Good news for the Isle of Wight Steam Railway

The IOWSR has been awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund a first round pass in its bid to provide a rolling stock display and storage shed. The first round award of £35k will enable detailed planning to be carried out. The total cost of the project will be in the order of £1.1m.
The shed will provide 4 covered roads 4 for the equivalent of 4 coaches and an additional lean to of the same length for carriage servicing. Some of the more vunerable historic grounded coach bodies will able to be moved under cover. The shed will be of part of the key to increasing the output of restored rolling stock.

 

Great News, those beautifully rebuilt wooden carriages deserve to be out of the wind/rain/sun.

 

Its very good news and I hope that the Isle of Wight will be able to offer a true Victorian Travel Experience easily available as a day trip from the mainland.

 

There is a more detailed report on the IWSR website

http://www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk/new...eam-railways-new-changing-trains-project.html

 

Thanks for the positive comments, this project is vital to secure the future of our historic stock. It's not just the ability to protect them from the weather and display them to the visiting public that is important; the resulting reduction in routine maintenance tasks will allow more focus on restoration projects, there is a queue of carriage bodies awaiting attention.

We are already not far off from offering the Victorian travel experience on every operating day - the most modern coach that you can ride in (LBSC 2416) was built in 1924. On single train operating days the train routinely consists of a mixture of Victorian and Edwardian stock. On two-train service days there is normally a train of bogies and a train of 4 wheelers, this year we have two Victorian engines to pull them -'Calbourne' and 'Freshwater' with the possibility of a re-boilered 'Newport' later in the season.

More details of the 'Changing Trains' project can be found on the IWSR website -
http://www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk/news/latest-news/237-hlf-makes-initial-funding-award-for-steam-railways-new-changing-trains-project.html

 

Excelent news for IoW!

 

Excellent news! For goodness sake put the very best fire precautions in the plans from the word go!