GWSR Broadway Developments

'Bodiam by 1980' I once read in a K&ESR magazine.
In reality we reached that 20 years later.
Patience, we do get there.

 

The days are definitely really starting to fly off the calendar! Progress is good, but there is still a lot to be done!

I suspect there may have to be a bit of a last-minute thrash around the station building; the track seems like it's in pretty good shape (a bit more ballast, and then tamping, should be there). Nevertheless, I think it will happen OK!

Noel

 

Tamper ordered for Feb 20th

Got to put Gotherington Skew back together again too though, and complete the first turnout at Toddington (sweating now...)

 

Get some time in!
I remember believing that Broadway would be reached by 2000 back in the late 80s!
However, better "late" than never with this project, and I still find it amazing just how much good work has been done (some of it against "on the bus-off the bus" planning) to achieve what will soon be a tremendous asset for the GWSR albeit not one that will be finished for a while. (Honeybourne is academic to me now at my age as there is no money to extend there, even if the GWSR owned the trackbed, and I doubt , sadly, that it will ever come to pass.) I wish the SVR well in their latest endeavours as it too is a great railway.

 

Nice article on pages 72-74 in issue 476 (Feb 2 - March 1 2018) of Steam Railway, following a visit by the author, Thomas Bright.

Slabbing reached 2/3rd's of the length of the station building yesterday, we were held up by heavy frost, and had to use the Maul to separate the slabs which had "stuck" together in the cold. We managed to "sunbathe " them which enabled us to lay 21 slabs by the end of the day.

A lot of work was done around where the footbridge steps footings are. I heard a whisper that we may have the go-ahead to build the steps, we will see.

 

The Booking hall. What a fantastic piece of work- Does this look special, or what? really, REALLY well done!

 

It certainly is a magnificent looking floor. I have seen similar in monastic houses and churches. I may have missed the reason why this design and colours were chosen but possibly it was based on an original floor on the railway. Victorian ideas on floors in public buildings did seem to encompass not only ecclesiastical places but also civic and railway structures.

 

The original floor was almost certainly a suspended wooden one. As we now have a concrete slab this was no longer possible.
An alternative might have been an engineered wood floor, but this will be a high footfall area between the doors, so a few mm of oak might not be such a good idea in the long run.
The tiled floor now used was at my suggestion, after I observed a very similar one at another GWR station.

I am really pleased that you like it ! It's not easy finding a believable solution when so many things have changed after 100 years. The same goes for the toilets. There were no wash basins in the original toilets, but the ones we chose look as if they would have been there.

 

It is magnificent, isn't it? Congratulations to all involved in producing this stunning result.

Regarding the colours, someone missed the Time Team episode which covered glazed brick and floor tile manufacturing! It all comes down to the glaze and what sort of temperatures are required for firing and floor tiles take far more punishment than walls or vases. Red/browns, blacks, yellow/ochres, greens and white (though this often didn't cover too well) were reasonably straightforward. Blues were possible, but a damned sight more expensive at the dawn of the railway age. Later, it was likely no more than sticking with what you had.

Before anyone points out what the Romans could do, recall that for the owners of the finest mosaic floors, conspicuous expenditure was as important as the result (except for the four years when Gaius was emperor, when it really wasn't!)

 

Breva, until you said that was your idea, I would never have guessed. It just looks so right for its late Victorian/ Edwardian setting. The platform paving is also looking great, too.
Any progress on the café fireplace front? FYI, I'm still more than ready to write that cheque!

 

Yes please! Just give me a minute, there are a few checks I need to do first.
The good news is that BAG have gratefully accepted our offer, I have an email to confirm that. I have just now sent an email to the supplier highlighted here, to make sure he can deliver. Let's see what he says.

 

Simply awesome! This perhaps marks the start of a GWSR restoration standard. In due course, we may be lucky enough to see similar restoration work at Toddington Station, especially if the gift shop is ever relocated to a new "railway look alike" building in Toddington yard incorporated perhaps with the current Flag and Whistle café. That will take a new batch of funding of course and there's much more still to do at Broadway. However, I'm so glad I bought those shares!

 

I really think this is something we could go for. Move the shop across the road to a similar newbuild, including the admin upstairs.
Then restore the station to what it was, with its double ticket windows indoors, wood flooring and lincrusta wallpaper in the first class waiting room. Proper V boards along the platform, remove the supermarket trolleys from under the footbridge, take out the orange bulbs from the canopy lamps....

Our job 'to build and maintain a railway museum for the benefit of the public' is perfectly possible as you can now see, and it's great fun. I would like to 'wow' the public.
'Is that what it was like? Wow!'

 

Can these donations go through a charity to qualify for Gift Aid?

 

They should be able to go through the GWRT who collect the donations and a bit from HMRC then grant the money to to the BAG, no doubt it'll all be sorted in a timely fashion.

 

I think it is a great idea. I really like how at the Great central they have restored the interiors as they were and done different stations to show different periods of time. You could as a team have a trip there to get some inspiration. How much of all these things were still there when the railway started and are there any photos of what the interiors at Toddington originally looked like ?

 

I think I suggested before that the BAG/Hayles Abbey Halt team should start at one end or the railway and work their way to the other end of the line, identifying small, medium and large projects to restore the railway to a more authentic look. If these items were advertised, then some may catch the imagination of a supporter and the GWSR would find the money forthcoming - look at what happened with the Broadway fireplace when it was mentioned on here!


Keith

 

It's one of the things I'm checking.

 

There are no known photographs of any of the interiors. I did have a good poke round Toddington, on my hands and knees to see what there still was. A wood floor for example, and small areas of Lincrusta wallpaper where the 1st class waiting room was.
The Ladies Waiting room is fairly original, with its wood floor and slate fireplace. The toilet behind it has no original features left at all, all modernised. The shop has a covered over fireplace at one end (ex booking office), and a ripped out one at the other (ex ticket office). The intermediate wall which once held the ticket hatches was taken down at a time not known to me.
The stationmaster's chimney was taken down by BR, but there is a very draft proposal to rebuild it. It is rumoured that the reason Broadway got only two chimney stacks is that Toddington only had two. That is of course a false assumption, it had three, but one is missing.

 

Yes, Toddington is GWR and Winchcombe is, to some extent, now reflective of BR(W) in the 1950s. It can never be totally original (the main station waiting room is GWR but came from Monmouth Troy station) but I'm sure more will be done to emphasise this era with time. It all costs of course but smaller details and an overall "theme" are possible. Looking at 1980s photos I took of the Line makes me realise just how far we've come already and how much older I am!