HLF – FINGERS CROSSED!

This note is difficult to write as I’ve got my fingers crossed – and anything else that can be crossed – that the railway carriages will finally be leaving the Museum site in the next few days. All four are just shells at present and the plan is that they will each be cut in half, craned on to a lorry and taken off to be finally broken up. There will also be a steel scrap skip for the steps, trestles that the coaches stand on, and any other steel scrap there is on our site.

The other major development on the HLF front is that the tender documentation was issued to potential construction contractors in late May. These are due to be returned by 22 June, so at that point we will really know what it is going to cost! The contractors have also been asked to state their preferred construction period so there will, no doubt, be a period of negotiation on cost and timing before the contractor to do the work is finally chosen.

Partly due to the work put in to the HLF project, and partly because it is not worth doing things that you know will change once the HLF development gets under way, there is little to report on changes to the site. The usual routine jobs of keeping the site presentable have continued and thanks are due to all those who do this week in week out, and have even more to do after each event day.

One job we hope does not become too much of a recurring theme is dealing with the sign to the Museum outside Beckett’s farm shop. During the winter the official sign was knocked down in a road traffic accident and despite requests it had not been replaced by the highway authority by the time the Museum opened at Easter. Consequently we put one of our own temporary signs there but now that has been demolished in yet another traffic accident! This sign is being straightened and re-welded before it is put out again.

Phil Ireland

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