Rail centres that have fallen from grace?

RichmondCommu · 12 Jan 2013

G'day,

I thought the above topic might make an interesting read. My starting contribution would be Hellifield.

Up until in the mid 1960's Hellifield was a busy junction with bay platforms, a busy loco shed with workshop facilities and extensive sidings not to mention two signal boxes. Not bad for a small village!

Now very little is left. Mercifully the station building remains as does the signal box at the south end. Hellifield is still a junction but very rarely see's passenger trains off the Blackburn line. The village's raison dêtre has been torn away.

I know there are many more examples across the country so I look forward to your suggestions!

Regards,

Richmond Commuter!

RailUK Forums

Gareth Marston · 12 Jan 2013

Oswestry was HQ of Cambrian Railways with own locomotive and carriage works. Pop of town is now 15000 railways was big employer till mid 60's.

RichmondCommu · 12 Jan 2013

Gareth Marston said:
Oswestry was HQ of Cambrian Railways with own locomotive and carriage works. Pop of town is now 15000 railways was big employer till mid 60's.

And now of course there is nothing left. Very sad

12CSVT · 12 Jan 2013

What has happened at Hellifield has been replicated in many other places.

Guide Bridge, Chinley, Stockton, Severn Tunnel Junction just to name a few at random.

ainsworth74 · 12 Jan 2013

Thornaby TMD (and attached freight yard) used to be home to a large number (I believe at one stage it had the largest allocation) and a rather wide array of locomotives (03s, 04s, 08s, 17s, 25s, 37s, etc...) to serve the industries of Teesside. Now the TMD is totally levelled and the yard is reduced to holding an array of rusting wagons with a few 66s and a couple of snow ploughs hiding out from time to time.

Station wise, Darlington, once home to a small TMD and a vast array of sidings (both goods and carriage). Now there's one or two at each end of the station and the TMD is long gone.

CarltonA · 12 Jan 2013

Woodford Halse (Great Central) once major sidings and a works, now just a bridge and no railway at all.

RichmondCommu · 12 Jan 2013

12CSVT said:
What has happened at Hellifield has been replicated in many other places.

Guide Bridge, Chinley, Stockton, Severn Tunnel Junction just to name a few at random.

Thats very true although in the case of Chinley it's lost platforms but not much else. Guide Bridge was certainly a busy stabling point at the end of the 1970's. However in terms of freight yards from memory Mottram always seemed to be busier. You could also include Reddish.

Alas I know very little about Stockton other than the obvious!

Wath Yard · 12 Jan 2013

I think Tinsley must be the worst. What a sad place that is now. (That is if you exclude my user name - but then there is nothing at all left of that).

12CSVT · 12 Jan 2013

RichmondCommu said:
Alas I know very little about Stockton other than the obvious!

Stockton station has suffered a fall from grace on a similar scale to Hellifield. There was also a sizable steam depot there.

Penmorfa · 12 Jan 2013

Llandudno Junction, still a station and a junction of three lines but little else. By contrast the town now has the biggest collection of car showrooms in north Wales.

RichmondCommu · 12 Jan 2013

ainsworth74 said:
Thornaby TMD (and attached freight yard) used to be home to a large number (I believe at one stage it had the largest allocation) and a rather wide array of locomotives (03s, 04s, 08s, 17s, 25s, 37s, etc...) to serve the industries of Teesside. Now the TMD is totally levelled and the yard is reduced to holding an array of rusting wagons with a few 66s and a couple of snow ploughs hiding out from time to time.

Station wise, Darlington, once home to a small TMD and a vast array of sidings (both goods and carriage). Now there's one or two at each end of the station and the TMD is long gone.

I'm pretty certain that Darlington also had a loco works? I guess you could also add Shildon to my list with its wagon works producing HAA's amongst many others.

lancastrian · 12 Jan 2013

The place that springs to my mind is Barrow. It used to be the headquarters of the Furness Railway, with and docks, and a big steelworks close by, apart from the Central Station, I don't think much else survives.

There is also Carnforth, one of the last three steam shed on BR, along with Lostock Hall & Rose Grove, Burnley. all that's left at all three are small unstaffed halts. Lostock Hall, having closed and reopen the other side of Watkin Lane. Yes the shed is still there at Carnforth but the glory days of Steamtown are long gone.

But one of the saddest for me is Moor Row, near Whitehaven. It was the centre of a coal and iron ore area, a junction station with sheds, now I believe just an over grown wasteland.

There must be many such places around the country.

MK Tom · 12 Jan 2013

RichmondCommu said:
And now of course there is nothing left. Very sad

Not quite. The station is preserved with some of the yard and the heritage operation there is expanding towards Gobowen and the other way.

A really obvious answer to this thread would be Wath.

On a more local note I'll offer Bletchley. Once a major intercity stop and cross-country interchange come freight yard and depot, it lost its links to Oxford (set to return), Buckingham, Banbury and Cambridge, it lost its intercity stops to Milton Keynes Central and its depot to Northampton.

RichmondCommu · 12 Jan 2013

Wath Yard said:
I think Tinsley must be the worst. What a sad place that is now. (That is if you exclude my user name - but then there is nothing at all left of that).

