GWSR Broadway Developments

It’s going back a few years, but I seem to recall that at Wootton, before the current station, the facilities basically ran from a grounded van body.

It always strikes me that infrastructure almost never gets “unbuilt”, which is why it is so important to get it right first time. If what you have is functional but “wrong”, any project to
Rebuild will always struggle for an operational justification while competing for scarce cash with other worthy projects. (“Why do you want to demolish a perfectly functional station when we are short of locos?” - you get the drift). So it feels better to me to build it right first time, or if you can’t, be as basic and minimal as possible so as to minimise the cost of replacement. That’s rarely how things are done though.

Tom

 

I presume that the listing will also include CRC's fine example of a preservation era signal box.

 

I suspect you're probably right Tom, when I come to power though...

 

I can completely see why that’s disheartening, and I get the frustration.

But just to encourage you, I took my wife to Broadway a couple of weeks ago - having followed this thread for a while I was aware of some of the issues above - but I still thought the station was superb. We can always do things better, but you guys have done a phenomenal job. My wife didn’t have the first clue that it was a brand new station, I thought the atmosphere was great and it really did seem like the station had always been there.

I appreciated that the loos had at least a nod to heritage in them - probably wasn’t practical to install a full heritage experience, but it was at least old looking fittings!

You and the team should be incredibly proud of what you’ve done...


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Indeed! .
However, leaving the wonderful hindsight thing behind for a moment, there is currently no waiting room on Platform 2 at CRC and so it would be possible, with money and skills, to rebuild the original wooden waiting room at CRC, I'm sure I saw some plans of it on a NP post somewhere. You can, of course, have anything you like if you are prepared to pay for it, witness the recent efforts at Broadway. In my view, Broadway has, intentionally or otherwise, set a benchmark for the GWSR and it's highlighted some of the less "authentic" aspects of some of some of the other structures and fittings on the Railway. Whilst a desire to improve the authenticity of the GWSR and simultaneously provide a 21st century service and security might be seen as irksome in some cases, it shows that people actually care about such things because they want the GWSR to be even better. I have far more important things to worry about at the moment but I am just very grateful that some people do want to achieve that "benchmark" and, in many cases, provide funding to make it happen.

 

A review and upgrade of all the stations would be welcome, with an emphasis on removing modernity wherever possible and adding heritage features. However, while the current management seem to allow or indeed instigate inappropriate fittings/buildings etc it seems to be a losing battle. As soon as the heritage group achieve something good, someone else comes along and changes it or adds to it resulting in a hotch-potch that does not reflect the stated aims of the railway.
It's sad that this is happening as the GWSR seems to have good scenery, a decent length, a good variety of locos and fundamentally lovely stations - it could be a real challenger to the likes of the SVR, if only it took the heritage side seriously.

Keith

 

Meanwhile, after discussions with the local authorities, the Welsh Highland Railway are constructing a modern 21st Century terminal building at Caernarfon instead of a more traditional heritage one.
Whatever your views about that, it's certainly going to stand out and be a substantial contrast to the castle opposite.

 

Its certainly a marmite building, but at least it has the saving grace of being well designed, And not trying to be something that it isn't.
it has also been constructed to allow rail access to the tunnel beyond, should it ever be needed, so not at all bad.

 

The attitude of CADW and English Heritage is very much that any new building near a traditional heritage one must be a modern contrasting style - they are adamantly opposed to anything sympathetic to the existing building. It's their version of "political correctness".

 

Or a way of avoiding pastiche, perhaps?

 

I'm not sure that is necessarily true, although I am aware of that being cited as a reason for an ugly modern building alongside a historic one. It didn't happen in the case of Bridgenorth station. The initial concept of a modern building caused a great outcry, and the result was a later GWR design of building which is not in the style of the historic station building, but mimics later GWR buildings so looks in keeping. It certainly isn't a modern carbuncle. So maybe a 'contrasting historical style' is a way forward acceptable to all parties.

 

A fear of which is endemic in the architectural profession, and seems at times to be a way of enforcing an aesthetic orthodoxy. The rebuilding of Warsaw was pastiche, and I look forward to a pastiche rebuilding of the Glasgow School of Art. I’m less sure about the - non pastiche - approach to Clandon.


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Sorry, but surely that's completely over the top to say the GWSR "does not take the heritage side seriously"? I visited the line for the first time last week and was very impressed with much I saw, particularly Winchcombe and Broadway. I would presume "the current management" are fully occupied in coping with the ramifications of the massive increase in passengers?

 

I would refer you to the pictures and quotes (from those on the ground no less) showing plastic leaflet holders, b&q lights, the whole debate over plastic windows in the signal box, the toilets cubicles etc etc. I'm not saying that the gwsr doesn't have good points, far from it, however the volunteers promoting heritage seem to be fighting an uphill battle. It shouldn't be like that. Everyone should be trying to create the best heritage experience possible.

Keith

 

Broadway station is a amazing achievement and having been there, I didn't notice the non heritage aspects. Most of it is stuff which can be fixed, and the loudspeakers and CCTV is probably unavoidable, and isn't really going to detract from the heritage aspect of the building.

 

I agree. I noticed that the rather ridiculous plastic leaflet holder that jutted out over the bench in the booking hall has gone. Not noticed whether the wooden ones have been started but our woodwork team is, as always snowed under, I'm sure they'll get to it.

One of the problems we seem to have is views have become too polarised on both "sides", stemming from some poor decisions about non-heritage items and some unrealistic demands for heritage things. Regarding this latter, whether they are true or not I don't know but I have heard for example a desire not to put modern insulation in the signal box at Broadway and not wanting credit card machines in the booking office. This has resulted in some volunteers lumping all proposals to make things a bit more "heritage" together and dismissing them.

Quite often changing or adding heritage details is no harder or expensive than using modern equivalents, e.g. the plug sockets. Whenever we are installing something modern that's on show, we should always stop and first think; "is there something else we can us that looks better that achieves the same thing?" Too often I feel either this isn't asked, or if it is, the people answering don't necessarily have the right knowledge to come up with alternatives. Which brings me on to...

I really wish we looked at what other railways ado a bit more. For example, here's a couple of notice boards on the railway:



And here's some from some other railways after a quick cursory google image search:










For things like the above I feel better communication between station groups, who ought to be more interested in making their stations as authentic as possible, and the station staff is needed. Station staff say what information they want displayed and then work together with the station groups to decide how best to display it, rather than station staff (happy to be corrected if I've got the wrong department!) just buying loads of those horrible metal frames and printing out A4 sheets of paper.

 

The initial advice from Shropshire Heritage Officers about Bridgnorth ( I can spell it correctly BTW) pointed at a modern steel and glass building.

 

Did you happen to miss Cheltenham Race Course Station or the signal boxes at Cheltenham and Gotherington?

 

I think you've got some sort of obsession with those signal boxes!

With respect I think it's more sensible to treat the issues above separately to the current ones. Those signal boxes were a product of a different time in the railway's fortunes, whereas today there's less excuse.