The Workshop

This is our home at the end of platforms 1 and 2 at Bury Bolton Street Station – 12 March 2011 – (Copyright Danny Jones)

Working outside is fine – when the sun is shining, but what is it like when it is raining, or dark, or both? Worse still, what if it is snowing and the temperature is below freezing? Well, we did do a lot of work in such conditions but progress was not very rapid and only the really dedicated could be counted on to turn up every week

It gradually dawned on us that if we were ever to get 80097 running again we would have to find secure, covered accomodation. So we decided to build our own shed.

After much deliberating and a couple of false starts, we came to an agreement with the ELR that if we cleared the tons of debris that filled the old platform 1 area of Bolton Street Station, we could build our own shed there. Several weekends of hard graft followed and around 20 lorry loads of soil, rock, trees and general rubbish were cleared from the site. In the meantime a building was designed and planning permission granted.

Instead of the original concept of a short term structure, we are now the proud owners of a 60′ x 24′ engine shed, complete with a full length pit built with re-inforced concrete. Alongside the pit we have a number of machine tools including a centre lathe, universal miller, surface grinder, radial arm drill and shaper. We also have MIG, TIG, MMA and gas welding equipment and apart from machining jobs too big for our own machines, we are able to tackle the majority of machining operations in house.

As well as manufacturing parts for our own locos and wagons, we occasionally help out with jobs for other groups on the ELR. Our volunteers have over the past few years repaired or made new parts for coaches, diesels, other steam locos, signalling and trackwork.