Denver to Como

[John Droste]

Chris,
I forgot to answer your question to me,
"Do you have a photo showing the Depot without this office addition, i.e. before it was added?"

Of course I can not do that for as I have been saying all along since I started my discussion again in the Narrow Gauge Discussion forum and then here, "Como Depot revisited", the entire depot was constructed all at the same time. How else could floor joists or bearers the size that would be used under the office end up under the yardmasters hut? Or indeed under the floor of the room adjoining the freight room.

 If you go back to the start and read from the beginning, there is a  thread in the main. I am not simply pointing out coincidences. The "coincidences" link together to join a thread which then becomes a process of logic. Very simple logic, nothing extraordinary. And I am still building on that logic. Everything that I have discovered this week regarding the yardmasters hut fits the bigger picture of what I have been saying before hand.
 For many, there is a transition of consciousness to take place. The history that was thought to be, was not so. Folk are different from each other and making that transition of consciousness will be easy, almost automatic in some cases. Others will go to the grave refusing to transcend.
 For me, it has been like a giant jigsaw puzzle and as the pieces fall into place, the next piece just seems easier to locate.

 What my spirit is telling me now, is to research the Colorado Central. Find out what influences Jay Gould had on that railroad. If he supplied the Colorado Central depot to the railroad in Denver and if he still owned same building when it was removed. Because I think that that building went to BV. Except for the odd section of wall in the office north wall of the Como Depot. And the ticket window too. I think it also came from the Colorado Central building.
 And all of these things happened at almost the same time. The D&RG station on Wynkoop  was removed. Also the Colorado Central depot. At the same time that the Gilman was joined to the adjoining hotel. Just before the Como Depot replaced what was functioning as a depot there. Just when BV was reached by rail by the influence of Gould, whichever railway got there first. And so the ticket window that was modelled off the Como ticket window for the missing ticket window in BV was actually modelled off its very own ticket window, if you get the drift...
 I will not find anything directly that will enable me to link these things together, except that I do not expect to find anything concrete, that dismisses what I expect to find.
  We have worked well together the last few days. I hope that that positive attitude towards each other can continue. The rewards are evident, contributing to each others strengths, rather than our flaws. You would not see mine, strengths or flaws, if you did not have them yourself, friend.

[John Droste]

Todd,
Thank you. Great.
I had wondered about the Como showers. Why the showers would not be getting blasted with steam and thought perhaps the cooling water from the boiler at the end of the day would be used for the showers as the fires ran down. I don`t know.
 I do believe you were spot on when you mentioned dynamo not generator as I did.
 Regarding the three lights? I wish I had the proof, but I know that when the Como depot was built which was around the time that the Union Station opened in Denver, that dynamo was operational. And I know that the room on the east side of the office was used as a sleeping quarters for the Dispatcher. An extra low ceiling was placed in that room and the walls were lined with insulation.
 Here is a photo of that room before the contents were finally removed.



 I have always avoided discussing this for it may seem maligning, or make me appear crazy. The latter may be the truth. I have for a long time felt that the spirit of the depot was very displeased with somebody who had red hair. And I have GOT to say, I do not know who may have had red hair. Everybody has grey hair in the photos that I have seen. That`s my disclaimer, LOL. Anyway, if you removed the bed from the sleeping quarters and you have or had red hair, you need to make piece with the spirit of the depot. Because he is still on my bloody couch!

[ComoDepot]

Como Hotel was a non railroad building but that is another long story, and it changed its name. The Hotel was known officially as the South Park Hotel, more commonly as the Como Eating House, the floor plans do call the building the Como Hotel but that is the only mention I can find. Some wood trim is marked Como EH.

The Hotel did have water, well there were 3 washbasins and the kitchen had a 30 gallon tank. as far  as plumbing I do not know but there are some holes that suggest there may have been piping, but from when?

