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GWSR Broadway Developments

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Breva, Aug 1, 2014.

  1. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Nope .... that just the bl--dy tarmac!! Our old city was created for a dirty weekend over 200 years ago, not for modern traffic levels. The former are handled as ever they were, the latter - rather less convincingly so!
     
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  2. Mark Thompson

    Mark Thompson Well-Known Member

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    Even more so with that bl--dy 20 mph speed limit and everyone grinding and fuming around in 2nd Gear! About 10 years ago I was teaching people to drive in Brighton, and it was bad enough then, but when they brought in that wretched speed limit, I finally thought enough is enough.
    Bring back the trams!
     
  3. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Tram 53 is currently well on it's way back (http://brightontram53.org.uk/). The master plan is for a short demonstration line in Stanmer Park, way past the furthest outpost of the old system, but still a pretty good location for all that.

    Outside the central area of the city, where during daytime hours, 20mph has been no more that an aspiration for years anyway, the lower limit is (with a couple of notable exceptions) restricted to side roads. The biggest problem here, aside from sheer volumes of traffic, is the lack of coherent phasing of traffic lights.

    A major opportunity was lost too, when no sensible provision for traffic heading out of town on the A270 Lewes Road to turn east onto the A27 bypass (as also in the opposite direction). This has meant ridiculous ongoing levels of traffic between the Vogue Gyratory (the location of the former Kemptown branch viaduct) on Lewes Road, via Fiveways (on the Ditchling Road) and the Preston Drove junction with the A23 at Preston Village.

    The perennial snarl-ups for half a mile in every direction approaching Preston Circus and Brighton Station likewise have precious little to do with speed and everything to do with a historic road layout utterly unsuited to present day requirements.

    What we could really use here is a TBM or two and a hell of a lot of diverted subterranean services, plus (just for good measure) a couple of underground rivers, which ain't about to happen any time soon!

    Here endeth the O/T digression!
     
  4. FearOfManchester

    FearOfManchester Member

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  5. martin1656

    martin1656 Nat Pres stalwart Friend

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    The best bit is yet to come when the extension train is actually at the station and best bit, headed by an Former Southern region ED. :) will the reopening train be headed by a proper engine , one that starts with 35?
    Seriously congratulations to everyone , who has transformed an empty track bed, back to how it once was.
     
  6. Kinghambranch

    Kinghambranch Well-Known Member

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    It is more likely to be a GWR loco of the same era in which Broadway Station was built. We have been asked to have it available.
    It has taken a painfully long and expensive effort to achieve this extension (other heritage railway extensions are available) but I agree totally, it has been nothing short of a transformation.
     
  7. John Petley

    John Petley Part of the furniture

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    I've just noticed that the 2018 GWSR timetable is now on-line, including (naturally) the services when Broadway is open. After the opening festivities of the Easter weekend, the next week will see two steam locos in use.
     
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  8. jnc

    jnc Well-Known Member

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    A post from the new Chairman has appeared on the Boardroom Blog; I was very impressed with it, and also hail (and fully concur with) his plaudits for all the volunteers. Best wishes for your time 'at the helm' of the cat-herding!

    Also, a bit sad to see the demise of the bric-a-brac shed - but since its temporary planning permission expires at the end of the year, it did have to go. Since it seemingly did a booming business for the railway's benefit, perhaps space for a reincarnation can be included in the plans for the new building which will eventually go on the second platform?

    Noel
     
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  9. Kinghambranch

    Kinghambranch Well-Known Member

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    I understand that the shed will move to a site on Platform 1 sometime soon. I don't know how long it will be before work starts on Platform 2 waiting room and footbridge steps (but it will be directly proportional to the amount of money received!). I could do with a garden shed, pity!
     
  10. Breva

    Breva Well-Known Member

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    The bric-a-brac shed does generate several £000s p.a. of funds for Broadway, basically out of nothing. It used to stand on the site of the station building, and was moved to the drive when the foundations went in. When it was decided to stand it on a concrete raft the council asked for a planning application, which was granted on a temporary basis. That now expires.

    I very much hope that the idea of rebuilding it on the platform is a temporary one, say until the station is finished. A wooden shed from B&Q does nothing to further the atmosphere of an Edwardian station, quite the opposite. At Toddington another wooden shed has just gone up on platform 2, 'Great Westernised' by painting it 2 shades of brown. Winchcombe also had a wooden shed aka the Elf Centre, and this has recently been replaced by a huge new 'visitor centre' in Bradstone and plastic. The proliferation of these sheds into empty spaces on platforms eats away at the authenticity of our railway.

    It is true that there is now a space on P1 at Broadway that wasn't there before. It's behind the footbridge, a space previously occupied by the site containers. Originally that space was part of the access road to the former horse dock, now occupied by two steel shipping containers.

