GWSR Broadway Developments

Can we have a link, or a copy of the design, on here please ? Apart from a statement from the management that "changes have been made" it is still unclear what the final outcome will be. If it is difficult to describe or illustrate then I would be happy to accept reassurance from Breva and/or DavidArnold that the canopy will resemble the original style.
I also note that the Broadway station online donation panel has disappeared from the blog links. How can we now continue to support the project ?

 

The only reassurance I can give is to refer you back to the 16 July Broadway blog post that said a committe had been formed to redesign the canopy as close as possible to the original and that a consulting engineer would report to it. The canopy to be made in house to save cost.

Until the redesign is produced I doubt there will be any comment but look forward to seeing a drawing or plans when they are available.

In the meantime the universal approbation for the signal box should encourage them to do as good a job with the roof.

 

Work progressed unexpectedly well today, and we were able to complete digging the foundations, and the concrete infill.

In the pictures, the final pour is going into the area of the future Gents' toilet.

This cast iron plate came up during the digging of the foundations. It is marked 'GWR Signal Dept.' Any ideas what it is? It may be a base plate for a telegraph post stay, but seems rather elaborate.

 

You don't need it.

 

Breva: Maybe just the angle of your images, but the station building doesn't look very wide, ie front to back?
(No doubt following the original building footprint of course)

 

Not an actual plan of the revised design but my 3D interpretation of it after quite a few beers. Note the recycled ISO containers and the homely touch of the weathervane. The colour scheme would be a little different for Broadway of course as a dark & light stone colour scheme will be used. Time for a lie down now.

 

As you say, it is the original footprint as far as width is concerned. Remember, you have a platform one side and the station approach on the other. The width will be fine for our purposes though. The new building will be longer through the addition of extra toilets. Not only to give extra capacity (one pot, an a urinal previously) but also one for the disabled.

 

Perhaps that baseplate was for some sort of telegraph pole actually on the platform? As if it was on the ground I'd have thought it would have been sunk in.

The GWR certainly liked to do things elaborately - Judy look at all the different specially shaped bricks they used which these days cost an absolutele fortune to reproduce.

 

It is, however, sadly unfortunate that some 'casualties' were suffered in the process.

Noel

 

Agreed. Perhaps a Truth and Reconciliation process could be followed ( as after the end of apartheid in South Africa) and Bill and Jo could be rehabilitated.

 

There may be a problem with viewing the concrete pouring video. If so, would you let me know?
I have tried again, with this link to it:

 

Friday was rained off, relentless grey cloud all round. A case of 'If you can see Cleeve Hill, it's going to rain, and if you can't....'

The cross walls on the station building were set out today, ready for the first blocks to be laid. With the foundations in, you can now see which room will be which.

The remaining scaffolding around the signal box will come down on Wednesday. You'll be able to see it in all its glory! The 5 locking room windows are being glazed; they've got about half way round, quite a fiddley job.
We have a replica BROADWAY SIGNAL BOX cast iron name board. It still needs the corner holes to be drilled in it, then it can be fitted.
Come and see it for yourself, and make a donation on site - it would be much appreciated.

A week today will see a start made on the tunnel from the locking room to the track, under the platform. With that in place, we can finish off platform two.

 

Today the scaffolding was removed from the signal box, and a start made on block laying on the station building. In the picture, blocks are being laid up to the initial floor level between the Gents and the Disabled toilets. To start with, only the internal walls will receive blocks, the outside walls being done once the stanchions have been erected. These will then carry the heritage roof, but will remain invisible inside the cavity walls. In this way the heritage look will be achieved, while meeting building regulations for a cavity wall.
At the other end, a start was made on levelling the ground between the foundation trenches. This space will eventually be filled with ballast, a layer of concrete, insulation and a final 10cm layer of concrete, to form the floor.
Friday will see us make a start on the tunnel outside the box.

 

Although the Signal Box is not finished, and further work is needed on the platform which will surround it, now the remainder of the scaffolding has gone we no longer see through a glass darkly. Breva's photo says it all - it's a proper GWR signal box.

