Moor Street Station

Some pictures @brumpics has recently tweeted, of Moor Street Station, which maybe offers inspiration for Bridgnorth

date unknown

 

the traverser

1979

1963

and now

 

Inside the station is the privately-owned Centenary Lounge, a highly-regarded art-deco style café which could help inspire our new 'Station Tea Rooms' - more pics tomorrow. Comments welcome!

noticeboard issue from GM

There have been two Holding Board meetings recently. A special Board was called on the 27th November to consider a presentation on the Bridgnorth Development Project. Ian Baxter, Project Sponsor, presented and was assisted during the evening by David Postle, Chairman of the Conservation & Heritage Committee.

The presentation discussed five main elements of the Bridgnorth project, the listed building, access, public realm, accommodation and operations. With an examination of the financial performance of retail and catering at Bridgnorth, the presentation concluded looking at plans and draft building designs for new buildings. The Bridgnorth Development team was tasked with continuing the good work undertaken and to detail further two options for catering locations identified in the presentation.

Monthly Round-Up

Members and Shareholders Weekend
The Board were updated on the forthcoming Members and Shareholders weekend, a Shareholders newsletter is being written and will be issued in March, with the Members and Shareholders weekend on the 20^th and 21^st April 2013.

Heritage Training Academy
This project to introduce an apprenticeship programme on the Railway is being worked on.  In the next two months, Stourbridge and Telford Colleges will have been visited by members of the Railway.  The members skill register will be checked and an advert released to recruit a volunteer Apprenticeship Officer.  A full proposal for the Apprenticeship scheme will be put to the Holdings Board.

It has been noted that there are a number of apprenticeship schemes under development on other Heritage Railways.  Through the Heritage Railway Association, a meeting has been called of all Heritage Railways that have, or are developing Apprenticeship schemes on the 27^th February to ensure that our approach is coordinated and, if possible we all use a similar nationally recognised accreditation scheme.

End of Year 2012 Accounts
The Auditors, Crowe Clark Whitehill are working with the Accountant, whilst a profit for the year has been achieved, the final figure cannot be released until completion of the audit process.

Operations department
A bridge strike on Cleobury Road Bridge was reported on the 5^th February, and has been checked for damage. 

The radios used for shunting at Kidderminster are now becoming unreliable.  Four new type radios are being hired in for two months to test.  If the test is successful, they will be purchased.

Low Water Incident investigation
The investigation has taken place under the auspices of Roger Norfolk, as Head of Department and action taken as deemed appropriate, subject to an appeal process.

Motive Power Department
43106 is expected back in to traffic following work on the boiler and drag box installation.
7714 it has been established that the cylinder block can be repaired.  The boiler is progressing steadily.
75069 has been shunted to allow work to start on the chassis.
34027 boiler is due for delivery March.
A locomotive has been identified for hire for the summer season.  This has been included in the budget for 2013.
16202 Steam heat repairs taking place. 
Member of staff slipped on compacted snow during January and sustained an ankle injury.
Staff helped with the removal of the old RO plant at Kidderminster.
Kidderminster Paint Shop Mk1 16169 has been undergoing light repair.  Followed by Mk 1 4509 all seats will be reupholstered.

S&T department
Hampton Loade signal box.  There are plans to restore the fire place to the signal box, and in preparation the Token Machines need to be relocated.  Preparation work is underway.
Highley Up Home Signal has been straightened.

Infrastructure Department

Country Park track relaying work continues.
New RO plant installed and commissioned at Kidderminster.
Re-roofing of Hampton Loade signal box complete.
Drainage work to commence shortly near Kidderminster signal box.
Bridgnorth back lane drainage work nearing completion.
Boilershop mezzanine floor complete.
Bewdley Permanent way gang completing project to replace ballast restraint panels on Victoria bridge.
Investment in carriage shed fire alarm system and lighting is taking place.

Catering Department

Cream Tea service, Gala lunches and Sticky Pudding dining service are now able to pre-book on line.
Three murder mystery evening are now fully booked.

Nick Ralls
General Manager

 

Gents in the Gents

Wailing Wall Construction Company are in action every Saturday and Tuesday.

Robin reports on yesterday's action..

Stevie P continued painting the station. Geoff was computerising stores items. Meanwhile Colin, Arthur and I were still soldiering on on the 'Gents' refurb.

[photos taken Thurs]

Owing to a magnificent effort by Colin, who put in another extra day yesterday, the plumbing is now completed and fully operational. I have been majorly involved in cleaning the whole area, which was filthy despite the much heralded 'Deep Cleaning' allegedly carried out by contractors.

 

Finally, having got the toilets in reasonable shape, Colin set about applying the grout to the newly laid tiled floor. Later, I removed the excess grout, leaving a light grey film which will be polished on Tuesday.

 

We did encounter one small problem, that being we were probably half a mix of grout short otherwise the floor would have been finished.

