'Hidden' stations

[route101]

In Glasgow i think Charing Cross could be one along with High St and Barnhill.

 

[GarethW]

You would hardly know that Millbrook was there..it doesn't even have a ticket machine I think. Beaulieu Road is in the middle of nowhere and there is just one fading sign now. There's nothing to indicate that there might be a station there except for road signs. Redbridge is tucked away down a small cul-de-sac off a residential street. I suppose Totton is as well but you can get to it from High Street down the original access road that once had a LC in it.

Don't think Beaulieu Road counts, its on a main road (the B3056) the platforms visible in both directions plus its right next to the Beaulieu Road pub and hotel. As you say its shown on the road signs nearby, and theres a whacking great hump back bridge. Its about as obvious as most "halt" type stations.

 

[sheff1]

Most of the Brighton stations are pretty well hidden. Moulsecoomb is up a university access road and London Road, Preston Park and Aldrington are in the middle of housing estates.

Fishersgate is another in that area.

More local, Fitzwilliam is up a narrow footpath off the main road and Pontefract Monkhill is well hidden too.

 

[gnolife]

Ardwick? poorly signposted, entrance hard to see, dark, plus lack of service... utterly dreadful station

 

[Ivo]

I used to think that Wapping did a good job of hiding itself, although having not been there at surface level since I re-opened I can't say for sure now. I would have said Walthamstow Queens Road as well; I got lucky when I went there (with only nine minutes to get there from Central [or St James Street; I forget which].

Regarding lines I use(d) regularly or live(d) local to, Avoncliff is a good one, as are North Fambridge and Althorne.

 

[me123]

In Glasgow i think Charing Cross could be one along with High St and Barnhill.

I wouldn't really agree with High Street. It's quite will located on, oddly enough High Street. What more do you want?

Similarly, Charing Cross is pretty visible from Elmbank Crescent, although I would agree that trying to find it from Bath Street is a bit unusual; although it's well signposted, passing through Elmbank Gardens (which, IIRC, includes a strip club) is certainly not a normal route to a busy station in a City Centre!

 

[CheapAndNerdy]

Sunnymeads is the most hidden station I have travelled from.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=sunny...d=nqAvt4JesG7G_aBZT6CfZw&cbp=12,50.19,,0,9.76

 

[EM2]

Thanks everyone.
I've checked all of these out via Street View and some of them are unbelievably obscure. Manors, I couldn't even see how to get into the station!

 

[BrummyBoy]

Bordseley seems quite hidden, at least it did last time i ventured out that way

 

[markem41]

OK, so there's a big signpost but would you know if the station was still there? And are you brave enough to find out?

Humphrey Park

 

[CompactDstrxion]

Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

 

[jon0844]

Thanks to the level of "service" that Angel Road gets, however, passengers wanting to travel to said Tesco or the big Ikea store (famous for the near riot that broke out when it opened) by public transport have to go to Tottenham Hale or Edmonton Green and take a local bus from there.

A poor stopping pattern, hard to get to station, probably not deemed very safe by the locals... seems like a good way to argue in due course that passenger usage is minimal and seek to have the station closed completely?

I always wondered why the station wasn't used more given its location to Tesco and IKEA (who deliver locally for reasonable rates, in case anyone is wondering how you'd buy furniture and carry it on a train) but then I've driven by the station for years (as it's alongside the North-South route) and always thought 'I wouldn't like to use that'.

Anywho...Back on topic, how about the old Shoreditch (ELL) station? Tucked away in a side street parallel to Brick Lane.

Even when you can follow the ELL line, it's still hard to find the entrance to the new Shoreditch station! The station looks like it didn't cost much to build when you get inside, but of course - we all know it probably DID cost a fortune!!

 

[barrykas]

A poor stopping pattern, hard to get to station, probably not deemed very safe by the locals... seems like a good way to argue in due course that passenger usage is minimal and seek to have the station closed completely?

Wouldn't surprise me. Prior to the A406 widening, Angel Road (and most, if not all, of the other stations on the WAML) was served half hourly by the Hertford East trains. In the current timetable it sees just 30 trains a day (16 up, 14 down), of which just 1 each way (the 05:25 from Hertford East and 05:52 from Liverpool Street) run to and from Liverpool Street, the remainder running to/from Stratford. There's also no service at weekends.

At one point there was a proposal to relocate the station further North to Picketts Lock, but the NIMBYs put the brakes on that.

