Oldest building still in railway use on the national network

[Islineclear3_1]

Under the definition of "oldest building still in railway use", there must be a lot of Victorian signal boxes still in daily use - railway or not

 

[randyrippley]

There has been a similar thread somewhere here within the last couple of years

 

[Taunton]

There are surely a few lineside buildings older than the railway which got bought and adapted, maybe Georgian or similar.

Are there any Roman structures anywhere ? The remnants of the historic London Wall cause a roundabout walking route to Tower Hill Underground. Here:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

 

[Benjwri]

Sankey viaduct opened in 1830, still original version being used and is recognised by National Rail as the oldest viaduct on the network.

 

[mike57]

Doesn't meet OP requirements, but interesting to note that Mitcham station building dates to the days of the Surrey Iron Railway, built around 1800. Hasnt been a station building for many years, and now on Tram Link rather than national rail, but still quite a curosity.

 

[bspahh]

There has been a similar thread somewhere here within the last couple of years

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/buildings-repurposed-for-railway-use.243661/page-2#post-6082079 says that Bourne station uses a building from 1605, but the station has closed

 

[edwin_m]

Sankey viaduct opened in 1830, still original version being used and is recognised by National Rail as the oldest viaduct on the network.

If you're counting structures that aren't buildings, then Skerne Bridge in Darlington is older and the re-purposed aqueduct in Paisley (mentioned above) is older still.

 

[urbophile]

There are surely a few lineside buildings older than the railway which got bought and adapted, maybe Georgian or similar.

Mitcham (or was it Mitcham Junction?) was one of those. The original station building was previously used in the days of stage coaches, and was adapted for railway use and used as such until the line was converted to become part of the Tramlnk network earlier this century.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Strood tunnel was first built for a canal to link the Thames to the Medway thus short-circuiting a potentially dangerous trip around the North Foreland. At some 2.25 miles long it was the second-longest canal tunnel in Britain. Twenty years later the Canal Company changed itself into a Railway and Canal company and built a single line through the tunnel partly on the towpath and partly supported from the canal bed. Boats and trains shared the tunnel for some 18 months before the South Eastern Railway bought up the company, filled in the canal through the tunnel and installed a second line of track.
(The remnant of the canal from Gravesend to Higham remained in use until abandoned by the now Southern Railway in 1934.)
There remains a substantial length still in water to the east of Gravesend (click on photo to go to the larger original):
Thames and Medway Canal

© Copyright N Chadwick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Not North Foreland which is on Thanet- that would be a long tunnel. It got round the Isle of Grain and the Thames and Medway mudflats.

 

[Rescars]

Mitcham (or was it Mitcham Junction?) was one of those. The original station building was previously used in the days of stage coaches, and was adapted for railway use and used as such until the line was converted to become part of the Tramlnk network earlier this century.

Mitcham was the one. Mitcham Junction was (and is) far less interesting - architecturally.

 

[yorksrob]

Mitcham was the one. Mitcham Junction was (and is) far less interesting - architecturally.

Although still a very good example of a later LB&SCR station.

 

[Rescars]

Although still a very good example of a later LB&SCR station.

Very true!

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

There are surely a few lineside buildings older than the railway which got bought and adapted, maybe Georgian or similar.

Are there any Roman structures anywhere ? The remnants of the historic London Wall cause a roundabout walking route to Tower Hill Underground. Here:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

The regency main building at Lansdown Station, Cheltenham was allegedly adapted from a town house that pre-dated the railway (1840), but I think this is one of O.S. Nock's many 'inaccuracies'.

 

[John Webb]

Not North Foreland which is on Thanet- that would be a long tunnel. It got round the Isle of Grain and the Thames and Medway mudflats.

Thanks for the correction; I was looking at a book on 'Lost Canals' which normally I've found to be free of inaccuracies - but looking at a couple of maps I see what you mean!

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Happy to help.

