Railway locations that are now only a shadow of themselves

[davyp]

Cheadle Heath - Midland main line, 4 platforms, carriage sidings, goods shed, Midland Pullman (the original) and now a single line freight route.

Gowhole Yard, near New Mills South Junction, was a busy place until the 60s.

 

[stuu]

Tiverton Parkway is actually quite awkward to access from Tiverton, since a) it is a long way from the town and poorly served by buses, so you need a car and b) you have to get through Halberton, where the road is so narrow in several places that cars cannot pass one another. Naming it as Sampford Peverell station (or even Cullompton Parkway) would have been more honest.

What's wrong with the A361? Which was the major reason for the station being resited. It also has buses every half an hour, which is not unreasonable for a smallish town

 

[Sm5]

Wimbledon, whilst the station maybe busy, much of the sidings either side of it are all history.

Swindon is a different town, walking around the shopping mall and remembering what used to be in those workshops is a bit strange.

Tinsley…its all gone.

Doncaster, even the scrapline has been scrapped.

Gorton, Guide Bridge…

 

[D6130]

Barrow-in-Furness, Workington....

 

[bramling]

What's wrong with the A361? Which was the major reason for the station being resited. It also has buses every half an hour, which is not unreasonable for a smallish town

The road layout there means it’s not possible to directly access the westbound A361 without first having to double back to the M5 roundabout. This means either the aforementioned route through Halberton, or a good mile of extra distance with the associated possibility of being held up on the M5 roundabout. It isn’t the end of the world, but equally it’s hardly ideal.

 

[stuu]

The road layout there means it’s not possible to directly access the westbound A361 without first having to double back to the M5 roundabout. This means either the aforementioned route through Halberton, or a good mile of extra distance with the associated possibility of being held up on the M5 roundabout. It isn’t the end of the world, but equally it’s hardly ideal.

Slightly embarrassed that as it's not far from my house, and I have driven down that road numerous times and even used the station and never noticed the junction only faces east

 

[d9009alycidon]

The strip of Glasgow from Springburn Road to Balornock was once a total Railway Environment, the North British Locomotive Works (Atlas and Hydepark), Sighthill Goods Station, St Rollox Works and Balornock Locomotive Depot, all now gone. St Rollox Works survive as a listed building, but empty and quiet.

 

[Western Sunset]

Spondon - three platforms, large signalbox, double pair of crossing gates, extensive industrial sidings with private-owner locos, fly-shunting well into the 1980s...

Now just a two-platform halt.

 

[Gwr12345]

Bishop Auckland, once a busy 4 platform junction with lines to Darlington, Barnard Castle, Stanhope, Crook, Ferryhill and Durham, now an hourly service to Darlington with only one platform- not counting the Weardale railway which runs from a different platform and is a heritage railway.

 

[Scouseinmanc]

The strip of Glasgow from Springburn Road to Balornock was once a total Railway Environment, the North British Locomotive Works (Atlas and Hydepark), Sighthill Goods Station, St Rollox Works and Balornock Locomotive Depot, all now gone. St Rollox Works survive as a listed building, but empty and quiet.

St Rollox had it own station until ‘62 on the line out of Buchanan Street. Not many photos of it though & the name has always made me smile. Apparently she’s was a saint.

 

[Mat17]

Hadfield, it's acquired a pair of buffer stops where there used to be a main line. Granted its services are pretty much unchanged with local stopping services.

 

[DarloRich]

Basically anywhere that had coal mines, steel works, chemical works, docks, major manufactories, railway works, yards, depots or sidings and/or towns that were once holiday locations for the people employed in the former locations!

You are basically cataloguing the decline of industrial Britain and the infrastructure associated with it

 

[zwk500]

Basically anywhere that had coal mines, steel works, chemical works, docks, major manufactories, railway works, yards, depots or sidings and/or towns that were once holiday locations for the people employed in the former locations!

You are basically cataloguing the decline of industrial Britain and the infrastructure associated with it

Also the rise of the road vehicle. If you travel around the continent you'll see the infrastructure still in place but broadly empty, and that's with the more favourable economics for rail travel in those parts.

 

[Irascible]

Basically anywhere that had coal mines, steel works, chemical works, docks, major manufactories, railway works, yards, depots or sidings and/or towns that were once holiday locations for the people employed in the former locations!

You are basically cataloguing the decline of industrial Britain and the infrastructure associated with it

The decline of the market town, too.

 

[DarloRich]

The decline of the market town, too.

but is that not a much earlier decline? Agricultural produce was lost as a railway commodity pre WWII surely

 

[zwk500]

but is that not a much earlier decline? Agricultural produce was lost as a railway commodity pre WWII surely

Traditional markets were still hanging around in the 50s, but had been in decline for a long time before that. The key thing is the rise of road traffic. Since the 20s the railways had been concentrating goods on fewer and fewer rail terminals in favour of road despatch to the final destination.

