GWSR Broadway Developments

Are there any plans for recreating the black and white photograph of the original station?

 

No, the cost of the black and white paint would be prohibitive.

My humble apologies, that's not even a witty comment, let alone a joke.

 

Here are some photographs then of the newly installed canopy lamps, as of yesterday evening:


Three replica canopy lamps in a row. A fourth is in store for P2, where the canopy will be shorter.


A close up of one, with the intricate riveted canopy construction in the background.


The canopy lamps with two of the new door boards fitted.
'V boards' will be fitted above the booking hall and future refreshment rooms.

The trains were well filled today, which is very rewarding for those that worked so hard to get the station up and running. Let's hope that this continues throughout the season. Many people were seen walking up Station Road to the village. What however, will happen to the pattern when the car park opens? At the moment many people are parking elsewhere and booking to Broaday. What if they get on at Broadway instead? No one knows, we will just have to see.

 

Any reason why the lanterns appear to be fitted in a slightly different alignment to the originals?

 

I was really impressed with Broadway even though it was lashing rain at the time

 

Now that the bowl and glass chimney have been fitted, here is a picture of the oil lamp in its 'harp' frame in the booking office.

We got the idea of an oil lamp after seeing one at a railwayana auction, with provenance from a station in Wales.
However, on closer inspection it was very tatty, so we didn't buy it. A search on Ebay the next day provided this identical example by local company Hicks of Birmingham, in near mint condition.
Oil lamps would have been the most likely form of interior lighting in 1904, although we have no actual interior photographs of the station to prove it. But you have to plump for something.

Sadly there are no fewer than 10 plastic leaflet holders dotted about this small room, of which 6 already in this picture. Not everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.

Still hoping to organise some realistic looking GWR poster boards, for which we actually have some posters waiting to go up.



If you're eagle eyed, you might spot a little detail now added to the clock. It now sports an ivorine number on the side. This was donated by a well known railway clock collector, and painted by a kind forum member.

As genuine GWR clocks fetch over £2000 we couldn't afford to hang one like that in a public space, so on recommendation from a knowledgeable member of the industry we bought a similar plain one for a fraction of the price, and lettered it up, again with the kind help of the forum member.

Then you have to get the station staff to wind it (sigh). No doubt things will settle down.

 

As you need real light output from these, I assume you've either used halogen or LED fitments. However, if you have lamps that are more decorative than illuminating, these are quite impressive at a distance: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_I...x/Lamps_and_Tubes_Index/Flame_Lamp/index.html

But of course, a gas mantle would have given a steady light anyway...

That aside, it all looks rather splendid

 

Just curious, but how have you gone about making station staff aware of the hymn sheet?

As for a replacement, how about something like these:



Now I definitely didn't suggest this to you, but I'm sure if you ask C+W nicely they'll put it on their list... (and then @Robin White and I can fight over who gets to letter it )

Mm, getting station staff to do new things can be awkward, perhaps a member of the BAG could offer to do it; after all they're still on site every week?

 

Sent them a picture like that one.

Note that they hand out a folder 'Your Day Out' to every customer that says on page 2: 'We are not just a railway but a living museum'.
The GWR Trust, of which we are all members and which hands out the work permits, has as its sole objective (as per its statutes) 'To create and maintain a railway museum'.
Those are hymn sheets.


Heard a nice compliment about the Broadway toilets today:
'Most railway toilets smell, but these don't'.

 

To me it feels more like something the BAG should be doing rather than station staff. If you want something doing, do it yourself and all that. If I had a router I'd do it for you!

 

i took the chance of a quick trip on your line today from Racecourse to Broadway and i must say i was very impressed the coaches were clean ( i was on the C&C set hauled by 2807, Broadway looks a gem, it looks right the train i was on the 1105 fro Cheltenham, was packed a very good sign only down side was a very marked flat on the bogie of my coach after a very harsh brake application at Hales Halt, caused i believe by two passengers who decided they wanted to alight there at the last minute,

 

Yes we probably know about the flat! We also know about the flats on any heritage railway anyone in the department has visited in the last year - we're quite sharp on flats. We'll get to it, things have been rather hectic recently though. Glad you had a good trip.

 

Very appropriate that the new booking office lantern was made in Birmingham, after all that was the northerly starting point of the line.

 

Hayles abbey halt has become really popular, I was driving on both Saturday and Sunday and had to stop there more times than not. It’s not a problem if you know about it in advance (tell the guard you wish to get off there) but if you get the request to stop from the platform itself, you have to be pretty sharp on the stop because it’s on a long curve. Trains were very busy all weekend, I think even we are surprised by the increase in passengers. There are a lot of people travelling from Cheltenham to broadway, spending a few hours in the village and then catching the train back.

 

Maybe the simple answer is to stop all trains at Hayles Abbey Halt rather than it be by request only?

 

I suspect that the increase in passenger numbers is because you go from an Area with quite a large population and good links to one of the outstanding tourist locations in the Cotswolds, and it attracts the day tripper who is attracted by having an end designation,

Very good idea Alex regards the leaflet boards but as regards you and Robin fighting over the job, she will tie you up in legal legalise as to why she should do it, and it will end up like having teeth pulled

 

I believe there are regulatory reasons as to why it has to be a request stop only to do with the platform being on the wrong side of a curve.

 

Not sure I understand that? If you allow trains to stop there at all, surely you have to have a procedure to allow the safe dispatch - at which point surely it doesn't really matter whether the train has stopped because it is scheduled or requested to do so?

For what it is worth: on the Bluebell, Kingscote in the up direction is on a curve such that you can't see the back of most trains from the loco. Departures from Horsted Keynes platforms 4/5 are also on a curve, and even more notably, double sided so you have to relay that the train is ready to depart from one platform face to the other before the guard gives the RA. So such things are possible - I'm sure there are plenty of other combinations of short and / or curved platforms on heritage railways.

Tom

 

Oh I can't say I particularly understand it either, but that was the reason given when we asked exactly the same question at our guards/TTIs meeting at the beginning of the year. Think it may be something to do with not being allowed to open new stations on the outside of a curve?

 

I went to Broadway on Sunday with the family and all had a good time i was impressed with the new station and the 8 coach trains now look very impressive with 35006 and were nicely full without being packed in to tight. The long stop at toddington for 20 minutes on the way back was the only small issue i guess this is so you don't need to have three signal boxes staffed.