The National Army Museum newsletter landed in our in-box with an offer that would solve our major lack of space issue.
“Rackline Storage System” free for uplift.
But, and it was a very big BUT. It was in The Keep museum in Dorchester !!
After being disappointed by various expensive options to get it up to Scotland, the Men’s Shed came to the rescue with the offer to go on a “road trip” to Dorchester.
They not only went to Dorchester, but dismantled, including navigating the big bits that didn’t fit in the elevator down a metal spiral staircase. They then drove the 512 miles home, offloaded into the archive, then the real work began !
It didn’t actual fit in our building, so the guys had to chop bits off. There were also a few spare parts needed, like bearings and new wheels, which were difficult to get due to the change in design over the years. But, thanks to the skill of our Men’s Shed, they soon had it rebuilt and working perfectly.
This system is old, but due to its robust nature, will do many years to come. It has literally doubled our storage capacity allowing us to not only really tide up the archive storage room, but we can now accept the huge collection from our local school as we now have room to house it.
It has decreased our working area, but hopefully this will be temporary as our plans unfold for our extension. This storage will be easily dismantled and rebuilt upstairs if the extension goes ahead. Recycling on a huge scale !!
This could not have been possible without the hard graft of the Men’s Shed, who we are greatly indebted.
But also, the Asheville Sister Cities committee, who very kindly donated the proceeds from their Burns Supper. Just enough to cover the costs of van hire, accomodation, fuel etc. to get the Rackline storage into our Archive.