 

[Enthusiast]

Though not on the scale of some of the other mentioned, I always found Ambergate, in Derbyshire interesting. It was one of the few (three, I think) triangular railway stations in the UK. I think It was unique in having six platforms, two on each side of the triangle. It was at a point where three lines met and there were platforms serving all three routes. These were:

To the north-west lies Matlock and the line to Manchester.
To the north-east, Chesterfield and the line to Sheffield
To the south, Belper, Derby and London.

Trains ran between each of these routes, calling at Ambergate using its three pairs of platforms. As well as this there was an avoiding line to the east of the station on the Sheffield to Derby route for fast services to bypass the station.

Services on the lines were either ceased or considerably reduced and by 1970 the only route left serving the station was the Matlock to Derby route. This had been reduced to single track and the only platform of the original six now remaining at Ambergate is the inner one on the west side of the triangle. The avoiding line on the Chesterfield to Derby route (via the Toadmoor Tunnel) still remains, however and it forms part of the Midland main line from Sheffield to London.

Ambergate station really is a shadow of its former self, having once boasted six platforms on three double track routes, now reduced to one single line.

 

[Irascible]

but is that not a much earlier decline? Agricultural produce was lost as a railway commodity pre WWII surely

More the role of the market town as the focal point of an area than the market itself specifically ( although that too ) - travel patterns have changed & rather left al lot of them behind.

 

[Western Sunset]

Though not on the scale of some of the other mentioned, I always found Ambergate, in Derbyshire interesting. It was one of the few (three, I think) triangular railway stations in the UK. I think It was unique in having six platforms, two on each side of the triangle. It was at a point where three lines met and there were platforms serving all three routes. These were:

To the north-west lies Matlock and the line to Manchester.
To the north-east, Chesterfield and the line to Sheffield
To the south, Belper, Derby and London.

Trains ran between each of these routes, calling at Ambergate using its three pairs of platforms. As well as this there was an avoiding line to the east of the station on the Sheffield to Derby route for fast services to bypass the station.

Services on the lines were either ceased or considerably reduced and by 1970 the only route left serving the station was the Matlock to Derby route. This had been reduced to single track and the only platform of the original six now remaining at Ambergate is the inner one on the west side of the triangle. The avoiding line on the Chesterfield to Derby route (via the Toadmoor Tunnel) still remains, however and it forms part of the Midland main line from Sheffield to London.

Ambergate station really is a shadow of its former self, having once boasted six platforms on three double track routes, now reduced to one single line.

A fourth line came into Ambergate from the east - Pye Bridge via Butterley. This was largely freight (ie coal) from the mines of north Notts to the NW.

 

[Enthusiast]

A fourth line came into Ambergate from the east - Pye Bridge via Butterley. This was largely freight (ie coal) from the mines of north Notts to the NW.

Thanks for that. Presumably part of that route is now the preserved Midland Railway at Butterley?

 

[John Love NB]

Agree with the above except that I would say that Coatbridge Central has improved slightly now, back in the 1980s it was at its worst.

One that depresses me is Ayr, from the derelict station hotel, passed the abandoned loco depot to the weed strewn wasteland that was Falkland Yard.

Sorry to hear about Falkland Junction Yard. I have memories of working trains there as a goods guard in the 1970s. When was at Cadder I worked the 09:10 Cadder to Falkland Junction with a return working back to Cadder. This train was often worked by a Class 50 between turns on the West Coast Main Line. However, with 28 guards in the single link, it took over six months to work round the roster, so in the year or so I was a guard at Cadder, I probably only worked it for two weeks. After that I moved to Sighthill. I had almost forgotten, but at least when I first moved to Sighthill, we had a regular night shift turn to Falkland Junction. (I can clearly remember preparing a train in Falkland yard in the middle of the night in the rain. I had a peaked cap pulled down over my eyes to try to keep the rain off my glasses. It clearly wasn't the return working of 09:10 from Cadder!) If I remember rightly our train was the 20:44 from Sighthill to Falkland Junction. As the traffic from Sighthill was almost all in vanfits, this train often ran as a class 6, with me travelling on the engine rather than in a brake van. I can remember a really quite enjoyable week working it with driver Frank Callan of Eastfield. When I think about it, the return working was to Cadder. As the traffic would include coal from the various Ayrshire collieries (Barony, Killoch etc.), I would have to prepare a brake van if I hadn't brought one from Sighthill. Some of the coal would be in vacuum-fitted minfits, but a lot would be in ordinary unfitted end doors (as we Scottish railwaymen called the stand 16 ton mineral wagons). I suppose I knew that it was a way of life that was coming to an end, but I think I feel more than nostalgia for it. I think it was the railways' last serious attempt to be a serious participant in the business of freight transport.

