I said last week that the Northampton University's new Waterside Campus includes "a bonus to lovers of railway history".
And here it is.
This restored engine shed is home to the university's student union.
I first mentioned it on this blog in 2014 when I explored the derelict land where the campus now stands:
Somewhere in the middle of it there is a "rare and little altered example of a Midland Railway locomotive shed". All the security fencing makes it impossible to photograph at the moment, but I hope it will be retained and restored as part of the redevelopment here.And in 2016 I blogged about the news that the shed was to home to the student union, borrowing a photo from their website that showed it in its derelict state.
It is a welcome inclusion on the campus and you can read more about it on its own website.
I have not been to this site for twenty years or more. I used to visit it regularly for work as it was being used as a rail welding training centre and the regional welding engineer was also based in the building.
ReplyDeleteThe old British Rail had two rail welding training centres, the other one was in Swindon. Men travelled from all over the country to attend the welding courses and had to pass a test at the end of a week to show that they were competent and fully health and safety conscious. The standards as I recall were pretty demanding.
Good to see the building in a new guise and hopefully lasting a good many more years.