Nick Gough

I think it would be unlikely that the the beam of the stop block would be attached to the wall of the building since there would not be anything to restrain a possible collision, and incursion into the building. A quick look through my photo collection suggests that many bay lines end with a short section of platform intervening before the building. Under the surface, this would allow for a large lump of concrete (or similar) or for the rear diagonal bracing rails, normally seen at the back of a stop block, to be buried within. These were platforms 2 & 3 (the Berks & Hants bays) at Reading General before re-building: The original platform 3 stop block has been replaced and moved - as seen in the next photo. Looking from behind the screen you can see the gap from the building: This also allows access to platforms 1 and 2: There was also a similar arrangement for bay platform 7: In the island between the Up Main and Down Relief platforms. There is/was a similar gap at Slough for the Windsor bay: (Including a small forest) For Bradenham I would suggest Princes Risborough and High Wycombe are the places to look at - the only stations with bays on the GW&GC. Both of these have had new stop blocks in recent years - moved away from the dead end, but both were built with a space between them and the buildings: High Wycombe: Princes Risborough: If you want to maximise the length of your bay you could consider Kingswear, where the bay is to the rear of the building so the stop block position wouldn't be an issue:

Thank you for posting this. It shows some fascinating details. I have this photo in the Wallingford branch book, but it's not possible to blow it up this clearly. Regarding the ornate object - I think this might be a Victorian self-weighing machine - penny-in-the-slot type: https://collection.maas.museum/object/54861 The two handrails could be for getting on and off this? It also looks like there is another (chocolate?) machine between this and the two ladies.

After the all too brief stop at Shantytown it was back, under this bridge: back onto the main coast road, south to Franz Josef: From Greymouth a freight only railway parallels the coast road south to the town of Hokitika (about 23 miles) with several other impressive bridges along the way: As we drew closer to Franz Josef the locals came out in force to welcome us: Despite the hold up, luckily we still arrived at our destination with just enough light to see the glacier snow on the top of the mountains: Since the following two days it they would be invisible in the torrential rain.

The stairwells at Buggleskelly Cholsey could do with some TLC as well:

Thanks Mike - I can zoom in and see the fence in this view (behind a large trunk?). Could the large white area, immediately to its right, be a poster board? I think this is the photo you mean with the lamp? It looks to me that the post might be a fence post - the bracket behind the lamp looks like it could be supporting a fence panel, with a tiny piece of the first 'spear' shewing in the bottom right corner? Compared with what's there now: The post is different (plain square tube) but it has, what looks to me, to be a lamp bracket in a similar position to the lamp in the old photo? These are a couple of scanned slide photos I took in 1986/7: Although they are not that clear I think the fence posts look more like the one in the old photo. Also the platform paving slabs seen here have since been replaced: The thought occurs - presumably the old fence removed at the time of the re-surfacing? Were the fence panels (or new ones) put back afterwards, but with new (standard square steel tube) posts, rather than the originals, and with the old fittings? Thus giving the appearance that the fence is a modern installation.

Two more locos were at the back of the workshop, next door:

In one shed there were three steam, logging, locomotives on display:

The museum has a short, former logging railway, used for giving passenger rides: On our visit the train was diesel hauled: On the return journey it stops at a sawmill: Where this train could be seen:

Backtracking a little. Having left the train at Greymouth, we made a short journey south to Shantytown: This is an open air museum where around 30 heritage buildings have been gathered together to recreate a 19th century mining town:

It looks like someone else didn't know that the spear fencing was installed later: There's a couple of other points on this painting: The angled bricks on top of the plinth should be stone blocks: The painting scheme for the window doesn't match the one at Kidderminster: That is - no horizontal 'dark stone' line below the top pair of glass panes. Of course Kidderminster is a preserved reproduction, so either version might be correct?

That does sound logical. There appears to be a cutout on both sides in this photo:

Thanks Mike - that nearly caught me out! Would the stop block have been right up against the building originally? I had seen photos with the spear fence, from the last years of the branch, and assumed it was always there.

There is a gate in the subway, at Cholsey, that's normally shut but never locked (when I've visited). At the weekend it was wide open!