On the subjects of railway locations that are a shade of their former selves, what about Oban? In the early 70s it had an attractive passenger station, and it was still receiving freight traffic (though a lot less than the West Highland Line proper to Fort William -- it was getting four to six freight trains a day from Cadder). When I was at Cadder we had the 03:50 freight train to Oban. We worked it to Taynuilt where we would change over with the Oban crew bringing the early morning passenger train from Oban. (I think it left at 07:25.) Once, before I was passed as a guard, when I was learning the road, we made it all the way to Oban. A diesel (it would be a class 27) had failed at Oban, and they were desperate to get the one off our train! Normally the Oban crews didn't want us to work the whole way. They were anxious to keep the jobs they had. I believe for them that job entailed working the passenger train to Taynuilt, working the goods back to Oban, and then doing whatever shunting was needed there. The freight traffic was light by my time, so there wouldn't be much to do. But at that time the traffic included tanks bringing fuel for the steamers. I don't know if they were carrying fuel for the steamers or something else, but the first train of the week (the 03:50 on Monday mornings) usually ran as a Class 6 conveying nine 45 ton tanks. At one time the load for this train was a special one of ten tanks (450 tons plus 73 tons for the locomotive) but it got stuck so often that the load got reduced to nine tanks. Even so I recall one night at Garelochhead. We were trying to get a run through the station, but the driver was briefly distracted watching his fireman exchange tablets, and the engine had slipped to a standstill by the time it reached the points at the end of the platform. I then emptied my detonators and left them in the locomotive cab. I then filled my detonator can with sand from the 27's sandbox and then hand-sanded the rail in front of the train for the next couple of hundred yards until the Sulzer found her feet again. Of course nowadays they don't have guards on freight trains, and the railway doesn't take freight to Oban any more, but I think we earned our money that night!

@d9009alycidon I joined this forum a few hours ago, to try to answer a post of yours back in May 2020 on the subject of "Glasgow Freight Terminals and Workings 1960s-80s". Having joined, I now see that that thread is closed to replies, and I can't see a way to send you a private message. However, if you can get in touch, I feel I could give you quite a lot of relevant information, based on my experiences as a practical railwayman in the 1970s.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Main line locations with heavy passenger traffic and no freight facility are as busy and complex as they ever were - think Clapham Junction. But think South Wales as an example - almost every current station would qualify. Even locations like Cardiff are hugely less complex than they once were, simply because the coal traffic has gone. It's all about the loss of freight traffic.

Indeed! Clapham Junction itself has lost a couple of goods yards, the Kensington sidings off the end of platforms 1 and 2, and the Pigsty Hill sidings off the line from platforms 16 and 17 (there might be a couple of stubs remaining there). Many suburban stations had a goods yard; I can just remember yards at various stations on the Kingston loop in the early 1960s, along with odd sidings here and there serving factories and depots or used to store excursion stock. Wimbledon had three yards, one of which remained until fairly recently as a PW depot. There were quite a few big yards and depots around London until the 1960s, of which only a few still remain, often severely reduced. Although there are still a lot of long-distance and suburban passenger services in and out of London, and not many lines have closed in the London area, the massive decline in freight traffic in the postwar period reduced the 'railway footprint' in and around London, and, for me at least, made things a lot less interesting.

 

[D6130]

Sorry to hear about Falkland Junction Yard. I have memories of working trains there as a goods guard in the 1970s. When was at Cadder I worked the 09:10 Cadder to Falkland Junction with a return working back to Cadder. This train was often worked by a Class 50 between turns on the West Coast Main Line. However, with 28 guards in the single link, it took over six months to work round the roster, so in the year or so I was a guard at Cadder, I probably only worked it for two weeks. After that I moved to Sighthill. I had almost forgotten, but at least when I first moved to Sighthill, we had a regular night shift turn to Falkland Junction. (I can clearly remember preparing a train in Falkland yard in the middle of the night in the rain. I had a peaked cap pulled down over my eyes to try to keep the rain off my glasses. It clearly wasn't the return working of 09:10 from Cadder!) If I remember rightly our train was the 20:44 from Sighthill to Falkland Junction. As the traffic from Sighthill was almost all in vanfits, this train often ran as a class 6, with me travelling on the engine rather than in a brake van. I can remember a really quite enjoyable week working it with driver Frank Callan of Eastfield. When I think about it, the return working was to Cadder. As the traffic would include coal from the various Ayrshire collieries (Barony, Killoch etc.), I would have to prepare a brake van if I hadn't brought one from Sighthill. Some of the coal would be in vacuum-fitted minfits, but a lot would be in ordinary unfitted end doors (as we Scottish railwaymen called the stand 16 ton mineral wagons). I suppose I knew that it was a way of life that was coming to an end, but I think I feel more than nostalgia for it. I think it was the railways' last serious attempt to be a serious participant in the business of freight transport.

