Brunelian train shed resurrected
A BRUNELIAN timber train shed has been re-erected at the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway, ten years after suggestions were first made to relocate it from Maidenhead.
It had sheltered Maidenhead’s Platform 5, serving the line to Marlow (and formerly High Wycombe), but was dismantled in 2015 as part of the station’s redevelopment for the Crossrail project.
The building is believed to have been erected at Maidenhead in the 1880s, although it is rumoured that it may have already been moved from elsewhere.
At 82 feet long, the structure was restored by local firm McCurdy’s, with Green Oak Carpentry of Liss undertaking its reconstruction, and Heritage Painting applying its GWR colour scheme. The near-£700,000 project has been funded by the Railway Heritage Trust.
Originally built to span broad gauge track, the shed is wide enough to accommodate two standard gauge tracks, allowing for the C&WR’s planned runround loop (SR505). With its cast iron columns at the rear of the platform, an extension to the canopy – which originally covered Maidenhead’s Platform 4 – will now shelter a third track housing a Cambrian Railways coach (containing a museum) and historic wagons.
Original material has been reused wherever possible, although some of the spandrels and other fittings had to be re-cast using the remaining examples as patterns, and even new nails have been handmade by copying original items.
It is the first major stage in the construction of a new GWR-style terminus at Wallingford. A new station building is likely to be based on Abingdon, while it is hoped to relocate a genuine GWR signal box from Stoke Canon in Devon to control semaphore signalling.