• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Mess rooms from hell , places you like.

Status
Not open for further replies.

BTU

Member
Joined
13 Jan 2016
Messages
246
Here is a thing what is the worst mess room you have ever been to? I ve seen some s**t holes example platform 19 at Victoria stinks of fish and p*ss or East Croydon under the walkway, Bognor is a total dump and the reverse of that what are the nicest place you have seen on the railway? Liskeard to Looe is lovely and Penzance is a nice station also quite partial to Brighton station and I quite like kicking the shingle at Eastbounre although although I dont quite know why I just like it, just your views on the railway that make you like it as we all love a moan thought it would be nice to big it up for a change.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

185

Established Member
Joined
29 Aug 2010
Messages
4,972
Oxford Road had the mice issue, Manchester Evening News had a great video of mice using the vending machine. Euston has almost rendered staff/inmates unconscious with the smell of damp recently. Leeds was perhaps a winner with a shoe polishing machine so dangerous it could take a steel toe cap off.
 

Bill EWS

Member
Joined
10 Feb 2006
Messages
661
Location
Didcot
The one in Stratford station was a nightmare. The very first time I used it I opened the door, put on the light and a large Rat was on the table. It knew exactly where to go and immediately jumped down and disappeared into a hole by the far wall. It was a bleak, miserable place to wait for trains.
 

8J

Member
Joined
31 Aug 2009
Messages
643
The London Waterloo raft traincrew building has a massive issue with the smell of sewage.
 

bionic

Member
Joined
8 Nov 2013
Messages
883
I'll chuck Victoria main newsroom into the mix too. What an absolute dump. Not had a lick of paint or a proper clean in years. Pigeon **** all over the windows.

People getting precious about who sits at which table. Southern vic drivers here, Southern coastal drivers there, SE vic drivers over there, SE conductors on this one, Southern conductors on the other, SE coastal drivers somewhere else, SE metro crews somewhere else (some at the vic drivers table, some not), station staff on that one and cleaners over there. When the guards dispute was going on, that room was POISONOUS.

Can't stand all that pathetic old rubbish. I just sit wherever I want.
 

ExRes

Established Member
Joined
16 Dec 2012
Messages
5,762
Location
Back in Sussex
I'll chuck Victoria main newsroom into the mix too. What an absolute dump. Not had a lick of paint or a proper clean in years. Pigeon **** all over the windows.

People getting precious about who sits at which table. Southern vic drivers here, Southern coastal drivers there, SE vic drivers over there, SE conductors on this one, Southern conductors on the other, SE coastal drivers somewhere else, SE metro crews somewhere else (some at the vic drivers table, some not), station staff on that one and cleaners over there. When the guards dispute was going on, that room was POISONOUS.

Can't stand all that pathetic old rubbish. I just sit wherever I want.

Delighted to hear that Victoria is still the same loving and welcoming place it was in the 90s, Three Bridges Yard shunters room was nice though, I'd never seen rat footprints in the cold fat in a frying pan before ....
 

BTU

Member
Joined
13 Jan 2016
Messages
246
Victoria has always been a weird hostile place glad to say I do t have to go there anymore.
 

IKB

Member
Joined
15 Nov 2013
Messages
366
I'll chuck Victoria main newsroom into the mix too. What an absolute dump. Not had a lick of paint or a proper clean in years. Pigeon **** all over the windows.

People getting precious about who sits at which table. Southern vic drivers here, Southern coastal drivers there, SE vic drivers over there, SE conductors on this one, Southern conductors on the other, SE coastal drivers somewhere else, SE metro crews somewhere else (some at the vic drivers table, some not), station staff on that one and cleaners over there. When the guards dispute was going on, that room was POISONOUS.

Can't stand all that pathetic old rubbish. I just sit wherever I want.

I'll second that. Sh*t hole. Pathetic mentalities. I sit on the Vic drivers table just to piss them off.
 

whoosh

Established Member
Joined
3 Sep 2008
Messages
1,361
Sheffield Midland Mainline/EMT
used to be rubbish. Smelt horrible, extremely fuzzy picture on the telly which was always on despite the fact you couldn't see anything.
To top it off a sign above the urinals a sign urging people not to wipe the contents of their nose on the walls, alongside evidence that the sign was needed.

Delightful.
I used to stay on the train.

