news archive

CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) has partnered with eBay for Charity, the charity programme on eBay.co.uk, to bring you the Give it up for Charity Challenge. The Give it up for Charity Challenge will run throughout October as part of National Giving Week, CAF's annual campaign to increase the overall level of charitable giving. This is your opportunity for everyone to support our charity while buying and selling on eBay.co.uk

The Give it up for Charity Challenge is free and simple. All you need to do is to sell items on eBay.co.uk in October and donate between 10% and 100% to WTHT. Through the eBay for Charity programme, WTHT will automatically receive the donations, Gift Aid (where possible) and eBay fees. In addition, during the challenge, charities that raise the most (relative to size) could benefit from national media attention, exposure on eBay.co.uk and special awards.

Anything put up for sale through the eBay for Charity programme not only appears on the eBay worldwide marketplace in front of more than 200million users, but are also highlighted with a distinctive blue and yellow ribbon, making them easy for people to find. Everyone has something (or many things) that they can give up and sell for our charity. So clear out your clutter and trawl through your treasures, and start supporting our charity!

Growing the Railways in the North West Transport 2000 on 15 September 2006 launched ‘Growing the Railways in the North West’ calling on the Government to plan for a growing railway network as it prepares to produce its new 30-year strategy on the future of rail in 2007. Campaigners warn that if rail is not expanded then, the country’s railways and roads will reach gridlock in a matter of decades, as more people are forced off our crowded trains on to already congested roads.

After some discussion with our supplier, polo shirts are now available in white with the logo in full colour on the left breast. Sizes available are S, M, L and XL. Price is £9 per shirt. If you would like to order, please send a cheque (payable to WTHT) for the required number of shirts to Alistair, remembering to state the sizes required.

Workington Wheels

Written by member Derek Woodruff, Workington Wheels is an A5 size, 48 page collection of extraordinary travellers tales.

Stories of humour, strange events and curious facts fill its pages. It is based mainly in Workington & West Cumbria, but would be of interest to anyone with even the faintest interest in transport.

The book is available from Allerdale Information Centre, Finkle Street, Workington at a mere £5 a copy. It can also be bought at booksellers in Workington, Whitehaven and Cockermouth. Also available by mail order from the address above at £5 a copy plus 50p P&P to cover any number of copies.

Routemasters
We continue to receive the occasional request for "a red double decker bus" for weddings. We offer 378 as an option, but usually don't hear again from enquirers. We suspect that they go to other operators with half-cab deckers and pay over £400 for the privilege. And that is just to take the wedding group from home to church, then from church to reception - they will pay extra for an "ordinary" coach to take the drunken guests back home at night after the reception.
With so many Routemasters now available from as little as £7000 (though requiring some refurbishment & repainting to make them presentable), it would be an investment for us to buy one, obtain an Operators Licence, and charge commercial rates to hire it out. This is something that your Secretary would like to look into as soon as we have bigger premises and more qualified drivers available.

Preservation Costs
EWS Railways regularly advises us of surplus vehicles for sale, including locomotives, goods vehicles, and recently 200 surplus postal vans! Whilst we would like to bid for vehicles, we have nowhere to put them! 200 postal vans sounds like a good investment, as we would imagine that they would be useful to other railways who may not have the cash or space for them at present.
Our resident railway industry insider has given us some indication of prices that we should expect to pay for surplus railway vehicles.
"Locomotives (and wagons) usually go for around about the scrap price of the useful weight of steel and other bulk metals in them. A shunter will probably go for about £3,000, a main line locomotive nearer £8,000. EWS operate a sealed bids system, so there is no visible auction process. Send your bid, wait, find out if you have won. The buyer is also responsible for paying VAT on top of the stated price, and covering all costs of removal from EWS premises. This will include road vehicle / crane costs and any EWS staff needed for safety reasons. If there is any asbestos, the buyer will also be responsible for making it safe. If you get change out of £5,000 for a shunter or £10,000 for a main liner, you have done well. Particular locomotives with enthusiast followings will attract higher prices. Any suitable for refurbishment and main line use will also sell for more. Also, every vehicle is sold "as seen". It is the buyer's responsibility to find out if it is in a suitable condition for what they want to do with it. And finally, there is nothing to stop EWS robbing bits off it after you have seen it and before you remove it ! You may be better off talking to one of the "regular buyers" such as Fragonset, Cotswold Rail or Harry Needle. They will know better how to value the locomotives and pick one that might suit your purposes, if they are sympathetic to your cause."

Boxing Day Free Bus

This ran to the same timetable as in previous years, every hour from Seaton to Harrington between 9.15am and 5.45pm. Apart from a problem with the doors which was quickly fixed, albeit temporarily, 378 ran faultlessly. Nearly 160 passengers were carried (twice as many as in our first year), including some very healthy loads, and £21 was received in donations. There seemed to be much more activity around the town on Boxing Day than on New Years Day, perhaps because people are keen to get out of the house after being cooped up with relatives on Christmas Day! So look out for a repeat performance next Christmas.

Two drivers are the minimum required to comply with drivers hours rules, and we had only two available on the day! This is a weakness, which is why we are keen to obtain a grant to get others trained. But we had a choice of couriers to keep the crowds in order.

378 on the Free Boxing Day Service pictured at Harrington

Our thanks to Richard Martin at Stagecoach for allowing us to use the bus station and for the offer of a bus if 378 failed. Thanks also to the News & Star for the publicity picture of Santa's helper at the door of 378! We did not apply for any grants to run the service this year, our estimated costs of £50 fuel and £20 printing being met from our own funds.

Accessions and Equipment

We have acquired the out-of-use petrol pump and hosepipe from the closed garage on Distington Main Street. This is an Avery Hardoll pump with mechanical clock-face type fuel counter. It is still intact, including gauge glasses, apart from the illuminated top globe which was acquired by a collector in the Cockermouth area.
Joan Crellin of Infirmary Road, Workington, has donated us a small "Pratts" petrol can, oxy-acetylene welding kit and an industrial battery charger, which we have collected. These will be checked over to see if they can be of further use to us.
Irving Scott, chairman of Workington Heritage Group has donated a large rectangular oil drum with built-in hand vacuum pump. This dates from around 1923. It was reported as still being oil-tight, but appears to have suffered from being disturbed as it has developed a leak in the base!
All these items were collected in December using a Luton with tail-lift rented at a favourable rate by Hall Brow Services.
Geoff Higgins, our archivist, is looking into the history of the petrol pump loaned from Helena Thompson Museum. The pump may have come from Thornthwaite garage, but opinions differ! It is marked "Wayne & Co 1926 Patent 235835 No. 276". He has found a website dedicated to such items, and is investigating its patent reference to find out more about it's history.