I did find some half inch pipes in the ground behind what would have been the southerly extension of the Gilman, not deep enough to avoid freezing and seemed to have come from the well in the walk out basement. Headed seemingly in the direction of the Ice House.

What I call the Switchman's Shanty seemed to have been built with the platform as the floor, when the platform was removed seems that it was cut around. The original door was changed in later years, a double door we think was used to allow a hand car to be stored in there, no need for the chimney, and somebody built a bird house.

I assume the shanty was an add on, not part of the original construction but very early.

The vestibules seems to have come and gone over the years, the last one covered up the Burlington colour scheme so must have been put on say late 20's or later.

I have a friend who still heats water on his wood stove and has a tin bath, commo in my Grandparents time,

[Robert McFarland]

Naturally there was water for washing-I'm talking about indoor toilets and bathtubs

[John Droste]

Hi David,
Thank you for climbing on board.
I recall that there was a well under the hotel somewhere, or under the Gilman, indicating a history that may even predate Como? I say that with a question mark!
 Another matter that always strongly fascinated me was that you provided a page to me which I no longer have, from your buildings and structures book. I added up all the measurements of the rooms of the hotel and put together allowing for walls between, the basement of the Pacific must have extended the full length of the building. I can`t help thinking that all of those walls are still there. Under the floor or under the ground. Perhaps some of it not found or known of today, hidden by the Cooly brothers in the Cuban Missile crisis. There was supposed to be a stairs but they are not there. Could they be concreted over at the top? I just imagine unbelievable treasures in rooms lost. Or in the rubble that caved into the rooms when the building collapsed during the fire. Always pictured in my mind that the Doctor developed his film in the basement in a dark room, with all the water that he would need in the next room by the well. And much of his stuff is still there to be uncovered from beneath the rubble. Mate, its just a fantasy that I have because I wonder at the possibility. The possibilities, that I do not really know.

 Maybe you are correct about the floor of the shanty but I think my theory holds ground. I explained earlier that the depot was shifted to meet the hotel, putting the depot at an angle to the track. Doubtful that the platform would have been moved with that. I also explained in very great detail that the timbers that were used to cover the hole in the north wall where the telegraph wires were later located and the same trim being used to cover patches where the freight room and depot meshed together, came from what was window surrounds or architraves. So if windows where removed from the Gilman when the hotels were joined together, there would have been those same timbers around to patch the depot in those necessary places. So it becomes a logical procession of thought that the windows themselves being removed, would be available to be used elsewhere. Hence the matching windows in the shanty and the Gilman, as seen in the photos that I posted. I had given no thought to comparing the windows of the shanty to the Gilman until a few nights ago and it just fits so very very perfectly to how I explained the hole in the north wall being covered up.
 I am not pretending to be some kind of genius in all of this, I am not. It is simply a matter of joining the dots and in the end its just plain common sense. Having said that, it has not been easy for me to decipher everything to this point in time. But here we are.

 I will post a picture of the floor of the shanty. It shows two bearers underneath running east/west. One attached to the depot wall. These timbers will match the bearers under the office, I am confident. And they would also match the sizes of the timbers under the baggage room floor, where they had to be packed higher. Makes me drawer a correlation to the layers of floor in the office!



Here is a picture that you will be familiar with because I probably stole it from you. It reveals a great deal. The white silhouette shows what looks like the profile of a caboose. The left side just reveals how those roof timbers had that little curve that support the overhanging roof. Above the white silhouette can be seen an unpainted area where the roof was altered from the original round roof to the flat roof that came later. The fact that the concrete floor extends to the outer portions of the vestibule indicates to me that what was there was removed and in the void in the platform concrete was filled in and another building constructed in its place, without the walls of the depot being painted in the process.



I actually think now that the original structure was one of these things in the below photo. Anybody have the dimensional data on these?



