DEVELOPMENT – Station building at Furnace Sidings (Step 1.3.3)

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INITIAL PLANS (uploaded 15 April 2009)

The need for a comprehensive station building at Furnace Sidings is well overdue, the existing wagon body which serves as a passenger ‘waiting room’, despite recent improvements, and the steel box that served as a ticket office are completely inappropriate to meet the needs of our ever-increasing passengers numbers. On the face of it, funding is now in place to permit the construction of a long awaited station building at Furnace Sidings. Funding will come from funds directed to construct the Big Pit branch. As yet no building has started and there are few if any pictures. We have refined our plans over a number of years, and at present they have been submitted to architects for evaluation and comment – and probably complete condemnation! All the same, we present some of our ideas here.

In the grand scheme of the Big Pit branch project, the station building is not the highest priority, but we have managed to convince our funders, the Heads of the Valleys programme (HoV) that it needs to be included and a relatively small amount of money has been earmarked for the station building. We must however exert strict control over the large and expensive elements of the project in order to prevent any cost overruns on the large elements squeezing available funds for the station building (and also the small amount earmarked for the footbridge)

Geography and position

The construction of station building is expected to be start late in 2009. It is to be installed on Platform 1 Furnace Sidings, and its position at Furnace Sidings with respect to the completed second platform and the footbridge, currently in progress, is shown in Fig.1

Fig.1 Platform 2 in plan, together with other features

The requirements the station building were considered to be that it should by simple enough to permit construction by relatively unskilled labour, sufficiently modular to permit easy expansion if need be, and provide all the facilities passengers might need in the foreseeable future. It must be durable, and have a high resistance to damage both from the weather and vandal attack. Additionally there was a requirement the costs were not so high as to jeopardise funding for other parts of the project, and simple enough to permit relatively short construction times by PBR volunteers. The remains of Pontypool (Crane Street) station are stored on site, and it had been considered that these remains should be used to construct the station. Although Pontypool (Crane Street) is of broadly the same size as the planned station (96m2 cf 125m2), it would require a long construction time, and demand highly skilled restoration. This would seriously escalate costs. It was also feared that the relatively soft material from which it was constructed (a soft sandstone or mudstone) would suffer serious attrition from the prevailing weather at Furnace Sidings. A further consideration was that the inside layout would require fundamental modification before it could usefully serve our expected passengers.

The design chosen was inspired by the ‘tin chapels’ which were once common in South Wales. The main design is for a wooden framed building, with both walls and roof clad in 3 inch corrugated iron and supported on a low dwarf wall. Corrugated iron was a vernacular material for stations higher up the valleys, and was much used for roofing by the London North Western Railway. Although it was more common to see walls clad in vertical wooden planking, the requirement for vandal- proofing, longevity, and resistance to fire influenced the choice of material, however a final decision has not yet been made.

The general form of the building is rectangular in plan with a simple gable roof. Each side of the building supports a canopy. The entrance canopy (on the side opposite the platform) is relatively short, whilst on the platform, where passengers are likely to choose to wait, the canopy is rather longer. The building is designed to encourage passengers to approach the building from the side opposite the platform and enter the building through double doors into a hall roughly halfway along the building. Doors either side of this hall lead to a shop, displays, lavatories and a large tearoom. The windows are positioned so that each may be closed by means of an outside steel shutter with hinges angled so that the shutter falls inside the window frame when closed and just proud of the outside wall when open. In the open position the appearance will be somewhat akin to a Swiss chalet, though it is planned that the rear face will be used to display timetables and posters etc., which will be seen by passengers when the shutter is opened. From the ticket office a window opens into the hall, a second window opens directly onto the platform. If weather conditions so dictate one or both of the normal entrance doors (on the East side) can remain closed and passengers may enter the building directly from the platform, again, weather conditions will dictate from which window the ticket office can issue tickets. The design is also optimised so that the tearooms and kitchen can be added at a later date – rudimentary tearoom facilities exist already on site. The proposed station building is planned to be 25.4m long x 5.4m wide (83ft 4ins x 17ft 9ins), and is shown in plan in Fig.2 below.

Fig.2. Station building plan

Fig.3 below shows the building viewed from the proposed platform 2 and facing east. Every window is protected by a steel shutter, and the double doors themselves are effectively steel shutters. The window shutters are marked with diagonal crosses. The shutters open outwards and are carried on carriage hinges. Since it is intended that they are closed and made fast from the inside, then it is likely that the windows will have to be of casement type, and must me made to open inwards. Two small high windows are shown to the left of the doors, and are coincident with lavatories. It is planned that the windows are glazed with wired obscured glass or polycarbonate so that shutters are less necessary. Since the drawing is for information only, no overhanging eaves are shown, also the wall cladding is shown extending only to the top of the dwarf wall, when it is planned to extend it downwards by a further 50mm or so. Note also the slope of the platform, which is seen to be considerable when compared with a level datum. It is sufficient to require that special arrangements to be made at the end door, to permit safe access

Fig.3 Elevation towards the east (ie platform side)

Fig.4 below shows the building viewed towards the west from the ‘paddock’. When suitable pathways are built, this will provide the normal passenger entrance when the weather is good. Again, two views are given – the upper view with the cladding, the lower view with the cladding removed. The doors are shown closed, but when opened the doors will fold across outside of the building leaving little spare room for windows, or any form of decoration.

Fig.4 Elevations towards the west

Fig 5. also below, shows the end elevations – both clad and unclad. In the sketch on the left, (looking up the line) note the ‘woman’ who is 1.575m (5ft 2ins) tall. She is standing at the foot of the access ramp to the door. The line behind her is the level of the platform at the main entrance doors. On the sketch on the right, looking down the line to Blaenavon, the ‘man’ is 1.828m (6 feet) tall, but appears to have no feet. That is because he is standing outside the main entrance doors, and the slope of the platform hides his feet from view.

Fig.5 End elevations –looking towards the Whistle Inn on the left, towards Blaenavon on the right.

Fig. 6 shows the sort of thing PBR might see as the station is approached from the south. The figure was drawn when the direction of the flights of steps was undecided; on the left the flight of steps is towards the viewer, on the right it is on the far side of the bridge. There may also be some adjustment of the height – there is plenty of clearance for rolling stock, and any reduction would make the bridge easier for pedestrians as well as reducing wind resistance,

Fig.6 Impression of view from south of the footbridge if it is installed at the proposed position.

Impressions

These computer generated models were derived at various stages and represent differing stages in realism as something approaching the final design was realised

This is an overall view of the platform is a high-level elevation looking east. It shows the relationship between the bridge and the building. The window shutters are shown, and the long west side canopy is shown, though it is not particularly clear in this view. Inside the double door the ‘lady in red’ attempts to show the scale

This early attempt at modelling the station building is important because, despite the colouring being completely incorrect, it does at least show the short canopy on the east side. The valancing on the canopy is not shown, nor are the window shutters

More refined views of the south end of the building – during the day, and at night

The north end of the building. The left hand image is relatively unfinished but the longer view on the right, shown at night, is more developed

Things are beginning to move

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