How the City of culture can help local business
The rail industry is working together to deliver over £50 billion in a Railway Upgrade Plan: the biggest programme of improvements in rail since the 19th Century.
Investment
Investment is at its highest since the Victorian times and there will is a lot of work going on as the railway infrastructure etc has to be modernised to keep up with modern day living and as you can see a lot of money is being spent in the foreseeable future. Apart from work being carried out on improving railway stations the tracks, signalling etc will also be involved in this process.
Construction industry should take heed as this is a great and exciting opportunity to get involved and gain work in the railway infrastructure. To get any tenders from the rail industry is to get on the supply chain we at Howells have recently joined Railtrack as being one of their suppliers and for this we had to be Risk Approved by Achilles. This involved an auditor coming in and seeing that all our policies, risk assessments etc were bang up-to-date so we could join the list of suppliers. All this involves us being RISQS approved (Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme) This is owned and governed by the rail industry. This has enabled us to demonstrate our capability and market our product and service whilst complying with industry standards.
Cultural Heritage
Railways have been part of our cultural heritage for nearly 200 years now and shall be for the foreseeable future. When railways were introduced many people were actually suspicious of this form of transport, the very idea seems ludicrous now.
The first class reclined in luxury, not quite the same today but still quite plush compartments. The third class were given a rough deal though, travelling in open top goods wagons, the very idea seems appalling. Although there have been a lot of complaints from passengers about overcrowded trains in this day and age we have still come a long way from the past, don’t you think!
There is something romantic about taking a great train journey and visiting a beautiful train station. An Ionic train station makes one feel nostalgic and evoke a mixture of excitement and wonder especially if travelling for pleasure.
Working with English Heritage
The English Heritage has listed its choice of 10 great railway stations which are certainly spectacular. The list starts with London Paddington, and ends at St Pancras, where there is a larger than life statue of Betjeman. Recently the growth of high speed rail has been accompanied by an interest in restoring and building train stations. In London workers cleaned 300,000 pounds of dirt from the neo Gothic brick facade of St Pancras and restored 8000 glass roof panes.
Newcastle Central, Tyne & Wear which three arched glass roofs built in a curve It was the first true iron and glass vault on a giant scale and the ancestor of other great city station train sheds.
We have some beautiful buildings housing train stations across the country, such as Bristol Temple Meads, which we at Howells have taken part in refurbishing. This was designed by the British Engineer Ismbard Kingdom Brunel, as you know is world famous.
http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/southwest/bristol/bristol01.htm
Our local station Great Malvern was designed by EW Elmslie in the Gothic style. I have been to Malvern many times I would recommend taking a look the next time you visit this beautiful region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Malvern_railway_station
Refurbishments
Refurbishing railway stations, beautiful as some of them are takes a lot of red tape and work behind the scenes and we at Howells have a lot of experience in station refurbishment. We have worked at Windsor Royal, Temple Meads, Melton, Mowbry., Loughborough, Shrub Hill, Stoke and Kettering.
We at Howells Glazing hope in the future to play a small part in restoring railway stations to their former glory and you could too.