In short, I have been saying the same thing for years. Year in year out, making an ass of myself because of my conviction in what I am saying. Now, it is all coming together, and your building, your depot, of one of the most amazing railroads in the world, has simply an amazing history that just extends ever so much further than any of us has as yet worked out. Right back to before the civil war, if I am not mistaken. All as a result of Gould`s empire building methods.

[ComoDepot]

No indoor toilets, not sure anywhere in Como had such a luxury.

Bathtubs I do not know, maybe in the Pacific Hotel, current one maybe a tin bath but not sure where that would have been located.

There are the remains of a very large vitreous clay pipe going down into Park Gulch, about 12" in diameter, I think this goes back to the Pacific, suggests there was a lot of water at one time to drain.

[ComoDepot]

Cooley left in 1946, somewhat before the Cuban Missile Crisis.

There was only one basement, the original Gilman and that at the time was a walkout basement, there was a door in the north wall east end. Seems they intended to remover the debris and use the bade            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Foundation walls for the current building were mainly repaired Pacific Hotel.

The for want of a better description rear addition towards the south would have been close to Ground level and has a brick lined well, probably built when the Gilman was extended. Behind that about 30 ft was a very large chimney, extended above Hotel roof level, use unknown.

Britton Smith was the one who concreted over the well area and stored dry goods down there, c 1954.

Hotel had varies names, but only one on the site, Gilman I think was a Conductor who also ran several Eating Establishments, seems odd, common them to name the Building after the operator and not the owner.

Gilman and 2 others had a Restaurant in Como when it was a tented city, always wondered if it was on the Hotel site.

[John Droste]

I wonder what it was that I read then in the "Buildings Bridges & Structures" page that you once provided. I thought it said the basement level of the hotel! Or something like that.

Big pipe, Big chimney, Big Pipe, Big Chimney? Could the soil at the end of the pipe or in the bottom of the pipe be examined to see what the pipe carried? Nothing laying around the chimney base to reveal clues of its use?  Sewage and waste pipe? A heating system? A large pipe flowing away from the hotel suggest that what it was was not wanted near to the Hotel. Could the pipe have been providing water to another facility? Like King`s operations? May sound silly and maybe that idea is. Just asking.

David, I wonder about the "Ice House"? It would be in an extraordinarily difficult place to access! Is it not something that would be trackside normally?
Could the building have been an accomodation facility for Hotel or Railroad staff? Access being between the depot and Hotel walls.

[ComoDepot]

Pretty sure the large pipe was drainage for the extended Gilman kitchen/laundry.

The kitchen at this time was on the south end of the building, no connection with the Depot I know of and very unlikely.

Ice House was behind the Depot and easily accessible form Hwy 8 and its predecessor. Later building on that site was used as a Garage.

Do not know about the small pipe, do not know when it was put in or where it went or why.

[John Droste]

Mentioning the Ice House has just got me thinking of a few things David.
You have mentioned several times that you thought the roundhouse was in an unusual place.
And the Ice House/ Would not the purpose of that be to deliver Ice to Denver? By rail?
If the building thought to be the Ice House is thought to be such because of of a report or article that suggested that it was close to the Depot then maybe that`s it!
Obviously there would have been another depot in service before the one we know of today, given what I have been showing everybody.
So it does not mean that the former depot was on the same site. In fact it would be unlikely to be the case. They would build a replacement depot before removing the former depot.
 So just imagine, knowing the layout of the town, knowing the layout of the railroad yards, could it be that the former depot was in a more practical position somewhere closer to the roundhouse, Water tank maybe? And other facilities of the yards, and in relation to the town plan?
A position where there could have been an Ice House in a practical position, near the depot and in the rail yards area?
Have a think about the old town plan and the yards, as they began. The town initially designed around the rail yards facilities, would it have been more practical to have the depot elsewhere, before the advent of the hotels?

