fortune. Disposals through sales also injects some much-needed cash into the coffers for something that was simply sitting idle in our wagons and taking up much needed storage space. Utilising people’s existing networks and online forums is vital to do this kind of work. But it’s not easy – how much are things worth (nobody sells these things anymore)? Is item X worth bartering for 10 of item Y? Does everything work? Does it need tons of work to get it working? All these things have to be considered before committing to swapping, buying or disposing of spare parts. Additionally, sometimes stuff just needs to be recycled or thrown away – broken parts, corroded metal and rotten woods are simply too far gone and its nigh on impossible to get a second-hand piece of wood trim to fit in another coach – that’s the BR Mk1 ‘standard’ coach for you.

The above story represents the last 5 or so years of my ‘strategy’ and how it has panned out. So we have reached ‘where we are at’ currently (September 2023), but I also have ideas for the future.

NEXT STEPS?

There are still a number of steps before C&W reaches ‘stores and spares nirvana’…

STRATEGY TASK 6 - AUDIT/TALLY BY TYPE AND QUALITY

Most of our spares are now consolidated in one place, and we know what we have got ‘a lot’ of and ‘not many of’, but tallying up or auditing exact numbers of thousands of spare parts is going to be a rather arduous, if necessary, task. Obviously we have evidentiary record systems in place for safety critical items such as passenger door locks/latches and vacuum cylinders etc. But in terms of non-safety-critical stuff, we know where it is, but we don’t know exactly how many we have, or what ‘type’ they are (there are so many ‘types’ of the same item – as I said, it is the BR Mk1 ‘standard’ coach). And then we have to assess the quality of the items – in many cases there are “a couple of spares remaining” – why are they remaining? Because they are knackered but we dare not get rid of them – so quality assessment is important too. So there is much to do here but we have to start somewhere – probably the stuff that we need reasonably frequently. Managing this also relates to swaps and disposals above.

STRATEGY TASK 7 - BETTER STORAGE FACILITIES

Storage wagons are not the best place to store spare parts. And they are definitely not the best place to store really heavy or cumbersome parts. In an ideal C&W world, anything that is heavy, cumbersome and frankly a pain in the **** to move needs to be stored as close to the Works as possible and needs to have step-free access. We do have some shipping containers next to the Works for a variety of purposes. For example, one container stores ‘operational’ items ready to go when things happen with our working coaches. But, as mentioned, we have limited finances and limited space at the Winchcombe site. Also, we rarely need to access (e.g.) coach doors on a regular basis, so most of the time they just wait there – not necessarily a good use of convenient storage space when this is at a premium. It is these kinds of quandaries that we have to deal with in terms of the site, the facilities and the resources that we have. It’s not a blank slate and we have to work with what already exists and adapt as best we can within such constraints.

STRATEGY TASK 8 - ELECTRONIC 'REAL TIME' STOCK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

We haven’t got a ‘comprehensive stock management’ system in place for non-safety-critical spares. If someone takes a spare part from a storage wagon, then it just gets taken and used. We are yet to introduce a system for non-safety-critical parts whereby we know what has been used, by whom, when, where and why. This is not an easy task and would require real time electronic systems and capacity well beyond our current financial situation. But in a perfect world we would have that kind of logistical system in future – we’re talking serious barcodes.

Well, that brings us to the end of my ‘Stores and Spares Strategy’. There is a way to go, but only a few years ago we were at Strategy Task 1, and now we’re at Strategy Task 5 – so progress is being made.

As part of this long-term strategy, I’ve had about 5 years’ experience of organising and managing stores, spares and helping to organise the Works’ storage facilities. Those years have taught me many a lesson (often hard-earned, involving ‘those’ kind of days). So below are some ‘lessons, hints and tips’ for all of you budding ‘Facilities Management’ nerds. These are quite ‘detailed’ (for some, probably too detailed!), but this is the kind of thing that I am into (amazingly, I am married). Hopefully these suggestions might help others wishing to get their own facilities more organised.

