Another work day at the box.

As we are now shut to the public, due to the building developments, we are running PRIVATE members work days on the first Sundays of the month (the same as if we were open normally). Today, there were numerous jobs happening:



The first job was the painting of the inside of the signal box. This job is being carried out by our fantastic maintenance team, Keith and David, who give up many hours of their spear time. Their project in the winter months of the closed season is to completely repaint and renovate the inside of the signal box, whilst trying to maintain the feel of an authentic working signal box. At the moment they are working on the ceiling of the box. As you can see in the picture, development has been made since the last post, and the majority of the ceiling has been undercoated, to further this, a paint colour has been matched to the original paint of the ceiling, wood work and both colours for the walls. Once all the wall painting has been done, David and Keith will  continue with the outside of the box, which is a high priority as it is in a poor state. When we enter winter this year, Dave and Keith will look at repainting and renovating the frame, leavers and locking mechanism (not painting the locking), we are also excited with the possible addition of some full height leavers! Watch this space for more updates.






The second of the jobs being carried out today was general gardening. Neil spent the day weeding and doing some general tiding of the site and gardens. All plant beds are now clear of last years plants and are ready for this years growth. Our vegetable patch was also initiation today, as rhubarb was planted and is soon to be joined by some runner beans. This will give us something to look forward to in the autumn.






Finally, the main job of the day, was to clear the fence around the perimeter of the site as we are soon to have new, more secure, fencing installed around the Signal Box. This job was taken on by Gavin, Jamie, Peter, Josh, Tom, Ben and help from Neil. Anything we wanted to keep, i.e sleepers, slabs and cable, had to be cleared, and anything we didn't want, was left to be taken away.


In clearing the fence line, we also cleared the area where the Cowley bridge building will be located. This meant removing the slabs the small shed had been sat on and moving them somewhere safe (back of the site). We have also moved any unwanted broken pieces of slabs onto the site of Cowley bridge as this will be used as hard-core in the foundations of the building.

And we mustn't forget the most important job of the day, and that was tea drinking and cake eating, with a multitude of cakes, the 8 members who turned up were outnumber by the amount of cake.


We would like to take this opportunity to remind you again, we are not open to the public, regularly, on the first Sunday of the month, however, we are planning some special events later in the year. Also, if you are a member planning on attending one of our work days on the first Sunday of the month, please contact someone as we have to use the back entrance to the site.