Because certainly, from my observations of the building thought to be the "Ice House", there is no sign of a track leading to it from the "Road" that was. Maybe Ice was brought to Como from the lake on that path, I don`t know. I simply can not imagine that the Ice from wherever, would be carted across the paddock to be stored in that building which had a vented roof where I would imagine that such airflow would be avoided, and then dragged across the paddock again to be shoved into a reefer, or whatever to be taken to Denver. That, just does not make sense. Not one tiny bit!
Maybe I am missing something, the purpose of the Icehouse?

But aside from this matter, just to go out on a limb. I know the BV depot was added to or extended. Looking at the photos of the building being restored, that is obvious. Maybe the extension came later. Maybe the depot that was in Como was taken to BV and assembled with the part of the building that I suspect was the Colorado Central depot.
 Just some food for thought, and discussion.

[ComoDepot]

The Ice House would have been to supply Ice to the Hotel, Ice was harvested from Lake Como and taken to Denver but would have been stored down there.

[John Droste]

Ahh! I did miss something.
To attempt paraphrasing Rumsfeldt, "There are known knowns and unknown knowns and unknown known unknowns." Something like that.

There are things we know that we know and things that we know that we do not know. And there are things that we don`t know that we do not know. Something like that too.

And I guess most often, there are things that we think we know but don`t.

[John Droste]

I can be such a donkey. Missing some most obvious things.

I in depth pointed out how the second extension of the office was made up of sections of wall. Two from the internal width of the depot and one from the width of the office. The three sections, making up the north and south wall of "what was thought to be the second extension."

I just completely forgot to consider the original length long walls of that building, meaning what happened to them?

At the same time, I am saying that the freight room was a completely different building to the depot, not realising that the walls to the freight room actually came from the building that comprises part of the office building.

This post I imagine, will bring a whole lot more understanding. I will bring up the plan again for your reference:



Just so everyone is aware of where I am referencing to, the room between the freight and waiting room, I call the baggage room. The small dotted in room in the baggage room, I call the oil room.

I have mentioned before that there is a join in the outside wall where the wall of the oil room meets the outside wall. Here is another photo again to show that.



I understand now that on the east side, this is where the "freight room" wall connected to the depot wall.
Okay.
I have also pointed out that the wall section of the Oil room is the same length as half the internal width of the depot and in all probability, the outside section of wall of the oil room will also be a half wall. And as you can see it looking at the position of the join in the above photo, The other end of that "half wall" would be smack bang in the middle of the wall dividing the waiting room and baggage room.
 I explained how this works before with the dotted in wall in the "second extension" with the wall between it and the back of the depot also being a half wall.
 Okay, stay with it.
 I have also mentioned that the west wall of the baggage room would have been positioned differently because the opening doors clashed against each other. Something that I could not figure out was, where was the corresponding wall for the west wall of the baggage room?
 And the answer is, it was used as the west wall of the office, to create a uniform facade to the building as much as possible. It would have needed to be cut a little bit shorter but so what? Here is a picture of the window in the west office wall that matches the fretwork of the other depot windows. You can see where the TOB shaft came through on the left.



So then, where is the other end of office building before it came to Como? And as I have explained before, a section of wall this size was used in the north wall of the depot.

Lets have a look at the back of the depot, see how things stack up. As you can see in this photo, the window to the south is smaller and it does not have the fretwork that the others do. That is because this window is part of the freight room building walls, which in turn is also part of the office construction.



I am confident that if David compares the smaller window in the back wall to the window in the east wall of the office as shown in the photo below, the dimensions and joinery, what was left to be compared, will match.



I will just bring up an image of the west wall of the baggage room. I have spent so much time looking for markings in this wall for where the block was attached for the cog bracket for the TOB lever. Nothing there. Nothing there because this wall would have been on the other side of the building previously to Como. Hence the doors clashing as constructed now.




I understand now that the west wall of the office was in the place of the wall in the photo above, relatively speaking. And therefore, the markings of the TOB cog bracket mounting block and the lever itself both should show where they were attached to the wall, before being moved to the north wall.

