GWSR Broadway Developments

Point of order: They still are .... though I've not the first notion of what useful purpose one might serve on a footplate. A foray onto the then disused line above T-y-B perhaps?

Wonderful to see the finishing touches to Broadway coming together at a rate of knots. What is it now? ...... 17 days?

 

Multitasking to overcome the line-side vegetation budget cutbacks?

Try the veal....

 

Use the railway.....digger in, spoil out, blocks bricks and steel in...

 

Its the normal day to day bread and butter visitors any railway needs to boost and nurture. If you strip out the special event visitors from the Bluebell headline numbers its not so rosy.
On that vein how many visitors does Cheltenham Centre itself pull in ? Might be easer to get to get Mr and Mrs normal to travel from both ends if the line was extended back into town rather than rely on folk driving to the Racecourse to take a ride. As I understand it they own the trackbed to halfway there anyway. God help the GWR financially if they are tempted to extend miles to the north into nowheresville land and Honeybourne.

 

The GWSR website mentioned a 25% increase in passenger/visitor traffic to the Railway since opening CRC Station in 2003 (I can't remember exactly where on the website). Honeybourne, 5 miles north of Broadway, has a population of around 1500 and is blessed with a very large maximum security prison in the locality.(Apologies for citing Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeybourne
It also has a railway station (Hereford-Worcester-Oxford-London) which is now much reduced from the large junction in once was. The spur to Long Marston still exists and is regularly used for storage, works trains etc. The main line was improved in 2011 and allowance made for a future possible connection to the GWSR via the old Honeybourne junction. It won't happen in my lifetime I'm sure, if it ever does. Apologies for going off topic a bit as we should really be concentrating on Broadway, which will be reopening to the public on 30 March. That said, a new thread on the pros and cons of Honeybourne might be worth starting sometime. Easy to spend someone else's money is the caveat.

 

I'm sure we've had at least a couple of those threads! Basically, the pros are all at Honeybourne, and the cons are all along the way from Broadway to Honeybourne!

 

Indeed no argument from me on that.
In getting people to and from Broadway itself, perhaps the key will be an easy and attractive means of transport from centre to station as the walk is easy but perhaps borderline in length to be of no concern to passengers. As to developing on station income generating attractions, the café and shop are essential and once the Signal Box is open perhaps driver for a fiver trips platform trips could be investigated. Last weekend we had our little Dewry shuttling up and down in station limits. Every one without exception enjoyed driving it and the challenge of changing gear, tooting etc and we had dads with sons, wives giving husbands a treat to daughter giving her mum a different experience who really enjoyed it. With hopefully full 8 coach trains you would soon rack up income for next to no outlay ( about couple of gallons of diesel for the whole day)

 

Although comparisons are inevitably being made between the GWSR's extension to Broadway and the Bluebell's to East Grinstead simply because the latter has been the most recent extension opened by a high-profile heritage railway, in many ways, a more useful comparison would be with lines who extended to a significant tourist destination such as the Kent & East Sussex to Bodiam or the Swanage Railway to Corfe Castle. The latter has completely transformed the Swanage Railway; the line has never really looked back and has gone from strength to strength, last Summers unfortunate collision between 34070 and 80104 not withstanding. With the Kent & East Sussex, Bodiam brought an initial increase in passenger journeys, but in this instance, it was not sustained, sadly.

Both Corfe Castle and Bodiam stations are nearer to the tourist hotspots they serve than Broadway will be and. of course, the GWSR already had a longer run than either of the lines I have mentioned prior to their extensions, so one cannot draw too many parallels here either, but I wish the GWSR well and hope that reaching Broadway will give a permanent and significant boost to passenger numbers. I'm very much looking forward to making the journey myself at some point this year. The blogs and working members who have contributed to this thread have done a first rate job in keeping us informed with progress. Thank you, gentlemen and all the best as the big day approaches.

 

I dare say quite a few of us who have been following this thread will be keen to visit and see for ourselves sooner or later. If we're planning to come for the Easter weekend, do we need to book in advance for specific trains? And what about thereafter?

 

Advance ticket sales are already full for Friday 30th March. See the "Opening to Broadway" paragraph in this blog: gwrboardroom.blogspot.co.uk/
(The latest blog is about asparagus, which always looks, and tastes, like horsetail plants to me!) I hope this link helps.

 

There's a whole thread about extending in that direction. Executive summary: getting past the outskirts of town would be incredibly hard (considerably worse than getting to H'bourne); see e.g. this post and this post. Not going to happen.

Noel

 

In a word, no. If you want to go on the Friday, online tickets have sold out, tickets sold on the day will be limited to prevent overcrowding (so if the train looks full, ticket offices will close until it's looking a bit quieter). Online tickets for Saturday *might* close and work like Friday, depending on numbers. Sunday and Monday shouldn't be too bad. AFAIK no tickets are for specific trains.

 

I am pleased to say that they managed to get a smaller machine that was able to get onto the South end of P1. They completed it by lunchtime and by 3:00ish they had finished the North end of P1, so all there work is now finished. I have to say it looks a really good job.

We completed a further 7 rows of slabs (lots of cuts around several drains, and rain to contend with) on the forecourt side of the station, and leaves us about 13 to do, however, the priority is to do the 15 rows of slabs on the platform before the first passenger train arrives a week tomorrow, so we will start doing those tomorrow.

I have no idea how they will manage to do P2, however, I suppose access could be via the farmers field at the back of the platform, but I could see those large lorries sinking in the soft ground. Glad it's someone elses problem.

 

The slabbing gang's results today:



Nearly got to the end...

Then the result of tarmaccing P1:



The smaller machine worked wonders, so it's all done now. The drive needs a lot more work on the levels and will be done later.



In the background is P1 north tarmacced. A gap left is the bit that will be under the canopy overhang, and that will be slabbed.
In the foreground is the first of 3 scripted benches with 3 legs each. They have been painted dark brown all over, as in the 1904 picture we use for reference. The script in 1904 was not highlighted.
The second bench was mostly completed today, just one more plank to go. It's incredibly fiddley keeping everything straight and parallel, so takes a good half a day to do one.
If all goes well an all wooden bench, an original GWR one refurbished by our C&W department, will be brought up to Broadway tomorrow.

 

There seem to be 2 or 3 cluttering the place up at the moment! Don't forget the one that's been in the paintshop for forever!

 

Going great guns folks. I'm in awe of the effort being put in by GWSR staff and volunteers. Give it another few days at this rate and you'll be banging on the ops folks door for passengers ahead of the official date!

 

It's the one in the paintshop that is coming up tomorrow.
The other is an upholstered one for the booking office:


When I saw it a week ago the frame was almost completed. I have treated it to a roll of new green vinyl . Tne new wood will be stained to match the original.

Its provenance is a pub outside Swindon station, and when I bought it the upholstery was torn and it only had 5 legs. Should look the part in the Edwardian booking office!

 

Jo, have the black and white station signs been made, ie Booking Office, Waiting Room etc?

 

Bring the vehicles in by train and drive them straight off onto P2?

David R

 

We have collected quite a few originals over the years, some donated, some bought at auction.
I hope to acquire another at auction soon, unless outbid. It is the twin of one that used to hang at Broadway.

With all the other stuff we've been doing, there hasn't been time to think about these 'V' boards much but no doubt we will take a greater interest once we are up and running. They need a bit of ironmongery made to keep them up for example.
The only one we may have to make from scratch is REFRESHMENT ROOM as that comes up very rarely. We eould be interested in any GWR letters anybody might have.