GWSR Broadway Developments

Glad you got there in the end!

Speaking of heritage, there's been a bit of discussion on Facebook about railway posters. I understand you've got some old advertising in the pipeline (?) but any GWR posters on poster boards?

There are a fair few pertinent to the area, 2 apiece for the Cotswolds and Cheltenham:




And I'm sure if we put our minds to it we could come up with some sympathetically heritage posters for other places along the line - e.g.



We seem to have had a half hearted go at his sort of thing already at Cheltenham, someone got as far as suitably photo-shopping some excellent photos of trains along the line, but then went for modern fonts and logos and printed them onto shiny metal/plastic rather than mounting them properly.

 

I'm not sure what to do about posters. I have a very good repro one from the guys at CRC (the one with the rock) but how would it have been displayed inside a building? I think Toddy office have two more, but originals. They need to be kept out of the light and weather.

I think station staff ordered poster boards from C&W but they asked me for the detail. I gave them a photograph of a GWR poster board and its dimensions, but I think (?) that these are for outside use - the background is quite rough, originally made of planks.

Also, I do not understand how they were suspended. They can be seen on walls with two vertical batons. Were these batons part of the poster board, or hung on the wall and the poster board hung on to them? Anyone know? How were posters displayed indoors?

I also left details of a leaflet dispenser, as illustrated on this forum. (thanks!)
I think they will make us one, bless them.

 

I was thinking about outside ones, currently I can't think of any railway posters displayed outside on our railway at the moment which seems a shame.

It might be nice to have train times at stations chalked on a blackboard rather than on a piece of metal framed laminated piece of paper, with only 2 different sets of times you'd only need to write 2 boards and just swap them over. I think little details like this are easy things to improve the heritage atmosphere, and most importantly, don't cost much money at all!

Glad the leaflet holder has been accepted, I've been itching for an excuse to try out some gold leaf for ages now!

 

If you can swing it, try for 2 leaflet holders I only dared ask for one... and that was on bended knee. There is a bit of joshing going on there but they have a heart of gold and they have turned out some brilliant kit for Broadway.

While I was abroad I tried out some big posters outdoors under a canopy. I laminated them to protect against the weather, but within 2 years they perished nonetheless. Maybe suggest to Eddy that 2 of the 4 I (humbly) asked for are made as blackboards? If you think station staff would use them for that purpose. At the moment there is a lot of unrealistic plastic being used in that area and it would be nice to keep the reason for that, but change it to a heritage style somehow.

 

Plus with a blackboard, you can add more detail if needed about timetable changes, as regards posters etc, have you thought about approaching some of the local attractions, hotels pubs etc in Broadway and producing a where to east, local attractions, etc poster for broadway, done in GWR font etc, sepia image, but up to date, so it looks heritage and in keeping, but is up to date .

 

2 Leaflet holders!!?? The extravagance! I'll mention it and see if it's not too late if you like.

Unless I've got the blessing of a station master I'll steer clear of unilaterally making stuff for them! If it were me I'd want to start again, rip everything off the walls, decide what information we want to display, then decide how to best display that in a sympathetic manner, rather than just tack bits on, even if they look heritage. I'd happily do it if asked, but I don't quite feel it's my place to rock up and end up giving the impression of saying "this looks a mess, lets start again!" That's for the various "friends" groups to do, or someone higher up - if they want some thoughts/signwriting though, I'm only an email away!

Apparently this was suggested a few years ago and they liked the idea of it, until they worked out we were hoping they would pay for their own advertising... Again I'd happily spend more time on photoshop getting it "just right" (those ones I did I only spent half an hour on) if asked, but it's way out of my jurisdiction, and there's zero chance of me joining the station staff or a "friends of" team, I'm already doing enough on the railway. But I do like the idea of some "homework" I can work on whilst I'm at uni - I did nearly take a wagon plank home with me to sign-write once!

 

Isn't it wonderful to concern ourselves with such worries when the Planet is going to Hell in a handcart.

 

Keeps my mind off exam results at any rate!

 

I raised the lack of authenticity (the 100% modern stationmaster's office, huge non standard boards on the booking office and platform side walls, use of plastic snap shut frames in multiple areas, 10 plastic leaflet holders in the heritage booking office etc) and was assured it was all temporary.
The trouble is: who is in charge of the station, who is now looking after it, who has an interest in preserving its 1904 look?
BAG have been disbanded, and there is a different stationmaster there every day. The head stationmaster (one told me) only represents his station at meetings.

The SVR have a conservation document for each of their stations, so want to do something to the station, refer back to the document. We don't have that, but should do.
I would dearly like to have a copy of one of these station conservation documents. Then we would have something to bring to our board. Can anyone help?

 

Each station has its own senior station master? From memory Broadway's is Roger Wyton. I don't really understand what's happened to BAG, can't it take in a similar role to the groups who look after the other stations? That said, as a relative outsider to station management, I do find the relationship between station staff and the friends groups a bit confusing. I think this was supposed to be tidied up when these groups were made formal departments but I'm not sure it's done much to help on this aspect?

Personally I'm content with all the modern bits and pieces in the booking offices if that's what you need as a BOC/Station master to carry out your duties. I'm less content with metal snap boards etc. and we need a solution similar to the wooden leaflet rack for that naff plastic one.

 

Here's the sort of thing I had in mind when I mentioned chalkboards, I believe this is the work of @Robin White



And I like it very much - so much better than a printed bit of paper laminated in a snap metal frame.

 

For what it is worth - here is a photo of the Booking Office at Leamington Spa with a blackboard. (Maybe a little bit too fancy? And a little too modern)

http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrls884.htm

I wonder if the old GWR magazine might have more interior shots or discussions about hanging posters? I am assuming there must be a collection of it somewhere.

On the subject of original stations locally - how original is Charlbury and how much of it is modern dressed up?

Talking about paint - the reference to 1904 reminded me of this comment I'd seen posted elsewhere:

http://www.gwr.org.uk/liveriesstructures.html

 

Can somebody explain this, please. I would have thought that there is still plenty of work to be done at Broadway, albeit at a slower pace as funds permit, and, whilst some of the BAG members may welcome a break or a change, others will be happy to look after the station they have constructed. Rather than being disbanded shouldn't BAG be retained as the station maintenance and development group, with continuing input into the project ?
Mike

 

A small point about posters. The local station did not have posters advertising the local area. The idea was to encourage travel by train to distant parts of the line. The posters would be of distant parts!

 

Oh I agree, and I'd definitely like to see some for Cornwall and Devon around as well, but thinking practically, it makes sense to have some more local ones as well as you can actually visit those places on our railway.

 

Recent posts also mention Station Masters. It was part of his job, I believe, to drum up trade, in the way of special excursions, to distant parts.

 

As previously mentioned they have an excellent poster display on the Isle of Wight SR where the poster appears to be printed directly into a plasticised material and then mounted on to an aluminium backing sheet. They are mounted directly in the prevailing weather and seem to be standing up well to this.

Now that I am getting back to health I’ll ask them for the details and get back to you.

Regards Paul

 

That is my work. Just as it is possible to have boring training, pointless meetings and less thank competent managers and Directors, what you DO with a stick of chalk is important if it is supposed to be 1904...

Pleased to had made a little contribution to Broadway with painting and lettering of the clock in the booking hall.

Robin

 

In which case, how authentic is the use of the 24 hour clock?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Not authentic. But that is the Railway company’s choice, not mine.

Robin