genixia

Now that tablets are so cheaply available it's probably best to not use employer-provided equipment anyway. At any time you could be called into a meeting to find that you've been laid off and told to hand in your phone. Some of the cheap tablets on Amazon cost less than a decent carriage. Why take the risk?

That's a reasonable representation of a bridge rail profile. I thought the line was laid originally in Barlow though. When did it change to baulk? Is ease-of-laying the reason that you're trying this? (instead of using BGS bridge rail).

Incidentally, your Wycombe model is spectacular!

Wycombe was originally built as a combined passenger station/carriage house/engine shed. The latter two because it was a terminus when built - it was GWR practice to station the train at the end of a branch overnight. Maybe in its earliest days it handled goods too. I would be surprised if its architectural style was the same as dedicated Goods sheds though. Do you think that two broad gauge lines ran through the main shed originally? I know that all the maps that I've seen have two lines, but I don't think that I've seen one from broad gauge days (pre-1870). If so, one of the lines would have been poorly accessible to passengers because it wouldn't have had a platform and would have had the engine shed line on its other side. That might not be a problem - I suspect that in the earliest days people were much more laissez-faire about crossing the tracks. I note that in the earlier maps that there appears to be a ramp exiting the platform at the western end. So I wonder if the goods sheds were built when the line opened or a little later. Despite being built to IKB designs and specifications, and being operated from the beginning by GWR, the Wycombe Railway Company was initially an independent privately funded concern. I suspect that they built enough to prove the service was useful and then rapidly expanded as passengers and goods started taking advantage. We know that Loudwater didn't initially have a goods loop. The earliest photo of Marlow Road that I can find (1875) shows wheel-barrows on the platform with no suggestion of anything built behind the station. The station building itself looks similar to Loudwater too. I think that the goods sheds might have appeared after the conversion from broad gauge. (Incidentally, Iron Dukes could never have been at Wycombe. They didn't appear until 1871, a year after the Wycombe branch had been converted to standard gauge).

Oh, another great shed model, one that I'm intending to build at some point! Do you have a copy of The Marlow Branch? (Karau and Turner, Wild Swan). There are several photos containing the Bourne End shed. In particular, p79 shows the side quite well. There were only 4 abutments, not 6, so the spans (and windows) would have been wider. The middle span did not appear to contain a window, there were only 2. Looking at the track plans in that book the goods shed is almost square - 90% wide as it is long. The shed at Bourne End originally had an arched entry over the track (1890s, pg 35, also reference RHW:07725 at https://swop.org.uk/swop/swop.htm ) but was sometime later squared off (pg 79). Both road entrances were arched. Marlow had a shed too (also in the book). Of note, it would have been built about the same time that Bourne End moved their shed, but was of a different design - side entrances for the carts. Track entrances were arched, although the wood panelling there ran vertically. Otherwise, similar style - vertical barred windows, office on one end. Another detail - the central brickwork columns have easements cut out at platform height. You can see that clearly in the Marlow photos (pg130), but none of the Bourne End photos show the track entrances that low. It seems a bit of a kerfuffle - they could have simply built the shed slightly wider and pushed the platform out a little, so I wonder if that was an alteration to allow something specific to some particular rolling stock to pass. Folding ladder or ramp perhaps? One photo in the book does show the Bourne End cart entrance, which also appears might have that detail (pg85), so that's a little confusing. That could also be a shadowy illusion in that particular photo. I can't be sure.

As a US-based guy starting on a GWR layout, I am finding UK ebay next to useless now. Shipping kills it with GSP. £15 items with £40 of shipping. Cheaper to buy new from Hattons.