New Museum Building Project

There are some exciting times ahead at the Museum and visitors may have seen signs of this over the past couple of years. We are in the process of putting up a new museum building and extending the narrow gauge railway. The work put in so far has mainly been focused on the railway extension and now the opportunity has come to do some work on the building.

 

The project has been split into three key stages:

 

Stage 1 - construct the building to a wind and weathertight shell

 

Stage 2 - fit out the building with heating, lighting and plumbing

 

Stage 3 - interpretation and displays

 

 

We have been successful with funding for Stage 1 thanks to the UK Government - UK-SPF fund and Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust.

 

Work on the shell of the building has progressed well. Our contractors, William King Construction Ltd, are aiming to have Stage 1 complete by the end of January.

 

The photo gallery below shows progress from early August 2024 to December 2024.

 

Applications for funding for Stages 2 and 3 are on going - we'll keep you posted of any progress.

 

Fancy supporting our project?

 

Here's how!

 

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/preserving-lakelands-industrial-heritage-1

 

The new Museum building © M. Cuthell 

Thank you to our supporters!

The Railway Extension

To join up with the new museum building we are in the process of extending the narrow gauge railway.

 

When completed it will be around 500 yards long giving our railway a total length of 3/4 of a mile. It will split the journey into two distinct parts, first the nice views (how many people view the Lake District) then secondly the heavy industry (the seldom seen side of the area) - the section already in use.

 

So far around 3000 tons of material has been shifted. Most of this has gone into the curved embankment, seen behind 'Sir Tom' in the photo below. Since this photo was taken a further 90 yards of track has been laid.

 

When completed we will have used a total of 600 sleepers along with 3600 rail spikes!

'Sir Tom' on the Extension, June 2020 © D. Chaplin-Brice