Agreed! My father was an engineer at the RTC in Derby and spent some time at Tinsley in the 1960's. The Class 13's were the first class that I cleared. So sad to think that both the yard and depot are now long gone. It was a real shock when I headed off the M1 a few years a go and saw that the loco's at the back of the depot had gone.

But to think that Wath yard has gone completely is just as sad. Not to mention all the jobs that were lost.

tbtc · 12 Jan 2013

Penistone.

A busy "cross roads" with plenty of long distance trains, plenty of freight, electrification...

...now it gets nothing but an hourly Pacer/ 150.

Bit of a comedown?

(not sure if there were any "works" there - before my time)

RichmondCommu · 12 Jan 2013

tbtc said:
Penistone.

A busy "cross roads" with plenty of long distance trains, plenty of freight, electrification...

...now it gets nothing but an hourly Pacer/ 150.

Bit of a comedown?

(not sure if there were any "works" there - before my time)

Always remembered for the Class 76's and the Great Central signal box. I haven't been there in a long, long time. Is there anything left of the catenary?

Welshman · 12 Jan 2013

May I offer two contenders?

Firstly, Normanton.
It used to be an important meeting place between the Manchester & Leeds Railway[later the L&Y], the North Midland Railway and the York & North Midland Railway, with main line services York & Newcastle, Leeds City and Carlise/Scotland via the S&C, Rotherham, Sheffield and south via Derby & Birmingham, and Wakefield and the Calder Valley to Manchester & Liverpool.

It had a mpd [20D if I remember correctly] and many sidings, dealing with coal traffic and traffic from the surrounding brickworks.

And although even I don't remember them personally, I read that Midland Anglo-Scottish trains used to stop for luncheon to be served in the station refreshment rooms, and even Queen Victoria stayed overnight at the Station Hotel.

And compare that with the site today!

Secondly, Bradford Forster Square.
The old midland station had an impressive frontage and concourse with eight or so platforms, dealing with through services to Leeds City, Sheffield, London St Pancras, Derby, Birmingham and the SW, and northwards to Carlisle & Glasgow, and the club-trains and excursion traffic to Morecambe[or Bradford-on-Sea], as it was then nicknamed.
To the right of the station on leaving were many sidings dealing with parcels traffic from Gretton's [now given-over to the inevitable retail park].
And what remains? A tax-office and shopping centre and local services to Leeds , Skipton & Ilkley, with just one through service per day to King's Cross.

Ichabod - the glory has indeed departed.

KingBBoogaloo · 12 Jan 2013

Wath.

exile · 12 Jan 2013

Perth probably gets more trains per day than it has in its history but since most of them are 2 coach DMUs it certainly seems a lot less busy than even 40 years ago when there were 2-3 London sleepers a night, parcels trains,motorial, a fair amount of freight, the TPO to London, and loco hauled services of 5 and more coaches.

johnnychips · 13 Jan 2013

March. Now a prison/immigration centre.

eastdyke · 13 Jan 2013

johnnychips said:
March. Now a prison/immigration centre.

March indeed, but at least March retains a station!

My offer would be for Low Moor (Bradford) but that was another thread.

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=74473&highlight=low+moor

Especially take a look at the image in post 49!

61653 HTAFC · 13 Jan 2013

Surprised no-one's mentioned Melton Constable...

Ivo · 13 Jan 2013

Blackpool South.

Whilst never the most important station in the town, it had extensive sidings and several routes; now, it has one DMU per hour.

LNW-GW Joint · 13 Jan 2013

Carlisle always seems to me to a shadow of its former self, not so much the station but the approaches from all directions.
We're down to a mere 2-track railway for half a mile north of the station, and grumbling about a "bottleneck".
Meanwhile the old routes and yards lie empty.

GlosRail · 13 Jan 2013

Tilbury riverside. Such a grand old stations. Had at least 6 platforms
I used to use it in the 80`s when it was on decline. A massive building but always empty. It finally closed about 20 years ago.

In its hayday it would have been packed with people catching boats from the docks.

Pumbaa · 13 Jan 2013

KingBBoogaloo said:
Wath.

Would anyone mind filling in us uneducated of the location, purpose and vague history of said yard please?

yorksrob · 13 Jan 2013

Crowhurst always strikes me as rather sad these days.

Once the junction for Bexhill West, it had two through platforms, two bays and avoiding lines as well as quite substantial buildings. Even express trains to Hastings used to stop there. Now not much more than a halt.

Also Epsom Downs.

From nine platforms full of race day specials and SUB units to a single platform with a 455. To my regret, I only managed to do the branch after it had all been swept away.

Tim B · 13 Jan 2013

I was at Christ's Hospital school 1972 - 1979. I can just remember the superb 7 platform original Edwardian station before it was demolished in 1973. See

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/christs_hospital/index.shtml

Still at least there remains a decent hourly service to London Victoria - back in the day the Arun Valley local service went only as far as Three Bridges requiring a change for London.

Welshman · 13 Jan 2013

Pumbaa said:
Would anyone mind filling in us uneducated of the location, purpose and vague history of said yard please?

Have a look at this:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wath_marshalling_yard

Pumbaa · 13 Jan 2013

Welshman said:
Have a look at this:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wath_marshalling_yard

Thanks. It wasn't a case of not being arsed, I was on my phone at the time and eager for reading.

Rail centres that have fallen from grace?

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