LESSONS, HINTS AND TIPS ON FACILITIES (MICRO) MANAGEMENT

Where to put stuff – think about what stuff is used the most (and used the least)

We are all guilty of the situation where certain tools or spare items have been there for years and never get moved, just because they have ‘been there for years’. But we don’t like change either – oh no, especially us heritage people. So we have had situations where the heaviest tool or most cumbersome parts are in the most inconvenient locations just because Joe Bloggs put them there in 1972, and they haven’t moved since. Here are my ‘rules’ – if its used a lot, put it in the most accessible place you can (within reason of course). If it’s not used much at all – put it in a place that is away from the most-used and most accessible stuff. Or how about this – “why is it even there at all?”. I have moved stuff around that has inches of dust on it, because it has sat there for years and never been used. I use that inch of dust, as evidence, in response to the question “Why are you moving that?”. People don’t like it much when things get re-organised and moved around – we fear change! But give it a month and they’ll be used to the new habit of where stuff is and they won’t even remember what it used to be like.

The key thing is “Overall, is it an improvement?”. If the answer is yes, then it should be done. The main reason I ‘move things around’ is because I want to improve the ease of access to things – as I keep saying, none of us are getting any younger and some stuff needs to be re-organised so we don’t wake up with aching backs in the morning! Bottom shelves and top shelves should be for ‘less-used’ stuff – middle shelves and easy to reach shelves should be for the most-used stuff.

It is, of course, always worth evaluating how changing something is ‘working out’ – is it more of a pain than it was before? There are plenty of things I’ve changed that I’ve ended up changing back – but I had to see if it was a better solution. Try it and seek forgiveness – in a lot of cases it will be an improvement.

A waste of space

When we put shelves and racking together, we often don’t think about what we are going to put on it and how much space it needs. Have a look at your shelving and racking – look at the stuff that’s on one shelf, and then have a look above that stuff and see how much space there is between that stuff and the next shelf up. I’ll bet there’s lots of space – and that’s just a waste of useable storage! If there is space, fill it with another shelf. We always complain there is never enough space for our stuff, but we rarely look at how efficiently (or not) we use the space we have – and a lot of the time we don’t use it very efficiently at all.

 WASTED SPACE (in red): Regularly review how efficiently you are using storage ‘space’.

Keep worktops, workbenches and work surfaces clean and clear.

How do you stop someone getting on with their work? Make sure you fill up all the worktops, workbenches and work surfaces with stuff so they don’t have a space to do their job! We have a number of workbenches of all varieties spread out across the Works. We also have various A-frames and folding sawhorses that are handy temporary ‘worktops’ for certain jobs. You’d think with all these work surfaces that there is plenty of surfaces on which to work – not so! Sometimes people leave tasks on worktops as ‘work in progress’, which means that worktop is out of action. Others are just covered in stuff that hasn’t been put away. Others are filthy and need cleaning before something can be done. So I do my best to keep worktops clean and clear – sometimes we only need a bit of a worktop to do something with a small part, so every little helps. We now even have a couple of little fold-away tables just for resting a box on, when we are looking for parts or sorting things out. So here’s a tip – if you want to annoy people and stop them from doing their job, just cover the worktops in stuff and walk away. For the sake of a quick tidy or even just moving stuff to the back of the worktop, you’ll help others get their jobs done.

KEEP WORK SURFACES CLEAR: every bit of worktop can help people do their jobs more easily.

Pipes

No, this isn’t about retro smoking. In C&W we have a lot of long thin items such as metal or wood trim. Sensibly, these are often kept altogether but it’s a real faff to work out which bit of trim with the right profile is needed. Plus the pile just falls about everywhere as soon as you try to get something. So one way to organise these is with simple plastic pipes – like sink drainpipes or domestic toilet waste pipes. These are cheap, plentiful and often just sit around the Works. They can be cut down appropriately and stacked or glued together so each pipe can contain a different profile of trim. We’ve now done this in our new ‘Window Restoration Area’ and it helps to identify and access the correct trim really easily. I will be doing the same in our wood trim stores and metal trim stores in the near future. By the way, I suggest using clean and/or new pipes though (especially toilet pipes) for obvious reasons.

