GWSR Broadway Developments

I'm all over it already!

 

No there isn't, there is a steep embankment full of great big Scots Pines.

As Captain Mainwaring famously said to Corporal Jones " I think your'e entering the realms of fantasy there!"

 

Haha! Was more thinking in terms of stuff that won't be moving on any time soon, the 2807 group seems relatively well established!

C+W do own 2 BGs acquired for spares that I suppose could be done up, but they'd be big jobs equivalent to a full restoration, so it would be that or adding another coach to the fleet.

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As Broadway will become the only destination station on the GWSR that will actually serve somewhere that has more local attractions on offer other than the railway itself when it opens next year, it is surely right to provide a proper refreshment facility on site to allow arriving passengers the option to take sustenance before and/or after they stroll into the centre of Broadway.
Having said that, the town of Winchcombe has an attractive core - it’s a pity that it is so far from the station that nominally serves it.

 

Thank you, so is there a plan for the rest of the station, fore instance are there any plans to build a building on platform 2 ?

 

Yes, the waiting room will be rebuilt, slightly longer than the original IIRC.

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Yes Martin - see https://plan.wychavon.gov.uk/plandisp.aspx?recno=43635 and click on Documents to view the drawings. Planning permission was for 3 buildings - signal box, main building (P1) and P2 building.

Keith

 

Deleted, see my reply to jnc below.

 

My apologies, I've just found the Boardroom Blog that explained how they had made provision for £80k for potential repairs but ended up with some £300k in actual costs. I don't know how I missed that.
Mike

 

yes, think the key word is 'destination'. From experience, more secondary spend comes from passengers waiting for a train to arrive than those travelling on the train (especially if there is a buffet car on board). As there is currently no car park, I suspect this will be even more likely in this case for now.

 

Minor point: if by "plastic windows" you refer to the original plan for plastic windows in the signal box, those (and the non-heritage canopy) long pre-date the budget crunch caused by the Broadway embankment problem. (The GWSR has had so many embankment problems one has to refer to them by name! Happily, the drainage crew is, with support from higher levels, making great strides - I reckon the drainage is now in far better shape than it ever was under BR, or before. A big thanks to them for all their often-unseen labour!)

And IIRC the canopy wasn't really about money - ISTR it turned out that having the iron-work done in house was actually cost-competitive - the original plan was more a lack of appreciation. It's so unfortunate that all these things only get sorted after a big drama. I'm sure the board have their hearts basically in the right place (to see the GWSR a success), and it's sad to see all the grief that has to happen, all around, before things get done 'right'.

Yes, very much. As I've mentioned before, I've had some professional experience managing a large volunteer effort in a previous life, and it's absolutely vital to get feedback from everyone on issues before making a decision. People I think understand that the decision won't always be the one they want, but if everyone has been asked for their views before-hand, and then the reasoning for the decision is clearly explained, it generally goes down without a big drama.

I understand the board are all volunteers, and I know doing it this way takes more time and energy ('been there', as they say), but extensive communication at all stages in the decision process is critical to any effort which relies on volunteers.

Noel

 

In my plan for the platforms (that I was asked to draw up) I suggested reinstating a part of the original horse dock, which would give a short siding of about one coach length, accessible from P1.
This plan was not proceeded with, until someone remembered the potential space, and they relocated two steel containers there as a 'future maintenance facility' on a 9 inch thick reinforced concrete base.
A vehicle there would have been perfect for extra interest, a shop, a model railway, a santa coach.

 

Or indeed a horsebox! :/

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Lack of foresight? as you say a coach or monster , parked up in the bay, would have made an ideal temporary shop, and later could have maybe become a museum coach showing the rebuilding of the station etc.

 

Exactly! Instead we got concrete and steel. I so wish we had more imagination, and remembered our sole GWR Trust mission: To build and maintain a railway museum, for the benefit of the public. All GWSR volunteers are members of this trust, and ought to strive to achieve its aims.

 

While I agree with whoever it was that said asking the Broadway volunteers whether we ought to have a cafe shouldn't be the be all and end all of it, the issue quoted I feel falls more into their sphere of influence, after all, it's their station to maintain when it's done - where they asked?

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Maybe Breva or someone in the know can answer what those stone brackets are either side of the front entranceway? Was the front door shelter a different design originally? I've looked at the images of the original building and their aren't really any that depict the front entranceway, if there was one at all, did passengers not enter through a balltop gate by the canopy extension?

 

Or indeed for a 'future maintenance facility' hidden in plain sight, that wouldn't stick out so much. Things can always change, it's a lot of concrete, but a breaker attachment makes short work of it.

 

I know that I have been very harsh in my judgement of the the Board, and been taken to task for it.

Well let me take this opportunity to say that I have had a very productive and polite email conversation with Richard Johnson and put to him all the plus points as I see it regarding having a cafe over a shop. Most of the points in fact that people on here have raised.

This approach is most refreshing and totally different from previous attempts by myself and others to contact the last Project Manager.

So there is hope that the Board are listening.

 

The GWR had a strange flow design on our line, which made people go through a side gate (at the northern end), down the platform into the booking office, and back out with their ticket through the same door on to the platform. OK if there is only 1 passenger, but not so good when you have several hundred, as we might have from 2018. (we no longer run the little Coffeepot stopper with a 1400 and an autocoach as in the 1950s)
So it was decided, and I concur, that it would be better to have a through flow system with a front door, as most other stations have.

Now it got a bit tricky, as this new door ought to have a canopy to shelter people getting out cabs with their luggage and about to open the booking hall door. What would it have looked like, had the GWR done it?

My idea was to inspire ourselves from Wilmcote, using the heritage advice given to the SVR new build that it must be 'evidence based'. Wilmcote is further up the same line to N Warwickshire, and was (re-) built only a few years after Broadway.

Here is how the GWR gave Wilmcote a short canopy overhang:


Note how the rest of this building is practically a copy of the Broadway style. The 'porte cochere' or overhang is supported on struts resting on two decorated corbels.
I recommended that we do this, and indeed the corbels were sourced and added to the facade, although not very far appart, making the little canopy too narrow to be practical.

Came the day the little canopy was to be built, and a counter proposal using two RSJs protruding from the steel ring inside was suggested by the project management.
Advice was (exceptionally) sought from our little heritage group, which concluded in a majority vote that no canopy over the front door was seen to be the most authentic.

This was the wrong answer, and the RSJs were duly used, supporting a flat canopy.