Work Week at Didcot Railway Centre by Ann Middleton

EACH summer, Didcot Railway Centre has a Work Week during the first few days of August, which is the chance for our volunteers to catch up on maintenance and do projects that take longer than a weekend. Strictly speaking, it lasts nine days, starting one Saturday morning and finishing on the following Sunday.

You don’t have to work all nine days, but can pick and choose whichever days suit you best. One of our volunteers, Richard Pope, spent five days at Didcot cleaning and painting old road signs and railway signals. Other members of the signal and telegraph departments were clearing vegetation so that engine drivers had a clear view of the track and signals; repairing a small petrol-engined trolley used to take track workers to and from their place of work; and installing some of the exhibits in our new Controlling the Trains exhibition. Elsewhere, people were repairing and painting wooden fences; carrying out finishing touches to genuine Great Western buildings which have been rebuilt at Didcot; and cleaning up and repainting station name boards.

By joining in one of these activities our volunteers learn a lot about the Great Western Railway, the way in which railways in general operated and the amazing range and variety of material which has been preserved over the 49 years since we moved to Didcot. Our volunteers are happy to give up their time and share their knowledge of the railway, and there are some real characters amongst the Didcot regulars.

Other attractions during Work Week include Workers' Playtime, when we let our volunteers drive a steam engine under supervision on our half-mile-long main demonstration line. In 2016 we used the engine we have hired for the summer from the Rocks by Rail Museum at Cottesmore in the county of Rutland. It’s a great feeling to be in control of the power of steam, even on a small engine like this one.

Work Week also offers an outing to a place of railway or related interest. The 2016 outing was to Fawley, near Henley, where Sir William McAlpine has built up a collection of working steam engines and rolling stock, together with a collection of road vehicles and other survivals from the pre-computer age.

Restoring and maintaining all our exhibits is labour-intensive, and we always welcome new volunteers. But it’s worth it to hear visitors complimenting us on the centre.