  Pipes are great for keeping long thin items in groups

Why I don’t like cardboard boxes:

How can you hate cardboard boxes? Well, our storage wagons are in the sidings and, as part of our environmental policy, we encourage little creatures to roam free around this semi-rural environment. Mice, birds and other critters like a nice warm home just like the rest of us and cardboard boxes are just the ticket. Put a cardboard box in one of our wagons, and you can bet your bottom dollar that in the space of a month it will become the new home of a furry mammal – unless the wagon is hermetically sealed (I am yet to see such a miracle). So this is not ideal for spares storage (and the smell and droppings are not ideal for yours truly either). Plastic or metal boxes are nowhere near as warm, soft, or edible for creatures’ bedding – so I do my best to use these in the wagons instead. So do yourselves a favour and ensure you only keep stuff in cardboard boxes inside your Works, and ideally try to minimise those too because most Works are not hermetically sealed either. Clear plastic boxes (if they can cope with the weight/size of the items) are best, because you can see what is in them. And in the Works, ideally try to make sure boxes have lids, because everything (I mean EVERYTHING) gets covered in dust within hours. However, the problem with lids, of course, is that you can’t just grab something and go. And some lids just end up getting tossed about because they’re annoying when accessing something. So some regularly used things don’t have lids for easier access, but things then get covered in dust – life is cruel.

Using colours and shapes to help people find stuff:

Many a C&W volunteer has spent far too long scrabbling around a tool chest trying to find the correct-sized spanner. Each drawer in our tool chest has a lot of spanners in them, and they are not from one nice ‘set’ all laid out perfectly in little foam template things. At home, you can sort your spanners out and they can stay tidy because you are the only one that will mess about with them. In a communal setting like the C&W Works, ‘control’ over tidiness is nigh on impossible at times. I don’t blame volunteers for not being tidy – their priorities are about getting the job done so that our coaches and wagons can continue in operation. So this is where I come in, regularly tidying up stuff so that there is an on-going semblance of organisation. It is frustrating that in a week’s time it will be a bit messy again, but it doesn’t take long to do a quick tidy and everything is nice and ready for the week ahead. With this in mind, anything that can make the tidying process ‘easier’ obviously helps me. So I’ve done some stuff around that – for example ‘colour coding’ and ‘shapes’.

Take screws for example – we have a big rotating cabinet where we can keep lots of screws. So we’ve colour-coded the little drawers. For slotted screws the labels are all white. For Phillips / Pozi screws the labels are all luminous green. For brass screws a nice bright orange. And for other nick-nacks of hardware, a blue label. This was the most mind-numbing ******* job I have ever done in my life – but once it was done, that was it – and things are a lot easier to find now, for everyone. And its relatively easy to keep tidy. 

 COLOUR CODING: different coloured labels for different screw types on the rotating cabinet

Regarding ‘errant’ screws that are just sitting around the works or are all mixed up into different sizes and types – I aim to keep just one box of miscellaneous screws for odd jobs and chuck the rest in the metal recycling (unless they are organised, brand new, rare or expensive). Yes, I could go around the Works picking up hundreds of unused individual screws and putting them back in the right place – but I have a life, so I don’t. They get recycled. Some people may say this is a waste – they can always volunteer to do the ‘picking up’ job if they want to – speaking from experience, I’ll give them an hour before they agree with my policy.

Another thing I have done is marking up different sizes and types of spanners with different colours and shapes, so that similar types of spanners can be easily spotted and put in the right drawer, or the right part of the drawer. Again, my old friend ‘tape’ is useful here – I have used very sticky blue insulation tape on Metric spanners and I intend to use red insulation tape on Imperial spanners. I also put half a ‘width’ of tape on the very smallest spanners, one ‘width’ of tape for bigger, two ‘widths’ of tape for larger spanners and so on. This works well with Metric – two bits of tape for 20mm to 24mm spanners, two and a half bits of tape for 25mm to 29mm, for example. This is not so easy with Imperial, but I’m still trying to work that one out. But the general idea certainly helps to spot a naughty Metric spanner getting close and personal with Imperial spanners in the wrong drawer. And within a drawer it doesn’t take long to sort out smaller spanners to one side and larger ones to the other side, using the numbers of ‘widths’ of tape as a guide. I’ve also painted the sizings stamped on the spanners with a paint pen so our failing eyesight gets a bit of help. I haven’t seen people scrabbling around in the spanner drawer so much since I did this, so I assume its helping.

