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Oldest railway stations

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greyman42

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The current York station, opened in 1877 is little changed today, unlike some of the other stations mentioned. At the time of its opening it was the largest station in the world.
 
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Interesting thread and the reason I registered.

The oldest building that is still in existence but was built to serve as a railway station is Heighington station, it is no longer used as a station, its now a pub called Locomotive one. (It was at this level crossing that the locomotive named Locomotion was first put on the S&DR)

This title does not belong to Manchester's Liverpool Road station while that building survives as the Heighington station building is older and neither are still used as railway stations.
If Heighington station is knocked down then it defaults to the original station site of Edge hill as its station buildings were and still are the Edge hill cutting itself. It never had station buildings as we think of them today because it was in its own cutting. if we brought a man forward in time from then to now he would still recognise it as Edge hill station.

The oldest station that is still used as a railway station and still uses the original buildings it had when it was built is Edge hill station in Liverpool (the resited, 2nd version), those buildings on those platforms date from 1936 and were commissioned on 15 August 1836 and have been in use ever since.

The oldest station that is still used as a railway station that does occupy the original site but with new buildings is Broad green station in Liverpool.

The oldest station that is still used as a railway station that does not occupy the original site but is still largely in the same location is Heighington station in Newton Aycliffe.

The worlds oldest grand terminus was Crown street in Liverpool. It has now been completely obliterated. Nothing remains.

The worlds oldest grand terminus that still survives and used as a railway station is Liverpool Lime street station. 15 August 1836. It predates anything else anywhere else anywhere else in the world inspite of the fact it wasnt the original terminus
While it has been developed over its 183 years and 7 days of continues use its still the same station and predates Curzon street station building by 1 year 10 months 10 days. AND even if Curzon street is brought back into use with HS2 it still has no claim to fame as Edge hill station is the original station building and predates it too and then you have the Liverpool Road in Manchester to deal with too.

The worlds oldest grand terminus that still survives but is not used as a railway station is Liverpool Road station in Manchester. This is its only claim to fame as Crown Street is gone and Edge hill wasnt the terminus.

The reason why they held the Rainhill trials at Rainhill was due to the flatness of the track and openness of the track at that location, it does not show that Rainhill predates anything else. The Duke of Wellington opened Crown Street station first which makes it the oldest on the line, then Edge hill in the Edge hill cutting, then Broad green and so on along the line, they were opened as the train he was on passed them on its way to Manchester Liverpool Road.

Swansea & Mumbles doesnt get a look in as it was a wagon way. It used horse drawn carts on that run of their own rails, it was not a railway.

The Middleton Railway opened as a wagon way. It converted to a railway, modern writing has conveniently forgotten that fact to help promote it. It was a mineral railway at best, an industrial railway, and there are plenty in Wales that would dispute their claim to fame.
The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway. Most of it was cable hauled wagons. It wasnt a railway inspite of its name.

The Stockton & Darlington was a railway of sorts. It used had motive power for some of its services, but its passenger services were all horse drawn. If a person of today, an average person I mean, went back in time and saw the S&DR then they would I think not recognise it as what we think of today as a railway as it was more a mineral wagon way than a railway.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway changed all that, you would look at it and see a modern railway in its infrastructure. Rails on sleepers, station platforms and buildings, men in uniforms helping passengers onto purpose built railway coaches, booking offices and facilities at stations such as waiting rooms and toilets.

The L&MR was the first and it was the first InterCity railway. It connected two of the great cities of the day together and it proved that railways were a viable method of moving large portions of people and freight over a vast distance with speed and efficiency.

But as DarloRich keeps saying the S&DR is the oldest, it was printed on the back of the £5 note, there is pictures of the time pronouncing it as a railway so it must be so.

Its rather like the question of the worlds first computer. Charles Babbage invented it, but his invention isnt what you would call a computer today. Not in any way shape or form. The S&DR and the L&MR are like this.

None of Londons stations count as the oldest anything railway wise. There is always something in Liverpool that is older apart from electrification, London Underground did manage to do that
 

Flying Snail

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The oldest station that is still used as a railway station and still uses the original buildings it had when it was built is Edge hill station in Liverpool (the resited, 2nd version), those buildings on those platforms date from 1936 and were commissioned on 15 August 1836 and have been in use ever since.


