Crich Tramway Village workshop staff and volunteers are delighted with the investment into new machinery which will help save time and money, through being able to complete woodwork projects in-house.

The Tramcar Sponsorship Organisation (TSO) and the London County Council Tramways Trust (LCCTT) have helped to fund the considerable investment.

The tools include a planer thicknesser, a spindle moulder and a band saw, plus a commercial dust extraction unit.

Workshop staff member, Brian Bates, demonstrates the new tools in the videos below.

Brian demonstrates the Band Saw

Brian explains the planer

Dust extractor

Spindle Moulder

Brian explains the Spindle Moulder

Planer thicknesser 

Graeme Wigglesworth, Engineering Manager at Crich Tramway Village said:

“The benefits of the new tools are that we can work quicker and more efficiently in-house, using the correct tools without having to outsource work and the benefits of the dust extraction unit mean that the dust from the woodwork will not be ‘floating’ about the workshop, making it better for health and safety and enabling us to paint and carry out woodworking at the same time.
As we are about to embark on two wooden bodied tram restorations (Blackpool 298 and North Metropolitan Tramways Horse Tram 184) there will be a large amount of cutting and dust creation as part of these projects, so the new investment is well worth it.”

The workshop team will also consider undertaking woodworking projects for outside companies.

For more information on the planned Horse Tram project, see our blog: www.tramway.co.uk/2021/09

Crich Tramway Village is a brand name for the National Tramway Museum (Accredited with Arts Council England), solely owned and operated by The Tramway Museum Society, incorporated in England with liability by guarantee (no. 744229). Registered charity number 313615. Our ICO number is Z6700136.

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