A History of the                                 
Sandtoft Miniature Railway group
by Bob Ashton                                                                                         Page 2

With the train service all but dwindled to almost none existent due to some of the founder members setting up another railway elsewhere.  The tracks became over grown with grass some urgent action was needed if the railway was to survive. With some good fortune several of the founder members were able to help with a sizeable influx of new members the railways fortunes were about to change in 1994.

After no train service on the most important operating day of the year for the 1994 July Sandtoft Gathering, a major rejuvenation scheme was implemented. New ballast was obtained to tidy the track up and get rid of all the grass and weeds. This still left us with the problem of no locomotives to operate the train service. One of the founder members who was now seriously ill agreed to loan his electric locomotive for the operating days, but this meant we had a round journey of about twenty miles to collect and return it. However it did get the train service operating and another member agreed to bring his locomotive. It was these locomotives that the train service up and running. The 1995 season saw the railway operating on all of the museums operating days as the newly built electric  locomotive came into service and Wilf's Hymac type locomotive and another of locomotives made more appearances. More new members enrolled enabling the railway to progress forward using the tracks laid between 1983 to 1985. There was now a need for a passing loop to be installed at the Sandtoft Central Station, storage sidings and to resolve the problem of the cramped carriage shed.

A problem we were soon going to have to resolve was the original carriage shed. Its was too small, often flooded in rainy weather, was not secure enough to store locomotives, but most importantly the height of the doorway was too low. Many of the members were dangerously banging their heads on the doorway so we were now in search of alternatives. As it happened for better or worse the former youth club building at nearby Belton was offered to the museum. Plans were quickly drawn up to use some of the materials for a new locomotive shed and also create what was to be called "The Axholme Stores". Unfortunately the then Boothferry Council   
Planning department refused for wooden structured buildings so it was back to the drawing board and time to use some £15,000 of my BT pension money to have a brick building erected.  Planning approval went through in a remarkably short time, In addition to the outlay I made, Belton Brickworks (now Ibstock Bricks), Sandtoft Tiles made most of their materials available at cost price.

In 1994 I and several other members saw the opportunity not only to build a new railway shed, but for the museum to forget about the Exhibition Hall and to have an exhibition hall that included shop fronts and display areas. This building was to be named the Axholme Stores. Having spent many hours getting shall we say in the need of a shower, I put forward plans for the extensions to the toilet block to include shower facilities for the staff. With a great deal of pressure and many telephone calls to one of the museum's Directors for the revised plans for the Axholme Stores, all the final plans were submitted with 59 minutes to spare, something that my wife Pat and myself still recall today. If the plans had missed the dead line then the museum would have never had the facilities of the Axholme Stores and the Children's Play Area that you see today or the improved toilet facilities, disabled toilet and showers for the staff. Oh and of course the railway shed that is now the Bicycle Museum.
Like the railway shed we first based the idea for the design of the Axholme Stores to fit the roof truces from the dismantled Belton Youth Club. In view of the cost of these needing to be stress tested it was decided the better option was to purchase new stress tested roof truces. The design of the building could now be adapted as can be seen in the illustrations below. 

History page  1  2  3