Another photo from Quorn on the Great Central Railway, this time a concrete hut and coal bunker beside the signal box. Since they are all for storage, then they are warehouses of a sort, just small ones...
Railway companies loved pre-cast concrete, especially the SR. Made in factories and churned out in large numbers, they were cheap, rugged and standard, something that always pleases those in charge.
The coal bunker at the front isn't necessarily railway though. I'm sure I remember one of our relatives having one behind the house so maybe it's a domestic product, or maybe the railway company didn't bother to make their own and just bought in from outside.
The M&GN was the first railway to use concrete on a big scale in early twentieth century- the SR saw the idea and developed it further.
ReplyDeleteThere are two similar concrete coal bunkers at the station where I work (Ham Street) which were coal storage for both the station building and the station master's flat above it.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're right that they're a standard commercial product rather than something made by the railway; although I have an ancient (1970s?) plastic kit for two bunkers which are supposedly to an LMS design, they are also very similar.
Simon.