Cumnock

I cannot believe it's almost six months since I have done an entry - time flies - and too busy - but no excuses -  and this year it's back to regular entries.
We will start with an entry showing the station building at Cumnock, one of the over 140 precast concrete station buildings built between 1917 and 1932. This being one of 10 built on the Molong-Dubbo line in 1925, and opened with the line on 19 January 1925.
A quick out and back trip from Sydney between Christmas and New Year and many photos later the structure was suitably photographed. Below are a number of the photos of the building.
The SM's house is also precast concrete and this will be shown in a later blog.
The station building is 22.1 metres long and 3.8 metres wide. From the up end the rooms are Station Masters Office, Out of Room (which used to be the Waiting Room), Ladies Waiting Room (which became the Waiting Room), Ladies Toilet, Store Room and Mens Toliet. The building layout and size is similar to the A8 type common in the Sydney suburban area. Only two of this type were built of precast concrete, the other only 30 kilometres away at Yeoval - that building was demolished in the 1980s.
The Cumnock building while unoccupied for over 30 years is in reasonable condition but is beginning to deteriorate rapidly.
When opened, Cumnock had a pedestrian overbridge at the up end of the platform - of interest is that the bridge crossed to the down side of the line which was the opposite side to the town.
Cumnock was a crossing loop on the line, when opened with the automatic signalling, it was the third loop from Molong. Once the automatic signalling was dispensed with, only three years after the line was opened the two loops between Molong and Dubbo were removed and Cumnock became the first loop. This was the situation until the late 1970s and the actual crossing loop was removed on 24 Oct 1978. This was obviously the time when the line was rationalised as the SM's house was also sold in December 1978.

The station building from the down side of the line - the main line passed along this side. The footbridge was at the far right of the photo.

The station building from the up (loop) side of the line.

The up side of the station from the up end of the building The door at the end is the entry to the SM's office, the door to the right , the entry to the Waiting Room which was converted to the Out-of-Room.

The up side of the station from the up end of the building. From left to right - the window for the  SM's office, The door to the Out-of-Room, window of the Out-of-Room, window of the Ladies Waiting Room, Entry to the Ladies Waiting Room (to the left) and Ladies Toilet (to the right).

The up side of the station from the up end of the building. From left to right - window of the Ladies Waiting Room, Entry to the Ladies Waiting Room (to the left) and Ladies Toilet (to the right), window of the Ladies Toilet, window of the Store Room, window of the Gents Toilet.

Looking in the Up direction on the Up (Loop) side of the line

The Up end of the building taken from where the footbridge was located.

The Down (Main Line) side of the station from the Down end.

The brackets of the awning, note they are wider than the awning support - this is unusual for a precast building.

One of the many windows of the station building. Note the lower sash has two window panes while the upper sash has nine.

The Up side of the building with the door to the Out-of (Waiting) Room on the tight. Note the original stone colour scheme showing through.

Looking in the Down direction along the Up side of the building

The window to the ladies toilet on the Down side of the building

The window to the Gents toilet on the Down side of the building. Note the scalloping at the top is wider than the scalloping above the Ladies toliet window. The smaller scalloping is only seen on the two panels above the ladies toilet windows.

The two water tanks at the Down end of the building showing the entry to the Gents toilet.

The SM's office looking at the ticker window

The SM's office showing the bench and entry door - interestingly the door is on the loop side of the line and the office is at the other end of the building to the signal box - it being just off the Down end of the platform.

The ticket window from the office side.

The ticket window from the waiting room side.

The waiting room (converted to the out-of-room).

The waiting room (converted to the out-of-room).

The bracing for the awnings at the point where is crossed over. The cross over is required as the building is double sided - only this building and Yeoval had this arrangement.

The Ladies Waiting Room

The 'stove' vent in the ladies waiting room - note the wider vent in the roof cavity as the vent was also for the 'stove' in the waiting room.

Details of the vent in the Ladies Waiting Room

Detail of the seat in the Ladies Waiting Room

The entrance to the Ladies Waiting Room showing the light blue with darker blue highlights.

Interior of the Ladies Toilet showing the livery in one of the two cubicles. Note the pink livery - the Gents Toilets are blue and the timber doors - the Gents Toilet had corrugated iron on a tubular metal frame doors. The other cubicle has black walls.

The precast panel between the two cubicles in the Ladies Toilet.

The precast panel between the two cubicles in the Ladies Toilet.

The other cubicle with the black walls.

The vent in the ceiling of the Ladies Toilet.

The interior of the Gents toilet.

The top of the exterior modesty walls of the Gents toilet.

The centre panels of the modesty wall have been removed and this shows how the panels were secured.

The end of one of the removed panels.

The top of the entrance to the Gents toilet.

The bottom of the entrance to the Gents toilet.

Detail of the down end of the building.

The down side of the station from the down end of the building. From left to right, two windows in the Gents Toilet, door to the store room, two windows of the Ladies Toilet, window of the Ladies Waiting Room.

The down side of the station from the down end of the building. From left to right, door to the store room, two windows of the Ladies Toilet, window of the Ladies Waiting Room, door to the Ladies Waiting Room, window in the Waiting Room, door to the Waiting Room..

The down side of the station from the down end of the building. From left to right, window of the Ladies Waiting Room, door to the Ladies Waiting Room, window in the Waiting Room, door to the Waiting Room, window of the SM's office.

The down side of the station from the down end of the building. From left to right, door to the Waiting Room, window of the SM's office.

The Down side of the building

The Down side of the building showing the roof and awning join.