Cheers,

Barry

 

[syorksdeano]

Gainsborough Central is well hidden. In fact last time I went to Gainsborough I don't even think it was signposted

 

[Oracle]

Beaulieu Road: spot the sign and the station! From the Lyndhurst direction that is.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...=NsWEwx2V8Bj9PsA-hZlqsQ&cbp=13,126.6,,0,-0.26

 

[4SRKT]

During the 1980s many stations on NIR were hidden not just from passers by but from rail users as well! Take Downshire station in Carrickfergus for example. It is situated by a bridge under the main A2 road, but access was via a gap in the wall about 4' wide. The station itself cannot be seen from the road at all. There was a sign above the gap that read 'Downshire', but had no NIR logo or any indication that this was a station at all. The sign was frequently vandalised and was either daubed with paint or missing altogether. On the platforms themselves it was a similar situations. Signs missing for years at a time, with just two rusty poles to mark where they might have been. The platforms and surrounding embankments (home to a rather large breed of quite vicious ant) were strewn with broken glass and other rubbish. The whole place was covered in UVF graffiti and from about lunchtime onwards there would always be a crowd of men in their 20s and 30s with shell suits and tiny moustaches drinking cheap lager while standing up for hours on end (there were no seats provided). This aspect of the station was recognised in the fact that on the occasions when there actually was a sign over the entrance gap in the wall it was frequently amended to 'Downshire Arms'. The fact of the station's invisibility from the main road and the RUC's relative lack of interest in normal crime or anti-social behaviour meant this just went on unchecked. It's hardly surprising that the trains weren't well used at that time, the more so since at that time they terminated at the remote and deeply unpleasant York Road station in Belfast, located in an area that wasn't just hideous, but after dark downright dangerous. At least the anonymous concrete monstrosity, provided after the original station had been blown up in 1972, had 'York Road Railway Station' in black plastic letters on the outside.

How times have changed!

 

[jopsuk]

Wouldn't surprise me. Prior to the A406 widening, Angel Road (and most, if not all, of the other stations on the WAML) was served half hourly by the Hertford East trains. In the current timetable it sees just 30 trains a day (16 up, 14 down), of which just 1 each way (the 05:25 from Hertford East and 05:52 from Liverpool Street) run to and from Liverpool Street, the remainder running to/from Stratford. There's also no service at weekends.

At one point there was a proposal to relocate the station further North to Picketts Lock, but the NIMBYs put the brakes on that.

Cheers,

Barry

It's also a bit odd in that I'm pretty sure most of those trains that serve it don't stop at the adjacent Ponders End station.

Pickett's Lock would be a bit too close to there, wouldn't it? Just over a mile. I'd just just a little further south (closer to Tesco/Ikea) with access to both sides! Would help if the Lee Valley was four-track though (though it wouldn't deal with the conjestion south of Tottenham Hale or from Chesunt to Broxbourne)

 

[jon0844]

I grew up in Cheshunt and walked along the Lea Valley Park to Broxbourne loads of times.. surely there's room within the park to widen the line, so not in any way requiring compulsory purchasing of houses/flats?

It's probably more of a problem where the line is next to the brook and North-South route, as you'd either have to move the road over, or reduce many back gardens in size.

 

[jopsuk]

(going off topic) I see no way of fitting a four-through-track, 12-carriage station at Chesunt.

 

[jon0844]

Platform 1 could be extended couldn't it? That could let 12-car trains stop London bound. You're right about the other platforms being hard given how quick it splits.

As for four-tracking it, can't the station be widened to the east? I know there's a building of some sort by the northern end of platform 1, but otherwise it's just open land. Or is there water there? I have to confess I haven't been there in some time (but I have since they upgraded it).

 

[Southern]

Birkbeck isn't really a "hidden" station. The line crosses the A214 Elmers End Road.

 

[OMGitsDAVE]

I also think that Great Ayton is very well hidden.

 

[Capybara]

I work in the area and have always thought that, for a station of its size, Waterloo can take some finding, particularly since the Eurostar entrance closed. I have been stopped in the street on numerous occasions and asked how to get to it.

 

[12CSVT]

In the days of loco haulage on the Rhymney line, Gilfach Fargoed station always seemed well hidden, as you go down a narrow lane to get to it.

 

[DarloRich]

Thanks everyone.
I've checked all of these out via Street View and some of them are unbelievably obscure. Manors, I couldn't even see how to get into the station!

I think Northern work on that basis to!

North Road is quite well hidden but it does have a whacking great sign on the main road but the sign is some distance from the actual platform which is up a dark alleyway cum stairway

 

[Mojo]

The entrance to Bordesley station is quite sneaky.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Bor...000602&t=h&z=21&panoid=bCPbxQwxnL0jDQL2H4k1tA

Good for integrated transport though!

 

[pendolino]

The entrance to Bordesley station is quite sneaky.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Bor...000602&t=h&z=21&panoid=bCPbxQwxnL0jDQL2H4k1tA

Good for integrated transport though!

I don't suppose it matters given that it only has a service on match days.

 

[the sniper]

Bordesley station has got to be one of the best hidden stations. There are no signs, just a whole whole in the wall behind a bus stop, under a bridge!

Admittedly, it has a very limited service (limited to Birmingham City match days only?), but it's still a station.

EDIT: Doh! Great minds think a like! (Though my 'great mind' took a while to figure out how to link from streetview properly. :P )

 

[ANorthernGuard]

fairfield station on the hadfield line is well hidden considering it used to have an up and down slow and fast and a branch through to fallowfield and reddish tmd, now just up n down lines with one train an hour even the road it is on has changed from station road to manshaw road and not one sign on the main ashton old road that runs almost parallel to it

 

[NXEA!]

Newton St Cyres is pretty well hidden if I remember correctly; there's just a steep narrow path which is next to a cottage linking up to the road; I don't remember seeing a sign with the BR logo on it either.