GWR Station Buildings

[WillCav]

Hi all,

 

I am planning to build a layout based on Cheltenham Spa Malvern Road.  The station was opened in 1908 and closed in 1966. I have found some differences in photographs of the island platform buildings.  Early pictures show vertical lines on the brickwork, whereas later ones have smooth brickwork.  I have a couple of questions:

 

1) What are these lines - I wondered if they were some sort of rails for mounting posters and timetables etc on the walls?

 

2) When were they removed? 

 

I've looked at other station buildings and can't see any evidence of it on any current buildings - or even in books.

http://www.archive-images.co.uk/gallery/Archive-Images-of-Gloucestershire-Railways/image/119/Cheltenham_Malvern_Road_Railway_Station_c1908

shows some - under the 'gentlemen' toilet sign on the left

 

Now in the 1960's - no vertical lines

https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=164818&search=31808

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

 

Will

[dibber25]

It was a system used by the GWR to mount wooden poster boards. The lines you can see are timber battens attached to the brickwork. They would probably have been removed when they became rotten - certainly, I don't think many survived long in the BR era, though they probably got removed piecemeal as they became unusable. (CJL)

 

[WillCav]

20 hours ago, dibber25 said:

It was a system used by the GWR to mount wooden poster boards. The lines you can see are timber battens attached to the brickwork. They would probably have been removed when they became rotten - certainly, I don't think many survived long in the BR era, though they probably got removed piecemeal as they became unusable. (CJL)

 

Thanks Dibber25.

 

That's really useful information - I'll probably omit them from my model.

 

Will

[dibber25]

This view of Fairford (a GWR official portrait) shows the batten strips protruding above the individual poster boards and the board on the nearer end of the building. One of series of pictures presumably designed to catch the station looking its best, it is interesting to note that the poster boards are placed at haphazard heights despite the apparent ease with which they could have been aligned with the window sills. (CJL)

[Compound2632]

I shall be on the look-out for battens now. Any idea when they were introduced, noting that the Malvern Road photo is c. 1908, and with all those posed staff is possibly the opening day? @dibber25 any date for the Fairford photo? - from the style of the posters I'm guessing 1930s?

[dibber25]

The Fairford photo is one of several prints that I have. Not sure where I got them but, yes, I would say 1930s. I also have a picture of Culham taken by A.B.MacLeod, which is earlier - probably pre-1918 - and that has battens. They are present on photographs of the GWR-built station at Lambourn when it was brand new in 1910. I suspect they came in with the  new brick-built station designs around the turn of the 19th/20th century. I'm guessing there was no equivalent to Rawlplugs and the battens were a one-time solution which allowed poster boards to be moved and changed around easily without having to repeatedly drill brickwork. (The salt-glazed bricks which the GWR used were extremely hard). (CJL)