If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

GWSR Broadway Developments

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

  1. Gloucester Boy

    Gloucester Boy New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2013
    Messages:
    125
    Likes Received:
    352
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I find this really frustrating! I am able to work Wednesdays (unless her indoors gives me permission to do some extra, occasionally). I want Broadway to be the best that it can be with the finance and resources available to us. I want to be proud of the finished station etc.

    I am not involved with design, management, etc, I just turn up and do my job allocated to the best of my ability, as do all the other volunteers I work with.

    What I find frustrating is that we do a job and then after it is completed, someone moans that it isn't heritage, etc, and it should be done in a different way. This has happened several times, and is a waste of our efforts, and costs money to alter. It seems that it is after the event that we then hear it is wrong.

    As someone suggested, perhaps these issues should be raised at the AGM's, I go to them and can confirm that they aren't.

    One of the Directors is responsible for the Broadway project, so instead of continuous discussions on forums or blogs, why don't the heritage group, Broadway committee and the Directors get together to sort out and agree exactly what they want built and be done with it - no more moaning and we can get on and do it. We are running out of time to get the station finished in time, so cannot afford any further delays.

    That's my rant out of the way, I will say no more.
     
  2. threelinkdave

    threelinkdave Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2013
    Messages:
    2,065
    Likes Received:
    1,240
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Stratford-upon-Avon or in a brake KD to BH
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Having an internal staircase in a box for security leading to a box having the wrong footprint is a red herring. Both Bridgnorth and Kidderminster have internal staircases and are I believe to genuine GW paterns

    I was at one time a GWSR Member but ran foul of the management
     
    michaelh likes this.
  3. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    7,498
    Likes Received:
    5,455
    Bridgnorth box is ex Pensnett and is a genuine GWR type 28B box.
     
  4. Gloucester Boy

    Gloucester Boy New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2013
    Messages:
    125
    Likes Received:
    352
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Sleepers at Broadway at the north end of the station (yesterday, - not my photo) will rail be laid today? Also you can just see the first buffer stop on the right.
     

    Attached Files:

  5. D6969

    D6969 New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2009
    Messages:
    67
    Likes Received:
    35
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Pway
    Location:
    Gloucestershire
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    jnc, Kinghambranch and Gloucester Boy like this.
  6. martin1656

    martin1656 Nat Pres stalwart Friend

    Joined:
    Dec 8, 2014
    Messages:
    17,609
    Likes Received:
    11,222
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    St Leonards
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    So how far from the platforms is the head of steel now? its always a special moment when the first track gets laid in the station its self.
     
  7. Breva

    Breva Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2010
    Messages:
    2,158
    Likes Received:
    3,790
    Location:
    Gloucestershire
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Unfortunately it is after the event that we find out that it is wrong. The freestyle chimney is a case in point. No one knew that it would not be like the original, it was a complete surprise. The chimney breast was wide enough for the heritage double chimney, and yet in the space of a couple of working days a single was put up, in a style that is completely different. Who knew? How hard is it to go to Toddington and look, or examine one of the old photographs before starting to build.
    And yet we are assured that 'The team there work very hard to achieve as much heritage replication as possible' (a few days ago only, from a senior source) whereas this is clearly not true on the ground. Heritage advice given to the construction management during the build is ignored, and there are no detail drawings available to show what is going to be built. A request for a conservation and heritage advisory committee such as in place on the SVR was rejected two years ago. When yet another pointless deviation from the original is revealed, we end up fighting rearguard battles that we would rather not.

    For Bridgnorth, Historic England advised that the heritage build should be evidence based, and we are so lucky that we have Toddington to compare, just 5 miles away.
     
    jtx, jnc, michaelh and 1 other person like this.
  8. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2013
    Messages:
    10,440
    Likes Received:
    17,940
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Cheltenham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I'm still a little baffled by this. A number of occasions you've described examples where a more heritage option was just as easy to do, and in some cases, even suggested to "management" (a phrase I'm coming to hate when uttered by certain people, they're all just volunteers, same as the rest of us). So why are heritage options being denied if they cost the same and are just as easy to do? There must be *some* rationale, even if you personally (and others) don't agree with it. I'm always eager to hear both sides and at the moment I haven't a clue what the reasoning on the other side is, and I'd like to.
     
    nigelss, Bean-counter, jnc and 2 others like this.
  9. FearOfManchester

    FearOfManchester Member

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2016
    Messages:
    354
    Likes Received:
    404
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Peak District
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    the canopy extension can be rectified in the future I believe as the fixings are all there from what I saw on the blog, if people want to talk about the heritage look of the station might I also say that I hope a solution can be found for the equipment storage area on the old horse dock siding in the future, for now I believe the containers are there for the foreseeable future but perhaps they can be clad to make the look more in keeping as they are in plain sight. Are the signals that have been put in good for any extension further north or would more be required?
     
