Questions about Southam Road and Harbury Station (Facilities and Infrastructure)

[Keegs]

Hi All, I am creating a layout based very loosely on Southam Road and Harbury on the Paddington to Birmingham route and I have filled in alot of the gaps from the excellent Warwickshire railways website and the book "Paddington to the Mersey"

 

However there are a few things I am still puzzled by:

 

• What happened to the Oil/gas lamps I can see them clearly in this early 1900s photo(before the footbridge was erected) but after that all the lighting seems to have disappeared in this photo. Would this have been electric by the 30s? Surely not at a rural station?
• What is the long pole to the left of the signal for? Is it lighting?

Last but not least the question that has been bugging me the most.

• The cattle dock in this photo and the caption: "propelled through the goods shed to the cattle dock" from all the research I can find it looks to me like the spur siding serves the cattle dock and possibly parcels as well via the platform and the track through the goods shed DOES NOT serve the cattle dock.(The photo I’ve added from the aforementioned book seems to indicate the spur siding serves the cattle dock -Mods please remove if not allowed.) 

 

Any assistance with any of these questions would be appreciated!

Edited April 2, 2022 by Keegs
Added photo for reference to cattle dock.

[bécasse]

Tilley (pressurised parafin) lamps, suspended from the "gallows" at the top of the tall concrete posts visible, were used. As they needed to be refilled and pressurised on a daily(?) basis, they could be wound up and down using a small windlass mounted on the post (just visible at roughly fence top level). They were commonplace on GWR/WR country stations from the 1920s to the 1960s.

 

As for the cattle dock, the caption is wrong (not exactly a rare occurrence), the dock wasn't accessed through the goods shed.

[Keegs]

33 minutes ago, bécasse said:

Tilley (pressurised parafin) lamps, suspended from the "gallows" at the top of the tall concrete posts visible, were used. As they needed to be refilled and pressurised on a daily(?) basis, they could be wound up and down using a small windlass mounted on the post (just visible at roughly fence top level). They were commonplace on GWR/WR country stations from the 1920s to the 1960s.

 

As for the cattle dock, the caption is wrong (not exactly a rare occurrence), the dock wasn't accessed through the goods shed.

Awesome! Thanks so much, I thought I was right about the cattle dock, even allowing for photo compression It didn't look quite right, and the photo in the book all but confirmed it!

 

Cheers