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Broadway Station GWR Roof Fund

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by davidarnold, May 6, 2015.

  1. HowardGWR

    HowardGWR New Member

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    AFAIK, No extra developments are planned at Broadway of the kind at Toddington (which are removed at a distance anyway) and at Winchcombe (ditto). So it seems to me to be a noble aim to recreate Broadway as it was and have one traditional sleepy GWR wayside station. As a destination only, it will go very well with the village to which folk are attracted, so I hope the conservators win on this one.

    I write 'destination', but there will be a car park. It's the treatment of this facility that will be key to not destroying the atmosphere at the station. Again, luckily it will be removed at a much lower level and hopefully will be sensitively screened. I think that an important challenge is to create a footpath from the station to the village that crosses the field behind and joins the bridleway, Springfield Lane, that leads to the centre. The road way B4632, past those modern villas and flats, a legacy of when it was the main road, is not what people visit Broadway to experience (I've walked it many times and it's not pleasant). I wonder if anyone has considered that aspect.
     
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  2. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Hence why I said "at a stretch!" It will still be a lineside feature in the same way other signal boxes and goods sheds along the line are, regardless of who owns it. Selling of the shed was before my time but it was dring an incredibly difficult period for the railway as I'm sure you know. I dn't wish to restart any argument about that as I don't know the ins and outs of it.

    It's still a heritage lineside feature, regardless of what's sat next to it, although I agree the modern extensions do detract to an extent. However it's in the yard, not the station, so not normally publically accessable. It's incredibly unrealistic to ask for our C+W extensions to be in the same keeping as the goods shed, I should imagine the costs would be monumental, if it was even allowed at all with modern building regulations. And of course, at Toddington, the heritage goods shed hides to a reasonable extent the more modern buildings behind which is good.


    True, but I think it blends in fine. Gotherington is widely regarded as our prettiest station on the line; every single time I'm on the train, without fail, I always hear someone say how excellently presented it is, with all of it's enamel sign and excellent floral displays. Bryan Nicholls does an excellent job, and I fully expect the railway to continue to do so once he has either passed on or no longer feels able to do so. To criticize Gotherington station for not appearing heritage (excluding the signal box of course) is just plain daft.

    I can't find any pictures of platform 2 buildings at Gotherington from the time, so can't comment on that. I suspect that when and if the railway takes charge of Gotherington station as a whole there will be some sort of redevelopment. As it stands, the waiting room is in the same style as the buildings opposite and in no way detracts from the atmosphere.

    Winchcombe site will soon be undergoing significant developments, which may include changing the waiting room on platform two - at present I don't know.

    I disagree, Toddington station is excellently heritage; Gotherington and Winchcombe are also very good, with only one building each that doesn't really fit, an both are widely regarded as gems on the railway. CRC has the ticket office at the top, and the platforms were never going to be heritage due to the nature of the original not being practical for a busy terminus.
     
  3. davidarnold

    davidarnold Member

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    Flying Scotsman 123, having an argument with you is a bit like having a fight with the Monty Python's Black Knight ( only a flesh wound!).

    So apart from the bits behind the goods shed ( can't see em), and the station that you don't own, and the goods shed that you sold, and the modern signal boxes (ugh!), and the horrid C and W extension ( no one goes there),and the bus shelter at Gotherington (awaiting developement), and all of CRC ( except the ticket office) you are actually mostly a pukka GWR Heritage line. Well I give up , you win.!
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2015
  4. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    [​IMG]

    :)
     
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  5. GeoffS75

    GeoffS75 Member

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    I know that Springfield Lane is regularly used by locals and visitors alike to stretch legs etc., but given it is a private road I sense there may be resistance to it being set up as formal access route to the station. The mentioned (somewhere not sure where) vintage bus shuttle sounds a sounder option. Otherwise, I agree with all you put - the lack of additional space for any other development does give a great opportunity to create a station "as was".
     
  6. 46118

    46118 Part of the furniture

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    Without wishing to take you all away from your current discussion, can I just quickly point out that the promised new blog for Broadway has not appeared. True there has been one brief update under "latest news" dated 12th June on the main GWSR website, but Jo is it? who had provided an update on Broadway via the Cheltenham platform 2 blog has mentioned that he has been asked not to post Broadway updates there, because a new blog is forthcoming. Nothing so far, so the happenings at Broadway are slipping under the radar and out of mind as such.
    Rather sad I think.
     
  7. davidarnold

    davidarnold Member

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  8. HowardGWR

    HowardGWR New Member

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    Thanks for that. In fact, if you look at Springfield Lane on OS, it is irrelevant to my point whether it is an unadopted road past the houses, as it is a public right of way from its entrance from the village right through to the GWSR overbridge and indeed through to the A44 and beyond. What I was suggesting was a new path from that ROW to cut across to the station. If that could not be negotiated with the present landowner, then a simple set of steps at the overbridge location from the GWSR formation up to that ROW would provide a very pleasant rural walk to access the village honey pots.
     
