Long Shop Museum: Sirapite

The "SIRAPITE" Project: Restoration of the former Works shunting engine Sirapite to full
working order, enhancing the Museum's collection, adding to the enjoyment of visitors
and providing educational resources for schools for science and design and technology.

Sirapite is a very rare shunting engine. It is part traction engine and part locomotive and was built in 1906 by Aveling and Porter for Gypsum Mines Ltd. at Mountfield in Sussex. Its name comes from the product similar to plaster of paris which was made by the company, Sirapite being obviously a more suitable name than "Parisite". Sirapite was bought by Richard Garrett and Sons and brought to Leiston in 1929. It was used to replace the horses which had been used to control the trucks which conveyed goods and materials on tracks between the workers' houses to and from the town site to the top site and Leiston railway station. The engineering works, hidden behind high walls, dominated the life of this small town and Sirapite was the visible link between the company and the townspeople, trundling backwards and forwards across the main road, supervised by a man with a red flag. In 1962 Sirapite went into retirement and four years later was bought and taken away by Sir William MacAlpine to go on display.

Many years later the engine found its way to Preston Services in Kent and there, neglected and rusting, it stayed until in 2003 the Trustees of the Long Shop Museum succeed in raising the money through the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to buy it and bring it back to Leiston in March 2004. In 2005 a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund was successful and the Long Shop Museum was awarded a grant of £50,000 towards the cost of restoring the engine to full working order. Parts are being replaced and repaired using traditional techniques by professional engineers and volunteers and Sirapite will be painted in its original colours. Part of the grant has been awarded to support the interpretation of the project, which is mainly being carried out by volunteers. This includes archives research, the creation of display boards and the making of oral history recordings for audio posts and new education material. Other volunteers organise fundraising events to enable us to complete the project, which has been fully supported by the local community, Suffolk County Council, Suffolk Coastal District Council and Leiston-cum-Sizewell Town Council. Important aims are to enable visitors of all ages to learn more about their heritage, to preserve an important aspect of Leiston's history, and to contribute to the social and economic development of the local community. The project will culminate in an event to celebrate the restoration of Sirapite to her former glory.

Many local people have fond memories of Sirapite including Jimmy Vale speaking in the 1980s:
"the railway lines ran up from the station works and they used to come right down there to the bottom works; and the horses used to pull the trucks there, then the horses used to step off on the side and they would unhook the horses where the chain was on and the trucks would run down so far, then they'd put the brake on and put a chock block through the wheels, then they'd have a chain which came down from near the boiler shop right away down the works grounds, that big slope and they'd hook this chain on and they had a windlass, a winding drum worked by a belt and there was a shaft in there which drove the belt, with pulleys, powered by a little steam engine, to winch the trucks up into the works you see, and they used to pull the trucks up to the boiler shop and the blacksmith's shop. And there used to be chains come across the main road there, across the Main street from a post with a hook on to a post on the Works at the Works gate, like a level crossing, and there was a man with a red flag; all during the war, the second world war, a man stood there with a red flag; they had a little steam locomotive what used to run up and down. The name was the Sirapite, that used to run down and pull the trucks up; they still had the man there because they had to put the chains across the road, where the traffic had to stop…"

So Sirapite worked hard until the sixties when it was decided to replace her with a battery electric engine and she became the reserve until her move to Carnforth. Although the original track is no longer there parts of the track still exist along with a reconstruction of the track near the Engineers Arms Inn that was put there as part of a regeneration scheme in 2003. Later that same year rails and sleepers were sourced to lay down a track in the Museum's car park area for Sirapite to run on when she is back to full steaming order (hopefully summer 2009). Much of the restoration work is taking place on site so come along and see how we are getting on!