Best preserved genuinely disused station?

Journeyman · 5 Dec 2018

I absolutely love a lot of the photography I've seen of stations immediately following closure - there's something hugely atmospheric about them. Over the last fifty years, of course, many closed stations have disappeared, been redeveloped or have been converted to houses or other uses, so I don't think there's many genuinely abandoned stations left in substantially complete condition.

What are some good ones to explore, with a fair bit of infrastructure left? I'm keen to see sites that haven't been used for other purposes, or if they have, that haven't been altered in any significant way.

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L+Y · 5 Dec 2018

Midge Hall on the Ormskirk line is fairly intact- with both platforms and the station building still intact nearly 60 years now after closure.

Journeyman · 5 Dec 2018

L+Y said:
Midge Hall on the Ormskirk line is fairly intact- with both platforms and the station building still intact nearly 60 years now after closure.

Didn't know about that one, thanks! Closed stations on open lines are probably a good bet because they're less attractive as houses.

Ianno87 · 5 Dec 2018

Do Barlaston/Wedgwood count?

Journeyman · 5 Dec 2018

Ianno87 said:
Do Barlaston/Wedgwood count?

I think they do...I started this thread with older stations in mind, but they're fairly obvious candidates.

gordonthemoron · 5 Dec 2018

what's the one near Alton Towers?

DanNCL · 5 Dec 2018

Melrose possibly?

The_former_Melrose_Railway_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_255694.jpg

A good amount of the station building is still intact (photo from Google)

Journeyman · 5 Dec 2018

DanNCL said:
Melrose possibly?

A good amount of the station building is still intact (photo from Google)

The station has undergone professional restoration and the building is in commercial use, so doesn't meet the criteria I set in my original post, of it being actually abandoned.

It's certainly impressive, though.

RichJF · 5 Dec 2018

West Grinstead in Sussex has a cycle path through the middle.

The platforms are still extant, as is a signpost + a fully intact sempahore signal.

pdeaves · 5 Dec 2018

Ask again next week. Then we can say IBM

delt1c · 5 Dec 2018

There is a station in the Scottish borders where the track bed has been converted to a road but platform remains < cant remember where but passed it once traveling north which was a strange experience

yorksrob · 5 Dec 2018

Lydd town retains a platform, station building and platform canopy, despite being closed to passsengers in 1967 and devoid of an occupant for some years. Looked very eery when we stopped there on a railtour a few years ago.

Journeyman · 5 Dec 2018

delt1c said:
There is a station in the Scottish borders where the track bed has been converted to a road but platform remains < cant remember where but passed it once traveling north which was a strange experience

Melrose, already posted, but not counting as it's been restored and is in commercial use.

Journeyman · 5 Dec 2018

yorksrob said:
Lydd town retains a platform, station building and platform canopy, despite being closed to passsengers in 1967 and devoid of an occupant for some years. Looked very eery when we stopped there on a railtour a few years ago.

That's certainly one I'm keen to look at sometime.

Cowley · 5 Dec 2018

I’d like to nominate Longdown Station on the Teign Valley Exeter - Newton Abbot branch.
Because it’s on private land (The Culver Estate) it’s remained remarkably untouched since closure in 1958.
The estate has kept the roof watertight but other than that it’s as it was after closure, including some peeling and disintegrating bits of old poster on the poster display boards.
Here’s a couple of recentish pictures.

The station is situated between two tunnels.

Iskra · 5 Dec 2018

Woodhead must be in with a shout. It didn’t have much in the way of facilities to start with but the platforms are still in good condition and it is certainly atmospheric with the tunnel entrance behind and pennine gloom.

Ken H · 5 Dec 2018

Longville

https://goo.gl/maps/c5bDxHS871D2

https://goo.gl/maps/oUBzne3oCWs

Between Church Stretton and Much Wenlock

Highlandspring · 5 Dec 2018

Auldbar Road.

John Webb · 5 Dec 2018

Have a look at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/ - covers about two-fifths of the 5,000 or so closed ones.

pappleby · 5 Dec 2018

Bakewell on the Monsall Trail, and not too far away, Hassop.

Taunton · 5 Dec 2018

Maybe we could include partially disused stations.

Liverpool James Street is one, the 1970s Wirral Loop Line works left the old eastbound platform at James Street unused. It was never refurbished, and the old, barely-lit, cobwebbed platform still faces you as you wait on the westbound, which has been refurbished to contemporary standards more than once.

Down in Devon, Bere Alston*, a onetime junction on the LSWR Exeter to Plymouth line, has since 1968 just been a single platform for reversing the Gunnislake trains. But across the ballast the old Up island platform is still there, trackless, weed-free, buildings boarded up but otherwise in good repair, and the signalbox neatly painted in SR green colours, but everything is disused.

* Not Regis.

The_Train · 5 Dec 2018

gordonthemoron said:
what's the one near Alton Towers?

It was originally opened as Alton station but was actually called Alton Towers station when it was closed. I believe that the platforms of Denstone station are still in situ further along the same line

FQTV · 5 Dec 2018

Taunton said:
Down in Devon, Bere Regis, a onetime junction on the LSWR Exeter to Plymouth line, has since 1968 just been a single platform for reversing the Gunnislake trains. But across the ballast the old Up island platform is still there, trackless, weed-free, buildings boarded up but otherwise in good repair, and the signalbox neatly painted in SR green colours, but everything is disused.

That’d be Bere Alston, would it not?

47271 · 6 Dec 2018

Lochearnhead -
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3484803

has been used by Hertfordshire Scouts for years so I imagine doesn't entirely meet your criteria, but both building and platforms are entirely intact to the extent that rails could be laid tomorrow and a service operated.

xc170 · 6 Dec 2018

pappleby said:
Bakewell on the Monsall Trail, and not too far away, Hassop.

Bakewell and Hassop are good suggestions, also, Great Longstone is quite well preserved, shame about the fence around the station building but I can understand why the current occupiers have erected it, given how popular the Monsall Trail is these days...

route101 · 6 Dec 2018

What about Errol , between Dundee and Perth?

Cowley · 6 Dec 2018

route101 said:
What about Errol , between Dundee and Perth?

I just looked Errol up and it’s a bit of a beauty.
Just found this photo online (i.e not mine). Lovely footbridge too.

John Webb · 7 Dec 2018

The_Train said:
It was originally opened as Alton station but was actually called Alton Towers station when it was closed.......

Now in the care of the Landscape Trust as a holiday let and described in their handbook "...as the only Italianate railway station in Staffordshire...". They have returned to calling it Alton Station.

Mutant Lemming · 7 Dec 2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadlow_Road_railway_station#/media/File:Hadlow_Road_station_2018.jpg

Would Hadlow Road count ?

Highlandspring · 7 Dec 2018

Cowley said:
I just looked Errol up and it’s a bit of a beauty.
Just found this photo online (i.e not mine). Lovely footbridge too.

View attachment 56362

Errol station building has been converted into a house (and was also a shop and cafe until recently too) so it isn’t “genuinely abandoned” as per the OP.

Best preserved *genuinely* disused station?

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Best preserved genuinely disused station?