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Weirdest Oddities Still on the UK Network?

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MikePJ

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Not sure how odd is odd but I might point you at former Eastern Counties Railway stations in Cambridgeshire (Waterbeach is the canonical example) which were built with offset platforms either side of a level crossing and no footbridge, which is a fairly unusual layout. A little quirk of the Cambridge to Kings Cross line is that the line north of Shepreth was built by the ECR (hence the junction with the ECR's main line at Shelford, just south of Cambridge being called "Shepreth Branch Junction" even now) whereas south of Shepreth it was built by an offshoot of the Great Northern. Hence Royston and Meldreth stations were built with road bridge and footbridges, whereas Shepreth and Foxton were built (after some parliamentary arm-twisting) by the cash-strapped ECR just with level crossings.
 

Shimbleshanks

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There's still a few stations on the network without disabled access to both platforms, having only a footbridge with stairs. I've often wondered about a solution like this, for 'lightly' used lines.

Modern designs of footbridges with lifts are, in my opinion, universally unsightly spoiling the look and feel of rural stations in particular. I'd thought of something that rose from ground level.
It would however be quite a complex solution in that it would have to be interlocked with the signalling. Otherwise there'd be the risk of it being used when a train was due or being left in position in front of a train.
 

MikePJ

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Oh, another one: Jessie's Seat - a memorial to a guard killed in an accident in 1892, on the North Downs Line. It's a topiary bush in the form of a pheasant, right in the middle of nowhere, but kept up by maintenance staff ever since. Visible at 19:46 in this video -
 

JHurcum

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Oh, another one: Jessie's Seat - a memorial to a guard killed in an accident in 1892, on the North Downs Line. It's a topiary bush in the form of a pheasant, right in the middle of nowhere, but kept up by maintenance staff ever since. Visible at 19:46 in this video -

Thats pretty cool to be fair, thank you!
 
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Oh, another one: Jessie's Seat - a memorial to a guard killed in an accident in 1892, on the North Downs Line. It's a topiary bush in the form of a pheasant, right in the middle of nowhere, but kept up by maintenance staff ever since. Visible at 19:46 in this video -

I’ve been wondering what this was for years! Always seemed a bit unlikely to be Network rail, who’s bushing cutting skills generally represent the result of a drunk, blind rhinoceros having a tantrum, but equally unlikely to be a trespasser, who are generally more interested in cables than topiary! Still, now I know, it makes much more sense. Why a pheasant though?
 

route101

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I always thought of the Water Street entrance to Liverpool James Street as being a bit of an oddity, in it being a sloped entrance to a deep level station.

Yeah i was really confused when exited that station few months ago
 

LowLevel

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Oh, another one: Jessie's Seat - a memorial to a guard killed in an accident in 1892, on the North Downs Line. It's a topiary bush in the form of a pheasant, right in the middle of nowhere, but kept up by maintenance staff ever since. Visible at 19:46 in this video -

What a thing that is - I think you're near the top of the list there with that - excellent!

There's a few interesting anachronisms - for example on a rural route (and some not so rural!) the mechanical signalboxes with trains trundling by overseen by the signaller's pet dog lazing about happily on the steps on a sunny day.
 

Clip

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Not sure how odd is odd but I might point you at former Eastern Counties Railway stations in Cambridgeshire (Waterbeach is the canonical example) which were built with offset platforms either side of a level crossing and no footbridge, which is a fairly unusual layout. .

I think theres a fair few stations like this around the country though the only one that comes to mind right now is Sturry in Kent.
 
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lewisf

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The continued usage of chains as a unit of distance measurement. Obviously made sense but when the lines were built and I guess there's never been a pressing reason to change it.

Although I understand the Cambrian coast line had its distances and speed limits switched to metric when ETRMS was installed.
 

backontrack

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Birkbeck always seems like a rural backwater with its single line line and single platform despite being in London.
The tram platform, opposite the main platform but with a fence in the middle (do you have to go under the bridge to get to it?) is also patently bizarre.

When I was little, I always loved crossing the track on the barrow crossing to reach Silkstone Common station from the Cone Lane.
 

A Challenge

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The tram platform, opposite the main platform but with a fence in the middle (do you have to go under the bridge to get to it?) is also patently bizarre.

When I was little, I always loved crossing the track on the barrow crossing to reach Silkstone Common station from the Cone Lane.
You do have to go under the bridge to change.
 

backontrack

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You do have to go under the bridge to change.
Thanks.

In that case, it's not just a bizarre situation but a sublime one; there's a single-track line with a single platform in a massively built-up area, but there's another platform opposite with another mode of transport there - a tram, which is something much smaller than a train - but there's a fence in the way, so, to reach this other platform, you have to exit the station, go under the bridge (which carries both lines west) and enter the station on the other side, from which you can see the platform you came from on the other side of the fence?

Patently ludicrous.
 

lyndhurst25

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Not sure if it's still worked like that but what about that level crossing between Colne and Nelson? The train has to stop so that the driver can lean out and pull a string to lower the barriers.
 

Esker-pades

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Buckenham (Norfolk) station: Platforms either side of the level crossing, but the Norwich platform is about 100 metres up a path from said level crossing. Surely putting the platform right by the crossing would have been better.
 