I will bring in a photo of the inside of the office, west wall. As we can see, the wall has been patched and repaired, so evidence may be destroyed. The plan above shows a door in the corner of the West wall. I believe the door was more to the centre of the room.



Not wanting to sidetrack the issue at hand, whilst trying to work out sizes of walls in the past, I was drawing in wall join sections. I believe section A2 was the door not A1. But anyway, those two sections of wall will not show the semaphore lever mount. But above door hight, the fixing holes of the TOB cog bracket block should still be there.
 Actually, before beginning my post, enlarging the image on my computer as much as possible, I thought I could see some holes just to the left of the top of the window which would be about the correct hight for the Cog bracket mounting block.
 I have to trust David to examine the mounting markings of The TOB lever and cog mounting block and see what he can find. I am very confident that he will find something. Photo below shows the pieces that I am talking about. It also happens to show the odd section of wall that matches that of part of the BV depot. And full measuring and matching as much as possible should be made of that matter.

 Okay folks, I could explain that I thought that the window with the fretwork in the office was exchanged with the smaller window at the back of the depot and that belief blocked me from realising what I have explained tonight. It all still continues to come together.

[GilpinTram]

Have you ever created scale drawings of the building parts as you think they would have been shipped?  You could then overlay them over a scale drawing of a DSP&P flat car to see if it is even possible to ship from Denver to Como meeting the clearance requirements along the line.

I'm just not seeing how all these parts would fit for shipment.

Jason

[John Droste]

A good question Jason and the answer is that I can not adequately answer that.

The length of flat cars or gondolas would be the limit length wise. I imagine that a tilt frame was used to carry the wall sections similar to how you see glaziers moving glass panels around.
 Maybe, only a few wall panels could fit on a car with the wall panels on an acute angle, enough to clear the hight of a truss bridge which I imagine they would have needed to pass through.

 If I was provided information on the hight of the flat cars and gons, the hight to their floor level, and also the opening dimensions through the truss bridges which I imagine would be the major restrictive factor then I would love to do those drawings.

Was thinking in bed last night that the west wall of the freight room extending into the baggage room may have been to long to fit on a car and that there would have been a split at the intersection of the baggage/freight room wall, same as there would have been on the west side.

But it is fairly clear how the South wall of the freight room was moved. In two sections with a diagonal brace nailed to the framework to stop it collapsing.



 I believe that the entire building, including the shingled north wall as it originally was clad on the outside once the building was assembled. That would allow for fixing the T point wall sections together from the outside. Considering that there are no narrow cut strips of cladding on the outside where wall panels butted together, it is the only explanation.

 Thanks for posing a good question. Would like to do the modelling that you suggest. I do think the depot walls would have fitted in hight through the bridges, up the hill.

[Darel Leedy]

John,
Every time you reply under your Denver to Como subject, you have the opportunity to edit and change the title (just like I’ve done above). Thus keeping your new subject under your original post.
This epic journey of yours has taken so many twists and turns, it is important for everyone to understand where you’ve already been. So please just keep your posts here and change the sub title to your liking. That way I don’t have to move anything. Thanks.

[John Droste]

Jason,
I have been pondering your question further and had some realisations, or just considered things further that I had not properly addressed before. And that is regarding the floors of the Como Depot.
 Not sure if you are Jason Midyette but if you are you would be aware that The office and at least part of the baggage room had multiple layers of flooring.
 What I come to realise now is that these sections of floor were taken to Como in sections and that the old floor were recovered when the Como depot was built, leaving the old flooring underneath.
 It may be confusing as I said recently that the walls of the freight room did not come from the depot but they came from the "other" building. I still had not given due thought to the floors.
 The floor to the ticket room, a.k.a, waiting room and the freight room and maybe part of the baggage room only, came from the original depot, I expect. Possibly, these floors came up in sections without flooring and then recovered, I don`t know at this point in time.
 But the office floor and part of the baggage room floor if not all of it would have came up with flooring already attached. I am confident of that.
Photo showing the framework of the floor of the baggage room, same width as the office floor.
Mike, the builder from Older than Dirt, is inspecting where he has cut through 'something!" This is the spot where there was a trapdoor in the floor. Maybe it was a hiding spot? But anyway, he is in the floor area where the floor from the "Other" building came short.