The worlds oldest grand terminus that still survives and used as a railway station is Liverpool Lime street station. 15 August 1836. It predates anything else anywhere else anywhere else in the world inspite of the fact it wasnt the original terminus
While it has been developed over its 183 years and 7 days of continues use its still the same station and predates Curzon street station building by 1 year 10 months 10 days. AND even if Curzon street is brought back into use with HS2 it still has no claim to fame as Edge hill station is the original station building and predates it too and then you have the Liverpool Road in Manchester to deal with too.

The first statement is incorrect, the second is also incorrect depending on what definition one would put on the rather arbitrary word "grand".
 
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And does Liverpool have the oldest re-purposed station building?

I dont believe so, all the buildings were purpose built as there was little there to repurpose in most cases.

The first statement is incorrect, the second is also incorrect depending on what definition one would put on the rather arbitrary word "grand".

Prove it.
In order to be older than Edge hill it needs to still have the original buildings and those buildings still need to be in regular use.
Show me an older one than 15th August 1836

End of a main line rather than the end of a branch line is generally considered a grand terminus.

I believe some parts of Glasgow Bridge Street are still standing.

Dates from 1840 at best.
 

Flying Snail

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Prove it.
In order to be older than Edge hill it needs to still have the original buildings and those buildings still need to be in regular use.
Show me an older one than 15th August 1836

End of a main line rather than the end of a branch line is generally considered a grand terminus.

Sorry, didn't mean to leave that as a hanging question. I forgot to add the link, I already posted it early in the thread.

Dublin Pearse (formerly Westland Row) 1834. Originally a terminus, back wall was knocked through decades later but substantially the same building in use as a station today.
 
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Sorry, didn't mean to leave that as a hanging question. I forgot to add the link, I already posted it early in the thread.

Dublin Pearse (formerly Westland Row) 1834. Originally a terminus, back wall was knocked through decades later but substantially the same building in use as a station today.

The same can be said for Broad green station.
Its buildings are different now but the station platforms the same except that it no longer has the south facing goods platform and its older by 4 years.
 
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I dont understand why people have such a block with the concept of the oldest this or that on the railways.

The Stockton & Darlington used horses for the passenger services and for some of its freight workings too. Its infrastructure was not what you would recognise as a railway today. It was just about the best evolution of the wagon way there ever was because its steam locomotives were reliable.


The Liverpool & Manchester Railway was the first all steam locomotive powered Intercity railway in the world. It is widely regarded the world over as being such.
The Duke of Wellington, as well as presiding over the Rainhill trials (11 months before the line opened) also formally opened the line on the 15th September 1830 (just 15 years after the battle of Waterloo). The first station was Liverpool Crown street station, which is now completely gone, Edge hill which is still as it was in Cavendish cutting but not used as a station, then Broad green which is still the same apart from not having the original buildings...
All the stations there were on the line in 1830 are still there and still used today.
William Huskisson, a Liverpool MP became the first railway casualty on that day, his memorial still stands at the point on the line he was run over by Rocket (he was clinging to the coach hauled by Northumbrian seconds before he fell. Northumbrian was being watered).

The line was in use before the grand opening by The Duke of Wellington but it was on that day that Liverpool Crown street station became the worlds first grand terminus station. Edge hill the second etc.

In order to claim the title of oldest you would have to be. 1 on a railway. Baring in mind the L&MR was the first one so all others are impossible and 2 outdate 15 September 1830. Which none others do.

It really depends on what your criteria is that makes the answer vary, for instance Crown street is the oldest but doesnt exist, Edge hill the oldest that still exists but isnt used, Broad green oldest but its station building are not the original, 2nd Edge hill oldest as it is 100% original. But be in no doubt that the answer is on that line somewhere. Its not in London, its not in Wales or any other part of the UK or Ireland for that matter, its right there in Liverpool, somewhere.
 

Meole

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So it would be wrong for the railway community to organise a 2025 celebration around Darlington ? Perhaps Locomotion at Shildon should be closed as historically misplaced, where would be better suited for the original railway legacy ?
 

hexagon789

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Hello I was wondering i for anyone out there can help me. I’m looking for a list of the oldest train stations in the world? Not the horse drawn cart ones but passenger locomotive services. Any help will do. Thanks

Nick

Dublin Pearse, originally Westland Row - opened 17th December 1834.
 
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Not at all. Ill bring sandwiches and a bottle of beer to celebrate it.
Can I ask you if it would be wrong to also celebrate the opening of the L&MR in 2030?
 
