GWSR Broadway Developments

I could not agree more!!!! Maybe not everything is "right" or "period", but it really tees me off to see the constant drip drip moans and groans from some members, when what has been achieved is little short of a miracle and should be praised not nit picked.

 

You are right in that what has been achieved is little short of a miracle and the people who have built it in the BAG group, maybe 40 - 50 people over time, are titans of Preservation, and are to be lauded to the skies. Their dedication and perserverance is off the scale.

The opportunity to build an authentic GWR country station will most probably occur only once in our lifetimes and we owe it to those 40 -50 people to see it is done right. Not to mention the thousands who raided their savings to buy shares.

However amongst these 40-5- people there are just a few , maybe one or two in senior project management, who are letting all these people and their hard work down by permitting glaring, inauthentic, inaccuracies in the build. Why they would even do this on a Heritage Railway I can't understand.

These aren't minor things to be nit picked over. The canopy is a major structural item and it took a major campaign of protest to get it right against stubborn resistance initially by the Project Management. The end result is magnificent and all who see it admire and praise.

The same is true of the chimneys. They are not just functional hollow columns. They have a major architectural part to play in the appearance of the station and to confirm it as a GWR one.

There will always be those that lack these sensibilities , who say so that its only a chimney, but if you showed the picture of the new Broadway chimney compared to the authentic GWR chimney at Toddington, to all the shareholders, and all the hard workers at Broadway, the vote for authenticity would be overwhelming.





Now which would you choose, they cost the same, and if you're a shareholder you are paying for it.

 

I think you've misunderstood my point. I'm very impressed by what the GWSR have built at Broadway, and of course it cannot be compared to a bus shelter.
I was merely pointing out that if they decide to build a bus shelter at a station they own, that's their prerogative.

 

Apologies, other people *had* said "you might as well have built a bus shelter" or words to that effect and I lumped yours in with them.

 

You may well be right, but it would be really useful to have some evidence from this or other 'heritage' fund-raising campaigns. If it can be shown that a 'serious' approach to historical accuracy makes a significant difference to income, there's an argument to convince those who have no personal interest in heritage for its own sake.

I suspect it might make a real difference. I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool historic buildings conservationist, but I'm happy to pay my National Trust membership because I know that they are.

 

Please don't think I am commenting in any way specifically about Broadway Station. However, as a generality, if the craft skills are not quite there to master elaborate brickwork then it is best to stick to plain modernity. There is a (non railway) building not so far from where I live whose designer has specified all sorts of dentill courses, oversailings, brick circles and the like which were rather beyond the skills around. The results are 'orrible!

PH

 

The Tudor builders were very good at it and it was of course the height of wealthy fashion then. Image of Dunston Hall chimneys , Norfolk. Now those are serious chimneys!

 

I understand a meeting was arranged and discussions took place as several people have suggested. The chimney is in the process of being rebuilt, we will have to wait and see the finished article.

By the way, if a third chimney had been built on the new station in similar proportions to the old station, it would be above the gents toilets!

 

The signalboxes at Gotherington and CRC are very much in the bus shelter category - the GWSR has form when it comes to ignoring heritage issues.

 

Can I remind everyone that the chimneys and the canopy extension are not the only visual issue, their are going to be a few bare containers at the end of platform 2 on the old horse dock site for equipment storage, I've mentioned it before but it seems like all the attention is being focused on the chimneys and the canopy at the moment, I think the containers are also something that will need to be addressed in time as they will stick out like a sore thumb.
Saw the extension blog today, track work is coming on a pace! The embankments need a good prune and perhaps some grass seeding in time or meadow seeding for bees/wildlife? I say this because I imagine it is going to be a very photogenic cutting with people snapping locos in the headshunt from the platform ends on a sunny day! I think that the fence by the goods shed needs a hedge planted like CRC has had recently, for security and aesthetic reasons, maybe something colourful? It's all looking pretty fantastic so far!

 

As I said in post 863 the chimneys are a symptom, there are many others including the 'future maintenance facility' in steel and concrete. I repeat the GWR Trust's mission, 'to build and maintain a railway museum'. All we want to do is honour that goal. We should show people what it was like in 1904, and give them a journey into the past. We should lead by example, and reproduce a building in a style that is, as Historic England recommended to the SVR, 'Evidence based'.

 

I have seen containers that have had external wood cladding added, profiled to a horse box shape you could almost imagine a grounded van body.

 

This is how the Bodmin and Wenford did it.
I think these are new buildings, but they belong, and have charm. It needs a little imagination, not a brutalist 9 inch double reinforced concrete pad and two steel containers.

 

Meanwhile, despite our musings and comments on the state of the Broadway Station Rebuild, hard working volunteers on the Permanent Way Dept and the Broadway Station construction team (24 of the latter yesterday) were getting on with the job of getting this extension and station built. The wet weather held off and, from what can be seen from the 2 blogs, much progress was made. The end result may not please all (what does?) but the end result isn't finished yet!

http://broadwaystationgroup.blogspot.co.uk/
http://broadwayextensionblog.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Those Bodmin and Wenford buildings look really good!

Andy

 

They do indeed. At the risk of repeating myself on this thread, I would also recommend the down side building at Kingscote, Bluebell Railway, or the up side shelter at Ropley on the Mid Hants. Both are new-build, but it would take a very discerning and knowledgeable enthusiast to realise that they were not built by the LB&SCR and L&SWR respectively. (Regrettably, I can't provide a photo of either, but I'm sure other people can)

 

Ropley is indeed very fine, helped greatly by the "V" shaped clock donated by SWT. (They made a similar generous donation to the IOWSR but that timepiece still retains pre- Grouping style lettering.)

PH