 This photo below shows some of the double layered floor of the office. Notice the bottom layer of flooring against the far wall next to the bricks. The lower floor boards naturally running perpendicular to the floor joists in this area.
 So this is common sense.
 When it was not understood that the Depot had been rebuilt from other buildings you may recall some of the other reasons presumed for the office having had the floors recovered over its fifty odd years life term.

One, "More layers of floor had to be added as the building sagged towards the back of the depot!" Another layer of floor will not make the floor level again. And why not just jack up the floor and insert some packers over the stumps or restump?

Two, "The office workers must have worn hob nail boots and wore the floor out!" Yes, for sure. And the workers in the freight room wore slippers.

And Three, "Rain leaked through the roof and rotted the floor! Why not fix the leak in the roof instead?


I will just finish by showing the floor in front of the "Oil Room." First photo shows the bottom layer of flooring. It also shows that there are two sections of floor joined here with two floor joists side by side. One floor joist exposed, the other underneath the floorboards still in place. The president of the DSP&P HS sent me these photos because everybody was wondering WTF? Did not click with me at the time that this floor was matching that of the office so had me confused too.

This last photo is from the "DSP&P, Memories and then Some" photo album and I will remember to acknowledge that below. With the second layer of flooring in place, running in the opposite direction. And it looks like the Oil Room walls were in place before the extra floor was laid too!

"Photo used by permission  Copyright Ken Smith Photography All Rights Reserved.”
www.steamandmorephotography.com

[John Droste]

Was only recently that I got the idea that the west wall of the office came from the former depot, as it was.
And David would attest how I argued that the window in this wall was installed after the building was assembled in Como, switched with the shorter window in the back of the depot.
The three arrows in the photo below show where the previous door opening was filled in, left and right sides and top. The small circle shows where the top and side cutout connect and with my new computer, even I can`t enlarge the image enough anymore to see it.


 So the door frame was taken out and the wall filled in.

As I have said before, the southern wall of the office return was made up of a half wall from one end of the original depot that extended to the dividing wall of the sleeping quarters and the remaining section of wall, a part of a half wall as well, with the remainder part of that wall in the north wall. But it seems that this half wall was also originally a half wall for looking at the photo below, it shows that there was a window in where the door was placed later. An infill of short pieces of cladding fills in above the door to the level line of the other two windows.

 
 So maybe the door and frame that was in the west wall of the office, was inserted into the wall of the sleeping quarters.
 And maybe the window that was in the place of the door, an original depot window was indeed installed into the area of where the window is now in the west wall of the office.

 Thing is, as far as I can see, This doorframe is to low and does not correspond with the hight of the other depot door frames which are a little higher than the windows.



 So maybe the west wall of the office was not a part of the original depot after all. Maybe the south wall of the office return is actually the original opposing wall of the west wall of the baggage room. I think not because the internal dividing wall of the office is exactly a half wall in from the back of the depot and that wall it would seem was definitely placed to brace the join of the external walls.

But maybe that three point join is in the north wall, not the south side.

I need to think about this further. Especially since each time I was adding up the half walls, I was getting an odd number.

"Photos used by permission Copyright Ken Smith Photography All Rights Reserved.”
www.steamandmorephotography.com

Except for the top photo.

[John Droste]

David,
considering my last post on the west office wall. I said previously that I thought that there may be signs of the TOB lever or cog bracket being previously mounted on this wall. Since I am having reservations about this wall being a part of the original depot once again, I would like to suggest looking at the walls of the return section of the office for same markings.
 I do understand that there was an interlude between the use of a TOB upon the depot being established in Como but the markings of where it was attached must be there, somewhere.