COLOUR CODING & SHAPES: can help narrow down identification of specific items amongst many

I may start doing a similar thing with wrench sockets, but it’s pretty fiddly so that’s on the ‘long list’ at the moment. However, for sockets (our MANY sockets) I’ve made lots of little boxes for each type / size and labelled these – again, they are not always put back perfectly but it doesn’t take too long to find the errant ones. And colour coding and shapes will help this further when I get around to it.

Cling film

No, this isn’t about food storage. Anybody who works in a Works (ho ho) will probably know that dust is a constant pain in the backside. It gets everywhere, even when we don’t seem to have made any. So anything that is easily accessible on an open shelf in the Works just gets covered in dust. This might be a minor annoyance when getting a spare grab handle – you just get a cloth and dust it off. But for parts like a door slider it will totally knacker up the part. And dust on new upholstery is a damn shame. So a while ago I started wrapping decent stuff that needs protecting with industrial size cling film. Is it a pain to wrap a big seat with it? Yes! Does it work? Yes! Will it prevent an even more painful job cleaning it? Yes! Cling film is the way – very useful and pretty cheap. Just have some masking tape to hand (I love masking tape) to stick over tears in the film when wrapping (which is inevitable). No more dusty parts!

PROTECTING STUFF WITH CLING FILM: A bit of a faff, but worth it!

Look after the things that look after you.

I (try to) look after our non-technical equipment too, such as our trolleys and vacuum cleaners, which are vital for re-organising and keeping things dust-free. Trolleys are also vital to avoid carrying really heavy and cumbersome stuff – remember I mentioned our age? Our trolleys and vacuum cleaners have a hard life (though they are inanimate objects, so don’t worry). But lugging a heavy door around lumpy ground in the sidings with a flat trolley tyre is not the way I want to spend my Saturday afternoons (still, never mind). So I do my best to keep them from getting too tired – as with everything, a bit of WD-40 can work wonders. Can someone invent a ‘WD-40’ for my knees? 

TROLLEYS: Some of our prestigious fleet

Convincing others to get on board.

As mentioned, “In a communal setting like the C&W Works, ‘control’ over tidiness is nigh on impossible at times”. After reading this article, you may think that I am a ‘tidying evangelist’ – I am – but I don’t expect others to be. I focus on what I enjoy doing and my volunteer colleagues focus on what they enjoy doing, and what needs to be done to keep our vehicles rolling. Some are tidier than others (that’s being diplomatic), and there will always be a few people who just do it their way (that’s slightly less diplomatic).

But I find that convincing others to try to keep things organised is about proving to them that it will make life easier for them after the teething problems of the immediate ‘change’ are dealt with. To get people on board I try to observe and/or listen to the challenges and problems they have when carrying out their tasks. This can be easy – listen out for swearing! Or listen out for: “Where has that X gone?”; “What has happened to X?”; “I’ve been walking around this bloody place for half an hour and I still can’t find X!”. You get the idea.

I can’t solve everyone’s problems, but many tasks and processes can be made a heck of a lot easier with better organisation, as long as any ‘solution’ is agreed and communicated with others. It’s a lifelong project, but all you have to do is look back at ‘how things were’ a few years ago and how things are now, and how much things have improved – it’s easy to forget how far we have come.

 Colleagues sharing my joy at receiving much-needed spare tables.

Have my efforts won people over? Well, I suppose you’d have to ask them. But over the years, I have been very fortunate to have many compliments about the work I do for C&W, so I must be doing something right.

FINAL REFLECTIONS

In my view, every Works should have an ‘Organiser’ – this is not a job or voluntary role that requires qualifications or major levels of expertise – as I said, I am not an engineer or even a DIY-er. You just need to be able to look at things, see if things work, see where things don’t work, have some ideas on how to improve things, and move a lot of stuff around. Being resourceful with what you have got around you also helps.

KEEP IT TIDY!

Reflecting on my role, whilst it is called ‘Stores and Spares’ (or ‘housekeeping’, storeman, caretaker, or even ‘Facilities Management’), I think the best way to describe my role is ‘time, effort and frustration saver’ for my other volunteer colleagues. And that’s worth its weight in gold.

Now put that back where it came from!

Kevin Broughton

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