Crewe

Like many, I have memories of Crewe station, few of them good. They often involved the long trip from my office in Bristol to the one in Lytham or, in earlier days, delivering training in a hotel in Warrington, where I don't think I ever saw the sun.

My last trip there, by car, was last year when we were househunting. We went past the Crewe Heritage Centre several times trying to find our way in and out of the town, and nothing I saw made me want to visit it.

Paul, on the other hand, had good reasons to visit. As a young engineer, he worked at Crewe and is also one of the select few to have had a cab ride in the APT-P.

Our original plan was a flying visit to Crewe and then to spend most of the day at Apedale. 

TBH, my impressions improved from the moment we met our first volunteer at the entrance, a theme that was common to the whole day on the site. I don't know if they have had a good coaching programme, but I know many commercial organisations that would love such an engaged workforce.

Everyone was keen to ensure we knew what was on site and where and encouraged us to interact with exhibits and people. Perhaps it is sad that this is so uncommon in the preservation world, and sometimes even in the professional museum world, that I mention it as one of the highlights.

The APT is hard to miss on entry to the site, but the real starting point is the informative exhibition hall.

It isn't jam-packed full of exhibits but has a few well-chosen and interesting artefacts and informative wall panels that actually deserve reading. It also set another theme for the site: It is clearly child-friendly and well used by families in a way lacking at the boat museum. 

For Paul, it also contained another memory, his friend's old Austrian narrow gauge layout.

We spent a long time in and around the APT, trying to compare reality and memories. Some things were more modern than expected, and some showed they belonged to the past, like the charming nicotine brown in second class.  It is worth remembering that even had it entered full service it would still be a museum piece today.

All the other stock seemed in pristine condition, cosmetically at least, and many cabs were fully accessible. 

After mentioning the volunteers, it is time to focus on the signal boxes. To me, understanding signalling is a necessary evil of modelling, helped by knowing a few real experts and having dated a signal woman.

In Exeter Box, whose preservation is a story in its own right, we were quite shocked by the access to the frame room and a series of interactive exhibits that certainly didn't talk down to the audience. Upstairs, we found two volunteers running through a full simulated Summer timetable, but both had plenty of time to talk, asking and answering questions. We could have stayed a lot longer had they not exhausted our knowledge of sensible questions to ask.

That experience justified the entrance fee by itself, but then we went to the Crewe North Box...

Leaving aside that in an earlier incarnation the 18" Crewe works railway had run through the middle of it, it was simply fascinating. I wish I could remember 5% of the conversations that followed from my casual question about the difference between electrical and mechanical interlocking. We had panels pulled off, we had diagrams shown, we were flattered with the presumption we were familiar with the seminal work on Westinghouse Power Signalling. And yes, we got to set a few routes into Crewe, throwing the levers under instruction. We could probably have spent the whole day there, but were aware that there were other visitors.  Again, a shout out to the volunteers who treated the children visiting as worthy of being talked to as young adults.

At this point, a quick comment about many children and adults we saw visiting. 

I suspect that by now, most of you will know that I am passionate about including neurodiverse people in my professional life and in running miniature railways.

I have rarely, if ever,come across a site and team that is so accommodating to the ND community.  I should really try to tick off some of the points:

- Lots of quiet space
- Opportunities to watch trains going past with information about them
- Empathetic volunteers
- Detailed explanations available

I'm sure there are others.

Meanwhile, here are the photos. As with the Boat Museum, captions might be added later, and next week the focus is on Apedale. 

The weathered livery doesn't do the APT any favours

The innards of Caprotti valve gear

Webb

Echoes of the Musse d'Oursay

a volunteer was on hand to explain the controls

I always had a soft spot for these since first seeing them in  a Gamages catalogue

a look that has grown on me over the years

Standard class on the APT-P 

Nothing advanced about the APT-P buffet

I rather liked first class

The future lay elsewhere...

This sight always meant I would be late 

The other power car, displayed by itself

Frame room of the Exter box

The Google Camera app does some odd things to perspective

HST Cab

18@ gauge wagons on the remains of the Spider Bridge