Your favourite railway stations?

[Jamie153]

Nuneaton and Sleaford.

 

[Proud Salopian]

Sticking to National Rail stations:

St Pancras
Edinburgh

Crewe & Shrewsbury - two stations I'm often at - both have that "old school" somewhat unloved (yet rightly venerated by railway historians/enthusiasts) feel to them

And then locally in Shropshire:

Bucknell - classic little country station, now with just the one platform in use

Church Stretton - my local (3 minutes from where I live) - it's very simple but well looked after (and well used) and of course has great scenery around it (always enjoy the view on the footbridge as I head home from Crewe/Shrewsbury)

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Bournemouth is a class act and an amazing station with shopping facilities (I believe there is a superstore next to it) and opens up into a beautiful town.
I respect Chorley because it's certainly very quirky and has a nice little waiting room and subways.
I guess the same for Clapham Junction, my heaven for recording. Beautiful station with a plethora of trains into the heart of London.

 

[Charlie2555]

My favourite local one is Westbury but my favourite would have to be Clapham Junction due to the frequency and variety of trains there (Although it's not the easiest station to find your way round!)

 

[BrummyBoy]

I do like Birmingham Moor St a lot, especially with most the bay platforms back in use, also taken a like towards Worcester Shrub Hill. Good platform layout and served by some good trains.

 

[LadyDeltic]

Glasgow Central is a long-standing favourite - a magnificent piece of architecture with charming Edwardian features inside.

Other favourites include London St. Pancras, London Victoria, Newcastle Central and Bristol Temple Meads. For smaller stations, I'd have to go with Aberdour, Settle, Grosmont and Wemyss Bay.

 

[class303]

My favourite stations in no particular order:

Large Stations:

Manchester Piccadilly - Most grandeur non-London station


Adam

glasgow central blows it out the water i'm afraid.

 

[Masboroughlad]

I used to like Rotherham Masborough.

Now, few stations have what they had.

Perth is good. I like Aberdeen, York and Bristol.

St Erth is quaint and has a good cafe!

 

[shedman]

A train stops at a station, train station. I understand it may not be historically correct but I fail to understand peoples reasons for becoming so annoyed about it. I will apologise in advance if this creates yet another boring railway station/train station debate but its just needless. I could rant about the use of "PAX" for passengers sorry I mean customers or how most people like to use the 3 letter codes for stations, most of which I don't understand. Please can we just enjoy a topic for once? Rant over.

PS, I'm not trying to offend, provoke or annoy anyone I'm just saying that's all.

 

[SprinterMan]

glasgow central blows it out the water i'm afraid.

Do you think so?
I'm not a fan of GLC tbh.
Adam

 

[bnm]

Another post with an incorrect usage of the apostrophe - you mean "its" not "it's".

Bah! As a pedant, one hates to be out-pedanted*

Good spot though. I'm suitably embarrassed.


*Yes I know that isn't a word, hyphenated or otherwise.

 

[dcd]

but its just needless.

"it's" not "its"

 

[AJP62]

Got to be my childhood home of Carlisle - lovely, airy station and nice sandstone buildings. Great variety of traffic. Spent many a happy day there on the end of platform 8 from where you could also see the old avoiding lines!

 

[exile]

Extending this to stations abroad - Paris Gare de l'Est, Leipzig Hbf, Dresden Hbf, Copenhagen, Milan Centrale. Plus more or less any Swiss station - they tend to be clean, with lavish facilities, and look great too.

 

[SprinterMan]

Extending this to stations abroad - Paris Gare de l'Est, Leipzig Hbf, Dresden Hbf, Copenhagen, Milan Centrale. Plus more or less any Swiss station - they tend to be clean, with lavish facilities, and look great too.

If we are talking stations abroad, Martina Franca and Locorotondo are loevly little stations in southern Italy on the narrow-gauge FSE (Ferrovie Del Sud Est) lines.

Martina Franca:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Martina_Franca_train_station.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatinax/3515038697/

Locorotondo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/francesco58/2205578523/
http://www.ferrovie.it/fol.tim/img/FF3163102.jpg
Adam

 

[The Barlow Boy]

No-one's (I don't think) has mentioned London's Liverpool Street. From a grimy dingy grotty cramped station it's morphed into a beautiful light, airy and spacious terminus.
London Bridge's new concourse on the Central side is a thing of beauty as well as all of those nice little shops and stuff down in the dungeons leading to the choob.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Great Malvern has a lovely character and setting (like the town).

Sheffield Midland has been superbly renovated, great sandstone structure with long, wide platforms; interesting water feature outside.
A swan between two very ugly ducklings (Derby and Leeds).

Huddersfield, Lancaster, Stirling all feel "grand".

Some of the forgotten east coast stations have retained a lot of character (eg Saltburn, Bridlington, Filey and Beverley), unlike their drab west coast counterparts (eg Southport, Blackpool, Morecambe, Llandudno).

