The hut from Abergavenny as it now looks after many months of restoration work that
is still ongoing to some extent as it must be with a structure that is 140 years old.
This has now been open as the Trust's second museum facility at Toddington since the
Autumn of 2006. This is slowly being developed to allow hands on access to some of the
exhibits. The old hand pump on the south wall does at times pump water out of a small
container, which then drops through a funnel back into it.
An old forge bellows stands alongside the hut as does a very old lathe, currently being
rebuilt (2013)
The glass fronted counter shown above contains a display of medical supplies whilst
the cabinet on the top right of it contains souveniers from places in the areas served by
holiday traffic along our line.The picture on the right above shows the collection of old typewriters and other pre-computer age office equipment that stands on an old waiting room bench seat. Out of sight to the left of this stands an old safe whilst other notable items in the hut are a woolwinder and an old style cash register.
The image on the left shows a framed Mersey Docks & Harbour Board enamel notice and a small collection of safety lamps.
What is missing in the story of this building so far is its adventure in getting to this location following its arrival in one piece on the back of a lorry. It was unloaded on the west side of Toddington car park before this had been surfaced with tarmac; but with this work scheduled to start during the railways close season, the hut needed to be moved during the winter. The original plan had been to load it back on to a lorry and drive it round into the field to the east of the station, from where it could be craned over the fence. The wet state of the ground in December prevented this however so the alternative involved craning it across the car park in two lifts and dropping it onto a well wagon which it overhung on both sides. This out of gauge load was then shunted through the yard only clearing the goods shed on one side and some fixture on the other by a couple of inches and out on the main line. When it reached the platform slope it was found to be sitting about an inch too low on the wagon to clear the platform edging slabs; and after jacking up & packing this side it only crept under Toddington footbridge by a similar margin. Having reached a point opposite to its ultimate location there was still the minor problem of getting it lifted up to platform level, across this & up a 3 foot bank. This final journey needed 3 men & two days work with jacks to finally get the building sitting on the concrete pad that had been laid for it. The pictures below give an idea of what was involved
