A rusty and long-forgotten Second World War bomb trolley has been donated to an Angus museum after being brought back to life.
The trolley had effectively been left to rot before it was transformed to its former glory by corrosion techniques used in the North Sea.
The trolley would have been laden with bombs during the 1939-45 conflict before being loaded into Lancasters and Wellingtons.
Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre curator Dan Paton said: “Bomber pilots were trained at Montrose and the heritage centre has a considerable collection of material about Bomber Command.
“This is just the thing to interest our visitors and provide a focus for an exhibition on the bombing war.”
Gemini Corrosion Services, from Montrose, presented volunteers with the piece of wartime equipment following its restoration.
The bomb trolley came from Brooklands Museum, in Weybridge, Surrey, together with a Queen Mary aircraft transporter of the kind in use at RAF Montrose in the post-war years when it was home to No 63 Maintenance Unit.
Bomb trolleys were never part of the equipment of the training units at Montrose which is, perhaps, why this one was neglected and left to gather rust.
Conquering rust and preventing corrosion is the specialism of Gemini, which coats equipment for the oil industry operating in the hostile environment of the North Sea.
The bomb trolley was treated with several processes. First it was shot-blasted to remove any corrosion, then coated with primer and followed with a long-lasting yellow top coat, which has a sub-sea spec of 15 years.
Heritage centre chairman Alan Doe thanked the owner and employees of Gemini for their help which, as well as the bomb trolley, included treating the steel framework for a new entrance to theheritage centre through Waldron Road. This will ensure passers-by on the A94 cannot fail to notice the growing visitor attraction.
Sponsorship by businesses has been of great assistance to the heritage centre in recent years and has taken the form of specialist services as well as cash donations for specific projects.
The heritage centre welcomes recognition by businesses which are often their neighbours on the Broomfield Industrial Estate and is looking to develop sponsorship to support its programme to commemorate the First World War.