King's Lynn and District Society of Model Engineers

	The Cabin Project Click on the photos to see larger images In August 2004 the Society began a project that would change the way the Society could work and run its Railway. King's Lynn and District SME's railway track had previously been sited at the Walks, a parkland area beside the King's Lynn's main line railway station. The track had been built as a raised track and was a popular attraction locally, though it was a labour intensive job to run it as we had no on-site storage and our equipment had to be stored elsewhere and brought in each time we ran. We didn't think we would have any right to build a clubhouse in public parkland either, so it was all very confusing when we got a letter from the Council withdrawing their offer of a parcel of land on which they intended us to build a clubhouse, saying that we had taken too long to respond. We didn't know the opportunity had existed! Whether the original offer letter was lost in the post or lost within the Club, what happened to it nobody knows for sure, but it was rather annoying to find this opportunity had passed us by. In any event, the Club found out it would have to up and leave the Walks in the late 1980s when the park was classed as a conservation area. The Council offered us the choice of three patches of land at the newly built Lynnsport Leisure Centre. The track was lifted from the Walks and re-installed at Lynnsport as a ground level track during 1991 and 1992. We had been loaned a 20ft shipping container to work from during the movement of the track to Lynnsport, but that had to go back to its owner once we had finished using it. The club's grounds at Lynnsport was just a green grassy field with the track running around the perimeter, no buildings, no shelter, no water or electricity; not even a shed for storage. Working parties at the Railway were therefore rather awkward and labour intensive as everything had to be brought in and taken away again afterwards - and it was usually Secretary Mike who brought tools, drinking water and the very important kettle to the Railway in his trailer. Lynnsport did offer us one on their plant rooms for storage of equipment; this room housed ducting from one of the heating boilers which made the room very hot, but it did at least keep the club's Model Engineer magazine archive warm and dry! Into this room we wedged the club's road trailer, containing portable track, a diesel generator, the club loco, passenger trolleys, some hand tools and shovels and spades. The only thing was, this plant room was around the far side of the building to the track so it was a trek to get anything to and from, and our gear was a pain for any staff wanting to service the equipment in the room. For electricity supplies, we relied on a diesel generator which we had been given. It was big, it was very heavy and it was loud, once you'd got it cranked up successfully! It also had a tendency to shake itself to bits, and in the photo above you can see a section of the exhaust has fallen off and lies on the ground beneath. It also lived in the plant room and had to be wheeled around to the track each time we wanted to use it, but it did its job and powered all our tools and most importantly, the kettle when it was teabreak time. However, it wasn't the most environmentally friendly beast... When it rained, we had no shelter so we had to sit in our cars until the cloud passed, or we got fed up and went home. What we really needed was a clubhouse with electricity and water, so we could store everything on site and hide from the rain when it came. Thoughts began circulating around working party members as how we could best do this; a brick built clubhouse would be nice but surely very expensive, a large shed wouldn't be vandal proof enough. We settled on the idea of buying a 40ft steel shipping container which would give us plenty of storage space and security for our equipment. Don and Mike spent some time tracking down a 40ft container in good condition and one was found with a local dealer, GM Walker in Stowbridge; we just had to find money to pay for it. A plea for help was sent out to the membership with the Society magazine asking for donations and we were also eligible for a Community Development Grant from the Council. With both the grant and our members donations, we had enough for the whole project; foundations, container and the internal fittings and mains electricity connection. Work began on the foundations for the Container in September 2004, a concrete ring to support the container all round and prevent anyone or anything getting underneath it. The work was complete and ready for the container to be delivered in October, the photo above shows it touching down on-site on the 21st. Working parties from thereon were concentrated on fitting out the container; in this shot you can see Roger and Mike building the framework for two rather large storage shelves. Lynnsport would have its plant room back before Christmas. In the middle section we would create a small workshop area with basic tools to aid fabrication and repairs work, and beyond that right at the end we partitioned off an area to fit out with chairs and a table, the tea-break room. A 40ft container gets quite dark down the far end, so lighting was essential, Don and John got to work installing tube lighting along the length of the Cabin and it was quickly powered up, initially with the generator providing the power from outside the front door. Behind the guys, the partition can be seen for the tea-break room. John also installed a number of sockets throughout the Cabin so we could use our tools. Mains power was what we really needed, the generator wasn't strong enough to power everything, and refilling it with diesel costs money. Talks between Mike, Lynnsport and the Council came to an agreeable solution; we could take power from an electrical cabinet 30 metres away in Lynnsport's staff car park, if we laid the cable ourselves to the cabinet and left a council contractor to connect it. The Hole Digging Division was put into action again! Armoured cable was bought and a deep trench dug from the new Container to the electrical cabinet (behind the wall in this photo) and the cable was laid in plastic pipe to further protect it. All this was done in a day, we couldn't really leave an open trench in a public area! John connected the cable to a fuse box in the Container and it was all set for the mains connection the following week, after which we could make a cup of tea in beautiful peace and quiet! Running water was one thing we couldn't get piped in without considerable expense, but Mike had been talking with Lynnsport management, and arranged for them to install a tap for us on an outside wall near to the Container. Beside the teabreak room, the tea making bar was set up with space for our mugs and supplies. The water is brought over in bottles from the outside tap. One thing that we found very quickly, when we arranged our first Committee meeting in the teabreak room, one winter's day, that a steel box is very very cold!! Insulation was needed, and we wedged wooden battens into the framework, between which sheets of insulation material were pressed and then all held into place with sheets of chipboard which were nailed to the battens. A piece of carpet was laid on the floor and this has made our room so much warmer. An electric heater has also been fixed to one wall which is turned on when we are at the Railway on a cold day to provide some respite from the winds that blast across the football fields towards us. Since the container has been on site as our clubhouse and storage room, working parties have had a much better attendance and a lot more work can be done, now there is no need to carry everything from the far side of the building. We did find that the large shelving area wasn't big enough for all our bits and pieces, and our growing collection of materials so funds were raised for a second container, a 20ft one, and this has been placed on site next to the 40ft one and acts as a large store cupboard. This has freed up more workspace in the big container. Our public running days are now much more frequent, before it was a select few Sundays a year - now it is every Sunday between Easter and the end of October; the enthusiasm for this has survived because it is now so much easier to do. Voluntary work need not be hard work, and as most of our regular workforce are retired or attend on their days off from paid work, the less heavy lugging around the better. The container has made life so much easier for us in everything we do. Lynnsport management and the Council have been extremely helpful and supportive towards the Club, not just towards this project. Our sincere thanks to them. Without the container facility, the recent track extension work probably wouldn't have happened, the weekly public running wouldn't have happened. The club's fortunes have been turned around, by a simple shipping container!