A Challenge

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Buckenham (Norfolk) station: Platforms either side of the level crossing, but the Norwich platform is about 100 metres up a path from said level crossing. Surely putting the platform right by the crossing would have been better.
Dilton Marsh has a similar situation with highly staggered platforms, and it is at a road underbridge!
 

Helvellyn

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I don't know if this counts but there is a goods train from Ardingly to Haywards Heath on certain weekday mornings. Once at Haywards Heath I seem to think the diseal locomotive is detached and then runs round to the front of the train before being attached and heading north.

Whilst this might be common in some freight yards, I'd have thought it less common at a passenger station.
And at Alton for the Holybourne tanks. Slightly more unusual is that this causes a gap in the clock face timetable on a weekday with the 10:23 from Waterloo only running to Farnham to provide a path on the single line. Not that it is a frequent freight service!
 

Numbnuts846

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In the metal work on the platform canopy paignton end of platform 1 at newton Abbot has still got the holes from being bombed in world war 2 which is also why some buildings are still wooden and some concrete around the station
 

The Planner

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Not sure if it's still worked like that but what about that level crossing between Colne and Nelson? The train has to stop so that the driver can lean out and pull a string to lower the barriers.
Chaffers level crossing? Got changed to a treadle about 4 years ago I think. Notorius for having dog crap smeared on the plunger.
 

yorksrob

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I think theres a fair few stations like this around the country though the only one that comes to mind right now is Sturry in Kent.

Standard practice with the South Eastern Railway built stations. Surviving examples are Ham Street Appledore, Rye and Winchelsea on the Marshlink.

Other examples such as Pluckley, Staplehurst and Marden had their staggered platforms extended.
 

Tio Terry

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I don't know if it's still there, I haven't been that way for awhile, but there used to be a Milk Churn crossing at the London end of Beccles up platform.

Also, there used to be seven swing bridges in Norfolk when I started on BR, Norwich Trowse, Reedham, Somerleyton, Carlton Colville, Beccles, Haddiscoe and Breydon. Only Trowse, Reedham, Somerleyton and Carlton Coleville left now.

BR also used to maintain the road swing bridge at Lowestoft, that's been replaced with a lifting bridge now.
 

craigybagel

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Not sure if it's still worked like that but what about that level crossing between Colne and Nelson? The train has to stop so that the driver can lean out and pull a string to lower the barriers.

Llandrindod on the Heart of Wales is still worked like that - when I've mentioned it to tourists on the line they've not believed me until they've seen it with their own eyes!
 

philthetube

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on the Cambrian again ath 1hr,34,40 on this clip there is a public footpath which actually needs a limited clearance board.

It is the coast path and runs along the cess for a short distance in an area of limited visibility because of track curvature.

It is at the bottom of a cliff with no easy option to change.

It is unfenced, or was 5 years ago when I was last there.
 

tsr

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Here are a few:
Faygate: The wooden station waiting shelter was burnt down one night by a misbehaving beggar who was kicked off a train and wanted to keep warm. This is why it is the only station in the area without a proper station building.
Dormans: The wide part of Platform 2 used to house a gentlemen's toilet. This was a useful distraction from the concrete structure in the undergrowth, which is a disused former munitions store from World War II. Don't worry, it's covered with earth and isn't believed to have anything of any interest inside it.
Looe Branch: The guard acts as the signaller, in terms of effectively controlling train movements on the branch.
Quarry Lines (Fast lines between Stoats Nest Jn and Earlswood North Jn): The lines are so named after a local mine complex. One of their railways used to cross just outside the south portal of the Quarry Tunnel. The lines (and many thousands of passengers) still cross an overgrown bridge over the trackbed of the railway just before the tunnel.
Lydd Branch (Kent): One of very few freight branches (I believe the only one in the Kent and Sussex areas combined) which still requires a guard for freight trains.
Liverpool Street: One of the only places on the network where it is permitted (or at least used to be, until reasonably recently) to lock the doors of a regular passenger train for dispatch whilst the signal at the end of the platform was still showing a red aspect.
Greenford: The last National Rail served station known to have had a wooden escalator. This was replaced by one of the very first inclinator lifts on the National Rail network.
Euston: The old station was a rabbit warren that even had an Emergency Booking Office in case anything went wrong with the proper one. The current station retains a somewhat eclectic mix of ticketing facilities both close to the barriers and on the concourse, which is a nice throwback, although probably nothing to do with it.

Barmouth (on the Cambrian Coast line) used to have a string for the crossing, too, which is why trains coming off the bridge used to stop short of the station. Don't know if it's still there, though.

Doesn't the Barnstaple Line have something similar?
 

Kite159

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Doesn't the Barnstaple Line have something similar

It does at Eggesford, Barnstaple bound trains have to stop before the crossing so the driver can pull the string to lower the crossing.

I think there is a couple stations on the Heart of Wales line which have similar
 

CarltonA

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Lines have been cut back from one end or the other but I'm not sure if any others have lost both ends but still have a middle. Though it may be stretching things somewhat to call it "still on the network", the isolated remainder of the Northampton - Bedford line at Brackmills still appears to be in use. I think it was Geismar that had a depot there for road/railers etc.
 

Clansman

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I find it odd that five different traction types have all worked Glasgow to Dunblane/Alloa services over the past couple of months - 365, 385, 170, 158, and 156. Would be interesting to see how this compares across the UK with like wise instances.
 
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