 

[Lucan]

interesting to note that Mitcham station building dates to the days of the Surrey Iron Railway, built around 1800. Hasnt been a station building for many years,

The building was originally a large house, and although dating around 1800 it was not connected with the SIR. In fact the SIR station (goods only, just a couple of sidings) was a little way down Tramway Path on the opposite side from the house. The passage through the centre of the building, where you would expect a Georgian pedimented front door, is an oddity. It is possible that it was original to give access to a yard at the back for storage or workshops. The house might even have been an inn. When the LBSC took over the SIR trackbed they must have bought the house to use as the station building, and made the passage through the centre if it was not there already. At the time I used Mitcham Station, the station offices were an extension behind the house, the latter semingly rented out as at least two dwellings, their front doors being in the sides of the passage.

In his booklet* on the SIR, Derek A. Bayliss says : "The station building ... dates back to the same period as the SIR and has been connected with it by some writers; it has even been suggested that the SIR, presumably reduced to dwarf proportions, ran through the passage. In fact it was built as a house and the passage added ... when it was adapted as a station"

* Retracing the First Public Railway, Living History Local Guide No 4, Living History Publications. An excellent and detailed account.

Photo of Mitcham Station entrance from across London Rd, c 1975, showing passageway through the former Georgian house.

 

[mike57]

The building was originally a large house, and although dating around 1800 it was not connected with the SIR. In fact the SIR station (goods only, just a couple of sidings) was a little way down Tramway Path on the opposite side from the house. The passage through the centre of the building, where you would expect a Georgian pedimented front door, is an oddity. It is possible that it was original to give access to a yard at the back for storage or workshops. The house might even have been an inn. When the LBSC took over the SIR trackbed they must have bought the house to use as the station building, and made the passage through the centre if it was not there already. At the time I used Mitcham Station, the station offices were an extension behind the house, the latter semingly rented out as at least two dwellings, their front doors being in the sides of the passage.

Interesting, I wasnt aware of the SIR until a few years ago even although I was interested in railways and history, and I was brought quite close to its route I lived in South London until 1980, but the SIR seemed to have never made it into local history, probably because it closed 40-50 years before the area was developed for housing.

 

[paul1609]

Strood tunnel was first built for a canal to link the Thames to the Medway thus short-circuiting a potentially dangerous trip around the North Foreland. At some 2.25 miles long it was the second-longest canal tunnel in Britain. Twenty years later the Canal Company changed itself into a Railway and Canal company and built a single line through the tunnel partly on the towpath and partly supported from the canal bed. Boats and trains shared the tunnel for some 18 months before the South Eastern Railway bought up the company, filled in the canal through the tunnel and installed a second line of track.
(The remnant of the canal from Gravesend to Higham remained in use until abandoned by the now Southern Railway in 1934.)
There remains a substantial length still in water to the east of Gravesend (click on photo to go to the larger original):
Thames and Medway Canal

© Copyright N Chadwick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Hmm I would have said the Strood Canal only avoided a voyage around the Isle of Grain. The Medway was only ever navigable as far as Tonbridge. North Foreland is on the Isle of Thanet (Margate).

 

[edwin_m]

The building was originally a large house, and although dating around 1800 it was not connected with the SIR. In fact the SIR station (goods only, just a couple of sidings) was a little way down Tramway Path on the opposite side from the house. The passage through the centre of the building, where you would expect a Georgian pedimented front door, is an oddity. It is possible that it was original to give access to a yard at the back for storage or workshops. The house might even have been an inn. When the LBSC took over the SIR trackbed they must have bought the house to use as the station building, and made the passage through the centre if it was not there already. At the time I used Mitcham Station, the station offices were an extension behind the house, the latter semingly rented out as at least two dwellings, their front doors being in the sides of the passage.

In his booklet* on the SIR, Derek A. Bayliss says : "The station building ... dates back to the same period as the SIR and has been connected with it by some writers; it has even been suggested that the SIR, presumably reduced to dwarf proportions, ran through the passage. In fact it was built as a house and the passage added ... when it was adapted as a station"

* Retracing the First Public Railway, Living History Local Guide No 4, Living History Publications. An excellent and detailed account.

