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Pen-y-mount station building

Dave Meller

Journal 118 (WWW Edition)

Following completion of the track work at Christmas (see Andy Goodwin's article in issue 117) the site clearance for Pen-y-mount station building was completed on New Year's Eve, and the footings excavated. In the first week of January the first stage of the concrete base (up to existing ground level) was completed and, following some work on shuttering and mesh, the second stage was concreted a couple of weeks later. While the concrete was gaining strength the sides of the new building were pre-fabricated in the RED shed.

Dave Meller and Geoff Jenkins hard at work during Winter preparing the side supports for the new station building. Not long after the photo was taken the supports were taken to Pen-y-mount and the building was erected.
Photo : Andrew Hughes

In mid February the sections were loaded onto a pair of wagons and transported to Pen-y-mount, where three brave souls erected the frame. Following some more timber work (mainly the roof 'trusses' and purlins) the first sheets of cladding were nailed on in early March, and progressed fairly quickly. At the time of writing (late March) the roof is half clad, and it is still hoped to have the building basically complete by the start of the season, although a number of features will have to wait until later in the year.

The building is based very closely on the original WHR stations, photographs of which have been referred to as work progressed. Particular efforts have also been made in the selection of materials, even down to the nails and washers used to secure the cladding sheets. It was relatively straightforward to find nails of the correct pattern, but the supplier of the sheets, although very helpful, could only offer curved diamond shaped washers. Although none of the original buildings now survive, close examination of photographs showed that the washers were definitely circular. The old carriage shed at Gelerts Farm, although originally an agricultural building, dates from the same period as the WHR buildings and examination of one of the (circular) washers from the shed showed that it was soft enough to bend in one's fingers, and was presumably made of lead. However, attempts to locate a supply of curved round metal washers had drawn a blank and we had ordered the diamond shape.

At this point in the saga Steve Goodwin was in the Newtown area to order some fencing materials and decided to visit a shop in Montgomery, Bunners, which is known to stock this sort of thing. Indeed they had on display a small box of lead washers priced at 14p each. However, as we wanted over 500 washers as a minimum Steve asked if they had any more. Further investigation revealed a further three boxes marked up at the original price of 2/3d a gross. As there were still not enough for our purposes, the store agreed to throw in a couple of boxes of galvanised curved washers and compromise on a price of £4.00 for the lot. I am not sure if this tale shows Steve to be a dedicated enthusiast in search of the perfect reproduction of a historic building, or a very sad person.