"Top Shed" Articles

The next step in bringing the former Workington Shed to Loughborough…

"On some days in the summer it can be quite nice," says Steve Peach, one of the minders from Serco, assigned to look after the Great Central team. Today is not one of those days. Inside the mighty stone walls of Workington’s nineteenth century shed the bone chilling wind is gone, but then so has the roof. There is no escaping the penetrating drizzle. Railway preservation; a life of glamour. Scattered around the shed’s cavernous interior are Steve's charges. Orange coats make them stand out, but they are still dwarfed by the building they are surveying. Our Chief Engineer and the brains behind the shed relocation project Tom Tighe is on a mission. He and his team have three days to catalogue, measure and photograph as much of this former cumbrian motive power depot as possible before the experts move in to carefully dismantle it later this year.

Standing inside the building you can't escape the feeling the last locomotives have only just left. Track, inspection pits, stop blocks. All present and correct. In fact it was 1968, almost four decades ago that Workington shed was closed for business, and since then has only been used as a signing on point for drivers of short diesel multiple units. If that sense of history is tantalising, it's even more exciting to stand in front of the ten track building and picture its future. An early morning perhaps a few years from now and smoke is beginning to show from the roof vents. The doors are pushed back to reveal two large locomotives being prepared for a day’s work. A black five and beside it, every inch the star of the show a Britannia - "Oliver Cromwell". A little while later they have left the shed apron for Loughborough Central. In the meantime a DMU has brought a party of enthusiasts to the restoration shed so they can catch up on the progress of... Well who knows? What's important is the recreation of a steam motive power depot, just the way it was sometime before the end of steam.

Back to the rainy Workington present. The shed stands as a low slung building against the skyline. Its survival is incredible. It echoes the whole station area. This lonely backwater of Britain’s railway network has long since been demoted to bus shelters on spartan platforms. At Workington though the ornate station building survives complete with two long platforms protected by canopies. At each end a mechanical signalbox controls a selection of semaphore signals. Incredibly there are still two through roads in the centre of the station and an avoiding loop! How much traffic they see is clear from the rusty state of the rails. The shed seems just another piece of this 'forgotten' Victorian scene. Forgotten until earlier this year that is, when its fate was almost sealed. Finally it had been earmarked for demolition. The remains of the glass and asbestos making up the roof was being removed.

Two hundred or so miles further south, the engine shed at Loughborough was causing other headaches. Cold, dark and only just waterproof, this building, which once stood isolated and is now half surrounded by houses, couldn't really continue to provide the sheltered accommodation we need. Actively seeking a solution which would please everyone, negotiations with the council regarding the use of the former refuse tip site had been ongoing for some time.

Tom Tighe has only been to Workington shed once before - in 1967. Returning on a cycling holiday in 2004 he found this derelict shell - and knew then and there it could be the new Loughborough Locomotive Works. He admits the heart fluttered first - but then the "brain takes over". It's a simple yet audacious challenge. Dismantle a building the size of a city centre supermarket and then rebuild it in the midlands
Yes it could be done. The decision was taken to intervene. The demolition of the shed was halted and the project was born. Now, four months later progress is dramatic. Much of it is of course behind the scenes with funding bids being prepared and meetings being attended. Here on this wet December weekend though, is something concrete. And steel, and stone.

Alison Milton and her husband Hugh are currently manning the tape measure. Carefully and methodically as many of the key dimensions as possible are being measured. How far from the wall is the closest track? How tall are the key steel members and how deep the pits? Like a jigsaw, it's good to have the picture on the box so you know where you are going before you start. This weekend is all about drawing that picture. When the shed is in more than a hundred pieces it will be too late!
Tom likes to keep his workforce in the family. His sister Anne and brother-in-law John are also here, wading through the damp weeds and avoiding the deep oil trap pits. Fingers have turned red in the cold whilst the pencil is gripped tightly. The job must be done in one weekend.

While the plans for the future location of the shed have already been discussed (see Friends news 8) the specifics of how the shed might look once it is reassembled at Loughborough haven't. Tom explains, "The shed is currently divided exactly in two. There is a wall down the middle and five tracks (called "roads" in railway slang) either side. We'll keep the split, and assign each half a different purpose. One side will be the running shed, and this is the side that currently retains its doors. This will keep all five roads and be capable of holding around ten large engines. In the roof here, expect to see proper smoke troughs. Lighting up an engine inside the shed will be a correctly ventilated affair, ideal on filthy wet days. The other side will change a little. We'll only have three roads and this will be the restoration and overhaul side." Three roads only gives a capacity of six engines but leaving out every other road will mean there is room to properly move around each engine and get at the job in hand - something sadly lacking in the current shed.
There are a number of smaller buildings at the back of the shed, little more than brick shells. These won't be coming to Loughborough. The rear of the rebuilt shed will feature a new block built wall. Behind that will be a lean to which is where tools and stores will be kept and a machine shop will be arranged. There will also be a washroom, messroom and signing on point. The stonewalls of the shed will be heading south, but the bricks at the very top which enclose the roof won't be. A source of local bricks is being investigated as a replacement.
Meanwhile finishing touches will be applied with carefully salvaged original fittings. Not much remains in this line but what there is, is definitely worth having. There are some stylish fifties type light fittings both inside and out. By the time you read this they will be safely in our possession. Also bound for Leicestershire a considerable amount of plain rail and pointwork that should be re-useable.

This weekend isn't just about clipboards and measurements. There are other important jobs in the offing. With approaches to various funding agencies already underway (and of course one already successful to the tune of one hundred thousand pounds from the Railway Heritage Trust) we have to prepare some supporting documents. To show we are carefully considering the rich history of the building we are taking on, we have commissioned and already undertaken some research into the lives of the men who used to work here. Even as late at 1965, just three years ahead of its closure there were three hundred of them. Capturing their memories will help complete the picture of the shed and in future could form the basis of an exhibition space at Loughborough Locomotive Works. For the volunteers of the Great Central life in an engine shed is commonplace but it is still a long way from the daily routine of a 1950s railwayman. Even we have a lot to learn about how it used to be. It’s our job not just to preserve the buildings our forefathers worked in, or the engines they worked with, but their working lives themselves. This project is certainly about protecting our fleet of engines but it is just as much focused on giving them a context and then interpreting that context for our visitors of tomorrow. That’s a bold vision – but no bolder than dismantling and preserving such a large building.

In the rain, no matter how far away the goal might seem the team are earnestly completing their work. Two former shed men have come to see how we’re getting on together with a reporter from Radio Cumbria. The questions are what we’ve come to expect. “How long will it take?” “How much will it cost?” These are early days and while we can estimate, we don’t have precise answers. We have a lot of work to do, not just physically but also in bringing partners like Charnwood Borough Council on board and asking them to support us. This weekend though marks another important piece of progress in a project that will transform the way the Great Central operates and the experience we can recreate for our visitors. And the weather certainly isn’t going to stop us.


The Great Central Railway and the Loughborough Locomotive Works team would like to thank ‘SERCO’ for their support during the weekend, and to Glynn Thompson and Willie Curnow for taking the time to recount their working lives.