GWR pagoda platform shelter

The archetypal Pagoda Platform Shelter was a distinctively-shaped corrugated iron structure used by passengers waiting at railway stations in Wales and southern England.

In Britain Pagoda shelters are associated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) who introduced them in 1907 and erected a patchwork of them across their network.

[5] Although they were renowned for their shape, their greatest virtues were their cost, simplicity and durability, coupled with the fact that the GWR "took them seriously".

[16] Harlech[17][18][19][20] and Loudwater[21] had two platforms but a pagoda shelter opposite the masonry station building only.

[26] Penhelig still has a pagoda shelter which used to incorporate a "lean-to" staff cabin at the Aberdyfi end.

[31] The shelters were mainly used by passengers waiting for trains, but at least two - at Legacy[32] and Tetbury[33] - were "Pagoda lamp huts", whilst one at Witney was a shed.

Pagoda huts existed next to Weymouth Junction signalbox,[37] and in Hagley station goods yard,[38] neither was for passenger use.

A Pagoda shelter was erected at right angles to the track next to the down platform at Festiniog, unsigned and painted black;[39][40] research continues into its purpose.