Then there was Neville Hill where you'd have a couple of hours in the dead of night, not that you'd know that from the noise of the music/television/Northerner's laughter coming from the adjoining Shunter's cabin. There was a window between the two rooms which it was insisted was not covered due to "fire regulations", so the light streaming in from that too.
Nicknamed the Neville Hilton.
 

2L70

On Moderation
Joined
18 Feb 2019
Messages
355
Location
Barnetby
Worst ever, Virgin at Crewe. Felt like you were on death row there with Windows you couldn’t see out of, a handful of tables and a sink. Next door to a 1960s type shower room.

Just behind it the Mouldy hut on Platform 5 at Derby, old first class lounge. Tiny toilets, TV that didn’t work and nobody speaks to you.

Boston is one of the better ones not many facilities but everything works.
 

king_walnut

Member
Joined
16 Oct 2013
Messages
261
East Croydon under the walkway isn't too bad really, it's not the biggest or the best but it's clean and the air con works.

Purley however ... that makes platform 19 at Vic seem like a Hilton.

Nicest one for me has to be London Bridge. The quiet room especially.
 

Bromley boy

Established Member
Joined
18 Jun 2015
Messages
4,611
I'll chuck Victoria main newsroom into the mix too. What an absolute dump. Not had a lick of paint or a proper clean in years. Pigeon **** all over the windows.

People getting precious about who sits at which table. Southern vic drivers here, Southern coastal drivers there, SE vic drivers over there, SE conductors on this one, Southern conductors on the other, SE coastal drivers somewhere else, SE metro crews somewhere else (some at the vic drivers table, some not), station staff on that one and cleaners over there. When the guards dispute was going on, that room was POISONOUS.

Can't stand all that pathetic old rubbish. I just sit wherever I want.

I'll second that. Sh*t hole. Pathetic mentalities. I sit on the Vic drivers table just to piss them off.

I’ll third it!

The Victoria room is an absolute disgrace, even without the childish “who sits where” politics.

More than once I’ve seen mice in there, and those toilets. Sheesh <(
 

BazzaCFC

Member
Joined
16 Jan 2018
Messages
11
Waterloo mess room is a DUMP. Overcrowded, smelly and dirty. I can't stand the place. I have to spend more money on lunch just to justify being able to sit in Starbucks or Costa to avoid the dilapidated hell hole.... and to add, my employer should provide me with some where clean and spacious to eat my lunch, after all, I am spending 10 hours of my day working for them...
 

PudseyBearHST

Member
Joined
28 Sep 2015
Messages
965
Location
South West
Worst ever, Virgin at Crewe. Felt like you were on death row there with Windows you couldn’t see out of, a handful of tables and a sink. Next door to a 1960s type shower room.

Haha, can you believe we used to get a 3 hour break there?! o_O
 

387star

On Moderation
Joined
16 Nov 2009
Messages
6,653
I'll chuck Victoria main newsroom into the mix too. What an absolute dump. Not had a lick of paint or a proper clean in years. Pigeon **** all over the windows.

People getting precious about who sits at which table. Southern vic drivers here, Southern coastal drivers there, SE vic drivers over there, SE conductors on this one, Southern conductors on the other, SE coastal drivers somewhere else, SE metro crews somewhere else (some at the vic drivers table, some not), station staff on that one and cleaners over there. When the guards dispute was going on, that room was POISONOUS.

Can't stand all that pathetic old rubbish. I just sit wherever I want.
Good for you
 

387star

On Moderation
Joined
16 Nov 2009
Messages
6,653
I'll second that. Sh*t hole. Pathetic mentalities. I sit on the Vic drivers table just to piss them off.
Heard Brighton is the same at southern

Thameslink is really decent in comparison
 

387star

On Moderation
Joined
16 Nov 2009
Messages
6,653
Cricklewood depot. Absolute toilet of a place.
Used to stink of effluent around the CET roads which wasn't surprising

Freight trains full of rubbish crawling through could stink as well which wasn't pleasent waiting for one to move in order to walk across the tracks

There was also an industrial unit behind a precarious wall with a sprinker system which would spray a watery substance over you
 

Economist

Member
Joined
24 Feb 2013
Messages
508
I was reading this whilst at one of the aforementioned locations yesterday, very true IMHO.

