In January 2022, after numerous hold ups due to Covid-19, the company made a huge leap forwards by moving into its brand new, purpose built workshop. Now boasting 4800 sq ft of space on one site, serviced by a further 1760 sq ft on a second site, it is one of the largest heritage based facilities of its kind in the South-West.

With three bays capable of accepting even the largest of mainline locomotives, followed by a further bay housing a machine shop, and designated grinding, welding and whitemetalling bay, all serviced by a remote control 20,000 kg capacity overhead crane, even the largest of overhauls can be carried out efficiently all under one roof.

The new workshop was designed specifically with ease of working in mind, with the intention being to keep a small, highly skilled and motivated workforce busy, without needing vast levels of labour to achieve each job.

This keeps productivity up and costs down. As an example, a part of the specification was that one person should be able to safely remove a set of safety valves in bay 1, and move them to bay 4 straight onto a machine for machining, without additional help.

We pride ourselves on having a small team of people with the diverse range of skills required to get the job done. We have welders, coach painters, fitters and machinists each with their own lifelong interests in their field, giving the company as a whole a wealth of knowledge to work from.

A small team also brings huge benefits when it comes to quality control, with each of our employees not only understanding the responsibilities they have for the quality of the work they produce, but also naturally taking an active interest in it. Despite this inherent pride in their work, we are aware that human errors will still occur from time to time, and this is why all work that is carried out is checked as a matter of course by one or both of the Directors.

The company’s goals are to work towards ISO9001 accreditation in the near future, as a formal recognition of our intent to monitor, maintain and improve our existing quality control procedures.