WHR(P) Heritage Train and Museum Plans

An article from the WHR Ltd Journal with details of plans for the WHR Heritage Train and Museum

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2009 and all that...... Vice Chairman Chris Dearden outlines our plans for a heritage train and an improved museum by 2009.

If there's one question I seem to get asked more than any other it is: "so what will the WHR Ltd be doing in 2009?"

The answer seems relatively simple...... running a heritage train and developing an improved museum on our present site. The reality, of course, is much more complicated – what do we need to build, and restore? And how much will it cost?

The Heritage Train

Restoring Russell, the only surviving WHR locomotive, is our most important project between now and 2009. Russell is not just an appropriate and powerful locomotive to haul a future heritage train, it's also regarded by many as the flagship locomotive of the Welsh Highland Railway, and the locomotive that many enthusiasts want to see on the finished line. It's no exaggeration to say that the credibility of the company rests on being able to provide Russell – completed and polished to perfection – on opening day 2009.

Money wise, Russell's restoration will cost in the region of £75,000. The appeal to raise this cash has got off to a good start, raising £25,000 in just a few months; but more money is needed, and quickly, if we're to be sure of completing this project on time.

It's our hope to have the Baldwin ready as soon as possible after 2009, though a much more significant sum of money is needed to restore this locomotive to running order. A detailed estimate has put the cost in the region of £165,000 for the locomotive, plus a further £60,000 for a new boiler.

We are currently looking into possible grant applications as a way of raising the money needed to restore the Baldwin to working order. One condition attached to most grant applications is that work must not start until all the money is in place and you have a definite yes from the grant giver; thus very little practical work is likely to take place on the Baldwin until we have sorted

As for carriages, this is what we need to get together in the next two years:
- Gladstone Coach: 1891 observation car...... in service but needs work on couplings
- Buffet Car: 1893 Ashbury carriage...... undergoing rebuild with grant from PRISM fund
- Hudson Toastrack: 1924 WHR open coach...... in service but major work needed on wheels
- Ashbury 25: replica of 1893 carriage, sister to Buffet Car...... likely cost over £23,000
- Rheidol Van: 1902 brake and luggage van...... in service but needs major work on brake system and couplings.

Plans are being put together to build replica of one of the original WHR Pickering Brake carriages, though this may have to wait until after 2009.

You'll notice that all of our carriage fleet requires work of some description. Even allowing that the work on the Buffet Car is covered by a grant from the Museums Libraries and Archives Council PRISM Fund, we're talking in the region of £37,000, including the estimated £23,430 for the new Ashbury 25.

Low key fund raising has been going on to raise this money over the past few months, partly to avoid a clash with the higher profile appeal to restore Russell. An appeal to life members of the company has raised over £10,000 in a very short period of time, while further major donations of £6,000 have also been promised – thanks to all who contributed.

A new appeal – the Welsh Highland Heritage Train Fund – will be launched in the near future to raise further funds for this work.

WHR Museum – What's the Story?

Museum can be a confusing phrase, as it doesn't just refer to the exhibition in the Big Shed at Gelerts Farm. Our visitors’ experience of the museum should really start when they step onto the platform at Porthmadog (WHR) station, continuing with the heritage train itself.

Focusing on the exhibitions at Gelerts Farm, things that we need to improve fall into four categories:
- Better displays
- Museum accreditation
- Professional input
- More space

"Better displays" is fairly self explanatory, though it also covers the need for more hands-on and interactive things, and for greater use of technology. "Museum accreditation" means achieving the standards of care, documentation and organisation to be officially recognised by the government's museum authorities. We're also hoping to form a partnership with another museum to bid for a grant towards a paid museum officer (the "professional input" mentioned above), though there’s still lots of work to be done on this.

The heading "more space" includes a plan which has already been referred to here: the 3-4-5 Shed. We've commissioned two artists impressions of this new building to give a better idea of where this building will go, what it will look like and the sort of impression it will create for the visitor. The 3-4-5 Shed will give us space to make the displays less cramped, as well as allowing us to display more locomotives, stock and other items (such as model railways, heritage signs and other historic objects). It will also allow us to provide better access to displays (such as ramps, and bring more things undercover.

We're still discussing exactly what will go in the new building, and where. The first stage of that discussion can be summed up in the phrase: "what's the story?" What we need to decide is the theme for our new museum; what we want a visitor to our railway to learn.

Obviously one answer to that question is "the story of the Welsh Highland and Ffestiniog Railways", and it may be that we'd want to stop there. However, it's probably a good idea to look at putting the story of the WHR & FR in a wider context, partly because we have plenty of things on site (Karen, LYd2 diesels, ex-RAF wagons) which have no WHR pedigree beyond having been based on our line for a varying number of years. Some suggestions so far have included:

1) "Porthmadog to Port Elizabeth" - The story of how the 2' gauge started in the quarries of North Wales, spread down the hill to Porthmadog, then around the rest of the world.

2) "North Wales Quarry Railways" - How and why narrow gauge railways were used in North Wales.

3) "History of the WHR & FR" - What it says on the tin – we restrict ourselves to displays which have a direct WHR/FR relevance

Each of these has its merit. The first idea manages to take in a lot of the things which are on site already, but is a very wide definition. The second is a slightly more focused story, but rules out popular exhibits such as Karen and Badco (the diesel with the buttons for children to press). Over the next few weeks, we'll be working on these suggestions, so I'd welcome any thoughts or contributions on the overall theme for the future.

You'll probably have spotted by now that there's an awful lot of work to be done over the next two years. However, the Board certainly believes the rewards are worth the effort; I hope that at the end of it, we'll have achieved not only some impressive results, but a meaningful role for our company in future years.