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Dublin Pearse, originally Westland Row - opened 17th December 1834.

ummm....

Its a through station.
It might have been originally built as a terminal, but its not a terminal anymore so its not equal to Lime street, so it equal to a station like the much older Broad green.
 

St Rollox

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I believe some parts of Glasgow Bridge Street are still standing.

Correct although i believe Eglinton St Station predates that again with a straight East to West track on the Glasgow/Paisley line, 1830s?
Then there's Glebe St at Townhead, completely gone but part of the orginal line in use to Cumbernauld.
 
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Correct although i believe Eglinton St Station predates that again with a straight East to West track on the Glasgow/Paisley line, 1830s?
Then there's Glebe St at Townhead, completely gone but part of the orginal line in use to Cumbernauld.

Eglinton Street railway station on the Caledonian Railway?
1879.

Glebe Street station on the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway was 1831 and the railway was a wagon way until the Caledonian took over.
 

hexagon789

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ummm....

Its a through station.
It might have been originally built as a terminal, but its not a terminal anymore so its not equal to Lime street, so it equal to a station like the much older Broad green.

Aren't some of the buildings original then? Or was it totally rebuilt when it became a through station then?
 

Mike99

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Based on most of the 77 entries above, did the chicken come before the egg or...………………. I'll get me coat
 

6Gman

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William Huskisson, a Liverpool MP became the first railway casualty on that day,

Ah, but is that true?

Surely some little-known worker must have been fatally injured on the S&D in the preceding five years?
 

hexagon789

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Ah, but is that true?

Surely some little-known worker must have been fatally injured on the S&D in the preceding five years?

David Brook is generally regarded as the first person to be killed by a train. A carpenter from Leeds, he was run over by a coal train on the Middleton railway in a sleet storm on the 5th December 1821.
 
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How do you mean Edge Hill is the oldest but isn't used. It is still open and I use it most days.

There is the Edge hill that is used today, its dates from 15th August 1836.
There is the Edge hill that is no longer used today, it dates from 15th September 1830

The 1830 Edge hill station is in Cavendish Cutting, sometimes called Edge hill cutting. The station is still there in pretty much all of its 1830 glory. Its neglected but its still there, it wasnt a station in the sense of Broad green was as it was carved out of the sandstone walls of the cutting, where as Broad green had a station building that was built like one would build a house...

It was never updated, back then the platforms were more like the pavements we walk on today, it was just a firm level ground to climb up from and board the train, all you really had to do was create some rooms in the rock face and voila you have a station. It closed 6 years after it was built and its "station building" rooms repurposed as storage rooms etc for shunting wagons down the Wapping tunnel (which is the oldest railway tunnel under a city). But they were never changed because there was no point, they were at that point just rooms carved into the cutting walls. No raised platforms to remove so its still intact. Ignored by the city but pretty much 100% as she was in 1830.

[jpg]https://localwiki.org/media/cache/e8/9c/e89c752c211ca38987e903bb0e9e1a57.jpg[/jpg]

Once you realise certain key points you will see how both statments can be true. Two stations with the same name is slightly different locations at different points in time.
The original Edge hill still exists in its original form... I think thats only because the people with power and influence dont recognise it for what it is, or was. so its never been landscaped like Crown street station was. Its actually still on the railway network too, its the headshunt for the Up & Down Through sidings, which run into Wapping sidings past Speakland Road Goods (now obliterated), you drive through Crown street No.5 tunnel and there is the disused station site. Station code XDG will bring it on but not on nationalrail, realtimetrains will know what XDG is though. As you can still path to it as a run around to the Bootle Branch or Bootle Branch to the Up Ditton Fast.

Aren't some of the buildings original then? Or was it totally rebuilt when it became a through station then?

Yes the large part is still the original buildings but then when its use changed it wasnt a grand terminus so its cant really claim a title when it isnt. It was a one point but at that point Crown street still existed so it wasnt then and now its not a terminus so it isnt now either.
It was either equal to Crown street at the time or is now equal to Broad green and both times it gets trumped.
Its not my fault.
 

hexagon789

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Yes the large part is still the original buildings but then when its use changed it wasnt a grand terminus so its cant really claim a title when it isnt. It was a one point but at that point Crown street still existed so it wasnt then and now its not a terminus so it isnt now either.
It was either equal to Crown street at the time or is now equal to Broad green and both times it gets trumped.