[John Droste]

I had to do some checking to make sure I had not made a mistake.

As I said earlier on, the distance of the return section of the depot office is made up of a section of wall the internal width of the original depot in two halves, and a wall the internal width of the office. Having recovered the Buildings, Bridges  & Structures page on the depot, I can now explain that in far greater detail. But we need to keep in mind that the book only provides measurements to the quarter of a foot. So we will start by looking at that so we can make some allowance. So the plan again, and the B,S & B page, for your references:




Don`t know if you can read these attachments but the plan says the depot is 20'3" wide or..........243inches.
Buildings & Structures book, internal width of depot, 18&3/4 feet................................................225"
So that means the two outside wall thicknesses combine to...........................................................18"
Well we should know that the walls are not nine inches thick. That would be hefty indeed. So we need to allow I would say at least a few inches in length to the internal length of the dividing walls.

The office width, north/south outside measurement...............13'11" or 167inches.
Internal width   12 & 3/4 feet or..............................................153 inches
167" minus 153" leaves double wall thickness of ..................14 inches.

Okay. To work out the distance of the return or the office;

Overall distance of North wall in inches, 436 minus width of depot, 243 inches leaves distance of office return at 193 inches.

So if we work on the given internal distance of depot 225 inch plus given internal width of office 153 inches equals 378 inches. And divide that by two to correspond with return distance of wall is 189 inches.

So we have a discrepancy between the distances of 193 and 189 inches and I will explain that away like this:
The end of the return would have a near an inch of cladding fixed on.
The two walls of the depot do not come up to 18 inches thick so whatever thickness they really are, that difference could be added to the internal wall length. Say the framework is ex 5". plus two layers of cladding at ex 1", will come up to say 6.5" and not 9".
But to go on, the other plan that I have used gives the distance of the north wall at 36'3' not 36'4" as in the plan above.

So each of these points go toward making up the discrepancy of four inch difference.
Not to mention David, I recall your telling me that Mike tried to pull the return of the depot square to the depot and could not and gave up, thinking that it must have never been truely square in the first place.
And we are taking it for granted here that the odd section of wall finishes exactly in line with the back of the depot too.

 But to continue. I say that the south wall of the office return is made up of an end of the depot, (actually cut in two halves to begin with).
 And the end of that depot wall not used on the south side is transferred to the north side and added to the section of wall the internal width of the office. I will show you that join in the photo below. You can see the join easy enough in the end wall but I need to explain just exactly how you can cross check the measurements and the join as it is and where it is.



The photo above is in the office sleeping quarters looking north. The dividing wall on the left is only framed up the hight of what the former ceiling was. Above that is only a single layer of tongue and groove cladding. The distance from that single layer of cladding, looking at the plan is half the internal width of the depot. So if you can enlarge the plan on your computer monitor and measure the remaining length of that section of wall on the south side, calculate the remainder of that second half section of wall and transfer that to the where the join is as per the photo, you will find that it corresponds.

All that to account for two half ends of the original depot.

Another external half wall is in the north wall also. On the far west side. Must be or the hole for the TOB hole would not be covered up there!
But quickly, north wall, west to east. Half depot end wall, odd section of wall that I suspect matches BV depot wall, wall width of office, and again, part section of half depot wall.
One more end half to go. That one is on the outside of the oil room in the baggage room. I have pointed out the join in the wall before there.

And that then leaves the missing corresponding wall of the western side of the baggage room that was meant to be on the eastern side. And that wall became the west wall of the office, partially cut down.

So that accounts for all the external walls of the original depot that are not near there original corresponding locations, if that makes sense.

Might then examine the internal walls more thoroughly next time around.

Thanks David for providing me with the plan and Buildings book page.
Also thanks to the spy who took a photo of the sleeping quarters for me. Without your help I would not have worked this out. As easily!