    To use this space - should you want to fill it - you should ask yourself the question: what could I put there that is believeably GWR?

    I think Bodmin have done this quite well:

    IMG_2254.JPG

    IMG_2260.JPG
    (OK, OK, the plastic tool shed is not included :) )

    Either of these shapes would not look out of place, and could be used to house a bric-a brac activity. Originally at Broadway part of the space was occupied by a lamp hut.

    What is not a good idea is to say: Where can I put my wooden B&Q shed? Ah, there is space for it on the platform. That is doing it back to front.
     
  11. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

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    Would it burn well?

    Robin
     
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  12. Kinghambranch

    Kinghambranch Well-Known Member

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    No! I'll have it!
     
  13. Kinghambranch

    Kinghambranch Well-Known Member

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    Very good post, but I disagree regarding Winchcombe, the Station can never be what it was (the same design as Broadway was) as the station building was demolished ages ago. The ex-Hall Green Signal Box fits in well however and I still believe that the ex-Monmouth Troy station building is easily as good as what was there before. The new "Elf Centre" funded partly by a legacy, looks to me as if it was designed to be there. That's purely my opinion. In any event, Winchcombe and Broadway stations look infinitely better than they did in 1984. Lest we forget eh?
     
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  14. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Agreed. I must admit I was sceptical when the enormous steel frame went up for the new Elf Centre but now that it's finished I agree it blends in pretty well.

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
     
  15. Mark Thompson

    Mark Thompson Well-Known Member

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    That's superb! Its amazing what a little creative, outside-the-steel-box thinking can achieve. And I'll bet the cost was negligible.
     
  16. Mark Thompson

    Mark Thompson Well-Known Member

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  17. PaulK

    PaulK New Member

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    I really hope that any sheds/huts built on the platforms will be in keeping with the architecture of a GWR station. The photos posted by Breva are a good indication of what can be built without too much difficulty instead of a B&Q shed or shipping container.

    Regards Paul
     
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  18. davidarnold

    davidarnold Member

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    Whether it blends in well depends on where you stand on the spectrum of railway heritage and the need to apply a correct architectural approach to the built railway environment.

    At one end of the scale you have the the "chuck it up quick we need bums on seats pronto" approach which gives you CRC Station. Yes this had the advantage of getting bums on seats a few months quicker, but leaves the Railway with an architectural carbuncle that detracts from the main purpose of the GWSR Trust to have something to do with Heritage. To be a linear Museum that interprets the past.

    At the other end you have buildings like Arlesford Goods shed. This was almost razed to the ground then rebuilt in the correct style but larger as a visitor centre and an interpretation of its original purpose as a Goods shed. The style of it and brickwork matches the surrounding buildings and is unmistakably LWSR in appearance.

    And it is no good pleading, as some do, "well there was nothing there before" because the remaining buildings on the GWSR gave as good a style book as you could possibly want. Broadway Goods Shed could have been the inspiration for example.

    Broadway Goods shed.jpg

    Using this style of brickwork, combined with modern but hidden building techniques as at Broadway, would have ensured the building matched the signal box, and the C and W brick building, and been in a GWR style. In other words an authentic but sympathetic reproduction.

    But no, this would not do for the Directors of the GWSR who are obsessed with "bums on seats" and must have something, anything, in fact before the Santa season 2017 kicks off.

    So instead you get this. Can you really say you prefer it?

    winchcombe station visitor centre.JPG
    So the new building is clad in Bradstone a 21st Century material, and looks out of place against 19th Century cut stone of the station and the Victorian brickwork of the signal box. A complete dogs dinner of different building styles. Sorry GWSR you had a complete blank page at this site and you blew it, just as you did at Cheltenham.



    So the the new Visitor centre occupies the bottom rung of the restoration spectrum. A totally NAF (Non Authentic Fabrication) to satisfy an immediate short term commercial need but will be a legacy to this attitude for the next 100 years.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2017
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  19. Mark Thompson

    Mark Thompson Well-Known Member

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    [/QUOTE]But no, this would not do for the Directors of the GWSR who are obsessed with "bums on seats" and must have something, anything, in fact before the Santa season 2017 kicks off.

    So instead you get this. Can you reall say you prefer it?

    View attachment 32191 So the the new Visitor centre occupies the bottom rung of the restoration spectrum. A totally NAF (Non Authentic Fabrication) to satisfy an immediate short term commercial need but will be a legacy to this attitude for the next 100 years.[/QUOTE]

    Sorry to say it, but that is utter crap. A sort of cynical "Developers vernacular"
     
  20. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    If you really want an example of how to do a new structure, I would suggest you look at the up side platform building at Ropley on the MHR. It looks great but somehow manages to avoid being a pastiche.

    PH
     
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