Thursday 22nd March
Yes the BAG had their holiday and were back at work.
Terry, John S, Keith S & Bob were at the front of the station north end, finishing the laying of slabs and pointing the manhole covers.
The Train Trip
Here are some more photos of Wednesday's trip to Broadway Station taken by Libby Andrews.
Saturday 24th March
Overnight, rain had left a few puddles and damp patches underfoot, but it soon dried up as the temperature rose.Another Slab Area
Bob, Keith S and Vic were the team clearing and levelling the next area to receive slabs.
Painting
Two painters were in today. Graham on white lining the platform edge and Mike S touching up the station doors.
Power Cleaning
Tony & Peter K cleaned the platform edge with a jet power spray to remove all the grime that had accumulated over time. Once this is dry, with sun predicted over the next 2 days, hopefully the areas outside of the station canopy can also receive their coat of white paint.
The Shop
Peter Q and team brought the dismantled building from its storage area and started to reassemble the base and sides. Priorities right, first though, a cuppa!
Black Board
In this photo Neal was putting up a black board for the Station Master to display his notes. (Back at school)??
The BAG Team will be back on Monday trying finish all that's required before the Opening for Public Trains on Good Friday.
Vic. (No 3 of the Blog Team)
The white line does look better where painted. Don't forget that the ramps edges are left UNPAINTED.
ReplyDeleteDespite some comments, I think that the shop will look alright in the place you have allocated for it. Might need some paint on it to make it fit in though.
Regards, Paul.
So, gentlemen. The garden shed is being rebuilt on Platform One, presumably with the necessary cladding and painting to give it the appearance of a station building circa 1904.
ReplyDeleteWe shall have to wait and see, won't we ?
Peter H.Wright
Odd isn't it? Wickes shed next to a masterpiece. Someone must love that bric a brac!
DeletePerhaps if painted suitably the garden shed will blend in
DeleteThe "necessary cladding and painting" as you put it, would probably use up any profits that the sales shed would make. I guess you could always give them a hand though if you're in the area? Presumably the shed is a temporary fixture or is it? In any event, I was most impressed, to say the least, when I visited on one of the specials last Thursday. When you see it for real, I'm sure your impression will be the same, even though the station is far from finished of course.
DeleteAs I read the latest installment, I thought the garden shed could do with a lick of paint, and I must comment about it. Then I discovered Peter & Paul ( but not Mary )had beaten me to it! Seriously, make that 3 votes for paint!!!!! Hope you get it ( and the refreshment room )sorted before I visit in May and June.
ReplyDeleteKind regards,
Neil Shepherd
Great to see the progress.
ReplyDeleteI have to say it's a bit worrying to see that the process of cluttering Broadway with sheds, shacks and shanties has already started.
ReplyDeleteToddington seems to accumulate more sheds every year, which does rather compromise what is our only substantially original station. Unfortunately, it seems the march of the sheds is unstoppable. But at least we could keep Broadway free of a Toddington-style encroaching shanty town - can't we?
After taking such trouble (and, occasionally, going through a certain amount of stress) to build the wonderful evocation of Broadway as it was in 1904, why spoil it now by letting the sheds in?
I know what you're going to say. It's only one shed - it won't make much difference.
The trouble is, I don't think it'll stay as one shed. Next it'll be two sheds, three sheds, sheds in the car park, sheds on the platforms. Maybe we'll end up with Portakabins and storage containers plonked down here and there (that process has already started, of course - Broadway already has its first two containers...)
I would be reassured to know that the shed is merely temporary, pending a permanent location for the bric-a-brac shop (or whatever is going in it).
I actually *don't* think it would be wise to paint the shed, or cover it in some sort of 'railway style' cladding. That would establish its permanent credentials, and we'll never get rid of it. I say, keep the shed unpainted, to make clear that it's NOT a permanent part of the station.
If it really is necessary to have some sort of shed-type structure permanently on the platform, an authentic-looking corrugated iron building could be put together to a GWR design (if an original can't be found).
Alternatively, a grounded goods van body wouldn't look out of place. I'm sure one of those could be scrounged up without too much trouble. What happened to all those scrap wagons and carriages round the back of Winchcombe? Are they still there? Is there anything among them which could be nailed back together strongly enough to do duty at Broadway?
