Did you train with Manpower in the 1980s? Do you remember Task Undertakings, a Manpower Services Commission project in Birmingham in the 1980s?
London Midland is looking to reunite the original team who built the life size model of the Trevithick locomotive during the 1980s. The model has been based in the booking hall at Telford Central station since the station opened in 1986.
This autumn, the replica is being craned out of the building and taken away to a permanent home in the Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Telford as part of the £1 million refurbishment of Telford Central.
The model is a full scale replica of the first steam railway locomotive in the world, designed by Richard Trevithick and built in 1803, 26 years before Stephenson's 'Rocket'.
The original was built near Ironbridge in Shropshire by the Coalbrookdale Company. A near identical engine ran the following year at Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil.
A plaque on the model states that the replica was built by Task Undertakings, a Manpower Services Commission project in Birmingham, under the guidance of Allen Gulliver, to drawings made for the Ironbridge Gorge Museum by Stewart Johnson.
The model was later refurbished by the combined efforts of; the Friends of Trevithick, Central Trains, Eastern Generation, ABB-PCL Engineering, KUE engineering, and was presented to Central Trains by Richard Trevithicks great, great grandson Frank Trevithick-Okuno on 17th April 1998.
Nicola Moss, Head of Franchise Management at London Midland, said: The Trevithick locomotive has been an iconic landmark at Telford station over the years, and we believe it has been there since the station opened in 1986.
We know very little about the history of the model, so wed really like to reunite the team who built it so they can join us as we find their old friend a new home.
There are just under one million passenger journeys at the station every year, and London Midland is upgrading the station to improve facilities for passengers. The model has to move to accommodate new seating areas for passengers.
The booking hall, waiting areas and toilets will be completely refurbished and a new disabled accessible toilet installed. The flooring will be replaced and the outside walls will be fully glazed. A new waiting room and waiting shelter will be installed on Platform 2 while on the Birmingham bound side, Platform 1, the platform canopy will be extended.
