A tale of two pits!

You may not know that the opportunity has been grabbed, with the closed season and seasonal closure of half the Up Yard at Santa time, to 'build' or 'erect' two new loco servicing pits - albeit one is Dennis Howells' own pit. The time for the old external ashing pit (next to the VAMES approach road) came and went and things were getting dicey so a new pit has been dug and is almost complete.

Adrian Corke, CME, tells me, "The pit is almost complete, with only the aprons on the sides to be cast. The rails are on and bolted down. The pit is now on a slightly different alignment and higher to try to overcome flooding. The real star is Ian Kidd who has altered the drawings to suit our needs and overseen the whole project".

Finding "useful" tools for a job

Imagine that you have taken on a nice little restoration job of a smaller item from the days of steam, it might be of a size to take home and do in your shed, then bring it back and see it put on display for all to see - fresh and gleaming. There are quite a few things that fit this description and recently one member, who had spent his own time and cash on a project, found the item had been used - the paint was scraped. What should he do? Walk away, never to do another "small job"? Repaint it? Or turn a blind eye, appreciating that someone else had found it "useful"? Should I even be mentioning this? But if it doesn't get mentioned we could spend a lot of time nipping around with the touch-up paint. On behalf of all those who restore the smaller things - please ask before you find a display item "useful" and be prepared for a No. Thank you.

Forward dates

Work Week has been set for next year as Saturday March 6th to Sunday March 14th (Mother's Day). If you haven't been before then DO come - if only for a day - the social atmosphere is just tremendous, the humour infectious and the food delicious. You will be very welcome whether its for a morning or the entire week (yes, some of us do spend the whole week here!) a job can always be found be it light or heavy work.

Member Gordon Hearne has told me of an advert in the Railway Magazine recently. Apparently Wolverton Works is to have another Open Day on the 14th & 15th August 2010.. Dating from the London & Birmingham Railway days it was built in 1838 but is now a mere shadow of its former self, though its current owners, RailCare, can't be blamed for that. Wolverton was the birth place for so many items in our collection such as the Diner and Cinema Coach as well as some of our wagons. Locomotive building ceased in the 1800's under the London & North Western Rly.

Notes:
The text in this Quainton Railway Society publication was written in 2009 and so does not reflect events in the 5+ years since publication. The text is repeated verbatim from the original publication, with only a few minor grammar changes but some clarifying notes are added if deemed necessary.

Reference:
Quainton Email Letter 23.12.09