Editorial

 

In the last magazine I mentioned a GWR and LMS joint railway cart which was offered to us by the Dean Forest Railway.  Bob Brown, Steve and I went down to have a look at it, feeling rather excited because of its rarity.  Sadly it turned out to be about as rotten as it possibly could be and still remain (almost) in one piece.  Only the steelwork could be reused.  We therefore reluctantly turned down their offer.  It is such a shame that so many artifacts are lost after all these years for want of a dry home.

 

   Our storage shed is very important in getting all our priceless relics out of the rain and under cover where they will be able to survive for us and for other generations to enjoy.

 

   Indeed, now that the concrete floor has been laid in the shed extension and the facility is essentially complete we are bringing inside any remaining ‘perishable’ artifacts and sorting onto racking all the valuable bits and pieces hastily crammed into storage boxes and piled high on the carts in the main body of the shed. 

 

    Dave had partly restored a number of interesting Great Western barrows some of which need little work to make them super exhibits for the station—just the sort of thing to add plenty of character and interest to the place. We even have suitable period loads for them.

 

    Bob has his eye on a number of giant wooden platform seats which would look more in keeping than the cast iron framed ones presently under the concourse roof.

   From my point of view, I am very pleased that the Storage Shed project is basically complete and I can now look at smaller jobs without worrying about the deterioration of artifacts left in the rain.  The pressure is now off, and I can now get back to doing what was intended in the first place—improving Kidderminster Town Station!

 

   Bob Leonard, Keith and Mark have been very busy on the station itself.  Besides decorating work on the new restaurant they have been producing notice boards. One in particular is interesting.  It is lettered with GWR cast iron letters to promote the refreshment and function room facilities and is destined for the back of the building, facing onto the BR car park.  Only the length of the phone number gives the date away!

 

 

Sheds ‘R’ Us

 

Just in front of our Storage Shed was a little GWR lamp hut made from corrugated iron.  It had been donated to Malcolm Broadhurst’s gang and brought from its second home, a smallholding, for possible use at Kidderminster.  It looked a little worse for wear.

 

“What are you doing with that tin shed?”  I asked Malcolm. 

“You can have it if you buy us a wooden garden shed as a replacement” came the reply. 

“I don’t want it.  Why don’t you use it?”  I asked.

“Because it’s got no door” Malcolm said.

 

I rashly volunteered that the Friends would do it up for him.   And so it was that Bob Brown and I found ourselves making a door frame, hinges and a hasp and cladding the door frame with some of the corrugated iron sheeting thoughtfully over-supplied by SLE Cladding on our order for the Storage Shed.  The angle iron frame was all we needed to pay for, and at £28 the resurrection of the shed was a bargain.  The next job was to plant it alongside the access gates opposite the signal box.  All that is needed is to finish the job with a nice coat of bitumen black paint.  Over to you, Malcolm.

 

   The end result will be a little bit of the old GWR back in use (as Malcolm’s electric lamp store) a tatty looking shed out of the way, and the avoidance of an inappropriate garden shed.  We win all ways. And it will make an interesting contrast to the GWR lamp hut painted in light and dark stone colours adjacent to the signalbox.  That tin shed was one we did earlier.

 

   Yes…  Sheds ‘R’ Us!

 

            Mick Yarker.  June 2007