GWR (and other co.) platform surfaces

[billtee]

I am building a GWR station (yes, another one!), but as I am now modelling in O gauge, I want to create a platform surface a little more realistic than those I've built before in OO.

I vaguely remember seeing station platforms with sand/gravel (?) as the main surface, with stone/cement edging to the platform. Usually (?) the whole platform surface is stone/cement/tarmacadam only in front of the sration buildings, but I cannot be certain.

My partner doesn't agree, and she may be correct. Certainly I have not found what I remember in photos off the internet!

Can someone please help!

Thank you,

Bill

[Karhedron]

It was common (at least at smaller stations) for the platform area around the station building to be paved with the more distant areas surfaced with a cheaper material like gravel or tarmac.

 

Some pictures below show this. You can see the transition (just) in this photo of Kingsbridge.

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Kingsbridge_Station%2C_with_a_%274575%27_2-6-2T_geograph-2547064-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

 

You can see it in these photos at Marlow. The first shot is near the station building and shows stone paving. The second is further up beyond the goods shed and shows what looks more like tarmac with stone edging.

 

http://www.davidheyscollection.com/00-0-a-rs-greenwood-GU33a-14-4-62.jpg

 

https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/keyword/Marlow/i-LPz6vJ5/A

[TheSignalEngineer]

GWR stations to the south of Birmingham had paving round the buildings. The rest was paved part way back from the edge then a rolled fill which may have been slag or similar. This was Small Heath.

http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrsh1336.htm

And a bit later at Tyseley

http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrt1045.htm

 

The fill was similar in late BR days and probably even now..

[Kris]

Smaller stations were certainly as you described, larger busier stations would have had harder wearing surfaces. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

On the Birmingham line the only stations I remember being fully paved were Leamington Spa, Moor St and Snow Hill. Even places like Solihull only qualified for two rows of flagstones between the edging stones and rolled loose fill. Another variation which was around up to at least the 1960s was textured Staffordshire Blues. These included special edge stones of the same type, Warwick was one particular place I remember. I believe there is still an area of them left at Worcester Shrub Hill.

[billtee]

Thank you all! I was pretty certain I was correct, but my wife couldn't remember ever seeing platforms other than fully paved. Most heritage railways (these days) seem to be all paved, either with tarmacadam, cement or brick/block paving, possibly to mitigate insurance claims from slupping/falling 'customers'!

[The Fatadder]

At Brent you had paving around the buildings with a sand/gravel surface for the rest.

 

The edging was a blue brick with cross patten on the surface, with about 3ft of paving in from the side before the gravel starts.

[ForestPines]

At Brent you had paving around the buildings with a sand/gravel surface for the rest.

 

The edging was a blue brick with cross patten on the surface, with about 3ft of paving in from the side before the gravel starts.

Arley station on the SVR has this type of blue brick edging. From memory it's not original but was rescued from another GWR station in the West Midlands.

[Miss Prism]

Billtee - what era?

[billtee]

1948-60!