The Cabin Project
Click on the photos to see larger images

In August 2004 the Society began a project that would change the way the Society could work and run its Railway.

King's Lynn and District SME's railway track had previously been sited at the Walks, a parkland area beside the King's Lynn's main line railway station. The track had been built as a raised track and was a popular attraction locally, though it was a labour intensive job to run it as we had no on-site storage and our equipment had to be stored elsewhere and brought in each time we ran. We didn't think we would have any right to build a clubhouse in public parkland either, so it was all very confusing when we got a letter from the Council withdrawing their offer of a parcel of land on which they intended us to build a clubhouse, saying that we had taken too long to respond. We didn't know the opportunity had existed! Whether the original offer letter was lost in the post or lost within the Club, what happened to it nobody knows for sure, but it was rather annoying to find this opportunity had passed us by.

In any event, the Club found out it would have to up and leave the Walks in the late 1980s when the park was classed as a conservation area. The Council offered us the choice of three patches of land at the newly built Lynnsport Leisure Centre. The track was lifted from the Walks and re-installed at Lynnsport as a ground level track during 1991 and 1992. We had been loaned a 20ft shipping container to work from during the movement of the track to Lynnsport, but that had to go back to its owner once we had finished using it.

The club's grounds at Lynnsport was just a green grassy field with the track running around the perimeter, no buildings, no shelter, no water or electricity; not even a shed for storage.

Working parties at the Railway were therefore rather awkward and labour intensive as everything had to be brought in and taken away again afterwards - and it was usually Secretary Mike who brought tools, drinking water and the very important kettle to the Railway in his trailer.

Lynnsport did offer us one on their plant rooms for storage of equipment; this room housed ducting from one of the heating boilers which made the room very hot, but it did at least keep the club's Model Engineer magazine archive warm and dry! Into this room we wedged the club's road trailer, containing portable track, a diesel generator, the club loco, passenger trolleys, some hand tools and shovels and spades. The only thing was, this plant room was around the far side of the building to the track so it was a trek to get anything to and from, and our gear was a pain for any staff wanting to service the equipment in the room.

