New buildi style with l
Saturday 7th August proved a red-letter day for members of the York ME when the club’s brand-new workshop building was officially opened, the occasion celebrated with a display of the wide variety of work carried out by members at home during lockdown.
The project, which by the end of the year should see two new buildings in use, started with an aim to shake off a reputation amongst members that York’s track site, located alongside the East Coast main line at Dringhouses, boasted “the national collection of sheds”.
The new workshop cost £22,500 with the funds raised by members, while several also gave their time to assemble the building which was effectively supplied in kit form.
A team of members designed the new building and a concrete base was laid at the end of April. Meanwhile the materials required had been ordered and were soon delivered.
Definitely a sign of the times was the fact that before construction began on 19th May, the team tackling the project were given a tutorial by the building supplier, by means of the Zoom online conferencing tool!
Giant Meccano
Writing in the York newsletter, project member Ted Burdge described the build process as a bit like “giant Meccano”. Parts were identified, the steel cut to size and drilled, and then firstly the sides made up flat and bolted together. Then everyone on site was called together to lift each side vertical and bolt it in place.
By the following Saturday the basic frame was rapidly taking shape, even though Friday’s work activity had been rained off. It was finished on Monday 24th, despite much head scratching over the fitting of the roller and personnel doors.
Within a week most of the cladding was on and with everincreasing enthusiasm the project proceeded swiftly, the floor concreted and the first machine tool, a Bridgeport mill, moved in by early July. The build climaxed with the opening ceremony on 7th August, attended by more than 70 club members and friends.
The new facility is certainly impressive, one member commenting in the newsletter; “hearty congratulations and thanks to the work party that have given us a facility that without doubt puts us in the top league of clubs.”
Without doubt the new workshop will enable York club members to maintain their busy and varied modelling, as evidenced by the pictures on these pages showing some of what they achieved during the months of lockdown.