GWSR Broadway Developments

The advantages of modern technology mean you can get aluminium down pipes that are impervious to rust and the powder coating means the paint lasts for yonks, the advantage of recessed down pipes is clear in windy areas for example, the ten a penny plastic crap that seems to be the prevalent default these days just snaps off its brackets in high winds where I live. The other advantage is they look bloody good too. I can live with the heritage metal down pipes that you have decided upon anyhow.

 

What's the issue with memorial plaques? Ones that are just sold to raise money, I can see that, but would a plaque added by the BAG to remember a valued worker who's been lost be an issue?

Excellent point!

Noel

 

It is indeed superb and very clear. I haven't seen this particular photo before. It is a delightful cameo but impossible to recreate totally (although the restorers have had a very good attempt despite some "sidetracking" and a few obstacles ) as the females would not have had the vote when the photo was taken and only wealthier folk in that photo would have decent teeth. Hence the expression that is still used by US citizens when meeting English people, "Is it Halloween or are those your real teeth?"

 

The problem that the Bluebell found with memorial plaques on benches is that benches aren't really permanent enough; as they weather and need to be restored, the plaque can come adrift and get lost. It can be distressing for families who come to see the plaque, and find the bench in poor condition or the plaque missing altogether. So memorials are now concentrated in a garden at Horsted Keynes rather than scattered over the railway.

 

The GWR didn't do them.

 

So what? Neither did many other railways.

If someone is minded to provide a seat with a plaque fixed to it, are you saying that you would rather pay for it from Railway funds and not accept the gift of a free seat?
Speaking from the point of view of someone who has done this.
Something like a 4" x 2" inch dark plaque not something that stands out like polished brass.

Ignoring the costumed pair, note the small plaque.
http://pyperyork.co.uk/wp2/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Goathland-150-1.jpg

 

This whole thread has been about historical authenticity - what do you not understand about that?

 

From what I have read on here only when it suits.
How old are the concrete slabs currently being laid?
Downpipes on guttering not as they used to be.

Shall I continue?

Otherwise I have been impressed with what has been achieved, historically accurate or not.

 

Quite.

 

Are you sure?

 

Well we know that GWR memorialised their war dead, so who knows, regardless, i like the idea of plaques remembering those volunteers who have been lost along the way placed among a planting bed for example, if there are any trees to be planted at some point around the station site then its an idea, other than that a little info board showing those members of the BAG team living and passed on in the station building would be nice, I imagine that some sort of info for visitors eulogising the build process and the amount of effort that went into authenticity is on the cards already. I get that volunteering is a selfless act that doesn't need too much recognition or fawning over, and that most good people i've met if my life have the quality of being bashful, but the team that built broadway need to be recognised and drawn to the attention of any visitor that comes to use and enjoy the facilities that they created.

 

There is a memorial garden/shelter at Toddington Station now. I can remember seeing a plaque on a bench at Cheltenham St James Station but that was in BR days and not long before the Station closed. I can't remember whether it was for a railway employee, but I'd guess so. Anyway, it's nothing to lose too much sleep over.

 

Not true. Many rural poor had reasonable teeth and equally many of the wealthy suffered from tooth decay. Many factors were involved.

 

Look what turned up in the post at Station House, Stogumber over the weekend...

 

See you there then!

For those who haven't yet bought tickets, it's looking like Sunday and Monday will be the quieter two of the four days - I'd go then if I were you!

 

I know - n-o-t-h-i-n-g.....
Er, looks like you are a shareholder with 230357 shares?

1905 steam elegance, with a 2002 Bradstone building

 

Are you sure? Edit: I notice that FS 123 liked your comment and, given that he is studying to be a fang farrier I guess he knows far more than I about the subject than I.

 

It is a good looking loco (I am biased) even though the Dean pattern buffers were replaced in the late 1950s. Fancy sponsoring a Dean set for loco and tender anyone?
Nothing wrong with that station building from the point of view that it does its job and was needed quickly. Would a more authentic structure have been built now with hindsight and volunteer skills? Yes. Are we stuck with it? Yes. Could a more original wooden structure be built on Platform 2? Well, possibly.
However, I think that we have all learned a little from the "Broadway experience" and, in time, I think we will see an improvement, if I can use that term, in the general "authentication" of the whole line as the GWSR consolidates a little after the amazing investment of the last few years in the Broadway extension (which is far from complete I know).

 

It was more than wealthier people didn't necessarily have good teeth than poorer people did have nicer teeth! More generally the wealthier you are the better your general health (and this is fundamental, even when the upper classes smoked more than the lower classes for example, they were still healthier), which includes oral hygiene, but we haven't looked at oral hygiene specifically in that context.