Come Hull And High Water (2)

A Paragon of Virtue (1)

The G.T. Andrews-designed station was originally named Paragon Station, and together with the adjoining Station Hotel, it opened in 1847 as the new Hull terminus for the growing traffic of the York and North Midland (Y&NMR) leased to the Hull and Selby Railway (H&S). As well as trains to the west, the station was the terminus of the Y&NMR and H&S railway's Hull to Scarborough Line. From the 1860s the station also became the terminus of the Hull and Holderness and Hull and Hornsea railways.

Trains from the south arrived via Goole  lower left, from Bridlington and Scarborough (north) upper right, and from Hornsea (north east) and Withernsea (east) appeared upper right. 

At the beginning of the 20th century the North Eastern Railway (NER) expanded the trainshed and station to the designs of William Bell, installing the present five arched span platform roof which still stands today.

For a better understanding, a Google aerial view helps enormously.

The original station buildings run parallel to the platforms and the later trainshed, whilst the big block with a hole in the middle is the magnificent Station Hotel. With the building of the new roof, the main entrance was moved from the pillared side ...

... to a canopied area north of the hotel. There is still a somewhat feeble "side door" on the town side of the pillars.

In the early 1960s, the main entrance was replaced by an uninspiring office block, as uninspiring as most 1960s corporate architecture was.

The block matched neither station nor hotel!

Back to the old rail map above. The yellow lines were those owned by the North Eastern Railway, whereas the red tracks were the province of the Hull and Barnsley - which never quite made it to Barnsley. H&B passenger trains ran to a separate station in Hull

Cannon Street was, compared with Paragon, a very feeble advert for train travel, being of wooden construction.

The merger of the two companies brough rationalisation of duplicated facilities and Cannon Street closed to passengers in 1924. All that remains today is a gatepost and a bit of wall that once bordered the goods yard.

After the closure, trains ran into Paragon Station.

.

Much of the rail business in Hull was, obviously, freight generated by the Docks. This is the 1960 loco line up ...

... at Alexanfra Dock, one of three to the east of the River Hull.

There was more rail to the west of the eponymous river (Remember, correctly it is Kingston upon Hull).

Once again, plenty of rail traffic!

But that was then. The work at Hull docks had declined massively, and you won't find much rail around. Here for example is today's Victoria Dock (see top dock diagram above).

Likewise, Paragon Station has had a massive upgrade.

As we shall see tomorrow.

The Great Carriage Shed Rebuild.

Yesterday was a day of Consternation, Concentration, Adaptation, Dejection, Rejection, Resurrection and, amazingly, A RESULT.

The aim was to try and fit all the bits together. There is a world of difference in stability between the good slice of ¼ inch plywood of the old self destructed carriage shed, and much thinner sheet plastic. Meccano has provided lateral strength for the side walls, but a fairly rigid box would be needed to support the flimsy roof.

Long term readers will remember this was made out of five Dapol platform canopy kits. much modified. This kit was one of the weakest in design when it was introduced by Airfix in 1959.

The supports were inadequate for the weight of "roof" and those glazing bars were prone to fall out or, even worse, have their ends dissolved away by an over enthusiastic application of glue. fbb never bought one, having observed the collapse of ones installed on his chums' layouts..

So at the old shed entrance were a hefty brace of angle brackets screwed to the ply. But the plastic was thinner and unsuitable for screws. Packing pieces were added and equally hefty nuts and bolts did the fixing.

Those bolts will be chopped off and disguised as mysterious electrical cabinets or something similar. At the closed rear end, a block of wood makes a temporary brace ...

... to be replaced by something more scenically acceptable in due course. The heavy duty "I" beams (plastic mouldings) that attempt to hold the walls apart also needed extra spacers ...

... to compensate for the thinner walls. But, with all screws and bolts tightened, it was time to position the roof truss sturcture on the walls and .... tada .... thanks to the modelling skills as advocated by Bobby Bodge and Frank Fudge ...

... it fitted EXACTLY - well, far more exactly than anything fbb has ever made over the last 60 years.

fbb and Mrs fbb roasted a whole ox by way of celebration and danced the night away.

Not quite. Mrs fbb pointed out that the wooden block was not straight (which it isn't - yet!) they both had a cup of tea.

Next - repairs and a repaint for the roof trusses, some cosmetic work on the outside walls and repair and fixing of the roof itself; gutters and downpipes, doors or roller shutters. lighting and a water tank added above the front.

Plenty to do.

 Next Hull Paragon blog : Thursday 6th August