Missing platforms / Unused Platforms & other bits

[mlambeuk]

Harrogate has a Platform 1 &3 but no platform 2

 

[Welshman]

IIRC, Platform 2 used to be a bay at the north end of the station, used by trains to Ripon and York. Trains from Bradford & Leeds used to terminate in platform 1 and return from there.

I suppose when the Leeds and York services were merged into one through service, platform 2 became surplus to requirements.

 

[30907]

Isn't it now use for stabling?

 

[moogal]

I've caught quite a few trains from Rugby's platform 3 in the past. It seemed to me that it was mostly used during weekend engineering works when LM trains coming up from the Northampton loop terminated there.

 

[TrainBoy98]

Bournemouth should be on the list

Platform 1 is the siding on the London bound side, last used by the Connex slam door services to Victoria

Platform 4 is hardly used these days

Ive seen a Voyager in P1 before, not in service obviously as the platform is too short, but there was on in there.

 

[Liam_Hendry]

Why is Platforms 3 and 6 hardly ever used at Perth station ? The only time they are used is for late night terminating services such as Glasgow/Edinburgh midnight services, which I don't understand.

 

[Liam]

Why is Platforms 3 and 6 hardly ever used at Perth station ? The only time they are used is for late night terminating services such as Glasgow/Edinburgh midnight services, which I don't understand.

Platform 3 is the access to the carriage sidings. I remember 10-15 years ago platform 7 was barely ever used and all Inverness services used platforms 3 and 4.

 

[Liam_Hendry]

The only times I remember using them Platforms was

6 - A mid-day Edinburgh service in 2011
6 - A terminating late night Glasgow-Perth service
3 - An Inverness service in either 2007/08
3 - A Glasgow-Aberdeen service which violently hit a cow short of Gleneagles ripping off part of the front left side of the train (Replaced by a 158 unfortunately) last year.
3- Last Perth-Edinburgh service of the night a couple of Month ago.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Oh I forgot to say, also the 4 terminating platforms opposite each other at Stirling, Don't understand the point of them either. I think the 2 Glasgow facing ones should be used for Locals, it's annoying to walk all across the station from a small bay platform at the other end of the main entrance.

 

[JB25]

The tracks between Platforms 12 & 13 at London Bridge there are points quite near the buffer stops. Only about enough to fit a two car into the gap or past another unit on Platform 13. Does anyone know why those points are there or what they are / were used for? hock:

 

[swt_passenger]

The tracks between Platforms 12 & 13 at London Bridge there are points quite near the buffer stops. Only about enough to fit a two car into the gap or past another unit on Platform 13.

They were probably there as a 'loco release crossover' to allow a loco to be removed from the front of its train, and run back out of the station.

IIRC they used to be fairly common at major termini. Possibly just forgotten about when they removed all the others?

 

[JB25]

Seems a fair guess that. I often wonder how they get the train in the Purley sidings out. It must have to propel the freight carriages into the siding then the driver swaps end.

The only way that the cross over at London Bridge could be used is if a 6 car train was put in and the 456 was at the buffer stops and after detaching the 455 wouldn't move so they could at least take the 456 out. Very unlikely however!

 

[30907]

Dates back to the days when the station was last rebuilt. There were loco hauled trains at London Br: Brighton and Eastbourne newspapers and Uckfield peak trains. Can't imagine a mu using it BTW.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Yes, indeed - I can remember seeing that release loop in use at London Bridge in the early 1990s.

 

[The Barlow Boy]

The predecessor of the Gatwick Express was a special sub-fleet of EMUs (4-VEG I think) which were split and joined at Gatwick to trains to/from further south. Subsidiary aspects would have been needed on the Up lines approaching Gatwick to allow this joining move to take place.

I can't remember whether the current signalling was introduced before this practice finished. Even if it wasn't, someone may have decided during the design process that it was worth retaining the sub aspects in case a similar working was needed again.

The 4-VEG was a modified 4-VEP. There were twelve of them. The modification was basically taking out seating bays and inserting luggage racks. The Three Bridges signalling scheme was completed before their withdrawal.

