Our workshop signs...

It has been noticed by many of our visitors who walk past our station workshop that we have a great volunteer team, some of whom have a particular sense of humour.

Our hand-painted signs come in various varieties to suit the mood of the day. One of the most popular (for visitors) is the H&S reference.

A lovely group who visited today to see Thomas and his friends, and thoroughly enjoyed their day out such that they are planning their next (non-event) visit, noticed this sign and put it on their facebook account, followed by tweeting it.

And so our humour leaves yet more departing visitors smiling and keen to tell the world about us - can't be bad!

Click here to see the sign: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1950956&l=ce93c08c16&id=126546100695805

Station Buffet makeover update

Remember back in January, http://bit.ly/I22yCM we did a mini-makeover of the station buffet public end.

We closed the buffet for two weekends in the off-season, so the kitchen could be completely emptied out, for a brand new floor to be installed by Graham Hill Flooring, followed by the equipment reinstalled having been deep-cleaned while actually accessible. A new steel cladding was applied to the lower half of the kitchen wall to replace the long worn-out tiling, and the floor and cladding now form a seamless hygienic surface easily kept clean.

While the kitchen was having this essential attention, we decided to leap into action on this one-off opportunity to empty and refurb the public end of the buffet. The blog pics give a tiny glimpse of the effort put in, and many hands made amazingly light work with the whole area being transformed within one long weekend.

The kitchen had to be tackled because of the food hygiene inspection which gave us a warning, with a 2 out of 5 result on the last visit some 2.5 years ago - improvement needed!

The inspector returned a week ago, and what a difference! He was VERY impressed. The only action required was for power plug labels to be waterproof to be washable.

So we were awarded a 5. Top marks! A credit to our staff who now keep their kitchen in good order, and a credit to the volunteers who helped make it happen.

If you check out the Bridgnorth area for other food ratings at http://ratings.food.gov.uk/search/en-GB?q=bridgnorth&sm=1&pi=0

you will see we are in interesting company - check out your favourite eatery for their kitchen standard to see how we now compare.

We are very proud of this achievement. And of our buffet staff. 5 out of 5, top marks.

Coal drops

The coal drops at Bridgnorth Station are a signifcant feature of the entrance to the site. Many years ago they were slabbed and concreted over with identifying letters and insignia picked out in brick. Over time this had succumbed to the weather and nature and the letters were unreadable.

Not any more!

A man on a mission has changed the landscape. Alan 'the cricket', one of our brilliant 'Tuesday gang' volunteers, has completed a herculean effort and the result is amazing!

His comment is 'Wanted to do it for ages. Thought it would be good to get it done for the Gala and is a start on improving the appearance of the lower car park and making it look more 'ours' ie the railway's.

So with the nearly-complete clearing and tidying up of the (council installed) troughs that were very tatty, and the new signage to inform everyone that the car park is our land and a private facility...

we're hopefully getting the message across that we do care about the first impression, and about our parking spaces being taken only by those eligible to use them.

So thanks Alan - the effort you have made is much appreciated!