Untergroeningen: Station building research

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Untergroeningen station buildings in 2004

This photo from Wikipedia nicely illustrates the building arrangement in Untergroeningen. The locomotive shed is on the left in the rear. Across the tracks is a large storage shed / barn-like structure. Track 1 is partially embedded in asphalt before the station building. There's a small outbuilding with restrooms between the station building and the shed. The station building has an integrated storage / warehouse area and loading ramp facing track 1. The challenge is what did this look like 30 years earlier?

I have been contemplating how to model this ensemble. The locomotive shed with its distinctive water tower and attached tool shop in the rear needs to be represented, and I already made a partial paper mock-up for use with Auhagen parts. The shed and toilet building are pretty straightforward. I really like the tree between the two buildings.

However, I've been going back and forth on the station building. It's rather unattractive, and I have not been able to find any photos showing the street side of the station building that would be very visible on my module. The photo above shows the building with a brown siding that wraps around the side, too. All photos I found on the Internet (e.g. here with some shots from 1983) show the building with this ugly brown siding that I really don't like.

So I thought about alternatives. We are in Wuerttemberg. I could use one of the standardized Wuerttemberg station buildings. Faller makes a very nice model of the three-story Gueglingen station, which is type IIIa. So I ordered that and have it on the shelf. While at it, I also noticed that the station included in the Faller "Haltingen" set, which I got as a present a few years ago, is a bastardized version of the Gueglingen kit with the second story and waiting hall removed. It kind of looks similar to the type I plan.  What bugged me about this approach is that the weg was a private railway, and they didn't use the standardized plans in any of their buildings.

Next idea: Transplant one of the prettier weg buildings to Untergroeningen. E.g. Sulzbach has a nice half-timbered station building that still stands today and is now occupied by a restaurant.

Next I took another look at the photos of Untergroeningen in Hermann Buernheim's book "Wuerttembergische Eisenbahngesellschaft: Die Geschichte einer bedeutenden Privatbahn". Low and behold on page 139 is a photo from 1973 (yay!) showing the Untergroeningen station building with a wood siding on only one side of the warehouse side of the building (YAY!)  While the rest of the building is rather bland, that can be modeled. ... There is no tree between the outhouse and the shed and the platform is very low just barely above the rails.

After the success on Google Maps with Sulzbach, I double-checked if can get any additional information out of Google Maps. Sure enough: While the service facilities and all tracks are gone and have been replaced with industry, the station building itself is still standing. The satellite view gives a good idea about the roof structure of the building.

The paved area to the right of the station building leads to the former loading ramp at the end of track 1. The large shed was to the left of the loading ramp.

Update March 17, 2020:
To my delight I did find a street side view of the station building and the restroom building (with attached garage!) on Vergessene Bahnen.