No it appears the staff have pinched everything that wasn't nailed down... Sorry

Don't be sad...

Third update.. The network southeast plaque is not gone, far from it.. Taken down by myself to reapr walls, polished and restored and relocated to our heritage wall display. I would nt dare take it down and get rid of it. The new plaque was to go next to it but others decided on its position..

A point of note the wagn station signs were taken down and are stored in an old BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) rec room at the bottom of the car park.. If u want any ask the station staff as they have all taken signs and we let any passenger who wanted one have them..

Lastly we wanted royalty to do a formal event as prince Charles loved seeing the work progress, but thanks to my colleagues in network rail never being able to give a straight answer we didn't know a exact date to complete the extras.. So FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) comms team cooked up michael portillo, he was lovely, really cared and knew his railway..quite fitting as he has done a lot to champion rail recently and had a lot of fans at the event..

how it looks now

how it used to look like

OK, round two...the whole truth from the horses mouth. Yep that's me in the picture speaking with Michael portillo, he was very nice and loved the fact we ad-hock begged borrowed etc for the job to come together..

Currently I actually left FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) in beginning of January but stayed on to ensure completion of the works, this meant juggling the new job and this.. It was also an unpaid last 5 months of the job for me...however I am now working for the docklands light railway as the electrical and mechanical asset engineer. It's cool... I like the hours and they gave me time to complete Lynn.

Staff at Lynn are indifferent bunch some nice, some...unique. I would advise not taking what the station manager has to say much as he was a pain in the proverbial, had no passion or interest in the works to his shame...wouldn't engage with locals and now will spend all his time taking all the credit when people visit, as he tried when he told Portillo the paint scheme was from the great anglia railway...luckily MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) saw through his evident lack of knowledge...

Point of interest for you all..the work would and should have been delivered much quicker if it wasn't for me...........confronting and sometimes fighting with Network Rail to get additional monies to spend on what was needed....! They really were not interested , I had to give them no choice but to be interested which meant getting up in there faces at time..!

Ironically the route MD who I went through 2 on the Job said the works were better than reading stations recent works... And that he wished all projects were delivered like this... They would have some chance of that.. Structure just isn't there to allow indifferent and passionate projects to be tailored like that..

I would always be available to chat and give advice on what we did and how we did the works.. It's a story and a year and bit of my life I lived and loved a job despite the negative and naysayers... I know live in hope that the staff will take pride in and look after the works.. But I doubt it somehow..

I will try to post before and after pics if I can

Hello all; treu story coming up. hopefully it answers all your comments..

I was the project manager for the works. If you are not aware the project started and was budgeted for a electrical rewire only.

During this time, I visited Barnstaple station (and wolferton) and was inspired by the appearence of the station, this led me to mount a mission to increase the scope. Now money being a premium issue we value engineered the existing scope (which I wrote being an electrical engineer/former electrician) to encompass and restore the existing canopies and patch repair the platform.

The paint scheme was inspired by a old GER steam unit (blue red and gold) contrary to media reports! The color scheme was chosen by the local Fen Line user group and agreed upon by staff and passengers. How often does that happen!

So I then managed to pry some additional money from the Customer Service director at FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect) to expand the paint scheme to cover the entire station! being a fan of all things vintage we thought what else can we achieve for a minimal cost.

So; to pick a specific era like 1930s would cost to much and be impossible to achieve for our budget. Plus modern legislation also had its conflict with us. We decided that circa 1948/49 would be best chosen, a era where everything was new BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) branded yet the reminance of LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) and GER was still visible. hence teh project was heritage inspired. We had GER cast iron benches made locally for less than a Normal rail bench you buy for modern stations! We had all advertising taken down and alll posters made in new colour matched (not painted) with the station. Advertising space was redced and all signs were installed level (unlike as it was with advert posters everywhere).

During teh works we found more items needing repairs and so expanded the scope to include replacement fo te booking hall roof and new ticket office floors. Lighting became LED whihc then enabled me to crowbar money from network rail to retarmac all floor surfaces so the lighting didnt show up poor floors. We had new heelsafe, slip free cast iron drain covers made to replace the old ones. New LNER station clocks, coat hangers, and all public areas were colour matched and redecorated. FCC head office decided to reproduce all posters in the old BR border style.

We wrote to teh DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) for permission to use the British railways brand, their response was "why", "why not" we said, they were miffed and said the only permission we actually needed was to use the red arrow logo. Onward we went.

DDA^» (Disability Discrimination Act - about) or the equality act as its been known since 2010 possed problems, as the new aluminium pan signs were going to be a direct mirror of the 1948 BR signage manual, however we are not allowed to use upper case letters as it discriminates against those who have problems reading!!!!! I know... don't start me on it. We had to change them, and after 20 revisions and lots of debate! The only parts that remained was the double arrow.. shame really. They are however DDA as you put compliant.

The Totems were hand made and I would rather die than make them lower case, luckily heritage agreed with and were very supportive. The ticket machines were vinyl wrapped and I designed them as they were three different types of mutilcolors, thought it would look good to rearrange them to useable locations and not cluttering and blend them in.

The station is listed and yet changes were made without any consents, with this project we revesed the damge somewhat.

All in we spent under 1.1 million. got  alot including more parking bays and behind the scenes kit for that. All while keeping the station open.

I knopw the purists wont like it I had one comment of "why use LED! what will the children think!" I was told I should have put gas lanterns back up... seriously we scope creeped as we went along, we took every idea and suggestion from the public and did it... what projects ever do that! We could only hope to do a Moor st look.

PS. internal key switched fused spurs (as they are called) are suitable for their envioroment as per BS 7671 as no power supplies are loacted external to teh enviroment and were under canopies we have encassed them in a IP box as additional protection just in case. The key switch is to allow authorise double pole isolation locally by maintainers and prevent nusicence switching (the machines were on a plug and socket!).

I loved every minute of the job and the station look grand for what we have done, lots of old glory back into a serious delapidated station. if it not to everyones liking then I'm sorry but I and the locals love it.. besides you have the same at Barnstaple!

apologies for any typos if you want more info please leave a reply....