Last summer, volunteers from the Midland Railway Society were deeply involved in The Greatest Gathering, the unforgettable event hosted by Alstom at Derby’s Litchurch Lane Works as part of the wildly successful Railway200 celebrations. Given that this was the Midland Railway’s Carriage & Wagon Works, we very much regarded ourselves as the Home Team, so our mission for the event was to tell the Story of Litchurch Lane.
Our stand, located in prime position in the Heritage History and Preservation Zone, was very well visited and appreciated. The centrepiece was a 1960s “You Are Here” 3D model of Litchurch Lane Works, originally located in the Works Training School. This had been kindly loaned for the occasion by our partners, Derby Museums who are its current custodian. That went down a storm, especially with the innumerable past and present employees of the C&W Works who stopped by the stand to chat.
By far our most significant and lasting contribution to the event was to design, author and illustrate a series of interpretation panels outlining the history of the Litchurch Lane Works, which Alstom have permanently displayed around the site as part of TGG’s longterm legacy. (We did the same for East Midlands Railways in respect of Derby Station, to be enjoyed by the thousands of passengers using the station over the long weekend, and since).
We can definitely say we did our bit, so when the organisers of The Greatest Gathering contacted us and over 50 other groups involved, to say they had been able to generate even more funds from the sales of merchandise and so were in a position to say ‘thank you’ again with a donation to support the work we and the others did, we naturally said Yes Please!
The upshot of all this being that we are delighted to report that the Midland Railway Society have now received a £400 donation from The Greatest Gathering organisers. Needless to say we are very grateful and this money will be put to good use in supporting further events in line with our own charitable objectives.
