GWSR Broadway Developments

Footbridge woodwork coming on nicely at Broadway just now.
Someone has thoughtfully moved the webcam very slightly to give a better view of progress:

 

Oh, that was an unintended nudge afaik, but see tonight's blog for clearer images
It does show that we were up there, work has started again!

 

Just saw this image on p.71 of this new Inside Track publication, and did a triple take- something going on we're not being told about?

Cheeky beggars- lay a new stretch of railway, and as soon as you turn your back, you've got squatters!
Link to the publication, if anyone's interested:
https://issuu.com/raildirector/docs/insidetrackmay2021?fr=sZGU1YjE5NjE0MTk

 

How dare they imply we're a branch-line!!

 

A rationalised mainline

 

That vehicle looks as if it is out of gauge.

 

Me too; and then I spent a while trying to work out if it was Broadway being shown, or not! I don't think so, although it's very similar;. If you look at this image, and then back at the clipped image you posted, in the latter, at the side/platform corner of the station building, just to the left of the person in the blue top, there's a lamp which isn't in the linked photo. I think...

Noel

 

It's too similar. The company is based in Stratford and the vehicle has been to Long Marston for some tests. A quick excursion to Broadway would be quite possible. The other possibility, of course, is "photoshopping" (not necessarily with that particular software, but what's the alternative term for messing about with a photograph?).

 

Digital manipulation

 

That stepping distance is way over the allowed amount so either the platform needs raising by a good 12" or the vehicles need re-scaling. If I were a betting man I'd bet a Mars Bar it is the latter.

 

It is good that when someone in the art dept thinks 'rural station' they pull up an image of Broadway. I think if I were the Broadway team I would be patting myself on the back.

 

Noel,

That's an issue of perspective, the lamp is there but the picture on the blog was taken with a wide angled lens, so it's just off to the right. The photoshopped picture is more compressed.

Broadway is rural only to the extent that it is located near a village, but its design can be found on several stations of the North Warwickshire line going into Birmingham, particularly at Hall Green, where it isn't rural at all.

When complete, Broadway will have quite a big building on the down side, and still a respectable sized one on the up side, linked by a footbridge and canopies that go all the way round. They will give it a much bigger station feel.

 

Hmmm... destination Newborough...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newborough,_Anglesey
They have just started a thing to reopen a line in Angelesy haven't they...? I think we should be told...

 

The picture with the train has poor resolution, so it's very hard to see fine details. But looking at the bases of the lamps, and the feet of the person with the blue top, it seemed like that lamp is close to the corner of the station. But maybe not... Other features, e.g. the drain pipe, and the camera on the side of the roof at the corner, all match (and led to my "very similar").

The train picture is quite well-done, though; e.g. the shadows. I wonder if they took an image with a different engine sitting there, and 'inserted' the image of the VLR?

Noel

 

The lamp post is situated near the start of the fence line. You have the corner of the building, the modesty screen, then a double gate, and then the start of the fence line.


This picture shows the original layout on the right. The lamp post you mention is on the right, and the fence panels behind the children have become a double gate today.
Unfortunately we don't know who these people are.. Unusually, the picture doesn't have any station staff on it. The central figure looks like a local dignitary, surrounded by members of his family. It might be the Scott family, who built the line. The son, CT Scott, later bought Buckland Manor nearby as he liked the area so much.
The date is probably a bit past the opening date, say 1906.

 

Not convinced it’s ‘Photoshopped’.
There’s another picture.
Why would they bother to digitally manipulate two photos?

 

It is curious, but that one is definitely photoshopped as the bracket signal in the reflection is actually located at the south end of platform 2 (in the photo we're looking south stood on P1, for those unfamiliar). The base picture looks to have been taken pre-2019 when @Breva and team put some double Royal poster boards up.

I'm also really struggling with the idea that this managed to remain completely secret if it really happened, bearing in mind it would have had to have been loaded and unloaded at Toddington in the car park and trundled up to Broadway. Station staff are about so it would appear to be an operating day making it virtually impossible to keep secret, few passengers around as there's no actual train at the station in the base photo.

It's a very good photoshop effort though, shame we couldn't have kept it for an April fools!

 

They ran it in from Honeybourne on the secret extension. Part of the deal for testing it on the line Apparently, trucks full of grassclippings were seen running up the Cotswold line in preparation.

 

It certainly is a good digital manipulation. Well spotted on the reflection, I don't think I would have noticed that. Apart from that, the only iffy feature is the lack of shadow on the track directly below the near end of the unit.