For electricity supplies, we relied on a diesel generator which we had been given. It was big, it was very heavy and it was loud, once you'd got it cranked up successfully! It also had a tendency to shake itself to bits, and in the photo above you can see a section of the exhaust has fallen off and lies on the ground beneath. It also lived in the plant room and had to be wheeled around to the track each time we wanted to use it, but it did its job and powered all our tools and most importantly, the kettle when it was teabreak time. However, it wasn't the most environmentally friendly beast...

When it rained, we had no shelter so we had to sit in our cars until the cloud passed, or we got fed up and went home. What we really needed was a clubhouse with electricity and water, so we could store everything on site and hide from the rain when it came.

Thoughts began circulating around working party members as how we could best do this; a brick built clubhouse would be nice but surely very expensive, a large shed wouldn't be vandal proof enough. We settled on the idea of buying a 40ft steel shipping container which would give us plenty of storage space and security for our equipment.

Don and Mike spent some time tracking down a 40ft container in good condition and one was found with a local dealer, GM Walker in Stowbridge; we just had to find money to pay for it. A plea for help was sent out to the membership with the Society magazine asking for donations and we were also eligible for a Community Development Grant from the Council. With both the grant and our members donations, we had enough for the whole project; foundations, container and the internal fittings and mains electricity connection.

Work began on the foundations for the Container in September 2004, a concrete ring to support the container all round and prevent anyone or anything getting underneath it. The work was complete and ready for the container to be delivered in October, the photo above shows it touching down on-site on the 21st.

Working parties from thereon were concentrated on fitting out the container; in this shot you can see Roger and Mike building the framework for two rather large storage shelves. Lynnsport would have its plant room back before Christmas.

In the middle section we would create a small workshop area with basic tools to aid fabrication and repairs work, and beyond that right at the end we partitioned off an area to fit out with chairs and a table, the tea-break room.

A 40ft container gets quite dark down the far end, so lighting was essential, Don and John got to work installing tube lighting along the length of the Cabin and it was quickly powered up, initially with the generator providing the power from outside the front door. Behind the guys, the partition can be seen for the tea-break room. John also installed a number of sockets throughout the Cabin so we could use our tools.

Mains power was what we really needed, the generator wasn't strong enough to power everything, and refilling it with diesel costs money. Talks between Mike, Lynnsport and the Council came to an agreeable solution; we could take power from an electrical cabinet 30 metres away in Lynnsport's staff car park, if we laid the cable ourselves to the cabinet and left a council contractor to connect it. The Hole Digging Division was put into action again!

Armoured cable was bought and a deep trench dug from the new Container to the electrical cabinet (behind the wall in this photo) and the cable was laid in plastic pipe to further protect it. All this was done in a day, we couldn't really leave an open trench in a public area!

John connected the cable to a fuse box in the Container and it was all set for the mains connection the following week, after which we could make a cup of tea in beautiful peace and quiet!

Running water was one thing we couldn't get piped in without considerable expense, but Mike had been talking with Lynnsport management, and arranged for them to install a tap for us on an outside wall near to the Container.

Beside the teabreak room, the tea making bar was set up with space for our mugs and supplies. The water is brought over in bottles from the outside tap.

One thing that we found very quickly, when we arranged our first Committee meeting in the teabreak room, one winter's day, that a steel box is very very cold!! Insulation was needed, and we wedged wooden battens into the framework, between which sheets of insulation material were pressed and then all held into place with sheets of chipboard which were nailed to the battens. A piece of carpet was laid on the floor and this has made our room so much warmer. An electric heater has also been fixed to one wall which is turned on when we are at the Railway on a cold day to provide some respite from the winds that blast across the football fields towards us.

Since the container has been on site as our clubhouse and storage room, working parties have had a much better attendance and a lot more work can be done, now there is no need to carry everything from the far side of the building.

We did find that the large shelving area wasn't big enough for all our bits and pieces, and our growing collection of materials so funds were raised for a second container, a 20ft one, and this has been placed on site next to the 40ft one and acts as a large store cupboard. This has freed up more workspace in the big container.

Our public running days are now much more frequent, before it was a select few Sundays a year - now it is every Sunday between Easter and the end of October; the enthusiasm for this has survived because it is now so much easier to do.

Voluntary work need not be hard work, and as most of our regular workforce are retired or attend on their days off from paid work, the less heavy lugging around the better. The container has made life so much easier for us in everything we do.

Lynnsport management and the Council have been extremely helpful and supportive towards the Club, not just towards this project. Our sincere thanks to them.

Without the container facility, the recent track extension work probably wouldn't have happened, the weekly public running wouldn't have happened. The club's fortunes have been turned around, by a simple shipping container!

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