Pagoda Platform Shelter

Pagoda shelter at Doniford Halt.
Inside the preserved example at Doniford Halt

The archetypal Pagoda Platform Shelter was a distinctively-shaped corrugated iron structure used by passengers waiting at railway stations in Wales and southern England.

Origins

In Britain Pagoda shelters are associated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) who introduced them in 1907 and erected a patchwork of them across their network. They were manufactured by an outside supplier and delivered in kit form.[1] They could therefore be assembled offsite, delivered on standard well wagons and craned into position,[2][3] or assembled onsite, according to circumstances.

The GWR opened its first "Haltes" on 12 October 1903, anglicising the name to "Halt" in 1905. They were prime candidates for Pagoda shelters, but the market was crowded: finance, tradition, knowledge, skills and materials to hand meant that some lines had pagodas aplenty, some one or two and others none at all. The Bala to Ffestiniog Line in upland Wales, for example, had six halts erected at remote, virgin sites between the World Wars, Teigl Halt and Llafar Halt had pagoda shelters, but Trawsfynydd Lake Halt, Bryn-Celynog Halt, Tyddyn Bridge Halt and Capel Celyn Halt had shelters with other designs.

Opening halts and standardising cheap to install and cheap to buy infrastructure in the face of competition firstly from trams, then buses and ultimately cars overlapped with other initiatives such as the railmotor.[4]

Spread

Pagoda shelters were generally associated with branch lines, but many were erected next to regional arteries and some were erected next to main lines; Challow being an example on what was and remains a high speed route out of Paddington.[5]

Specifications

Although they were renowned for their shape, their greatest virtues were their cost, simplicity and durability, coupled with the fact that the GWR "took them seriously". They were built to precise working drawings with materials to exact engineering specifications. The example installed at the remote Teigl Halt, for example, had a roof made of "No. 18 SWG Galvanised 3 inch Corrugated Sheeting [...] with a floor of specially prepared timber."[6][7][8][9]

Suitability

Many small halts used wooden platforms on a timber frame, rather than masonry or earth. The pagoda shelter could be used for these because of its light weight.[10][11]

Platform configurations

A pagoda shelter was typically provided for each platform. As the small halts where they were used were mostly on single-track lines, there was only one shelter, though Bilson Halt had only one platform with two pagoda shelters.[12] Stations such as Radipole and Ruislip Gardens with two platforms, had two, one on each platform,[13][14] as did Appleford.[15] Harlech[16][17][18][19] and Loudwater[20] had two platforms but a pagoda shelter opposite the masonry station building only. Perivale Halt had several on each platform.[21] Defiance Halt (later Defiance Platform) had one on each platform initially, but two more were added to the Up platform during the station's life.[22] Bala Junction had three platform faces with a pagoda shelter only on the most southerly.[23]

Variations

Most pagoda shelters were simple structures with one doorway leading into one room. At Kelmscott and Langford, however, the station building was a "Pagoda Building", with three doors and four windows facing the platform and rooms inside for different purposes.[24] Penhelig still has a pagoda shelter which used to incorporate a "lean-to" staff cabin at the Aberdyfi end.[25][26] The lean-to appears to have been incorporated into the overall building since it was de-staffed. The shelter differs from most pagodas in that it is either built of or clad with timber.[27]

Although the standard pagoda shelter measured 20 feet (6.1 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m),[28] they could be erected to different dimensions, occasionally at the same location, such as Dawlish Warren.[29]

Uses

The shelters were mainly used by passengers waiting for trains, but at least two - at Legacy[30] and Tetbury[31] - were "Pagoda lamp huts", whilst one at Witney was a shed.[32] Fairford[33][34] and Twyford each had a "Pagoda bike shed". Pagoda huts existed next to Weymouth Junction signalbox,[35] and in Hagley station goods yard,[36] neither was for passenger use. A Pagoda shelter was erected at right angles to the track next to the down platform at Festiniog, unsigned and painted black;[37][38] research continues into its purpose. It was still there in 1989, 28 years after the station closed and long after all other buildings had been demolished.[39][40][41]

Other railways' pagoda shelters

The GWR did not have a complete monopoly of pagoda shelters; Grogley Halt, Nanstallon Halt and Dunmere Halt on the former LSWR branch near Bodmin in Cornwall had one each.[42] In the USA Pagoda shelters were adopted on a grand scale by at least one railroad.[43]

The present

By 2015

Most, however, have been demolished

References

  1. ↑ Reade 1983, Section: In praise of halts.
  2. ↑ Installing Northwood Halt's pagoda shelter, via SVR
  3. ↑ Northwood Halt's pagoda shelter, via Bewdley Station
  4. ↑ Railmotors and halts with pagoda shelters, via Bygone transport
  5. ↑ Robertson 2004, p. 4.
  6. ↑ Southern 1995, pp. 77-9.
  7. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 2010, Photo 38.
  8. ↑ Coleford 2010b, p. 583.
  9. ↑ Green 1996, p. 38.
  10. ↑ Pagoda shelter at Rodmarton Platform, via Bygone Transport
  11. ↑ Leigh 1984, pp. 70–71.
  12. ↑ Pagoda shelters at Bilson Halt, via Archive images
  13. ↑ Pagoda shelters at Radipole Halt, via Disused Stations
  14. ↑ Wells 2016, p. 378.
  15. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 2003, Photos 15 & 17.
  16. ↑ Harlech's pagoda shelter, via Britain from Above (free login needed to zoom)
  17. ↑ "Pagoda Shelter at Harlech". BBC.
  18. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 2009, Photos 34 and 37.
  19. ↑ Rear & Williams 1988, Photos 100, 102 & 103.
  20. ↑ Saunders 1962, p. 105.
  21. ↑ Perivale Halt, via lurs
  22. ↑ Defiance Halt, via Bruce Hunt
  23. ↑ Mitchess & Smith 2010, Plate 2.
  24. ↑ Pagoda building at Kelmscott and Langford station, via The Fairford Branch
  25. ↑ Pagoda building and lean-to at Penhelig, via RCTS
  26. ↑ Rear & Williams 1988, Photos 15-17.
  27. ↑ Pagoda building and lean-to at Penhelig, via Geograph
  28. ↑ Vaughan 1977.
  29. ↑ Pagoda shelters at Dawlish Warren, via Francis Frith
  30. ↑ Christiansen 1976, p. 35.
  31. ↑ Karau 1977, p. 77.
  32. ↑ Pagoda shed at Witney station, via The Fairford Branch
  33. ↑ Leigh 1995, p. 205.
  34. ↑ Karau 1977, p. 35.
  35. ↑ Pagoda hut at Weymouth, via Disused Stations
  36. ↑ Pagoda hut at Hagley, via Disused Stations
  37. ↑ Coleford 2010b, p. 582.
  38. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 2010, Photos 35-37.
  39. ↑ "Blaenau to Maentwrog Rd by DMU in 1989, Part 4". YouTube at 1min 44 sec.
  40. ↑ Pagoda building on Festiniog station, via Archive images
  41. ↑ "Pagoda platform building at Festiniog station after closure". RM Web.
  42. ↑ Hawkins 1999, pp. 209-212.
  43. ↑ Pagoda depots in Delaware, via My large scale
  44. ↑ Pagoda shelter at Glyndyfrdwy, via Honda Wanderer
  45. ↑ Pagoda shelter at Doniford Halt, via Yahoo
  46. ↑ Reade 1983, Section: Back to Nature.

Sources

Further material

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