Stopping at All Stations

 

OK, a brief digression to model railways for today's post.  This is my latest bargain basement acquisition from eBay - a station building.  This is a very battered example of a Hornby Dublo die-cast metal suburban station building from the 1950s.  I got it cheaply, not just because of its condition, but because it is incomplete.  These usually come screwed to a length of metal platform, but this one has been separated from its platform.  As can be seen, however, it does sit quite neatly on Triang type plastic platforms.  Consequently, it is destined to be the up side station building on a new station planned for my expanded layout, (which will happen when I finally get around to clearing some more accumulated junk from the spare room).

As can be seen, in contrast to Triang, whose range of plastic station buildings were based on contemporary 1960s designs, the Hornby Dublo product has a 1930s style art deco look.  This, along with their chosen colour scheme, makes them look very much at home on Southern Railway or Southern Region BR layouts.  As I say, this example is somewhat the worse for wear, with the paint work needing attention and some glazing requiring replacing.  I'm tempted to give it a complete repaint, in a slightly lighter shade of cream, (it looks as if it might have been repainted previously - doors, for instance, should be all green, rather than just having green frames).  I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with this acquisition, not only did I pay a pretty low price for it, but it solves a problem for me by providing me with a fairly distinctive station building - most modern offerings are not only expensive, but tend to represent more conventional architectural styles unsuited to the area and era I model.