 

[matchmaker]

Oh I forgot to say, also the 4 terminating platforms opposite each other at Stirling, Don't understand the point of them either. I think the 2 Glasgow facing ones should be used for Locals, it's annoying to walk all across the station from a small bay platform at the other end of the main entrance.

None can currently be used for passengers. The two north facing ones are used only for stabling stock and have access by hand points.

The two south facing can be used for passenger departures but not arrivals as some of the points do not have FPL (facing point locks) and some form of locking is required on facing points used by passenger services.

However, I understand that as part of the Stirling Middle junction improvement works this may change.

 

[TB]

Castleford has 2 platforms but only one is used.

The footbridge was blocked off last time i was there as it was in a perilous state, but i'm sure i can remember going over it when i was a kid (late 80's/early 90's).

Keighley used to have 5 platforms. The 2 for the Worth Valley, the 2 mainline platforms plus a bay on the Leeds bound side. Think it was abandoned late 60's sometime and filled in/covered over.

Baildon has 2 platforms, 1 taken out of use when the branch was singled.

Halifax has a platform with no track through it. The buildings are part of the Eureka business i think.

 

[edwin_m]

You enter the station at Chippenham through the main building then onto a platform with no track! This was the platform for a closed branch line and trains now run from both sides of the island platform reached by a bridge. Mentioned in a recent Modern Railways that the local MP thinks it should have proper side platforms instead.

The reopened Nottingham station will have seven active platforms and platform 7 (formerly platform 6) is designed for possible future conversion to an island with another track between it and the car park. A freight avoiding line used this alignment until the 1960s but it has never been a passenger platform. Unless it's a fairly short bay platform the centre bridge would need reconstructing to move the steps further from the edge.

 

[Welshman]

Halifax has a platform with no track through it. The buildings are part of the Eureka business i think.

Halifax used to have 6 platforms.
The one currently with no track by it was platform 3, which served trains to Bradford & Leeds, and was an island platform with platform 4 on the other side, serving trains to Huddersfield & Manchester. Then there was another island, platforms 5 & 6, which served trains to Bradford via North Bridge and Ovenden.

Platforms 5 & 6 are now totally demolished and under the "Eureka" car park, and the edge of platform 4 can be seen from the car park, along with the magnificent station frontages, which fortunately have been preserved.

 

[edwin_m]

Halifax used to have 6 platforms.
The one currently with no track by it was platform 3, which served trains to Bradford & Leeds, and was an island platform with platform 4 on the other side, serving trains to Huddersfield & Manchester. Then there was another island, platforms 5 & 6, which served trains to Bradford via North Bridge and Ovenden.

Platforms 5 & 6 are now totally demolished and under the "Eureka" car park, and the edge of platform 4 can be seen from the car park, along with the magnificent station frontages, which fortunately have been preserved.

I believe the Eureka building was originally the main entrance to the station but two more tracks were later added on the entrance side (which would be platforms 4-6). The same thing happened at Bangor - the original main entrance being marooned on an island platform.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Platform 1 at Twickenham is a bit of a mystery these days. Twickenham was rebuilt in the 1940s with two island platforms, platforms 2 to 5, and a bay on the up side facing London, platform 1. Platform 2 has for as long as I've known it been a bay facing London, as a walkway was built at the country end across from the platform towards the Post Office depot, I don't know whether it was ever a through platform. So there are three through platforms and two bays. However, Platform 1 has been disused for ages, and quite a few sleepers have been removed, rendering the line unusable, yet it is still signalled, which seems rather odd to me.

 

[Murph]

However, Platform 1 has been disused for ages, and quite a few sleepers have been removed, rendering the line unusable, yet it is still signalled, which seems rather odd to me.

Just guessing, but possibly either they have not yet decided to permanently remove it, or don't want to spend the time, money, and effort to redo the interlocking for its removal? It's relatively quick and easy to just lock it out of use, not so much to completely remove it from the system.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Not sure that this has been mentioned so far in this thread, but Rochdale once had eight platforms....4 through ones and 4 bay platforms. You can still see the remains of its disused through platforms.

