Broadway Station - the Vision

Since joining the Broadway Area Group back in 2009,  I, and the rest of my volunteering colleagues have gone away each work day, tired but happy, sure that we have done a little bit more towards reaching our final goal - steam trains running again to Broadway, supported by a fully working station. Until recently these have been mainly day-dreams running around in our heads, but, with the formal planning application coming up, I thought it was time to put the visions down on paper, and, using the artistic skills of Fred Lea and the  construction drawing skills of John Crawford, we now have a beautiful artists impression of the new Broadway Station Site and its surroundings.

With thanks to Audie Baker and the H & W Gazette

My thought was to try and replicate the fascinating opening day photograph of the old station back in 1904. After all, the intention is to, as best we can, put back what was there before.

In order to do this and get above the trees that masked the site currently we had to prevail on the goodwill of Jenni at the Station Masters House B&B  to use a front bedroom for Fred to take some initial photos. Fred then used his drawing skills to create a rough sketch of the relative position of the planned station building on the landscape as it is today.

 I  quote Fred's accompanying comments to the sketch herewith. "The main difficulty was the amount of boskage[my favourite new word this year] which covered the site of the building from this viewpoint!  I could just about make out the fence line, the rebuilt platforms in the distance, the phone box and lamp posts, but not much else!  In addition, the only vertical measurement I had was the height of Marguerite's shed which you kindly measured for me at 8 feet from ground to apex.  Everything else had to be calculated using 'vanishing points' and a long ruler - after that it was down to guesswork!!"

The next step was to take all of this data back to his studio and come up with a pencil drawing for the team to review. The initial drawing was done in conjuction with John Crawford's construction drawings to make sure the detail and relative proportions were correct.

Having had lots of exchanges the good news eventually (and quickly) came through that Fred had finished the impression painting.

Here it is in all its glory. what a beauty it is! The level of detail is excellent (see below) and uses much of Fred's  knowledge of the Great Western Railway and its structures.

I hope this vision of the future at Broadway will encourage our volunteers to keep pressing on with the task in hand, reassure Broadway residents and traders that we are adding something of great value to the community and finally to those benefactors who may have been sitting on their hands waiting for a sign that we are committed to delivering the very best, now is the time to help us deliver.

Thank you Fred.
Bill