I decided this should get its own topic.

I have the Azimut European kitchen set and food supply set from Azimut I was planning to use in my train station, and since I was told a stone floor was the most likely I wanted to know how to do it (appearance, color, etc.). I plan to put the kitchen above the main waiting room of the station, assuming a stone floor and stove wouldn't be too heavy for that location. (I wouldn't know; I read that modern-day soldier's equipment is actually much heavier than the suits of armor worn by the soldiers of centuries ago, ironically enough!)

IMHO,a wooden floor would be more plausible on the first floor . I think official building like train stations were usually built with a limited budget anyway...

Frenchy

Oh I know that stationmasters' apartments were no-frills places from the ones I've seen. But I was thinking of fire hazards and the like.

Hi there

If you are going to put a stove or a fire on an upper floor it would be common practice to support the stove on a stone or concrete hearth cantilevered out from the walls.

As the stove itself needs a flue or a chimney to get rid of the smoke it is usual for this hearth to be built into the outer walls or dividing walls of brick and stone. The three outer edges of the hearth are supported by timber trimmers that are fixed to the side of the floor joists with the hearth sitting proud of the floor.

The hearth sizes will vary but a good size is about 300mm in front of the face of the stove or 500mm in front of an open fire place and extending either side of the stove or fire. A lot of ornate hearths have a sloping lip or cast iron edge to keep embers on the hearth and are tiled with decorative tiles.

The flue or chimney can be built into the wall or run up the side of the wall.

Hope this helps

Nige

I've came across a few descriptions of old French train stations (including some in real-estate ads about disused stations) and they all mention the wooden floor...

HTH

Frenchy

http://cgi.ebay.com/Historex-Azimut-ADV-Kitchenware-Set-1-35_W0QQitemZ310108606823QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

The Azimut kitchenware set I was referring to, which I just received.

Unfortunately the picture is poor, but seeing the actual model the stove has a position on top for a pot or pan, an exhaust pipe, and a door in the bottom to load coal or wood or whatever. It has a platform stand with feet on it, so I assume you could put it on a wood floor, or perhaps for safety put bricks beneath it. I wonder if a small kitchen could get by with just that and not require an oven for baking as well.

What period are you looking for.
After the twenties you might find a kitchen like the "Frankfurt Kitchen"
just look at wikipedia for it.

Or this one
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm.php?id=story_line_child&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000341&sl=8193&pos=1#1

It is a canadian station masters kitchen but it's plausible.

The scene takes place in 1962 northern Europe, the exact location ambiguous. The station I prefer to make old-fashioned so it could possibly be in more places, such as Eastern Europe, and a suburban or small-town station. I figured you wouldn't see a comparatively modern stove and oven in Poland or East Germany.

Hi Tom,

I´m sorry to say, but as I remeber ( I was born 1960) the oven of this azimut kit was only used for warming up a room. Of course, it was possible to brew som coffee or to cook a soup, but never for kitchen purposes. In a room, wich could be the duty room or the waiting room of a station, the azimut oven would be correct.
In a kitchen there were ovens used like this:

http://www.altberliner-bauelemente.de/sonstige.html

Whatever oven you will use on a wooden floor, it will be historically correct to let the oven stand on a plate of iron for fire protection reasons.

If you want to locate your dio in east germany or in west germany, be sure to get information about the achitecture. Up to 1924 no national railway company existed, but the local and country railroads of the further kingdoms remained as separate companies. They used the buildings erected centuries before. Every company had different styles in architecture. For instance the prussian railway, from the polish border to the rhine, had several types of buildings for the different purposes. They were standardized like german bunkers.
A small station had a duty room and a waiting room. Toilets were placed outside in a separate building.
The clerks an their families usually lived in separate buildings (3 or 3 different achitectural styles) nearby and along the railway track. There were up to 4 families in a house. Every family had their garden for vegetable growing and a stable for chickens or rabbits. For research it could be usefull to have a look at the walthers model railroad online catalog, the buildings from Faller, Auhagen or Pola.
If you want, I can send some pictures of a small station nearby, which is a prussian one. It is made of stone, but covered with wood. The familiys lived on the first floor and in two outbuildings on both side. From this type only 2 exist.
Most buildings had wood un the 1st floor. For this purpose a sort of wood was used, that was called "steinholz". I didn´t find an english term for this, but "Stein" means stone and "holz" means wood. As I remember this kind of floor, it was mostly painted in a reddish brown.

I hope this information was helpful

Jürgen

Ooh, boy, this will take quiet a bit of research! But I'm going through with it.