Just before Christmas we acquired another industrial unit locally, giving us almost 50% more space, the first week of January saw some of the larger engines moved there to make some much-needed room in the main workshop. Dal, our builder, was in the same week, building a large office downstairs with a "clean" workshop upstairs, to be used for servicing and overhaul work on smaller engines, which would include all the 3 1/2 and 5 inch gauge locomotives and traction engines up to about 3 inch scale.
The business has grown considerably over the last 12 months, this development will allow Claire and I to work more closely (our desks now face each other, rather than being in two different buildings), leading to greater efficiency handling the considerable number of phone calls and emails which come in daily.
A new phone exchange is being installed, allowing any of us to pick up a call and transfer it around the building - but no, there won't be any "music on hold", or any of that "press 1 to speak to somebody about..." nonsense. It will be integrated with the computer system, with all calls automatically logged, saving us a good deal of time which we currently spend gathered around the answer machine trying to decode a number somebody has left, from a telephone situated alongside the M6, the message spoken at high speed whilst the caller was, apparently, eating a bag of crisps...
All of the above has meant an unavoidable disruption to what passes for normal life at SRS. Whilst things are gradually getting back to normal (David and I spent last weekend getting the computers and phones going in the new office), there may be a delay in reply to calls and emails - whilst we will get back to a 24 hour turn round soon, bear with us for the next week or so.
