WYTHALL WORKS
At a time of year when we should have been able to get on with outside work unhindered, rain has resulted in time being spent dodging showers. Mick Doolan has continued to fight the battle of keeping the vegetation from taking over the site and is largely winning. One particular area which he has dealt with - which most people will not have noticed - is the space between the Blueline spares building and our boundary with the caravan club site. Here the privet hedge has been trimmed back along its whole length.
The inside of the Blueline has also received some attention with some additional shelving being provided to make the storage of brake parts more efficient. This work was done by Pete Murphy with some assistance from Tom Couling and myself. Other reorganisation has allowed some differentials and gearboxes previously stored outside to be moved inside.
Cliff Bryne has now completed work on the footbridge, the final job being to paint the stair treads and to make them non-slip at the same time. Scattering builder's sand on the still wet paint did the job. Cliff has now moved on to repainting the woodwork on the exterior of the Electric Vehicle Hall with Maurice Collignon assisting with the window frames. It is also intended to give the breeze block exterior of that hall a coat of paint to smarten appearance.
Still on painting, as well as the ex-Black & White Coachways bench, three other benches have been painted by Leo Coley.
I mentioned the amount of rainfall recently. During one heavy downpour Lloyd Penfold was on site and noticed the gully drain across our public car park was not doing its job. Undeterred by the rain he immediate set about clearing it and spent most of the day getting the drain flowing again. It was good to stand by it after a more recent downpour and hear the water still flowing.
One aspect of running the Museum that is never ending is keeping the buildings and the exhibits clean. Alan Shadforth has recently been keeping on top of this job in the Power Hall. Other stalwarts who keep on top of this job include Phil Hoole who regularly brushes out the Class VI fleet and cleans our toilets, Mick Green whose speciality is windows but will clean anything else that looks dirty, Maurice Collignon who does the weekly rubbish collection and other cleaning, Bob Williamson who helps Maurice with the rubbish and takes away anything recyclable, and Paul Gray who regularly checks and cleans the public toilets. There is also the crew who are often seen washing the buses prior to event days, including Kieran Wells, Martin Lowry, Dave Hales and James Munro, to name but a few.
Phil Ireland
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
A registered educational charity no 507191
