Second grant fuels West Lancashire Light Railway’s post-Covid comeback
THE West Lancashire Light Railway has been awarded £10,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for improvements at its Hesketh Bank headquarters.
The grant will help make the 2ft gauge railway more accessible to visitors and staff with disabilities by providing an access ramp for its new wheelchair-friendly carriage, new gardening tools for use by volunteers with additional requirements, and a site accessibility survey by a disabled persons’ advocate.
Education and training
The money will also boost its work with schools by providing information packs for teachers and pupils, and finance new storyboard interpretation panels and improved welcome signage.
As part of its post-Covid restart programme, the grant will provide for competency and asset management training for volunteers, food hygiene courses and digital membership records training.
It will also provide finance to extend and improve wi-fi coverage, with live streaming to its website, and contribute towards professional help for revision of its business plan.
Chairman Michael Spall said: “After a long enforced lay-off, the grant has come at a very opportune time to help us once more share our love of heritage steam with the public.”
The grant follows in the wake of an £18,900 award from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund (issue 279) to cover losses during the pandemic. That grant covered loss of income from the cancellation of events, competency training for staff in safety-critical roles, materials for track maintenance, fuel supplies, locomotive materials and personal protective equipment, upgrading the new footpath from the car park and advertising and publicity.
Two locomotives, Bagnall 0-4-0ST Sybil and Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-0T Montalban, are set to return to steam on the line next year following overhauls.
New boiler
The former Dinorwic slate quarry Bagnall is being restored by the Sybil Locomotive Trust, the work having included the construction of a new boiler. Built in 1906, an unusual Bagnall interloper among the famous quarry’s many Hunslet saddle tanks, Sybil worked there for more than 50 years and was preserved in 1965 at the private Inney Valley Railway in Cornwall. Montalban last steamed in 2014, when its boiler certificate was about to expire and a retube was needed. It has since made slow progress as manpower was directed towards the construction of Sybil’s new boiler, and more recently because of the pandemic.
However, Montalban’s overhaul has accelerated in recent months, with the frames rewheeled and the boiler refitted. Owner Keith Nicholls said: “Extensive boiler work has been undertaken; in fact more than absolutely necessary, such that the need for further repairs will be minimised for many years to come.
“A new smokebox, steam manifold and the renewal of all stays are examples of the extra work.
“It’s likely that Montalban and Sybil will be complete around the same time, both being in traffic next year.”