"Suddenly the peace was disturbed by the rasp of
a crash gearbox as
the Great Western's ancient parcel van arrived with a part-load."
indent The timber goods shed is a
hand-made card model not dissimilar to that at Watlington and sits on dwarf brick
walls. It can accommodate 2 wagons.
indent The cattle dock has a ply base, faced with brick and
topped with card paviours, while the pens themselves are from the Ratio kit. This
variation was necessary to enable the model to fit the peculiar shape of the restricted
site. It should be remembered that on the real railway cattle docks were placed so
as to be easily accessible by passenger train engines since livestock was always handled
as speedily as possible and would often arrive as a tail-load on a passenger train.
Simple road access was also important - it wouldn't do to have loose cattle wandering all
over the tracks and delaying trains - a subtlety not always appreciated by some
modellers...
indent The van is a "Springside" kit and with its windowless doors and old-fashioned klaxon horn poking through the fascia was typical of the "hand-me-downs" the GWR allocated to its minor stations. You may note however that it has received a repaint in the current company livery complete with the "shirtbutton" logo; the GWR was always alert to publicity - even if the vehicles used sometimes belonged in a museum!
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