Isolated Rail Settlements - Past And Present

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

Well I think the title of the thread say's it all really. My vote would go for Tebay. Pity the Shed Master / drivers / firemen that were transferred to Tebay! Even on a sunny day the place seems pretty bleak!

Your suggestions would be very welcome.

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!

 

[TheKnightWho]

Riccarton Junction on the old Borders Railway. I don't think there's anything left!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Hawes Junction (or Garston) - though people stayed there for generations.

 

[HowardGWR]

Masbury Summit on the S and D had its own chapel as it was so remote and could be very bleak at times.

 

[matchmaker]

Riccarton Junction on the old Borders Railway. I don't think there's anything left!

Good call. It only existed because of the railway. But what about Corrour and Gorten (now Gorton) on the West Highland?

 

[Prairie_5542]

Dovey Junction?

 

[yorksrob]

Ribblehead ? Not much of a settlement I know, but it‘s got an inn and a (derelict) house as well as the station house thats just been done up.

 

[trentside]

If we're talking past then the former London Underground station at Blake Hall on the Epping to Ongar line served nothing - just some scattered houses, not even a hamlet nearby. Electricity was fed to the station through the track current. It was provided with a station masters house in GER days so pity him living alone out there.

 

[Gathursty]

The famous Altnabreac but I would also include the next station along, Scotscalder. It is far less remote than Altnabreac but you do feel quite far away from other places when you're stood at the platform. As for settlements, just a smattering of cottages and a farm or two as is par for the course in this area of Caithness.

 

[Millisle]

Lochskerrow, between New Galloway and Gatehouse of Fleet, was a crossing and watering place in the middle of nowhere, with stations on either side distant from the villages after which they were named. The whole Dumfries to Challoch Junction line is now a distant memory.

 

[D841 Roebuck]

There are also former railway towns which are now isolated from the network - such as Melton Constable and Woodford Halse.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Hawes Junction (or Garston) - though people stayed there for generations.

Garsdale but I know what you meant! Now that was a proper little railway community; church services were held in the station buildings along with a little library. Not to mention the regular dances that were held in the Tank House. I think there may also have been a little General Store at one time too. A good shout!
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Ribblehead ? Not much of a settlement I know, but it‘s got an inn and a (derelict) house as well as the station house thats just been done up.

Yep that's a good shout as well, especially if you also include the infamous Batty Green navvie camp! The station house is now available for lettings. I like the Station Inn a lot!
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There are also former railway towns which are now isolated from the network - such as Melton Constable and Woodford Halse.

Many thanks for this. Did Woodford Halse have a loco shed?

 

[Muzer]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Berney Arms...

 

[RichmondCommu]

Masbury Summit on the S and D had its own chapel as it was so remote and could be very bleak at times.

Thanks for this! I'm guessing that there were railway cottages at Masbury Summit and very little else!

 

[Poolie]

Woodford Halse was and still is fairly isolated. Woodford and Hinton originally, but a hub of the Great Central. If Mr Watkins was still around, his dreams would be a reality. ......Channel Tunnel and HS2 was really the Great Central (his) aspirations !!!!

 

[jimm]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Berney Arms...

That's a station, the thread is about settlements built for railway workers in the middle of nowhere (-ish) - not sure Woodford Halse really qualifies as it's just off an A-road and about 10 miles from Banbury and Daventry, not really on a par with the Riccartons and Loch Skerrows, where the only way in and out was on a train.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Sugar Loaf (Halt) on the HoW - had a few houses for PW staff (hence the Halt) .....

Re Garsdale , a Relief Station Manager there (back in the day) said his wife used to keep warm in the depths of winter by putting her feet into the oven of the coal fired range ! Fascinating place.

 

[12CSVT]

Ribblehead ? Not much of a settlement I know, but it‘s got an inn and a (derelict) house as well as the station house thats just been done up.

Ribblehead is probably the remotest location where passenger trains are booked to start and terminate.

 

[Andyjs247]

How about Halwill Junction or Verney Junction? Both railway junctions which served nowhere in particular.

There's something of a pattern here. Although definitely not isolated now, arguably even somewhere like Crewe once was fairly isolated before the railway came.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Ribblehead is probably the remotest location where passenger trains are booked to start and terminate.

I concur although Garsdale might be more appropriate given the local road network.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Tumby Woodside in Lincolnshire, anyone? Right up until 1970 it had a direct terminating service to/from Sheffield, despite it being little more than a farm and a few houses.

The station's still there, albeit heavily overground and inaccessible.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/t/tumby_woodside/

 

[DarloRich]

Ribblehead ? Not much of a settlement I know, but it‘s got an inn and a (derelict) house as well as the station house thats just been done up.

you can rent out the station house iirc - might be a nice spot for a weekend away

 

[yorksrob]

you can rent out the station house iirc - might be a nice spot for a weekend away

Indeed, although the walkers lodgings attached to the inn are probably closer to my price range !

 

[Dunc108]

G'day everyone,

Well I think the title of the thread say's it all really. My vote would go for Tebay. Pity the Shed Master / drivers / firemen that were transferred to Tebay! Even on a sunny day the place seems pretty bleak!

Your suggestions would be very welcome.

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!

I lived for several years in an ex-railway cottage at Tebay! yes, a bleak place, don't think i could live there now! I think even as an Interchange for the Stainmore line it lost out in favour of Penrith with its cross-Lakes links.

 

[Quakers Yard]

Cynghordy on the HoWL.
When the viaduct and railway was built a tiny settlement, a school and a chapel was built apparently at the same time very close to the station. It is still a very remote spot but the school and chapel closed many years ago but the few houses remain are dwarfed by the impressive viaduct.

 

[RuralRides]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Berney Arms...

Berney Arms is the correct answer... surely... one pub, no road access, you can get there only by rail or by boat along the broads.

 

[johnnychips]

Berney Arms is the correct answer... surely... one pub, no road access, you can get there only by rail or by boat along the broads.

No, because the thread title suggests stations and settlements that were built for the railway industry in particular.

'The station was opened in 1844 as part of the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway. Local landowner Thomas Trench Berney sold the land to the railway company on condition that a station be built.' (Wikipedia)

 

[RichmondCommu]

Berney Arms is the correct answer... surely... one pub, no road access, you can get there only by rail or by boat along the broads.

However Berney Arms was never a settlement. A better suggestion would have been Blea Moor; no road access and during the reign of the MR / LMS there were a couple of workers cottages. One of the cottages still survives.

 

[dysonsphere]

Consall on the Churnet Valley line served a Pub a few cottages and the old quick lime works no real road access even today its a ballasted track for the last few hundred yards.

 

[jopsuk]

Crewe? There was pretty much nothing there before the railways, and many would argue it's a bleak, desolate settlement devoid of most signs of civilisation