HLF - WE MADE IT!
Well, we made it! The Power Hall opened for business on the first May Bank Holiday weekend with virtually everything complete. It is unlikely the public noticed the odd things that were not quite right being completely overwhelmed by the changes to the site. By the second May Bank Holiday everything was in place apart from the Isle of Man Guy Otter, which is still receiving attention.
Once again the fact that everything was ready in time was due to a lot of hard work by both the professionals and our volunteers. As well as the hall interior, the area in front of the hall has been developed as a bus station. Amongst the work done here, Ray Ward used the setts acquired many years ago to fill in the pavement area opposite the new hall. Whilst initially some areas looked somewhat unkempt, turf in the bus station area and grass seed elsewhere soon improved the situation. New hawthorn hedging has also been planted at a couple of points on our boundary.
With our buses being largely immobile over the winter and lots of activity going on that made dust – by both the builders and ourselves – most vehicles needed washing. Having realised that the platform used for reaching the upper parts of double-deckers was getting decidedly unsafe, it was condemned to the scrap heap and a new, purpose built, platform acquired. This is easily moved on the concrete surface and makes bus washing much easier. To make life even easier Ray set up hose reels with hoselock connections at either end of the yard.
As expected the café improvements were well received. An additional facility for visitors when the café is not staffed is a vending machine selling hot drinks.
Vehicle work has concentrated on the vehicles to go in the Power Hall, those required for Museum services and on-going long term projects. Only the Otter now remains to be finished in the former category. The Crosville Bristol L5G, Wendaway BMMO S23 and Cheltenham Bristol FSF have all now passed their tests for this year. One of our Class V tested buses, the open top BMMO D9 had shock absorbers changed in anticipation of it being used on the car park shuttle in late May but a test run identified a brake problem so this idea was dropped; perhaps as well given what the weather did to that event day.
Phil Ireland
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
A registered educational charity no 507191