 

As part of our cleaning regime, much 'thick' bleach was deployed in all the sink plugholes, the urinals and the toilets themselves. We also took the opportunity to bleach the toilet brushes and their containers, clearly these items were equally invisible to the professional cleaners.

 

The few selected souls that have been allowed to enter these hallowed portals, all remarked how clean, bright and much sweeter smelling the facilities are.

On the Bench

Here at Bridgnorth we make our own station benches from scratch. We thus know exactly what it is in them, how they are constructed, and how easily they can be stripped down to refurbish in the future.

We have our own totally authentic castings here, using specially commissioned patterns and then cast by Barr and Grosvenor, Lye.

We use new hardwood from a local timber merchant.
 

Following discussions with Hugh McQuade and our own experience, we have developed a seven-layer painting regime which gives longer protection in the harsh outdoor environment plus acidic sooty deposits - two coats of aluminium primer, three of undercoat (which does the work) and two topcoats.

 

aluminium primer on new timber

Our winter/spring throughput of seven benches has needed only two replacement timbers as a result - a far cry from previous years when most timbers needed replacing every second overhaul. We are mostly now sanding and painting without the need to dismantle and replace.

 

try again!

 

Our benches are made to last for ever. All our new 'memorial' benches are made in this way.

We are happy to make commissions for other stations!

Update on station redevelopment plans

Meeting between the SVR Holdings Representatives, Bridgnorth Project Leader and the Plan B Team
on 6th March 2013

The purpose of the meeting was to share ideas and concerns about the proposed development at Bridgnorth and, as stated in the noticeboard issue of 18th February, to explore how the project can be moved forward by working together as a team.

The meeting was conducted in a very constructive way and each person around the table was able to express his own ideas about the way forward. There was unanimous agreement about many of the discussion points, starting with the wider view of conservation within the railway as a whole and then coming back to the Bridgnorth project:

1. There is a commitment by all parties to set up a Conservation and Heritage Committee as soon as possible and to obtain Holdings Board ratification on March 19th. This Committee will be charged with overseeing and advising on conservation and heritage aspects of all projects dealing with the built environment.

2. There is an urgent need to produce a Conservation Plan for the whole railway by which new projects can be assessed

3. There is a need to conduct a survey of the whole railway to identify areas where the heritage image could be improved.

4. This is all done to re-establish the core values of what the SVR stands for in terms of heritage, preservation and history

5. The Bridgnorth project should be looked at within the context of the railway as a whole. Work should now be undertaken to re-assess the needs of that location and develop an updated project brief, to ensure that any proposals are related to that defined need, to prepare a business plan to prove that any development is sustainable, and to look at the availability of finance to support this project.

6. The design of any new works should be compatible with the existing environment and use principles and details that would have been used by the railway companies of the period at that location

7. The meeting recognised the invaluable input that the volunteer workforce makes to the railway. In particular it recognised that the skills of SVR volunteers, including those who attended this meeting, are such as to enable a scheme to be delivered that would be appropriate, and which would address most of the criticisms that have been aired recently.

The Board meeting of the 19th February stated that the presentation of the plans for Bridgnorth would be shown to the Plan B team first and then released to SVR live. However, such progress has been made since that Board meeting, and bearing in mind the points listed above, that it was considered that there was now no value in releasing information that was already out of date. It was therefore decided that further work would be undertaken by this group on the way forward with the Bridgnorth development. A new joint presentation will now be prepared which will reflect the latest position and which the group will then release for further consultation.

The meeting largely dealt with strategic level ideas and concerns. Matters of detail were purposely not addressed until the matters of strategy had been discussed. It was agreed that a further meeting should be held to continue the discussion and examine some of the more detailed issues relating to conservation and the Bridgnorth project in particular. This meeting has been scheduled for 27th March, where hopefully the momentum which has been started by this important and constructive meeting can be continued.

David Postle
Chairman

Nick Paul, Mike Ball, Nick Ralls, Paul Taylor
Severn Valley Holdings Company representatives

Ian Baxter, Bob Marrows, Kevin Simpson, Ced Jameson, David Redfern
Plan B team

Station bench rolling maintenance

The station is the custodian of two original Great Western Railway Pitch-Pine benches which are usually kept under the canopy, to keep them out of the worst of the weather. As such they are valued by visitors to The Railwayman’s Arms, our 150 year old pub on the station platform.

One of these benches was the subject of a major rebuild and conservation three or four years ago under the care of our patternmaker, Brian.

Last summer it became clear work would be needed on the second bench as it had started to sag, and over the winter our volunteers have dismantled it as carefully as possible.

The rebuilding has now started....

Barring trimming of excess length of dowels/wedges and removal of excess PU adhesive RH Bench End is now complete.

I didn't manage to find the piece missing from the arm, that split off at a screw hole, so I have replaced it with new.

You'll also note it was necessary to replace the horizontal rail on this end too. I'm pretty certain the middle frame will need similar treatment too.