Volunteers at the Swanage Railway have produced a new fundraising video to explain why they need £65,000 to allow work on the new Herston Carriage Shed to resume.

Keeping railway carriages, some dating back to the 1920s, undercover is very important as it reduces the maintenance and repair costs of the vehicles.

The railway hopes to raise £65,000 by the end of June 2021 so that the steel structure of the shed can be delivered and constructed in November 2021.

The launch of the new video comes as the appeal has surpassed the £19,000 mark after being launched in March 2021.

Ten carriages can be stored at the shed with work starting in January 2020, before stopping in March 2020 due to the first lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Contractors were able to complete the foundations for the carriage shed before the work stopped.

If you would like to donate towards the Herston Carriage Shed Appeal, please visit the Swanage Railway website.

Swanage Railway engineering director Nathan Au explained: “The building of our first carriage storage shed is a critical project because it will protect our historically important heritage carriages – the oldest of which date from the 1920s – from the ravages of the weather while also reducing the costs of repairing, maintaining and overhauling the vehicles.”

Swanage Railway fund-raising chairman Randy Coldham said: “The new fund-raising video is part of our push to raise £65,000 by the end of June so that we can resume work on the carriage shed – work that has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“Fund-raising work for the carriage shed was paused in March, 2020, as the Swanage Railway battled the economic challenge of surviving the Coronavirus pandemic through the Save Our Service fund-raising appeal, the target of which was reached in February, 2021.

“That means that we can now return to the Herston carriage shed project which has seen us raise £177,000 towards the building costs thanks to successful fund-raising efforts as well as generous legacies and bequests.

“With the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, the appeal was paused before reaching its target of £32,000. We had hoped to secure a grant to part-fund the construction but it was no longer available as the grant administrators had changed their requirement to enable them to finance organisations affected by Covid-19.

“Without the grant, because of the early closure of the original appeal and allowing for inflation we have set the appeal target to raise £65,000 by the end of June so that the steel structure of the carriage shed can be manufactured and installed on the site. It is hoped to complete the new shed by early 2022,” he added.

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