Fairbourne goes green
AS part of a recovery grant from the Welsh Government's Economic Resilience Fund Phase 3, the Fairbourne Railway has installed solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of its Rowen Centre building.
The panels will generate around 12kw of electrical power at peak times and are expected to cut the railway's electricity bill by around 50%. They are also anticipated to save around 3000Kg of CO2 emissions over a year.
At times, the system's generation capacity exceeds the demands of the railway and could export to the National Grid, but is not yet set up to do so because the railway's energy supplier is not registered to accept it, so any excess is being diverted to provide hot water in the cafe and workshops.
Other work funded under the recovery scheme has included shortening the separate former office building (now used as a store) by moving the rear wall forward, reducing the depth of the building. In turn, this has allowed the carriage siding alongside Beach Road to be extended past the building back to the current museum, which will allow exhibits such as out of ticket locomotives to be moved in and out easily.
The carriage siding is dual 12¼in and 15in gauge, so could provide a home for a 15in gauge locomotive, should anyone wish to exhibit one there.