After a grand tour recently I was surprised how many stations in the south west looked very run down (Exeter St Davids, Plymouth etc).

 

[shedman]

"it's" not "its"

Thank you, it's much appreciated.

 

[The 375 King]

Tonbridge is a great railway station because of the helpfull and friendly staff, nice atmosphere, very good service to London Bridge and a very nice cat.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Some more from me: Wemyss Bay, Glasgow Central / Queen St, Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Aviemore, all for a plethora of reasons.

I respect Chorley because it's certainly very quirky and has a nice little waiting room and subways.

What's so quirky about it? It looks perfectly normal to me (having used it too), two platforms, a subway and a booking office isn't awfully unusual you know
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

No-one's (I don't think) has mentioned London's Liverpool Street. From a grimy dingy grotty cramped station it's morphed into a beautiful light, airy and spacious terminus.

I have, beautiful station in my eyes.

 

[RPM]

A few more suggestions:

Millbrook, Ridgmont, Woburn Sands, Fenny Stratford - four stations on the Bletchley - Bedford line with delightful half timbered Cottage Orne style station buildings.

Denham Golf Club - the last NR station to retain GWR corrugated iron pagoda buildings. It has no less than three of them and they are all different.

Wye - a very pleasant country station in a lovely setting with original SER buildings.

Leamington Spa - for the ultimate 1930s GWR experience.

Bridgend, Charlbury ,Chepstow, Mortimer - all retain Brunel-designed buildings in his Italianate "chalet" style of the 1850s.

Kettering, Wellingborough - between the two of them they provide an almost complete MR architectural history.

If you'll forgive a blatant plug there are pictures of most of these stations on my site here:
http://railwaystationsuk.weebly.com/index.html

I've not updated it for a while, partly because I'm getting a bit weary of what a palava it is trying to photograph stations these days.:roll:

 

[telstarbox]

Tonbridge is a great railway station because of the helpfull and friendly staff, nice atmosphere, very good service to London Bridge and a very nice cat.

Is it still the ginger cat? There's also a plaque on platform 3/4 in memory of a previous cat.

 

[billio]

I think Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof is my favorite large station on the continent, with Gard du Nord second. It's not a question of being clean or smart, just having a feeling that these are grand stations where great journeys start or end.

For a small station, Pula gets my vote largely because of the tediousness of getting there.

In the UK I quite like Leeds station, especially the broad bridge at the west end of the station, one way you can look out over the incoming tracks, and the other way across the platforms. The only problem with it is there is insufficient daylight let on to the platforms and this makes it extremely dull.

For a small UK station it has to be Pontefract Baghill, such a beautifully presented station, all for 2 trains a day.

 

[RPM]

I've never been to this one, but I've seen it in many photographs and it is absolutely stunning: Gare do Oriente, Lisbon. Google it - you won't be disappointed.

 

[class303]

Do you think so?
I'm not a fan of GLC tbh.
Adam

fair enough. ban manchester picc is hardly the most grandeur station outside london is it? not in terms of architecture, history, passenger numbers or number of services. subjective of course but lets not try to pass off opinions as fact! xx

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Bristol Temple Meads
Brockenhurst
St Leonards Warrior Square
Inverness

 

[Temple Meads]

I'm very pleased with the job done at Newport, it's really rather pleasant now!

Bristol Parkway is another station that always leaves a good impression (draughtiness aside).

Smethwick Galton Bridge is my favourite UK station (I haven't used that many outside the dingy south west).

 

[Ivo]

Just a few from me:

Bristol Temple Meads (magnificent architecture and an easy base for me to travel around the country from)
Cardiff Bay (Bubbles!!!!! )
Lymington Pier (memories of what was probably my happiest day in 2010 - bashing the slammers all afternoon!)
Manchester Piccadilly (exactly what a major station should be, albeit a bit too crowded where the 13/14 island is concerned, with easy tram connectivity)
Southend Airport (way over-the-top but ultimately a nice very station and easy to access when I'm at home)
Southport (gateway to one of my favourite places in the country)
Westbury (good for spotting and photting)

 

[rf_ioliver]

I've never been to this one, but I've seen it in many photographs and it is absolutely stunning: Gare do Oriente, Lisbon. Google it - you won't be disappointed.

Have to agree with that wholeheartedly ... especially on a hot day when you have a cool freeze from the blowing through, the whole atmosphere of people in continual motion on and off the frequent trains and those canopy arches!! WOW!

IN the UK, Trefforest Estate ... seriously! Especially from the days of my childhood when only a few trains stopped per day (all first gen DMUs) and the coal trains ran...something industrially bleak and lonely about the place!

t.

Ian

 

[Waverley125]

I think Leeds is just away from being a really top station, just needs the main concourse to be demolished & expanded onto New Station St, getting rid of the Horrible 'welcome to Leeds' of a fume-clogged backstreet. Something like the Piccadilly concourse covering all of NSS, from Boar Lane to City Sq, would make it a really top station.