Thank you to everyone who attended the Swindon Panel Demonstrators’ Workshop Day on Saturday.
28 SPS members, including some new faces, took part in “Welcome Host” training delivered by Tourism South East, plus an explanatory tour of the other signalling attractions on the DRC site and a general look around the Railway Centre.
We hope you all found it useful – we certainly came away with a lot of things to think about and great ideas for the future!
Swindon Panel Society is holding a Workshop for volunteer demonstrators on 16 March.
There are still places available, and as you’ll see there are some good opportunities for us all to improve our skills, whatever our background level of signalling experience.
If you might be interested in demonstrating Swindon Panel to visitors at Didcot Railway Centre – please get in touch!
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Hello everyone,
Thank you for volunteering to attend the SPS Demonstrators’ Workshop day!
We have constructed the timetable for the day to hopefully enable everyone to get the best from it, as you’ll see from the schedule below. To avoid overwhelming the different aspects of the day there will be two groups, with slightly different times.
*** Please could I ask everyone to let me know their preference for Group A or Group B or if you don’t mind either please let me know and I will allocate you to even out the group numbers. ***
The most important important parts of the day are the Welcome Host for Volunteers training programme from Tourism South East, and the Didcot Railway Centre signalling tour. These are great (and expensive!) opportunities, so let’s all try to make the best out of them. Our panel-specific skills are of secondary importance on this day.
A buffet-style lunch will be provided (if anyone has any allergy etc requirements please let me know).
Recognising that many attendees will already be fully comfortable with operating the panel, the ‘Panel’ items have been put at the start and end of the day so that those already familiar with how it works can arrive late or depart early if they wish. Group A has this at the end of the day, so the ‘fixed’ part of Group A’s day is 0915-1545, with as much ‘Swindon’ time after that as you wish. Group B has this at the end of the day, so the ‘fixed’ part of Group B’s day is 1100-1700, with as much ‘Swindon’ time on the start of that as you wish.
Group A:
0915 fixed start time
0930 – 1230: Welcome Host for Volunteers Training Programme, run by Tourism South East
1230 – 1300: Lunch
1300 – 1500: Tour of the other signalling exhibits in the building, Radstock and Frome signal boxes, and DRC in general.
1545 onwards Swindon Panel explanations and practice (optional). If you are already familiar with the operating of the panel then please don’t feel obliged to attend this part.
Group B:
Arrival until 1100: Swindon Panel explanations and practice (optional). If you are already familiar with the operating of the panel then please don’t feel obliged to attend this part. The panel will be open from 9am (approx!)
1100 – 1300: Tour of the other signalling exhibits in the building, Radstock and Frome signal boxes, and DRC in general.
1300 – 1330: Lunch
1330 – 1645: Welcome Host for Volunteers Training Programme, run by Tourism South East
1700 finish (unless you would like to ‘play’ on the panel for longer!)
Many thanks to everyone for contributing your time to Swindon Panel. This Workshop will hopefully improve all our skills at handling visitors and delivering demonstrations, no matter what our background level of signalling experience.
If there are any queries please let me know.
Remember to please let me know your preference for Group A, B or ‘don’t mind’!
Many thanks
Danny Scroggins