Behind the buffer stop, at track level, there is a line of stone blocks, at the end of the building, on top of a concrete pad: The stone blocks appear to align with the top of this brick column that rises from the forecourt: The ivy doesn't help! I believe this is capping for the thicker, lower section of the building's wall, which along with the column and an adjoining retaining wall, retain the end of the branch line embankment. It appears to be shewn on this drawing: There appears to be a similar arrangement at either end of the Down Main building, so I headed over to take a look: Oh dear! I considered having a look at the rear of the building but this can only be accessed from the wheat field behind, which is surrounded by a wire mesh fence now - topped with barbed wire. Anyway as far as I could tell from the road the rear is covered with vegetation at the relevant areas - oh well.

Thanks John. It's been far too many years since I last had a good look round at Cholsey, so it was good to go back. Also useful to clarify all the little queries that have arisen since I started since I started building. I'm luckier than some modellers of real locations in that most of 'my' station, and its surrounding infrastructure, still exist - albeit some has been modified. Just to finish a good day, when I finished at Cholsey, I spent the afternoon at Didcot.

Anybody got a spare can of paint or three?

A closer look at some of the detail around the main station building:

We were lucky. The following morning, after spending the night in Franz Josef, the rain was just like that for most of the day: After another night we left, in the pouring rain, heading south crossing swollen rivers and avoiding some minor flooding on the coast road: The sun started to come out after we had come through the Pass: And it was like this by the time we got toLake Hawea:

There were a number of things I wanted to check at the station. The buffer stop for the branch bay is set back from the end wall of the main station building: But how far? Well - it's 15 feet to the rear of the buffer beam: The adjacent spear fencing is made up of two & half standard 6' lengths plus three intermediate 2" square posts. At last I know exactly where to position @checkrail's spare buffer kit that he kindly let me have. The left hand chimney: Is positioned above the corner of the waiting room and gentlemen's lavatories. According to the plans it only served a fireplace in the parcel's office on the ground floor. The platform level plan suggests that the flue passed through the wall at first floor level, but with a small projection into the waiting room: Is this correct? Yes - it does: The chimney breast on the other side of the waiting room is still there though the fireplace is sealed: And I wanted to confirm that the chimney actually sits at the junction of the two outside walls, where two slopes of the roof meet: Yes - with plenty of lead flashing.

My other photo may help - in comparison with the brickwork behind:

Take the money!

A walk down a farm track: Brought us to Silly Bridge: Not that you can see much of it from the lineside here: Is that vegetation getting worse? Again the parapets have been raised since my last visit: Pity they didn't use some matching bricks! Yet again the parapet raising has resulted in drawings on the council website, though I already have the basic structure of this bridge: The station, in the distance, is hiding behind the gantry forest. I noticed that the newer side of the cutting (on the right), from the 1892 quadrupling, is much steeper than the original: But has required some netting, plus some (recent?) concrete retaining walls alongside the bridge: Then it was off to the station:

Next, the plate girder bridge, carrying the Reading Road, has been modified in recent years: Both to increase the parapet height and to strengthen it with concrete beams. The original structure remains beneath: Again, these alterations have resulted in planning applications and drawings on the council website. Then it was a walk along the Thames to Moulsford Viaduct: For some photos below the arches: You probably notice that I had an assistant on my rambles.

Mikkel, I thought you might be interested to see a recently added exhibit to the GWS museum at Didcot:

My wife is away for a few days, with our grandchildren, so I decided that this weekend was a perfect opportunity for a field trip to darkest Oxfordshire: I first took a look at this building: Originally the station hotel for the original Moulsford station. It is sited close to the Up relief line, near the Reading road overbridge: The local council helpfully have elevation drawings for it on their planning website since, as a listed building, consent was required when the old windows were replaced a few years ago. As a Brunel building, with close proximity to the line, I thought it might be nice to include on my layout in the future. However, the white painted exterior is recent. The council website says it is red brick with stone dressings, but I'm not sure. A closer look suggests some kind of block work but, to me, they look too big for conventional bricks: I thought the chimneys might help, but though one is red brick the other three are dirty yellow: A close-up of one does shew larger blocks towards the base: Could this be the original building material? According to "The Wallingford Branch" (Karau/Turner) the nearby station building was "one of Brunel's roadside station buildings, executed in stone to a mock Jacobean style with drip mouldings over the windows and doorways". Just to complicate things these old railway cottages are nearby: