Didcot Railway Centre: Fundraiser for failing heritage water tower

The water tower has kept steam locomotives running since 1932 and will cost £300,000 to repair

A fundraising campaign is being set up to save a failing water tower at a railway museum.

The water tower and coaling stage have kept steam locomotives running at Didcot Railway Centre since 1932 and will cost £300,000 to repair.

Vice President Richard Croucher said there was an "urgent need" to restore the critical equipment if the locomotives are to keep running.

The Railways Heritage Trust has granted £100,000 to the tourist attraction.

Scaffolding has been erected around the tower ahead of the vital works at the Oxfordshire-based centre, which displays and runs steam trains from the history of the Great Western Railway.

Mr Croucher said: "The water tower and coaling stage is probably the most iconic building reminiscent of steam locomotives at Didcot... we cannot leave it to deteriorate further.

"We now need to restore it to a level where it can service our living collection for another 80 years."

The Railways Heritage Trust has awarded a £100,000 grant to the tourist attraction

Chief executive Clive Hetherington told the BBC: "It would be very difficult to operate the centre without the delivery of water and cold in the efficient form we've got here."

Chrissy Crisp, the centre's marketing and events manager, said the structure had "a lot of rust damage and a lot of degeneration where it's just weakened over time".

"But the main damage is inside... at any point it can just fall."

Didcot Railway Centre's beginnings as a heritage site began when the Great Western Society moved into a former engine shed there in 1967 to preserve steam locomotives and their carriages as diesel trains replaced them.

It has also been a popular location for shooting feature films, including Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Anna Karenina, Paddington 2, and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.