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Most historic station

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markindurham

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Knaresborough station, a lovely station in a lovely town, there's a small volunteer group named the friends of Knaresborough station that look after it such as the paintings and flowers etc, the old ticket office cafe on the platform is lovely too. Let's not forget the viaduct that crosses over the river Nidd and the Marigolds boating cafe underneath.

The viaduct has some history in that the original made from lime stone collapsed which resulted in all the fish in the river Nidd being poisoned due to the lime disolving in the river. There's a pub 200 meters or so away called "The Worlds End" which gets it's name from the prophecy that the world would end if the viaduct collapsed again!

Maybe I'm ever so slightly biased having dated a lass from there so I spent much of my time there :wub: :lol:
Quite so. Have you seen the marvellous model railway called "Worlds End" which attempts (and, to my mind, succeeds) to capture the scene there? The signal box, viaduct, gardens, river - it's all there :)
 
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vlad

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I don't think there are any left which are truly redolent of the decaying 50s/60s piles of a building that were the majority of our railway stations. There are many examples of gentrification/refurbishment, as mentioned above, but none remain that retain that down-at-heel feel from steam days.

Longport is definitely down-at-heel!

It's got the original 19th-century NSR buildings, now boarded up and in a state of picturesque dereliction....

The OHLE is getting on a bit now too.
 

Requeststop

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Hebden Bridge and Edge Hill spring to mind, plus of course most of the stations between Skipton and Carlisle.

Grange-over-Sands and Ulverston are pretty nice too, and St Erth was pretty unspoiled but has presumably changed a bit as part of the Park & Ride scheme. Par, Truro, Redruth and Penzance still feel like “proper” stations too.

Yes St Erth has had a few new additions to it but to my mind they have been very well done. Truro has had the Sleeper lounge added but is otherwise unchanged. Penzance has been fiddled about with for too long though since the early eighties. The ticket office was, unfortunately, totally in the wrong place at the top of the stairs and placed at the travel centre. Now there is no coffeeshop, and I noticed yesterday, that the old left luggage office was having floors re-concreted and there seemed to be a set of lockers all wrapped up and waiting placement somewhere on the station on Platform three. I still like the fact that there are no barriers at Penzance, and I was delighted to board the 16:50 to Cardiff Central on Platform 4 and as we departed to see the delayed 2C28 ex Exeter St Davids arrive and it was a HST! Did my heart good to see that.

Of all the stations in Cornwall unchanged as far as my memory is concerned, Liskeard, Lostwithiel, and Redruth are the ones that spring to mind.
 

70014IronDuke

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Not a wooden platform, but the wooden station building at Pluckley (between Ashford and Tonbridge) is remeniscent of the steam era - one can imagine the steam hauled Golden Arrow thundering past. ...

I don't think I've ever visited Pluckley station - though I've thundered through it a fair few times (not behind myself or William Shakespeare, alas, but with electric haulage). If I get the chance, now I've read your post, I shall have to get down to have a good look at it sometime. My parents lived about 200 yeards away from about 1934 and during WW2, their garden backed onto the line, and my dad would tell tales of having a cuppa in the signal box at night with the local bobby, and watching the Night Ferry storm through with two Schools in charge. (This may have been something of a myth, I suspect it was more like an L1 and a King Arthur, but that's what he used to say the signalman had told him.)
 

yorksrob

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I don't think I've ever visited Pluckley station - though I've thundered through it a fair few times (not behind myself or William Shakespeare, alas, but with electric haulage). If I get the chance, now I've read your post, I shall have to get down to have a good look at it sometime. My parents lived about 200 yeards away from about 1934 and during WW2, their garden backed onto the line, and my dad would tell tales of having a cuppa in the signal box at night with the local bobby, and watching the Night Ferry storm through with two Schools in charge. (This may have been something of a myth, I suspect it was more like an L1 and a King Arthur, but that's what he used to say the signalman had told him.)

The old signal box is no more, alas.

I remember walking along the platform while CEP's were storming past.
 

Esker-pades

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Yes almost unchanged. Not entirely unchanged.
I'd say that such a large thing that has a significantly different aesthetic to the rest of the station goes past describing Perth as almost unchanged. In the same way that lopping the roof off would change 1 thing but make quite an impact.
 

urbophile

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Hammersmith H&C station (over the road from the District/Piccadilly lines). It has been compared (I can't think who by) to a small country town's branch-line terminus. You can still imagine milk churns being delivered there, despite it being one of the busiest stations on the London Underground.
 

simple simon

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Barkingside, Ruislip, Barons Court and North Ealing come to mind as some of the more noteworthy examples - all are London Underground and have modern lighting but retain original station buildings from the steam train (ie: Victorian / Edwardian) era. Much nicer than most of the more modern stations!
 

TurbostarFan

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I'd say Wymondham should be one of those stations. It has a lot of preserved signage and interesting stuff, despite being only two platforms, and unstaffed.
 

urbophile

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Barkingside, Ruislip, Barons Court and North Ealing come to mind as some of the more noteworthy examples - all are London Underground and have modern lighting but retain original station buildings from the steam train (ie: Victorian / Edwardian) era. Much nicer than most of the more modern stations!
Nevertheless, unless by 'historic' you mean dating from the earliest days of the railways, the 1930s modernist stations on LU by Charles Holden and others surely qualify. They are classics of design. Uxbridge, Sudbury Town, Arnos Grove... The Wirral Line of Merseyrail has several more modest examples of the same style, in particular Hoylake.
 

Mikey C

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Chesham station is Grade II listed, as a 19th C Metropolitan Railway building in relatively original condition
 

marks87

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Dumfries.

Broughty Ferry also retains most of its charm, although the glass-fronted office space that appeared post-refurbishment spoils it somewhat. At least the old signal box is back, though.
 
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