Fair enough, it's quite a difficult task to name the oldest anyway in respect of the fact that so many stations have been partially or wholly rebuilt since their original opening.
 
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Yes indeed.
You need to apply a criteria.

Original
Original but disused
None original in same location
None original in different location but of the same name
Used
Disused
No longer exists but the location is still Pway
No longer exists and no longer Pway

Grand terminus is just an addition as its usually but not always the oldest on said line.

To answer the OP with only that criteria given, which doesnt state if it still exists or still used etc then the answer would be
Crown Street - Liverpool
Edge hill - Liverpool
Edge hill 1836- Liverpool
Broad green - Liverpool
Lime Street - Liverpool
And so on and so on down the line. the crown belong to one of them no matter what criteria you want to use anyway.
Because while it doesnt exist any more Crown street was the first station on a railway line that only used steam locos for motive power. It doesnt matter how much older it is they were either a wagonway or a tramway or they used horses or a mixed bag of methods to move wagons.
 

Bevan Price

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Many early "stations", including those served by horse-drawn carriages, were little more than basic wayside stopping places at level crossings. They had no proper platforms - maybe just a hut for the crossing keeper. Passengers climbed into carriages from ground level, just as they did into stage coaches using the "roads".

Michael Quick's book, "Railway Passenger Stations In Great Britain" suggests that Heighington was probably like this, and only got a "proper" station some years after the horse-drawn service started west of Darlington in April 1826.
 

St Rollox

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Eglinton Street railway station on the Caledonian Railway?
1879.

Glebe Street station on the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway was 1831 and the railway was a wagon way until the Caledonian took over.

Much earlier dating back to the original Glasgow Paisley line.
 
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Many early "stations", including those served by horse-drawn carriages, were little more than basic wayside stopping places at level crossings. They had no proper platforms - maybe just a hut for the crossing keeper. Passengers climbed into carriages from ground level, just as they did into stage coaches using the "roads".

Michael Quick's book, "Railway Passenger Stations In Great Britain" suggests that Heighington was probably like this, and only got a "proper" station some years after the horse-drawn service started west of Darlington in April 1826.

I think he is probably right, however there is no proof of it and it is said and widely believed that Heighington dates from 1825 when the line opened. However back then there was nothing there, no need to build a station there at all really and they didnt even know if people would ride on the train as it was a puffing dragon, a mechanical grasshopper, that some were scared of. Why would you spend money that you didnt have, remember the owners went into debt just building the line, to serve customers who dont exist yet...

Much earlier dating back to the original Glasgow Paisley line.
What date is "much earlier"? Its after 1830 or 1836?
 

Chris M

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None of Londons stations count as the oldest anything railway wise. There is always something in Liverpool that is older apart from electrification, London Underground did manage to do that
Doesn't London lay claim to the earliest sub-surface (and deep level) stations?
I think Deptford is the oldest in-use station on a viaduct - the buildings aren't original but the site is. It wasn't the first on a viaduct, that was Manchester Liverpool Road (at least partly), but that isn't still in use.

I wonder what the oldest station still served by the rolling stock that served it on opening day is? In the London area that's presumably going to be Hatton Cross, but there must be older elsewhere. For this I'm excluding things like funicular railways and people mover systems.
 

edwin_m

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I wonder what the oldest station still served by the rolling stock that served it on opening day is? In the London area that's presumably going to be Hatton Cross, but there must be older elsewhere. For this I'm excluding things like funicular railways and people mover systems.
I think that would also claim the same record nationwide. The only stock older than the Piccadilly units still providing the main service on any route (ie excluding charters and peak extras) is the Isle of Wight units, and they've been on its current route for much less time.
 

randyrippley

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Doesn't London lay claim to the earliest sub-surface (and deep level) stations?
I think Deptford is the oldest in-use station on a viaduct - the buildings aren't original but the site is. It wasn't the first on a viaduct, that was Manchester Liverpool Road (at least partly), but that isn't still in use.

I wonder what the oldest station still served by the rolling stock that served it on opening day is? In the London area that's presumably going to be Hatton Cross, but there must be older elsewhere. For this I'm excluding things like funicular railways and people mover systems.

I'd guess at the Manx Electric Railway
 

westv

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I'd have thought Stockton and Darlington from 1825 as the railways celebrated 150 years in 1975.
 
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