Another Station Stop

 

Another station building.  A while ago I posted some photos of an old die cast Hornby Dublo building I'd bought cheaply and which is  destined to be the up line building on a new station I'm planning for my revamped model railway layout.  Well, this is planned to be the down line building.  This is a Triang-Hornby 'Main Station' building.  In contrast to the Hornby Dublo building, this one is injection moulded plastic and is of an even more generic style.  This was actually the second version of this item.  It was originally produced as a 'second storey' for the Triang booking office model, of which this is an incomplete example:

The idea was that two of theses could be placed side-by-side, with the second type of building placed on top of them, in a central position.  In actuality, this made for an awkward looking combination and the upper storey building apparently didn't sell well.  Consequently, it was re-tooled as seen, with doors and marketed as a building in its own right.  It was often pictured in catalogues as the main building of a terminus station and in this form lasted in the range until the early seventies.

As can be seen, the example I bought very cheaply on eBay is incomplete - there should be a small clock tower mounted centrally on the roof.  These often go AWOL and sometimes turn up separately on places like eBay or at swap meets and toy fairs.  Alternatively, it wouldn't be difficult to construct a replacement from scratch. Either way, its absence isn't a big deal for me.  Before being pressed into service, the building will likely undergo a repaint to better match the Hornby Dublo building.  The difference in architectural styles between to two station buildings is prototypical.  The new station, as planned, is vaguely inspired by Southampton Central, where the up and down buildings are quite different, having been constructed many years apart, (indeed, the whole of the current down side of the station was added later, at the same time as Western Docks were constructed on reclaimed land south of the then existing station).

All I need to do now is actually finish clearing my spare room of stored junk so that I can start expanding the layout and construct the new station.