A Wheelchair Railway….

ESME are delighted to announce that we have been awarded £14,855 in funding from the Levenseat Trust to fund ‘A Wheelchair Railway‘ project.

The fund will be used to cover the purchase of a special wheelchair carrying carriage supplied by Cromar White ,

a brake tender riding car and a battery powered Class 37 locomotive from another supplier,

as well as providing additional materials to enable us to build a ramp and platform area to the rear of our building to allow wheelchair passengers to board the train.

There is a lot of construction work to do on the platform whilst the carriage, tender and locomotive are built by specialist manufacturers. These will take approx 3-4 months to construct and deliver but we hope to run our first wheelchair train by the end of October or early November 2021.

This a major funding commitment from the Levenseat trust, who have already helped us to install the underfloor heating system in our building, and we are indebted to them for their support.
This new facility will give AMEC a unique opportunity in Scotland to provide a train ride to those with physical or sensory issues.  Our application, which was put together by Andrew Newton and Peter Arnold, was supported by letters from Moira Niven, our local Lord-Lieutenant and Alison Wright, Chief Executive at Carers of West Lothian.  Moira says ” I am delighted to hear of ESME’s funding success and this will be a great addition to their model engineering centre. It means that many more people will have access to a train ride.”  Alison adds “This is is wonderful news and it may be the first time that any of our service users have ever had a chance to ride on a miniature railway”.

We look forward to carrying our first wheelchair passenger.