Leek Passenger Station

Yes that was the warehouse office with Jack Laffords office up the stairs and top left. Looks like that stone had already been sold as its marked up for reuse.

 

Andy I've sent you pm.

 

Fantastic work Andy this is taking railway signage to a whole new level of excellence .

 

Superb Andy as always, that milepost still exists not a quarter of a mile away on Gaunt Street in the back garden of Ian Burgess... having been recovered from a Steve Shaws timber yard on Barnfields Estate, if you ever want the exact measurements then the 12 mile post is still in situ at Alton station... don't think anyone would knick it as its well set into the platform edge. I remember the 19 milepost and it was tall, the number flag is in line with the top of the doors so eight foot tall would not be far out. To know the height of the doors just measure the ones at the Booking Office and Entrance at Chedd station... I bet they come in at 7 feet high.

 

For anyone interested in knowing the internal room layout of Leek station this is what you are looking at, on the left of the picture the door facing down the platform is the Ticket Office and behind towards the forecourt (out of view) is the Parcels Office which formed part of the 1872 expansion,, to the left of the milepost is the street entrance where a low ticket gate existed, to the right of the milepost where the two sets of windows and doorway (partially hidden behind the canopy column) is the General Waiting Room which was the original booking office and dates from 1852 when the station was built... (remember those five stone arches that formed the handsome cab rank from earlier pictures). The large square opening was the original passenger entrance hall with ticket office window hatch to the side, this space was where W.H Smith had a news stand. The whole frontage of Leek station was rebuilt with the original wide passenger entrance being blocked up which is where the news stand can be seen. Now to the right of the news stand can be seen a window and out of view in the corner was another set of windows with doorway, this was the 1st Class Ladies Waiting Room, the 2nd Class Ladies Waiting Room with two toilet cubicles is located where the last door and window is in the right of the picture. The whole of the canopy in this wide recess area had a hipped glass atrium roof with wired glass similar to a greenhouse. The gutters in the roof valleys and flat roof areas of the building had secret gullies with spouts which discharged rainwater down cast pipes on the walls, notice how the platform surface slopes away and back away towards the entrance where gully grids were located to take away surface water.

 

This early 19th Century view shows the news stand looking from the Booking Office, the One Penny Nestle chocolate machine dispensing dark and milk chocolate can be seen next to the Ladies 1st Class Waiting Room. I have no idea why there is a small sign which says Glen Spey above the chocolate machine unless it is advertising Malt Whiskey. The news bulletin is announcing the death of Pope Leo the Great so this dates the picture to a day or so after 20th July 1903, note the real hog skin tobacco pouches hanging from a card awaiting Gentlemen purchasers and the news lad wearing a flat cap with the lettering W.H SMITH & SONS. This photo shows us how dull the platform was with the original tiled hip roof canopy which was replaced by the later glass atrium canopy which made the platform a light and airy place. Just shows how much information can be extracted by studying old photographs... you can almost know as much information without ever having lived in that time period.

 

This is a superb result and all down to good design and research of the original subject, I can't wait to get these pieces under paint seeing the results. Thanks Andy for some great creativity and your absolute patience.

The original sign actually resides at Chasewater Railway and their museum curator Godfrey Hucker sent the actual dimensions which are 11 feet 2 and a half inches in length by 28 inches deep, here is the picture which shows the beading edge is missing... something that is a known size and could be added in to the design. The LEEK letter style is standard NSR 12 inch cast letters so these were again copied from known originals and photographs.

 

Here is the sign positioned above the Parcels Office extension of 1912, to the left is the alleyway entrance to the Ticket Office and the window to the left of that is the General waiting room. Fortunately we now have copies of some original contractors building plans along with some NSR estate plans so the model will be correct as far as dimensions go, the issue now is which version of the station is built because this one here in the picture may look the same as the original but most certainly has a totally different ground footprint. Interesting as this is something not all old photographs pick up on. I've decided the model will be made from architectural white styrene sheeting laminated to give form and structure and some furniture items will be 3D printed, laser cut MDF is good in certain instances such as the Birchall Tunnel portals and possibly applications such as background relief houses or tall factory buildings, casting the walls in plaster of paris is likewise a non starter because that process eats up so much time. Anyway in the mean time its carry on collecting and gathering information and drawing up plans to work from... makes me think the actual building of the station is the easy bit.

 

Here are the 3D print sign designed by Andy Sollis now painted for the Leek station diorama which I'm eager to make a start on, I've weathered them now... only another four platform nameboard signs to do. Here is the main station entrance sign which was positioned on the parcels office roof.

 

And the first of five platform nameboard signs.

 

Happy to know you like Mr S and your models turn out really good when painted, I think one secret when parting the stack is to thoroughly clean off any surface crust which I notice can accumulate around the lettering, I'm going to paint the next few nameboards with an airbrush as I'd like to get a few with a pinkish fade to them. Currently I only have the deep red in enamel so I'm brushing them.

 

no rose tinted modeling spectacles here you know Dundee ... we say it like it was

 

Earlier today I completed painting and weathering the platform nameboards, each one slightly different because they didn't all weather the same due to being in different locations on the station. Next job on this project is to finish redrawing the elevations into 7mm scale and then I can cut the wall shapes out.