Things we don't see at stations these days

[AY1975]

Roller signs with train departure lists. I remember these at Crewe in the 1980s. Some sort of clock mechanism drove them so the list kept time.

I believe that Sheffield had one of those for a time in the 1980s too. I don't ever remember seeing it but I've seen a photo of it.

 

[D6130]

Roller signs with train departure lists.

On a similar theme....departure and platform indications printed on large canvas blinds hung on a series of first floor windows overlooking the concourses of large stations in Scotland. AIUI, these were a Caledonian Railway speciality and remained in use at Glasgow Central well into the 1980s. Back in the day, I believe that they were also used at Edinburgh Princes Street and Aberdeen....and possibly even Wemyss Bay?

 

[Bevan Price]

Roller signs with train departure lists. I remember these at Crewe in the 1980s. Some sort of clock mechanism drove them so the list kept time.

Many large stations used to have those, but the roller was usually turned by hand on those I remember. .

 

[Lloyds siding]

Royal Mail Vans and mail bags...lots of them! At bigger stations at least.
Porters with platform trolleys,

 

[Intercity110]

British Rail double arrows on more then the station signs?

 

[D6130]

Scammell Scarab three wheel tractor units with trailers collecting and delivering parcels.

 

[Western Sunset]

Broad gauge track (in GW territory). Though plenty of the old rails can still be seen as fencing posts.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Guards waving green flags

Down Night Riviera Sleeper after Plymouth from late spring.
Reading P1-3 is green flag dispatch.

Broad gauge track (in GW territory). Though plenty of the old rails can still be seen as fencing posts.

Surprisingly the down sand drag protecting the single line at Largin (Cornwall) is broad gauge rail laid at 4’8”!

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Numerous paraffin tail lamps (or even battery) on the platform stop block ends of terminal stations.

 

[Western 52]

BR parcel delivery and collection vans. Remember those blue and white ones with a huge BR logo on the side?

Left luggage offices- are any still existing? Also luggage in advance facilities.

Golden Rail posters.

 

[Intercity110]

Left luggage offices- are any still existing

outsourced, but still in euston ad a few other termini

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Tilly lamps at some remote stations

One of those things I will never forget. The night track gang would assemble in my box, light their tilly lamps, and then (after block taken) walk off in to the darkness, the lamps 'hissing' away as they did. Strangely surreal, but comforting in a way. Some on here may know what I mean, but many probably won't.....

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BR parcel delivery and collection vans. Remember those blue and white ones with a huge BR logo on the side?

I have a pic somewhere of one, but heaven knows where, so this image of my model one (Oxford diecast commercial range) will have to suffice...

 

[pdeaves]

Weighing machines (for parcels)

Interestingly, there is one of these at Stroud still on the London bound platform (maybe a slightly different definition of 'parcel' to what you were thinking, though). It's out of use, of course, but a nice heritage thing to look at while awaiting a train.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Interestingly, there is one of these at Stroud still on the London bound platform (maybe a slightly different definition of 'parcel' to what you were thinking, though). It's out of use, of course, but a nice heritage thing to look at while awaiting a train.
View attachment 134350

There is also a working one at Taunton (out of calibration I expect) and another incomplete one at Totnes.
Exeter St Davids still has a couple of public weighing machines on the platforms.

 

[75A]

Lorries delivery newspapers in the early hours to 'Paper' trains @ London termini.
I regularly worked the 03:23 Victoria (very occasionally London Bridge) to Brighton, stopping @ Haywards Heath where we'd exchange hand signals with another Brighton crew working the 03:27 Victoria to Eastbourne/Hastings and ultimately Ore.
The Eastbourne train always had a brake second nearest the loco (always a 73) which always seemed to have football fans returning from somewhere 'up norf 'in it.

When we pulled into platform 7 @ Brighton there would be lots of vans and lots of people shouting shouting

 

[birchesgreen]

Down Night Riviera Sleeper after Plymouth from late spring.
Reading P1-3 is green flag dispatch.

I saw the guard of the Clun Castle hauled railtour use the green flag at Brum New St on Saturday, most cool.

 

[6Gman]

Stafford had a buffet that was split in two. Part for the train side of the barrier and part for the town side. One long counter though.

