News Archive 2006
13 October 06 - Heritage Lottery Fund bid submitted
After a couple of false starts the application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for finance towards the restoration of the bodies and underframes of both numbers 92 and 93 has been submitted. The application was signed and delivered to the London office on 13th October - and yes, it was a Friday. We feel we have a strong bid, and are confident of success, having addressed not only the engineering aspects of the project, but also making a robust case for the educational and historic interpretation side. Running to about 150 pages the submission had to be submitted in triplicate, but we did use recycled paper !
The Great Western Society will be entering into a partnership with the Llangollen Railway for the work to be undertaken on the bodies and underframes. It is of course already involved with Llangollen via the County Project, and has a good working relationship with them through David Bradshaw and David Hurd.
October 06 - Auto Trailer 92 goes on a 'Test Run'
As the two vehicles will be restored off site, they must, at some stage, undertake a short journey on Network Rail between GWS Didcot and Milton Industrial Estate for transfer to to road transport. Some time ago Number 93 was examined in detail by the Society’s Vehicle Acceptance Body to investigate any potential problems in gaining the necessary “one trip” ticket for the vehicles, and we duly received a list of recommendations.
We are now undertaking a similar exercise on Number 92, though we are not permitted under Heritage Lottery Fund rules to start any restoration work on either vehicle before the bid has been processed. We have, however, been able to replace the buffer assembly and coupling removed some time ago, and give the bogies a pad exam, to enable the coach to undertake a test trip on the Society’s main demonstration line. This was the first time that the vehicle had been moved more than a few feet since it was requisitioned as an accommodation coach by C&W many years ago. The test run took place in October and, with the C&W still having occupation of the coach, some members spent a couple of hours travelling in it during the running in turn.
06 July 06 - Walkover Seats from Peters of Slough, via Australia!
We are pleased to have taken delivery of forty of the correct type of 'walkover' seats - sufficient to equip both railmotor and trailer.
These were originally fitted to a tramcar from the Glenelg Tramway which was being broken up, and have been obtained after considerable negotiation, with thanks to two Society members living in Australia : John Moore and Reg Watters.
These are exactly the correct specification seats for our vehicles having been built under licence by Peters of Slough to a patent belonging to Hale & Kilburn of Chicago.
R J Heron
The seats will only need a few minor repairs, repainting and recovering in the correct moquette. The current red leatherette will be replaced in due course with a dark brown background material with an off-white diamond pattern.
Our Thanks go to John and Reg, and to Alan Moore for providing the necessary finance for the 'repatriation'.