  10. AndyY

    AndyY Member

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2013
    Messages:
    433
    Likes Received:
    480
    I'm not sure the canopy extension can be rectified in the future without moving the bridge, which clearly will never happen! I could envisage how the across-platform offset could be handled, but as we are told the bridge is six feet too close to the building, there simply wouldn't be enough headroom if the canopy were extended to the stairs.

    The answer to me seems to be to publish a detailed plan for comments before starting work, but this just hasn't happened. I have even heard that the guys doing the work don't have visibility of a detailed overall plan..............

    Andy
     
  11. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2013
    Messages:
    10,440
    Likes Received:
    17,940
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Cheltenham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    The signalling has certainly been designed to make northward extension signalling easy. Presumably more would be required beyond Springfield lane bridge for start of section etc. but other than that, not really I don't think.
     
  12. jnc

    jnc Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2012
    Messages:
    1,511
    Likes Received:
    2,706
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Western Atlantic
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    You're not the only one...
    But they still have the authority to make choices, and being volunteers doesn't make them immune to bad habits in the exercise of that authority.
    That is the 64 million GBP question. From what little I know, the answer is probably more personality-driven, than any good reason. Which should not be a huge surprise: it's not like we've never seen any other problems in the heritage movement being caused, at root, by personalities. In this case, all it takes is someone who doesn't care about heritage, and who doesn't consult others when making decisions.
    Alas, I doubt you're likely to get an answer (see above for why).

    Noel
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2017
  13. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2009
    Messages:
    8,068
    Likes Received:
    5,164
    It's a pity that an AGM has just passed without (apparently) these issues being raised. At least at the next AGM someone should raise a series of specific questions along the lines "Why was X done even though Y had been proposed?"
     
    Kinghambranch likes this.
  14. davidarnold

    davidarnold Member

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2006
    Messages:
    436
    Likes Received:
    392
    Well it was to be expected that the Anti- Heritage elements within Management would have their revenge. They were defeated when it was proposed the signal box windows be made of double glazed plastic, that the canopy be made of shopping centre off cuts, refused to fund the spear fencing. In fact it was looking like there would be nothing to commemorate their efforts at Broadway that they could point to.

    Now they have the non canopy extension, the inauthentic staircases, and the non GWR pattern chimneys. No doubt in time they will want a bus shelter on platform 2 to bring Broadway into the 21st Century.
     
    michaelh likes this.
  15. Breva

    Breva Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2010
    Messages:
    2,158
    Likes Received:
    3,790
    Location:
    Gloucestershire
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    A specific question was raised at the AGM: ''Why was the pointing in all the window arches made white, when the original was black?''.
    Answer: 'I don't know, I'll get back to you'.

    In a way, this represents the whole problem. The mortar in the arches should be the same colour as the rest of the mortar on the building. There was no evidence that it was ever otherwise, but on site we were unable to stop it. It went on for weeks.
     
    michaelh likes this.
  16. Gloucester Boy

    Gloucester Boy New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2013
    Messages:
    125
    Likes Received:
    352
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I'm not sure the length of the 8 panels laid would be. When we constructed the palisade fencing, although we never measured it, it was mentioned that the fence was about 350 meters long.

    It's a long way, on Wednesday a couple of us had the walk there and back 3 times, as we needed to install some strengthening struts as deer had been trying to jump the fence and had moved some of the fencing - we saw the deer, it was pretty big!
     
  17. D6969

    D6969 New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2009
    Messages:
    67
    Likes Received:
    35
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Pway
    Location:
    Gloucestershire
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    8 off 60' panels makes err 480', what that is in metres, who cares! Plus the stop block/buffer stop plus the gap to fence/gate.
     
  18. collet1930

    collet1930 New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2011
    Messages:
    59
    Likes Received:
    25
    Will there be at least token apparatus and a couple of signals operating at the opening next year or can they operate Todd- Broadway as a long headshunt/siding.And yes the chimney is a bit odd.
     
  19. jnc

    jnc Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2012
    Messages:
    1,511
    Likes Received:
    2,706
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Western Atlantic
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Wrong question; it should have been 'Why was the colour wrong, when it would not have increased the cost, nor caused a delay, to do it right?'
    I feel that this reflects an incorrect attitude on the part of whoever is making these decisions - and not listening. I have some experience in managing large significant volunteer efforts, from a previous phase of my life, and this is not the way to do it. I mean, I personally wouldn't care a hoot about the mortar colour - but it is important to some people, so lacking a good reason (money, time) to do otherwise, why not do it their way? To just blow them off, for no good reason, is... un-wise.

    I can only suspect that the person making these decisions is used to operating as a business executive, where they give commands, and people do what they're told. (Not that that's necessarily the best way to operate, but that's irrelevant.) It's unfortunate that the rest of the 'management' at the GWSR hasn't accepted that an incorrect style is being used here, and stepped in to do something.

    Noel
     
  20. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2013
    Messages:
    10,440
    Likes Received:
    17,940
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Cheltenham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I agree, and this is why I'm trying to find *some* sort of reasoning, I'd rather there was some sort of reason, even if we didn't agree with it, rather than as described above.

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
     

Share This Page