Believe it or not, I do actually think it's possible to make a messroom worse by replacing old for new. I know of one which used to be a bit dark and knackered-looking but the food options nearby and the people in it made it alright. It's been changed so everyone is bundled into one room, which means that on my PN I have to listen to a blaring loud telly with crap daytime TV, platform radios which haven't been turned down and religious folk preaching to each other. There was some mess in one of the sinks and the cleaner said to me "the people who left that there are bad people, they don't clean up after themselves, they don't wash or shower and they don't pray to god"...
 

bionic

Member
Joined
8 Nov 2013
Messages
883
I wonder if that will include the new, new one

I was referring specifically to the old rotting portakabins, but Cricklewood depot generally is a bleak and depressing place. You could replicate a 5 star hotel in there and you'd only be polishing a turd.

But as this thread is purely about the rooms themselves and not what's outside them, I will concede the point! :D

The new one is fantastic, old portacabin was rank. Sevenoaks was/is awful.

Can't argue about Sevenoaks.

Shout out also for Cannon Street and Charing Cross. Both are utterly abysmal and make Sevenoaks look like the Taj Mahal!

Cannon Street is a tiny box room with its toilets that haven't been cleaned in years, filthy kitchen area, routine lack of drinking water. Its often crowded due to the amount of PNBs diagramned there.

Charing Cross with its bricked up window, terrible tv reception, flood damaged walls, ceiling and carpet, broken kitchen and so forth. Its no surprise at all that about 50% of the drivers based there have either left already or are looking to leave.

Its shocking really that these places can be that bad.

This might be controversial but for all its faults as a depot, I'm going to big up Orpington (SE) as one of the best mess rooms... at least in relation to most others around there! Grove Park room is ok too.
 

theironroad

Established Member
Joined
21 Nov 2014
Messages
3,692
Location
London
Waterloo mess room is a DUMP. Overcrowded, smelly and dirty. I can't stand the place. I have to spend more money on lunch just to justify being able to sit in Starbucks or Costa to avoid the dilapidated hell hole.... and to add, my employer should provide me with some where clean and spacious to eat my lunch, after all, I am spending 10 hours of my day working for them...

Not sure which room in the raft you're talking about, but wouldn't say either are 'dilapidated hell hole'. The new mess room under 20-24 is smaller than I was expecting but it's clean...at the moment. It's a bit of a hike when lift not in use and a obviously no daylight .
 
Joined
11 Apr 2019
Messages
65
I was referring specifically to the old rotting portakabins, but Cricklewood depot generally is a bleak and depressing place. You could replicate a 5 star hotel in there and you'd only be polishing a turd.

But as this thread is purely about the rooms themselves and not what's outside them, I will concede the point! :D



Can't argue about Sevenoaks.

Shout out also for Cannon Street and Charing Cross. Both are utterly abysmal and make Sevenoaks look like the Taj Mahal!

Cannon Street is a tiny box room with its toilets that haven't been cleaned in years, filthy kitchen area, routine lack of drinking water. Its often crowded due to the amount of PNBs diagramned there.

Charing Cross with its bricked up window, terrible tv reception, flood damaged walls, ceiling and carpet, broken kitchen and so forth. Its no surprise at all that about 50% of the drivers based there have either left already or are looking to leave.

Its shocking really that these places can be that bad.

This might be controversial but for all its faults as a depot, I'm going to big up Orpington (SE) as one of the best mess rooms... at least in relation to most others around there! Grove Park room is ok too.
Charing Cross was recently done a few months back and it’s lovely now, all new everything, big spacious and light, a instant hot tap thing for your coffee, decent Klix machine as well
 

TEW

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2008
Messages
5,841
Not sure which room in the raft you're talking about, but wouldn't say either are 'dilapidated hell hole'. The new mess room under 20-24 is smaller than I was expecting but it's clean...at the moment. It's a bit of a hike when lift not in use and a obviously no daylight .
The drivers room is pretty bad; broken chairs with all the padding fallen out, filthly windows, electrics repeatedly out of order recently, an air conditioning unit that drips water from time to time, the lingering smell of the toilets.
 

JaMa9

Member
Joined
27 Jun 2019
Messages
64
I have heard many complain about waterloo mess room! Leatherhead mess room was pretty nasty a few years back, not sure if it's improved since then.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top