AROUND THE MUSEUM SITE
Members who attended the Midland Red Day at the end of October have, hopefully, noticed one recent change to the site. That is the appearance of the Midland Red wheel motif above both of the doors of the Shire Hall. These were painted by our signwriter Allan Rushby who has done all the recent signs erected at the Museum. Also Malcolm Keeley prepared and painted the pillar in the centre of each door into Midland Red green; i.e. the colour that company used to paint its garage door frames. Together with the three Midland Red buses just inside the doors, these improvements begin to give the feel you really are at a Midland Red garage. Less immediately obvious (but with the weather as diabolical as it was most people will have visited the café) is the wooden Midland Red wheel motif in the café, again refurbished and repainted by Allan, prior to being put on the wall. Below it is a number of long service award certificates from Midland Red. The café décor has also been improved by a number of new pictures uncovered whilst clearing the railway carriages.
Talking of the railway carriages, much progress has been made in clearing a second carriage for additional displays in the 2001 season. Fred Withers and Bill Hyatt have done most of the work here, cursing the length of some of the screws put in when the carriage was originally converted to the Master Cutler Restaurant. Rather than just move things about, a concerted effort is being made to sort out the contents of the carriages at the same time. To this end, Toddington (Gloucester and Warwickshire Railway) have taken a lot of railway related items which both gives us space and a healthy donation. Anything that looks like potential archive or display material has been put together for sorting over the winter and items not required by the Trust will no doubt find their way into the shop to generate extra income. Finally, all the bus crew uniforms the Trust owns are being brought together and wardrobes acquired so they can be properly hung.
As far as the part of the carriages not open to the public is concerned, Matt Fell completed the laying of slabs for an access path and a lock was put in the mess room door so that the main door does not need to be opened. Another minor niggle was corrected when a phone that works was installed in the carriages. Now when the workers are drinking tea and the phone rings it can be quickly answered whereas previously there was a long dash to the workshop in time to pick up the phone just as the person at the other end rang off.
The winter rains had started before the final open day making parking on the grass inadvisable. Thought was given as to how to maximise the car parking space on site and to this end kerbing just inside the entrance barrier was removed to allow cars to park there. These newly created spaces were indeed used and the car parking did just cope (but would it if the weather on the day had remained dry?)
After the open day the Museum was put on winter footing with the notice outside the gate being changed and the toilet arrangements being changed to a single uni-sex facility to minimise the risk of frost damage. As we all know this autumn has seen unusual amounts of rain and some of this has ended up in the pit, requiring serious bailing out before it can be used. Since preventing the water getting in is not a practical proposition, a pump is being organised which will at least make emptying it easier. As mentioned in the engineering report, great thought was given to how to organise the parking of vehicles so that people can work on their various projects without having to first move other vehicles or get in each others way. To this end the electric vehicle work area has moved to alongside the woodwork shop, the space vacated adjacent to the pit being available for any vehicle that will become immobile whilst work is carried out. The LD8, Southport open topper and S12 are then in the next line giving access for work with a gangway wide enough to take the gantry if required. So far this arrangement seems to be working well.
The main entrance gates have been causing some problem recently and being steel they make a lot of noise. By kind permission of the caravan club we were able to put a restraining hawser to hold the gatepost upright and prevent the two gates clashing. Also various pieces of rubber have been added to avoid metal to metal contact but they still make some noise. Everyone who comes into the museum and needs to open or close the gates is asked to try to minimise the banging and clanking this makes
Phil Ireland
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
A registered educational charity no 507191