Photo of Mitcham Station entrance from across London Rd, c 1975, showing passageway through the former Georgian house.

Here is a similar but clearer view on Google: https://maps.app.goo.gl/co5nJYnR1Mg4XA7o8

Two windows can be seen below street level, which looks to me like an original ground floor that became a basement when the road was raised to pass over the railway (the Surrey Iron Railway would no doubt have had a level crossing). The LBSC may have been forced to buy the property to achieve this. So I think the passage would have been at about the original first floor level (it looks to be a bit below), which might indeed have allowed a normal-sized SIR to run through but is much more likely supporting evidence for the passage being added later.

 

[matchmaker]

Under the definition of "oldest building still in railway use", there must be a lot of Victorian signal boxes still in daily use - railway or not

Hilton Junction near Perth dates from 1873 and is either the oldest or second oldest operational NR signal box.

 

[edwin_m]

Signal boxes didn't appear until a few decades after the first railways, as they were initially signalled (using the term loosely) by men standing at the trackside.

 

[Lucan]

Two windows can be seen below street level, which looks to me like an original ground floor that became a basement when the road was raised to pass over the railway (the Surrey Iron Railway would no doubt have had a level crossing).

I had never noticed those low basement windows before. At the time I passed through every day there were hedges that would have obscured them. The road was undoubtedly raised when the road bridge was made, and maybe the trackbed was lowered too, because the SIR did have a level crossing here. A copy of a contemporary plan in the book I mentioned above shows the rails drawn on top of the road.

The effect of the raised road can also be seen on the opposite side of the road where the main door of the large (Georgian or early Victorian?) house* is approached by a level drive lower than and parallel with the present day road. Having said that, it was common for large Georgian houses to have their front door and main floor at a raised level, the lowest level being a basement for servants and coal cellars etc. If the original house had a normal front door it would probably have been large and grand enough for it to have been a simple matter to have removed it and its porch to make the tunnel-like passageway with no structural re-inforcement of the house needed. If there was already a similar doorway at the rear, only brick partition walls and a ceiling would have been needed to complete the passageway.

* Now a Church of the Latter-day Saints, at one time previously the Mitcham Labour Club. It is the retaining wall of its back garden that requires the buttressing that now occupies the old up direction trackbed.

 

[norbitonflyer]

I seem to recall reading that parts of Harrow & Wealdstone station date from the opening of the London & Birmingham Railway in 1837

 

[edwin_m]

it dates from that period but is not in railway use.

More details at https://www.railengineer.co.uk/the-worlds-first-railway-station-identified/

Heighington and Aycliffe Railway Station has been proven to have been in use since 1827 – 196 years ago. Until recently, Liverpool Road station in Manchester, dating from 1830, had been considered the earliest station.
...
This ancient railway building remained in use as a station with attached housing until it fell into disuse in the 1970s, the station becoming an unstaffed halt. In 1984, it was renovated and converted into a public house called ‘Locomotion 1’, reflecting that locomotive’s double links with the station. Today, just a quarter of a mile away, Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe plant is constructing today’s rolling stock.

Since 2017, the building has been disused and empty. The Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and Historic England hope that the raising of its historic significance will prompt an appropriate and long-term use for this long overlooked but truly pioneering station building.

 

[Lucy1501]

Hilton Junction near Perth dates from 1873 and is either the oldest or second oldest operational NR signal box.

The 1871 built Bootle, Drigg and Llanfair PG boxes have been the oldest since the closure of the 1870 built Norton South signal box a few years ago.

Drigg holds the title of being the oldest NR box with its original lever frame, Bootle's having been replaced in 1977 and Llanfair PG in 1893.

There are a few 1872 boxes as well, off the top of my head being Dorrington, Ty Croes and Tutbury Crossing, however I believe there is more.