 

[Welshman]

But you'll have to be quick - before they are completely hidden from view by the trees and shrubs overgrowing them!
Presumably the lines are still there too. I wonder why the site was not properly cleared when the station was reduced in size?

 

[Helvellyn]

A few I don't think I've seen mentioned: -

Portsmouth Harbour platform 2, which I believe was taken out of use due to structural issues with the pier supports on that side of the station.

Basingstoke had a Down bay adjacent to platform 1 and the platform face is still there. Platform 5 also used to be a through platform before it was cut back to bay platform used by Reading services (and the Upside entrance built).

Micheldever platforms 1 and 2 were originally 2 and 3 before the loops were removed. A tiny section of platform 4 remains atop the entrance to the subway, whilst more of platform 1 remains adjacent to the station building.

Whitchurch platform 1 was originally an island platform, though just one face remains in use now.

Andover had an Up facing bay on the Down side which can still be seen, and the current platform 1 is the remaining active face of an island platform, thougha headshunt remains on the other unused platform face.

Petersfield platform 1 is another platform that used to be an island, though the disused face has been filled in now.

Eastleigh platforms 1-3 were originally 2-4, with platform 1 a second platform that made an Upside island. It was still in use until the early 1990s, before being filled in and the ticket office built in the building and the overbridge to the original entrance building removed.

 

[Roverman]

Skegness. Numerous platforms, some in better nick than others. Yet they use the two which have the same entrance gate. This seems to cause confusion when two trains arrive at once as people seem unsure which one is theirs.

 

[infobleep]

Guildford has a platform 7, which physically exists but is never used, as it services a single track always accessed from platform 6, so 8 platforms but only 7 tracks.

I have got out onto platform 7 about twice. These were when the signalman diverted the trains to platform 6 and the guard opened the doors as if it were platform 5. Cue some passengers on platform 6 starting to rush round to platform 7 and then the guard to open the doors on the platform 6 side.

The single track was used for unloading the parcel trains both sides.

Platform 8 at Clapham Junction mostly has through trains passing it but I have got out their twice. Once a train was on platform 7 so may be a fault or passenger issue. The other time u don't know the reason.

Opposite platform 7 there is some disused platform bays. May be these were for stabling or goods. There is even a do not alight sign, which is quite aged looking now.

Sent from my HUAWEI U8815 using Tapatalk 2

 

[brompton rail]

Platform 2 at Doncaster is not used for passenger trains, only for stabling Northern units overnight.

My last recollection of trains departing from there is in BR days when a shuttle DMU service operated to a temporary platform built near RAF Finningley ( now Robin Hood Airport)) for the annual Battle of Britain Airshow.

The EMT Lincoln service doesn't use it, because their trains would have to cross the main line to reach it. Instead they use the flyover at Bessacarr to travel up on the west side of the main line to Platform 5. Not sure if they return that way south.

 

[Eagle]

Since this thread started, Cardiff Queen Street has been renumbered so that the platforms are now numbered 2, 3 and 4. (This is in anticipation of new platforms 1 and 5 being built in the next couple of years though, so it doesn't really count as missing per se.)

 

[Rapidash]

I was going to say Platform 1 at Exeter Central, but on my way to work the other day, there was a service departing from there! Not seen that happen in the few years I've been commuting that way. Occasionally see a 150 tucked up in the bay platform at St Davids on occasion.

There is a platform at Newton Abbot that's not seen any passengers for yonks, but seems to be home to a Heathfield dwelling Colas loco.

 

[mister-sparky]

Kensington Olympia still has it's old platforms visible from the new ones. What I don't understand is, why they built the new ones only about a foot in front of the old ones... Was their any particular reason for this? Why didn't they just re-use the old ones? Also, does anybody have any links to any plans of Olympia before it was rebuilt, because I think I've read somewhere it used to have like 8 platforms or something??