I think Coventry had a buffet with goldfish! (Not to eat)

 

[Ken H]

I think Coventry had a buffet with goldfish! (Not to eat)

Lincoln station buffet had draught real beer and was in the CAMRA good beer guide. Think it was Travellers Fare too!

 

[gaillark]

Travelling Post Office trains with mail sorting staff on-board. Frequently made use of them at St. Pancras to post letters after hours. And it worked as letters were recieved by clients in the morning.

Coolant tankers to meet HST's at stations in the early 80's.

 

[william.martin]

PERTIS machines, cl.101

 

[Ashley Hill]

Coolant tankers to meet HST's at stations in the early 80's.

There’s one at Exeter St Davids.

 

[AY1975]

Odd sleeper coaches sat in a bay.

Bog roll and brown puddles on the tracks.

And troughs beneath the tracks to catch the effluent from sleeping car toilets before the train left in the evening and after its arrival in the morning. These became redundant with the introduction of the Mark 3 sleepers which had retention tank toilets. The ones at Paddington are still in situ but have been filled in with ballast.

 

[LowLevel]

And troughs beneath the tracks to catch the effluent from sleeping car toilets before the train left in the evening and after its arrival in the morning. These became redundant with the introduction of the Mark 3 sleepers which had retention tank toilets. The ones at Paddington are still in situ but have been filled in with ballast.

Similar trays were all over the place until a few years ago to catch dump toilets being flushed errantly in terminals, as well as catch oil, diesel and other nasties.

Liverpool Lime Street used to smell foul on the platforms in the warm weather right up until a few years ago when the units running into there had bog tanks fitted. I shudder to think what a biohazard the contents were.

 

[nw1]

Staff.

lol (sadly)

Finger board train indicators.

I'm old enough to remember these being installed new at Guildford!

In 1983 I remember seeing them at Woking, but Guildford didn't have them. Later in 1983 or possibly in 1984 they started appearing there.

Can't remember exactly when I last saw one, but my last definite memory of one is at Clapham Junction in 1988 involving the newly extended electric services beyond Bournemouth.

I know they had gone by the mid-90s when the coloured-text TV screen type indicators for calling patterns were dominant (using BBC Micros??? or is that an urban legend?)

Talking of which, you don't see even those on stations these days. Romsey hung on to a variant until recently.

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Gas lights.
Red paraffin lamps on buffer stops.

Classic BR-era lighting, such as the fluorescent strip-lights, or tungsten bulb lighting.

Even the later style (introduced in the 80s) of pinkish-orange sodium lights, which were dominant in the 90s and 00s, are becoming rare now.

Locos parked in a bay platform ready to be deployed to rescue failed trains.

Bells which ring 1 or 2 mins before a train is due to arrive. Haslemere had them in the 80s, it was one bell for one direction and two bells for the other (can't remember which was which, though).

 

[AY1975]

Classic BR-era lighting, such as the fluorescent strip-lights, or tungsten bulb lighting.

Scarborough still has BR era station lamps with fluorescent lights across the tops of the lampposts, or did until recently. Possibly THE last station on the National Rail network to have them.

 

[Ken H]

@nw1 I think there was a PIS using BBC micro. I only know of one installation at Shipley. TV was in a window so no complicated engineering.
Dont know if it interfaced with signals. Dont even know if Shipley was still mechanical signalling.
100% from memory so aplogies if wrong.

 

[MadMac]

Many large stations used to have those, but the roller was usually turned by hand on those I remember. .

Perth and Dundee had them.

 

[A Challenge]

There are one or two about - I have definitely seen one or two in the past year but now used for pulling servicing / cleaning trollies. I am sure I saw one at Liverpool Lime Street.

Waterloo still uses one as well, to move rakes of bins around the station.

 

[32475]

In my youth, the excitement of seeing carriage numbers prefixed by W, E, M or SC. I was from S territory!

 

[Ken H]

In my youth, the excitement of seeing carriage numbers prefixed by W, E, M or SC. I was from S territory!

Didnt they have suffixes too if they were pre-nationalisation? 4SUBs had them I think?

 

[xotGD]

Electric tow trucks on platforms for pulling coupled trollies.

I saw a couple of these at LLeeds yesterday.