Carriage Sheds

The likelihood is that the windows will shatter well before the roof is breached, hence my comment earlier that sprinklers are unlikely to be able to act directly onto the seat of the fire and the main advantage of sprinklers is to restrict damage/spread to adjacent vehicles - you wouldn't wish to lose all your stored vehicles at one go would you - hence my also earlier comment on compartmentation being a good idea to divide the shed where possible .

 

Fires are an unpredictable thing and experience in the past has shown that we should expect the unexpected. A fire within the vehicle is for example possible from a loco spark blown in through a open window which could smoulder for hours/days before becoming more of a major problem. Such a fire could be "well on the go" before any smoke leaves the coach to set off any smoke detection/sprinkler systems you may have etc etc.

 

Fire risks inside stored carriages have been reduced by the smoking ban - before the ban a cigarette end could smoulder unnoticed for several hours inside a carriage before bursting into flame during the night.

 

Agreed . . . .

 

In our case, which I'll admit may be rather unusual, the main concern was/is the museum exhibits, many of which would suffer much worse damage from a soaking than the vehicles and are also worth a good deal more in both a monetary and historical sense than a couple of Gresley suburbans and a GER 6-wheeler etc.

It's all a matter of risk assessment. Provided that sensible precautions are taken- no smoking, regular checking of electrics, avoiding any unnecessary build-up of flammable materials etc., the fire risk is low, probably less, in fact, than that of unintentional operation of the sprinkler system.

 

What about the Provinder pool or has that been filled in?

 

Another example of where water may be more of a problem than fire. About 15 years ago, I went on the roof tour at Winchester Cathedral (much recommended). As we walked along the inside of the nave, we could look down on the vaulting. Viewed in negative, each vault formed a large pit - think a station water tank.

Following the fire at York Minster, they'd had to bore out holes in each one, and plug them with a well known medieval building material* Why? Because if the fire brigade hoses filled the vaults, it was likely that the nave roof would collapse and destroy the whole interior at least as effectively as a fire would.

* - polystyrene

 

Very interesting site with capstan shunting. Annoyingly I know I got shots after a huge long walk round to the back of the site of the capstan in use but seem to have lost the packet of negs!


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I believe NYMR are developing plans for a coach storage shed near Pickering, but it is complex in finding a suitable site. I hope there will be some news in 2016

 

Actually, the site has been identified and terms agreed with the landowner. We're now at the stage of getting an accurate survey of the sites o we can work out what can be squeezed on to it so we get the maximum bangs for our bucks, but the project has grown beyond what was originally envisaged because it has to be regarded as a "once in a lifetime " opportunity.

 

So, in addition to a four x 8 road carriage shed, we are having a four x 2 road loco shed, ample office accommodation and state of the art volunteer accommodation and social facilities, then?
Well, I can dream.....

 

The aim has always been for 6 x 7 coach roads (well, actually 6 x 9 but we're sure that we can't manage that) but no loco provision, I'm afraid, there just isn't the room - but I believe there are plans being developed to expand and improve the provision at New Bridge (probably means running extra sidings over the pond, which will be filled in with the dead bodies of the PWay staff & volunteers!).

 

Sounds impressive. I have been around the svr carriage shed at Kidderminster soon after it was built. A very valuable facility and I will donate when the plans are released.

 

I have a slight variation on the orginal theme of this tread, so please bear with. In peoples opinions is it better to have a bigger workshop that allows you to do a long and short term project at the same time or are you better off building a storage shed to protect what you've restored and accept the lower through put?

 

The answer in short is both as both the Bluebell and Severn Valley have found. A lot depends on the maturity of the railway. Nearly all started out restorations in the open progressing to polytunnels and eventually some sort of shed. Storage sheds came later as it was realised that restored stock was returning for re restoration too soon. On the SVR seperation of painting from restoration is the next issue. Using an angle grinder next to a coach with fresh varnish is not a good idea.

One other thing to consider is maintenance. in the SVR shed there is one road with a pit where an 8 car set can have the usual running repairs, e.g. brake blocking, and FTR exams. Restoration is undertaken in the Pickfords warehouse at Kidder and various facilities at Bewdley. Despite this some restorations are still done outside e.g. the stoveless R

 

I have to agree with threelinkdave both are essential for the long term future of any railways rolling stock regardless of its origin be it Mk 1s or wooden pregrouping stock!

Many years ago I had a long discussion with one Michael Draper about the virtues of having the Pickford's shed at Kidderminster for Carriage maintenance, it was intended to use it as the Passenger Station.

 

I would like to remind all that earlier on this thread we discussed the risk of Fire and how important it is to keep workshops away from storage, or at the very least have a fire break. I like the IoWSR model with totally seperate storage and workshops, and if starting from a clean slate do it right first time its worth the extra fundraising in the long term.

 

I appreciate they are both important in the fullness of time but if the pot of money will only do one or the other what would you pick ?

 

I would go for storage get as much undercover and out of the weather as you can, but then the temptation will be to do restoration in the building. Maybe start off with a small workshop, dry out and cover long term projects with tarps. The thing is its an impossible question, you either restore then leave outside, or restore outside then store inside. From the volunteer perspective you will get more if the team is in a nice warm shed. Maybe its best to hold back doing the next restoration project or two and using the fund raising time for those to invest on a proper shed and workshop now.

 

A storage shed will save money that can then be reused for the next restoration.

Tom