• 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!

Can anyone identify this picture?

Status
Not open for further replies.

urbophile

Established Member
Joined
26 Nov 2015
Messages
2,059
Location
Liverpool
I recently came across the attached in a collection of old family photographs. I wonder if this house (which I guess is a stationmaster's or similar) still exists and if so where it is? I have a very vague and very probably false memory that a very distant relation once worked for the Midland Railway; anyway it is quite likely to be somewhere in west Yorkshire or east Lancashire, so if not the Midland maybe the L & Y.Scan.jpeg
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

edwin_m

Veteran Member
Joined
21 Apr 2013
Messages
24,793
Location
Nottingham
I wondered about the Midland Railway director's house at Great Longstone (as featured on the Rob Bell programme recently) but it isn't that one.
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
If it were a stationmaster's house, I'd expect it to be at a station. All we see here is a path down to a tiny wooden stage next to the tracks.

It looks to me like it's a private halt for this particular house. But from the dress of the gentleman, it probably isn't for a wealthy upper-class household. This man must have worked for the railway in some capacity, and been important enough for trains to stop at his house.
 

MadMac

Member
Joined
13 Jun 2008
Messages
955
Location
Moorpark, CA
If you have access to Twitter, Robert Humm Books (@RHummBooks) regularly run a "What Station" feature, and they would be happy to feature this!
 

30907

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Sep 2012
Messages
17,866
Location
Airedale
I wonder if anyone could identify the company uniform?
The hat looks to be pill-box style, so nearer British Rail than British Railways if you get my meaning, but a quick Google suggests that was common.
The wooden stage possibly covers the signal rods.
Other thoughts: the garden wall looks to have been a labour of love rather than a conventional boundary wall.
The stone doesn't immediately shout East Lancs or Yorkshire to me - I'm no expert, but it looks a bit too brown - ironstone or reddish sandstone? Please correct me thouh.
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
The wooden stage possibly covers the signal rods.
Yes.

On reflection, the pair of rails next to the stage are a fair distance away from the rails and pointwork nearer the camera, and they appear to be diverging slightly toward the left side of the photo. Perhaps there's an island platform a short distance to the left, and it is a stationmaster's house after all.
 

MarkyT

Established Member
Joined
20 May 2012
Messages
6,232
Location
Torbay
Yes.

On reflection, the pair of rails next to the stage are a fair distance away from the rails and pointwork nearer the camera, and they appear to be diverging slightly toward the left side of the photo. Perhaps there's an island platform a short distance to the left, and it is a stationmaster's house after all.
Pointwork in the area definitely suggests a station nearby. While there are junctions elsewhere in the sticks clearly, most pointwork is, or certainly was historically, somewhere around a station.
 

Sprinter107

Member
Joined
26 Mar 2019
Messages
935
If it were a stationmaster's house, I'd expect it to be at a station. All we see here is a path down to a tiny wooden stage next to the tracks.

It looks to me like it's a private halt for this particular house. But from the dress of the gentleman, it probably isn't for a wealthy upper-class household. This man must have worked for the railway in some capacity, and been important enough for trains to stop at his house.
Station masters houses were not necessarily at the station. Some of them could be a distance away.
 

John Webb

Established Member
Joined
5 Jun 2010
Messages
3,047
Location
St Albans
Station masters houses were not necessarily at the station. Some of them could be a distance away.
I'd agree with this. The house shown in my post (#4 above), for example, is opposite the former station forecourt rather than adjacent to or part of the station buildings. I think from the uniform this is the stationmaster's house - the walkway leads down to a location where he can cross the further track and walk to the station platform, probably off to the left of the picture.
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
It was the presence of a wooden stage that threw me: why have a little stage for the house if the station platform is a few yards away? However, on closer examination of the track, there probably is a platform within a stone's throw.

Sadly I don't recognise the building, or know the presumed area well enough to offer specific suggestions.
 

Sprinter107

Member
Joined
26 Mar 2019
Messages
935
Would that be in an urban setting?

I'd be intrigued if it was a ten minute walk away, and also adjacent to a railway line.
Yes mate, very much an urban setting. No, it was nowhere near the railway line, strangely. It was in a typical suburban Street.
 

Bevan Price

Established Member
Joined
22 Apr 2010
Messages
7,320
It was the presence of a wooden stage that threw me: why have a little stage for the house if the station platform is a few yards away? However, on closer examination of the track, there probably is a platform within a stone's throw.

Sadly I don't recognise the building, or know the presumed area well enough to offer specific suggestions.

The wooden stage may have been used to drop off coal or other supplies for the house. And the track closest to the house might have been a siding -- many quite small stations used to have a goods siding or small freight yard.
 

6Gman

Established Member
Joined
1 May 2012
Messages
8,382
The wooden stage may have been used to drop off coal or other supplies for the house. And the track closest to the house might have been a siding -- many quite small stations used to have a goods siding or small freight yard.

The wooden stage is intriguing as it seems to be at an angle to the track. There also seems to be something on it; not sure what - looks like a glass of milk to my old eyes ! :D
 

urbophile

Established Member
Joined
26 Nov 2015
Messages
2,059
Location
Liverpool
Isn't the 'wooden stage' just a continuation of the footpath down from the house to alongside the railway?
 

John Webb

Established Member
Joined
5 Jun 2010
Messages
3,047
Location
St Albans
It was the presence of a wooden stage that threw me: why have a little stage for the house if the station platform is a few yards away? However, on closer examination of the track, there probably is a platform within a stone's throw.

Sadly I don't recognise the building, or know the presumed area well enough to offer specific suggestions.

The wooden stage may have been used to drop off coal or other supplies for the house. And the track closest to the house might have been a siding -- many quite small stations used to have a goods siding or small freight yard.

The staging is simply to take the footpath safely over the signal wires and point rods at the side of the track. The stationmaster could have to attend the station at any time of the day or night, the staging allowed him to do this without causing danger to himself or damage to the wires! Similar stagings can be seen in front of many signal boxes where the wires and point rods emerge from the box to allow safe access to and from the box.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top