 

Or as the late ,great. Kenneth Williams would have said. Fantabulosa!

 

With a hired in mini digger we dug out the footings for the SB tunnel walls today, and exposed the previously cast footings of the platform wall across the front. The next stage is filling the tunnel footings with concrete, with a concrete apron in between (the bottom of the future tunnel). The rest of the platform wall can now also be built L and R of it.

On the station building site the same team removed some more of the overburden between the footings there. Two interior wall bases of blockwork were completed earlier; today a third was achieved. It is a bit thicker, in order to support the chimney stack that will sit above. This is the wall between the store and the Ladies toilet.

Removal of the SB scaffolding has opened up a new vista. It was hot and sunny today, giving a pretty view of the box from the south.

There is still quite a lot to do on the box before we can release it to the S&T department:
- Complete the tunnel in front, and finish off the platform around it.
- Backfill the space.
- Complete the windows (two at the rear still to go)
- Build the staircase to the lever room
- Provide power to the interior.
- Fit the locking room door
etc.

It'll probably be the end of the year before it's ready for the S&T guys to move in. But then they'll be dry, and they can make themselves a cup of tea !

 

A huge cloudburst in the middle of the night filled our SB tunnel foundation trenches with water, and it was all hands on the buckets this morning, except in one trench, where a monster was lurking. A volunteer was nominated to remove it, but these things can jump! Much jollity ensued.
Eventually the trenches were dry, and a large party of volunteers had two concrete mixers going and filled both L and R hand trenches with concrete. They swallowed 3 tons of aggregate.
After that, a start was made on the L and R hand platform blockwork, and one row was completed. This level of blockwork will be continued into the tunnel foundation trenches, once the concrete has gone off. A concrete pad will be cast in front, forming the bottom of the tunnel.
A door for the locking room was delivered and made to fit - it is now with the painters, working upstairs in the lever room.
At the end of platform 2c, the final copers were laid in the afternoon. All have been cut to size specially, following their rather jagged appearance as extracted from CRC2.
The stanchions for the station building, of galvanised steel and to be hidden inside the walls, have been ordered and are due in a month or so. No blockwork was possible on the building today, as all 3 mixers were on other duties.

Now a question; I wonder if you can help?
We would very much like to see inside the booking hall of a similar 1904 GWR era station building. All ours are demolished, or no longer original. Can anyone suggest such a station, that can be visited?
Possible locations that spring to mind are the N. Warwickshire line (Hall Green, Shirley, HIA being nailed shut) or perhaps the Bristol avoiding line. (Badminton is also closed).
Are Hall Green and Shirley still original, and are they still open?

 

http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/northwarwickshire.htm

No pics of interiors but a lot of exteriors and history.

 

Block laying continued in front of the signal box today, with a large gang concentrating on this, to get it completed before we continue with the station building.
On the LH side 3 1/2 courses of blocks completed the block section here, with brick courses next, and on the RH side they were busy with the third row at the end of the day.
Inside the future tunnel three course of bricks were laid on both sides, and the shapes of the platform wall and tunnel are now very apparent - see pictures
Now that we know exactly how many more second hand imperials we need to complete the platforms, we have sold off the rest to a specialist company, which came with a very large flatbed lorry today to collect approx. 30 pallets of cleaned, second hand bricks. All our recovery and brick cleaning efforts over the last 5 years not only yielded two 200m platforms in classic imperials, but raised a very useful sum of money for Broadway Area Group funds. The lorry had to make two trips, and manoeuvered right into the area in front of the box in order to reverse down in between the platforms.
Finally, a small gang continued with dismantling the HIA footbridge steps. This was a wooden structure that sat upon two stepped RSJs, with two cast iron columns at the foot. The steel beams are unfortunately beyond saving, as heavily corroded, right through in many places. Some of the 1904 wood was saved for future use, and the cast iron columns are intact.
The footbridge project is now being headed up by our structures engineer, who oversaw the 5 bridges to Broadway, so we are in good hands.

Can someone explain how to insert the pictures into the message itself? I can only attach them to the message, via the page 'upload attachments'.