I know what you're going to say here, too. All this is going to cost money, and there isn't any to spare.
Well, sure, but it won't cost *much* money. A grounded van body - assuming there's a suitable donor wagon lurking in a siding somewhere - would be virtually free. Even a GWR-style corrugated iron building wouldn't be prohibitively expensive. If I recall correctly, the SVR built their replica Pagoda shelter at Northwood Halt (a relatively elaborate building, as corrugated iron structures go) for a materials cost of £1,000. That was a few years ago, so assuming that a more basic shed would now cost around the same, it could be covered by - say - 20 people putting in £50 each.
Heritage railways do have a tendency to clutter their stations with massed collections of sheds, containers, etc. Look at Minehead station on the WSR, for example, which is virtually surrounded by containers and sheds. It's almost impossible to get a decent photo without a selection of Modern Storage Solutions looming large in the background.
Even the area around the original Minehead goods shed - a complete heritage environment, almost unchanged since the 19th century - has been compromised by the WSR's decision to locate the staff car park at the buffer stop end of the yard.
The unfortunate irony is that heritage railways do seem to be completely blind to heritage, on occasion. As long as there's a big shiny steam engine to look at, nobody really cares about the setting in which that steam engine is presented.
But we don't have to go that way at Broadway. Let's not.
I have to say I agree with every word of Michael Johnson's comment. He is right. You are going to spawn a "shanty town" of shacks and huts at Broadway, if you're not careful. As he says, this has happened on other heritage railways. Too true, I'm afraid.
DeleteI wouldn't have thought a GWR "pagoda" style shed would be prohibitively expensive. And you can always call on supporters to provide the funds. Now, that would, in my opinion, be a suitable building to house the ladies and their shop. (And I'm all for a shop at Broadway). And it would not compromise the "Edwardian" ambience of the magnificent station building.
So, yes, let's keep the period setting. Mark my words, the garden shed is the thin end of the wedge
Michael's closing remark says what I feel very sincerely. We don't need to go that way at Broadway. Let's not.
Funny no one mentions the shed at toddington which is in close proximity to the station building and used for the sale of goods and has not been painted either?
ReplyDeleteJune,
DeleteHave you read Michael Johnson's very useful and well thought out comment above ? In it he distinctly mentions Toddington in the second paragraph.
I think he's right, of course, but I'm not sure what we can do about it.
Peter
I think that this type of shed will only have about a five year service life before it will need a fair bit of money spending on it or total replacement. Perhaps the BAG could use this time to design and build something more in keeping with the rest of the station.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I see that a plain blackboard is going to be fitted to the station building wall, are there any plans to install any heritage poster boards on the walls?
The rest of Platform 1 is really starting to look good now.
Regards
Paul
sheds next they will av shed 7 Appearing live on play 2
ReplyDeletekeep the sheds away from the cafe...🥊
ReplyDeleteAs a user of one of the sheds at Toddington that are so roundly condemned by the blogger above, I would just like to say that we are not running a static museum preserved in aspic, we are running an operational railway for the pleasure of our visitors. A shed tucked away under the B4077 road bridge doesn't detract from the experience of 99.9% of our visitors at all. Before we got our shed, the carriage cleaners had to store their equipment in a toilet on the train (one less toilet for the visitors to use!), and some more in an old ammunition box under the footbridge where the rain dripped on it, so the shed was a very welcome provision for us, close to our workplace and out of the way. The gardeners also have their stores under the bridge, handy for where they work. If you prefer, we could get rid of the sheds and the workers, have filthy carriages and an unkempt jungle, but an unspoilt view through the road bridge.
ReplyDeleteWell said - keep up the good work.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWell said.
DeleteFrankly, to say "get rid of the sheds and the workers, have filthy carriages and an unkempt jungle" is a classic example of a straw man argument.
DeleteNobody has suggested getting rid of the workers. Nobody has suggested that the railway should be left to decay.
All I've suggested is that a bit more thought should be given to the provision of ancillary spaces. That seems to be a straightforward notion to me. The railway will not face some sort of melodramatic doom if we do that.
Obviously there's a need for storage around the railway, and a need to provide space for retail and fundraising activity, too.
