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Made from railway sleepers

Bench (no.2) made from railway sleepers 54" x 30.5" x 31" [Accession file description]

A bench or work table made from scrap wood joined together with nails. The work top is made from two railway sleepers with a 260mm gap between them. The gap is filled at one end by the end of the front beam (also a railway sleeper) from bench No. 1 (F69.200.42). At the other end the gap is filled by two thin boards held together at one end by two battens (50 and 55mm thick) nailed on top of each other and across the boards. The other end of these boards rests on the end of the beam forming the front of F69.200.42. There are four legs, each leg is fixed to a cross member at the top with a rough corner halving joint. The pairs of legs are braced lower down by cross members, three between one pair of legs and four between the other pair. Three of these cross members appear, from their cleaner appearance, to be relatively recent additions. The front of the work top has two strips of wood nailed to it that used to hold a machine tool which can be seen in one of the photographs taken of Mr. G. Scammel in his workshop in January 1969 (CD08-157/DF106800). There are three holes for a vice on the left hand side of the front of the bench, this can also be seen in CD08-157/DF106800. On the end of the front of the bench on the left hand side is a strip of galvanized iron that has been bent to produce a square hole when nailed in place. [RP; 21/11/2008]