For more details of a particular date, please see below the calendar.

KEY:

Swindon Panel Days

and

GWS Civil Engineering Group Days

Swindon Panel Days are the days on which we meet, generally at Didcot Railway Centre, to carry out practical work on the project. This is mainly work relating to the new building at the moment. The GWS Civil Engineering Group generally meet on both weekend days when SPS meets on a Saturday or Sunday, and everyone is welcome to join in on those days too. Details of any specific tasks coming up will be published here:

DRC Work Weeks

Didcot Railway Centre host ‘work week’ in the summer, where as many volunteers as possible are encouraged to attend in order to tackle some of the really big jobs. This year Swindon Panel Society will have a sufficient volume of its own work to warrant joining in ‘work week’. SPS volunteers will be engaged in work in the panel building, internal fixtures and fittings etc, and a lot of work will also be going on in wiring up the panel to make it work to its simulator. More details will be published nearer the weeks.

Additional Exhibition Stand Days

Our exhibition stand does vital work spreading the word about our organisation and attracting new people. These are always fun days to attend, no special skills are required, as long as you can chat to people and hand out leaflets you’ll be perfect! Why not join us and help out on one of the days (or part of a day) above?

Special Events

These include our popular visits and activities around the area.

30 April – “Welcome to Didcot” Day – An opportunity for SPS to welcome its panel and its members to Didcot! Come and visit the panel, in its new home, and have a good look around the building and the panel before work starts on its restoration. Will also feature a photo presentation on the move and guest speaker from the Great Western Society. More details…

26 June – AGM

Panel Move Operations

We plan to move the panel from Swindon Panel to Didcot in the spring of 2016. Work will be taking place in Swindon and Didcot in the weekends between the closure and the move.
March 5/6, 12/13, 19/20 and 26/27 will all be in Swindon preparing for the move, which is pencilled in to take place on 2/3 April. The installation into the building at Didcot is pencilled in to take place on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 April.

More details.

Operations Board

Our Society’s Operations Board meets on Monday evenings. This is the mechanism through which we are designing and confirming the signalling-related aspects of the preservation, such as the infrastructure that will be included on the panel itself and how it will be operated. These meetings are conducted via Skype Conference from 7:30 – 9:00pm. The Operations Board is always happy to welcome new faces (or voices), especially from a signalling or signal engineering background. More dates are progressively added in blocks as our work progresses.

Santa Days

In December we have historically helped Didcot Railway Centre in the delivery of their Santa Days. The Santa days are really important to the financial success of the Railway Centre, so we are delighted to help out for the greater cause in this way.