Of course it's necessary to balance practical requirements against the need to provide a reasonably authentic heritage experience for visitors and enthusiasts.
I certainly don't think that there should be an outright ban on storage facilities or retail outlets around the railway - clearly, they're needed.
But we could, at least, give some thought to how this kind of thing is done, instead of just flinging up yet another shed every time a bit of extra space is needed.
As a matter of fact I think the B4077 bridge arches at Toddington make excellent storage space - discreet and unobtrusive, and follows real railway practice.
I wouldn't simply place sheds under the arches, though. I would do it in the railway manner. It was once fairly common to see the arches of rail bridges boarded over at the ends to create covered space - not necessarily for railway use. Sometimes, even fairly small bridge arches were rented out.
At Lapford on the Exeter-Barnstaple line a spare arch of the road bridge at the south end of the station was boarded out at the ends, and used for many years as an abattoir - you can still see the meat hooks in the arch.
I would recommend the bridge arch option as a good way of providing undercover space while still keeping an authentic feel. This could also be usefully done at CRC, under the A435 bridge.
What I do object to at Toddington is the proliferation of sheds alongside the approach road. When they first appeared I genuinely thought they were some sort of promotional display by the nearby garden centre!
A better solution could surely have been found. For example, why not park an extra van in the bay platform? Why not use the small building on platform 2, which at present seems to be locked out of use most of the time?
I'm also rather disappointed that a 'memorial retreat' (translation: another shed) has appeared on Toddington platform 2 - compromising what was previously a completely authentic part of the station.
I think it's a very good idea to remember people who have contributed to the railway over the years. We shouldn't forget the hard work and dedication of those who are no longer with us. I particularly remember Malcolm Tulloch, who worked wonders with the C&W dept in the early days.
But it would be nice if we could find a way of doing this without cluttering our meticulously restored heritage environment with yet another shed. (Malcolm Tulloch, I recall, had a carriage named after him - an appropriate memorial. Whatever happened to that?)
Obviously there's a need for space for storage, retail, fundraising, all sorts of stuff - even memorials. But it should be possible to provide this without cluttering the immediate environment of the railway with sheds, sheds, sheds.
Sheds are the default solution. Little by little, shed by shed, they chip away at the core identity of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway as a heritage experience.
Let's think about better solutions, instead of defaulting to yet another shed.
take it easy John sense of humour missing.👈
ReplyDeletePerhaps all the detracters could just celebrate a momentous achievement, carried out at a fraction of the cost of Mainline Railway reopenings, by a dedicated group of volunteers. I’m afraid that people who sneer at these efforts from behind their red misted screens simply show themselves up. Not the efforts of people who actually do their best to build, commission and open a new railway. We should celebrate.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone has 'sneered' at the work that's gone in to rebuilding Broadway. I have never seen anything on the blogs that could be interpreted as 'sneering'.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, everyone has been very complimentary and positive about the Broadway project. It's a great achievement and the end result is absolutely brilliant. Everybody involved deserves a medal, especially as the work was done by volunteers. I'm sure most other heritage railways would have taken out a massive loan and brought contractors in. The GWSR's DIY approach has been completely vindicated.
I have not seen anyone express any different view. Everyone agrees that Broadway is a triumph, and the people who built it can be proud of a fine job. All comments have been phrased in level-headed, conversational terms. Nobody has ever gone all 'red mist' in any of the discussions that I have read.
However, we should not forget that a major reason Broadway looks so good is because the original plans for a non-authentic, 'economy' station building were questioned and disputed, and alternative ideas were put forward.
We could have ended up with a CRC-style platform canopy, plastic windows in the signal box, and a nothing but a coffee machine for refreshments. Fortunately, what we've got is much better than that. But it was necessary to criticise the original plans, sometimes quite harshly, in order to change them.
When the shortcomings of the original Broadway plans became clear, quite a lot of people were prepared to stick their necks out and say, "This isn't good enough!"
We should be thankful they did - because it was those dissenting voices that got the plans re-drawn. The end result is a vastly better Broadway. If the people who made a stand against the original plans had simply been dismissed as 'sneering' we wouldn't have such a fine station today.
Broadway proves one thing. Sometimes, it helps to ask a few awkward questions!