  9. andrewshimmin

    andrewshimmin Well-Known Member

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    Gosh, some of the posts on here are jolly tedious.
    I suggest to the poster who thinks the GWSR has already sold its soul long ago, has no heritage value, is basically a glorified rollercoaster, etc., that if it is already so bad, what difference does one more compromise building make? Camel's backs only break once!
    Or are you in fact getting carried away with yourself?
    I have never been anywhere near the GWSR and have no association with it whatsoever, but give them a break!
     
  10. GeoffS75

    GeoffS75 Member

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    That's a fair point about it being a ROW but still not convinced that it is an excessively viable option. The railway end is pretty much a mud track but agree it is more tranquil than walking along Station Road!
     
  11. davidarnold

    davidarnold Member

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    Andrewshimmin, since you like quotes, I will explain with one.

    "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."

    The debate over the Broadway roof may seem tedious to you, but since you have no interest in the GWSR, why bother to comment? I have no interest in the discussion of knitting patterns over on Mumsnet but I don't tell them I find their discussions tedious.

    If you were interested in Broadway Station and were one of the thousands who have followed its blog for five years, and contributed their hard earned money to the project, then the debate over the station would be far from tedious.

    However you will no doubt be pleased to hear that the debate is close to a resolution as the AGM at GWSR is today. Either our entreaties and promises of financial support will produce the result we desire, and great will be the rejoicing, or as you put it, the camels back will be broken.
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2015
  12. HowardGWR

    HowardGWR New Member

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    Is the AGM today? Not very user friendly, it would seem, but perhaps Saturday would see volunteer shareholders busy on the line . I looked on the official web site and they have no mention of it. :-(

    Anyway, as a shareholder, hope the Real Roofers prevail. My future contributions depend on it.
     
  13. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    It was on the front page of the website as the agm materials were slightly incorrect, but seems to have gone now. Friday is a virtually non operating day so that may be the reason.
     
  14. Kinghambranch

    Kinghambranch Well-Known Member

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    As a shareholder you should have received details of the AGM through the post a while ago. The AGM has been held on a weekday for some years now as I recall. I do hope the AGM went OK, whatever the decisions reached. No doubt we will find out soon enough. How is the Broadway Station Roof Fund going anyway (after all that's the title of this thread)?
     
  15. davidarnold

    davidarnold Member

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    Well in terms of commitments here and on the old Broadway Blog very well indeed.

    Until a) GWSR plc confirm they are going to build it b) ask us to contribute, it will remain an aspiration.

    Have you commited to the fund Kinghambranch?
     
  16. andrewshimmin

    andrewshimmin Well-Known Member

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    I didn't say the discussion was tedious, I said the posts denigrating the achievements of the railway so far, and implying it was ruined because some if the structures are compromises, were tedious. If it already ruined, Broadway station won't make a difference.
    If, on the other hand, they have already achieved a lot, and can make it even better, then great.
    What puts people off is not (or not just) inauthentic building details. It is also people sneering at and and condemning presumably hardworking officers and volunteers who are from the same railway as you.
     
  17. davidarnold

    davidarnold Member

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    andrewshimmin, you misconstrue my posts.

    I have followed the Broadway project since the first foundation trench was laid, and regard the BAG team as heroes of preservation for their efforts thus far. All the other departments that have a hand in the line, all their volunteers, are cut from the same cloth. They are lions, to a man, due the deepest respect.

    They are however lions led by donkeys. Directors who apply the short termist approach, and don't have a sympathetic Preservationist bone in their bodies. The buildings they leave behind them are their monuments.
     
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  18. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Um, so if all volunteers are heros, and all directors are volunteers...

    You keep making this far to personal and attacking. Just off of the top of my head, the company secretary has been a member of C+W from almost the year dot and is our long standing head of department; the commercial director does OTC, and another is a guards inspector. I'm sure others volunteer in regular departments in addition to their volunteer directorships; our chairman was spotted "elfing" last year. I know it goes on.
     
  19. Kinghambranch

    Kinghambranch Well-Known Member

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    Well in terms of commitments here and on the old Broadway Blog very well indeed.

    Until a) GWSR plc confirm they are going to build it b) ask us to contribute, it will remain an aspiration.

    Have you committed to the fund Kinghambranch?[/QUOTE]
    Yes I have, not that I need to put that in the public domain but I'm happy to as I've always supported the GWSR since I joined the formative society back in 1977. I have not always agreed with what the Railway has or hasn't done in the past but that is of little consequence. I've a quote (from Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the poem The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, 1859): for you too davidarnold:

    “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

    I would guard against making this a personal crusade if I were you. After all, I agree that the new station at Broadway should be as accurate a reproduction of period GWR practice as possible.
     
  20. davidarnold

    davidarnold Member

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    Then if you agree with me that the new station should be as accurate a reproduction of GWR practice as possible, how, pray do you think we may bring this about in the present circumstances? By keeping shtum? By saying lets not be beastly to those Directors who are trying to bring about the opposite?

    That is very British no doubt, but utterly ineffective

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

    The Moving Finger hasn't writ yet. the station hasn't been built. All is still to play for.
     
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