Well done to everyone at Swindon Panel Sunday 29 March, and to everyone involved in the work on the site since last September, as the building foundation is now completed!

A panoramic view of the finished foundation. [James Nelhams]

The site is now completely flat, with very little left to do before brick-laying can commence.

The sleepers used as shuttering around the edge of the site will be removed and recycled and the ground filled back in (lest we should end up with a moat around the building!) The first brick-course will be laid out dry initially to obtain the correct spacing etc, and then cemented in. Contractor brick-layers will be carrying out the brick-laying, so we should see the walls rise fairly quickly!

Remember when it looked like this? This was the digging out of the site in September 2014. [Richard Antliff]

SPS and GWS volunteers also managed to uproot a large tree stump obstructing the walkway from the main platform through the site to where the building doors will be. This had been slowly dug away at over the last few weekends.

A view of the path (minus tree trunk) to where the front doors will be. The path on the left leads to an air-raid shelter (just in case). [James Nelhams]

All this hard work and exciting progress can be viewed at any Swindon Panel Day at DRC, especially on Railcar Day on Saturday 18 April, when our exhibition stand, including photos and ‘demo panel’ will be present. Why not come and visit us? Or better still, join us on the stand for an hour or two!

Soon to be the view from the Bristol Room, through the glass wall, to the west end of the panel. The view will be of the backs of the heads of the group of visitors enjoying an explanation and demonstration of the panel workings! [James Nelhams]

Hello

Unfortunately we have to report that we have been advised by Network Rail today that it is highly likely that the Swindon Area Signalling Renewal, and associated decommissioning of Swindon Panel, will be deferred for a third time.

It is not yet clear when the work would be deferred until, this is something that Network Rail will no doubt need to work out. We will report further details as soon as we know them and report as soon as we can on how this affects our plans and expectations for the future.

As you’ll be aware the building at DRC (on which the foundations were completed this week and brick-laying is soon due to commence) is only planned for completion by the end of this year, so provided the delay to the closure of the panel is not too great it should not significantly affect our planned development at Didcot. As we have said before, and seem to now be saying with disappointing regularity, delays to the panel arriving in Didcot are a benefit in that they reduce the burden of finding somewhere to securely store it until the building is ready to receive it.

Huge apologies to anyone messed about by this news, we hope you understand the circumstances that until the day we take hold of the panel we will be governed by Network Rail’s much higher level plans.

Sincere apologies to those who had agreed to give up their time for the panel recovery programme which will clearly now not take place. If you have arranged time off work that can’t be undone please let us know, there are always other tasks in progress and we will make sure you’re gainfully employed.

We understand the news is not what anyone wanted to hear, but while we are frustrated by the delay in obtaining the panel for preservation, we ask all members of the Society and the Swindon Panel family to remember that the staff of Swindon Panel and TVSC are affected in a way far more disruptive to their own lives and careers and we should treat this situation with the sensitivity the circumstances require.

We intend to still hold our AGM on 27 June, and intend to include a members’ BBQ as well (location TBC but most likely at DRC). In the more immediate future, to help you get your Swindon Panel fix, we will have our exhibition stand at the Railcar Day at Didcot on 18th April, so do come and get involved in helping us with that as well if you can. We look forward to seeing you at DRC soon!

Danny, Tom, Tim, Brian, James.

It seems like only yesterday I was writing the ‘four months to go’ article, but sure enough, by this time in three months, Swindon Panel will be closed and signal engineers will be working to bring the new TVSC Swindon workstation (expanded from the current workstation controlling Swindon-Kemble) into use.

For our part, we have been engaging contractors for the various parts of the panel move in the last month or so. About six different companies have been to the panel to look at the job required for scaffolding, jacking, lifting, haulage, etc. We have had a wide range of responses, from companies that have taken one look at the task and then nearly cried into their notebooks, to those which have approached it more confidently and said ‘it won’t be easy, but here’s how we can do it’. We are slowly narrowing down the field of prospective contractors.

We have been very pleased indeed to have made connections with a few companies with which Society supporters have connections who have been prepared to sponsor or subsidise parts of the work or work at cost price. (We definitely brought out the tea and biscuits for these!)

We have just started some new volunteer involvement in engineering the jacking and skating of the panel onto the flat roof outside. This was an area it was very difficult to engage contractors in so this is very welcome news.

In the next few weeks we hope to see some firm plans and agreements for the works, and we also have an important meeting with Network Rail at the end of March to discuss the alterations/strengthening of the building fabric we will need to do to extract the panel. This meeting will also help us to plan timescales for the work, so hopefully we should be able to commit to a date when we move in to the panel at Swindon and a date when the panel moves out. From this we will be able to arrange dates for SPS members to prepare the panel for its move and get everything ready, when your help will be much appreciated!

Keep an eye on the website for all the latest news and information, we will publish dates as soon as we know them. Thanks all for your support – the next six months will be very exiting indeed!

We continued our media crusade today with an almost-full page article in the local Swindon newspaper, the Swindon Advertiser:

Click for a larger version.

We are also on the paper’s website: http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11806309.Railway_signalling_panel_set_to_become_a_museum_piece

Thank you very much to everyone who has made the last few days of SPS media storm!

SPS gained some excellent exposure today with coverage on BBC Wiltshire’s Ben Prater Programme being interviewed by Ashley Heath at 8 o’clock this morning, and then again on BBC Points West television news.

BBC Points West’s Laura Jones tells the story.

The full television news article is available on the BBC website, and the radio show is available on iPlayer (1:05:00 into the programme). BBC Wiltshire also put an additional video on their Facebook page.

We are delighted to have been donated a CAB RIDE by First Great Western!

We will be auctioning the cab ride through February to raise funds for the panel move.

Read Full details….