Showing the rear dragbox, which requires replacing at an approximate cost of £4,000 (David Holmes)
Building the Skill Base
The 2874 Trust has been fortunate in that we were successful in receiving a grant £58,000 from The National Lottery Heritage fund (NLHF). The grant is based on our desire to preserve and develop heritage engineering skills within the voluntary sector using the restoration process as a training platform. We also aim to increase the diversity of our supporters and broaden the audience for heritage railways across the UK. We have developed a working relationship with South Gloucestershire College Berkeley Green site, (thanks to Rich Williams and his team) who have developed our web site (we received over 20,000 hits in the first month). We have also received grants from The Rowlands Trust, The Swire Charitable Trust, The Garfield Weston Foundation, The Pilgrim Trust and The Veronica Awdry Charitable Trust towards the wheel set work. A fundraising drive through The Big Give last December raised over £5,000 including an element of match funding by
raising initiatives.
The Reed Foundation - this will pay for work on our axle horns. A list of current work can be seen on our web site, but work progresses slowly and we may see a rolling chassis by the early to mid part of 2022. Obviously the two factors that affect the progress are the availability of volunteers - skilled, semi skilled and unskilled - and money. We have a hard core of good volunteers who are dedicated to restoring 2874 and seeing her steam again and a small cadre of the team who work tirelessly on finding funding and on money
Fund Raising
We have an on line shop for clothing and other items, we will shortly be looking to sell items on Ebay and of course will be attending The GWSR steam Gala scheduled this year for October. Hopefully next year we will again be able to run our Heritage Skills open day when we are able to allow small groups of people behind the scenes and to see a little of what restoration and repair involves. While visitors see 2874 slowly rising form the ashes of rust and detritus I suspect many of you do not realise how much goes on behind the scenes, constantly trying to ensure we stay in the public eye, raising funds and ensuring the funds we do raise are spent in accordance with the conditions of any award. 2874 will run again but may be with more help from you she may see that day sooner than we anticipate.
Major £6m scheme to revamp Gloucester railway station begins Work on the first phase of a £6 million scheme to improve Gloucester Railway Station is about to start. The work, being carried out by Gloucestershire County Council, will see a new entrance and exit created for the rail station car park. The improvements are part of a wider scheme to revamp the rail station including making the subway fully accessible, providing better integration between buses and trains, more cycle spaces and an improved station building. The improvements are the first phase of a £6 million project by Great Western Railway and
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Gloucester City Council, funded by a GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deal, to upgrade Gloucester Rail Station.
Great Western Star Summer 2021