On the subjects of railway locations that are a shade of their former selves, what about Oban? In the early 70s it had an attractive passenger station, and it was still receiving freight traffic (though a lot less than the West Highland Line proper to Fort William -- it was getting four to six freight trains a day from Cadder). When I was at Cadder we had the 03:50 freight train to Oban. We worked it to Taynuilt where we would change over with the Oban crew bringing the early morning passenger train from Oban. (I think it left at 07:25.) Once, before I was passed as a guard, when I was learning the road, we made it all the way to Oban. A diesel (it would be a class 27) had failed at Oban, and they were desperate to get the one off our train! Normally the Oban crews didn't want us to work the whole way. They were anxious to keep the jobs they had. I believe for them that job entailed working the passenger train to Taynuilt, working the goods back to Oban, and then doing whatever shunting was needed there. The freight traffic was light by my time, so there wouldn't be much to do. But at that time the traffic included tanks bringing fuel for the steamers. I don't know if they were carrying fuel for the steamers or something else, but the first train of the week (the 03:50 on Monday mornings) usually ran as a Class 6 conveying nine 45 ton tanks. At one time the load for this train was a special one of ten tanks (450 tons plus 73 tons for the locomotive) but it got stuck so often that the load got reduced to nine tanks. Even so I recall one night at Garelochhead. We were trying to get a run through the station, but the driver was briefly distracted watching his fireman exchange tablets, and the engine had slipped to a standstill by the time it reached the points at the end of the platform. I then emptied my detonators and left them in the locomotive cab. I then filled my detonator can with sand from the 27's sandbox and then hand-sanded the rail in front of the train for the next couple of hundred yards until the Sulzer found her feet again. Of course nowadays they don't have guards on freight trains, and the railway doesn't take freight to Oban any more, but I think we earned our money that night!

@d9009alycidon I joined this forum a few hours ago, to try to answer a post of yours back in May 2020 on the subject of "Glasgow Freight Terminals and Workings 1960s-80s". Having joined, I now see that that thread is closed to replies, and I can't see a way to send you a private message. However, if you can get in touch, I feel I could give you quite a lot of relevant information, based on my experiences as a practical railwayman in the 1970s.

Fascinating memories! As well as being very interesting to me, this will also be of great interest to @Cheshire Scot , who was a guard at Fort William for some time in the late 'seventies. Thanks for posting and I look forward to hearing more of your remniscences in due course.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Fascinating memories! As well as being very interesting to me, this will also be of great interest to @Cheshire Scot , who was a guard at Fort William for some time in the late 'seventies. Thanks for posting and I look forward to hearing more of your remniscences in due course.

First of all welcome to the forum @JohnLoveNB. With reference to the Closed Thread on the subject of "Glasgow Freight Terminals and Workings 1960s-80s" MODs should be able to re-open that thread to enable you to add some detail although I am not sure of the procedure for this, and indeed since responses to your post are likely to veer well off topic from this thread they may wish to move this content to that thread or to a new topic. Mods please note!

I spotted your post late last night and my immediate thought was I will respond to that in the morning. In the meantime @D6130 has name checked me, and as he notes, I was a Guard in Fort William in the late 1970s. I was in the 'Spare Link' working both Freight and Passenger. There were nine jobs in the Freight link, with five trains to/from Cadder (although a couple of the up workings went to Mossend with Speedlink traffic for the South), the Corpach / Crianlarich Timber working, the ballast, and the early and late shift trip pilots. In addition to these and the Oban freight which you mention, at times when traffic was heavy there were often Freight Specials run sometimes vice a cancelled ballast working or on Saturdays or very occasionally Sundays, plus there were of course the Faslane and Glen Douglas trips at the southern end of the line. Probably difficult for the younger generations to comprehend the volume of freight trains running five days a week on the West Highland when compared with today's meagre offering albeit there were less passenger trains.

It does seem inevitable we would have met when changing over at Crianlarich/Tyndrum/Bridge of Orchy on occasions - or even Ardlui if you were running late(!), and although the timber working - out and back in a single shift - was my favourite shift there was something atmospheric about crossing Rannoch Moor on a cold crisp moonlit night with a good fire raging in the Brake Van.

A number of other points you mention are interesting.
The class 50 working to Falkland Jn - would that have been a Polmadie or Motherwell driver as presumably Eastfield did not sign class 50s as being mainly WCML traction?
You mention working the Oban freight to Taynuilt and changing over with the up passenger. Was Taynuilt the limit of your route knowledge or did you actually sign to Oban? Eastfield drivers and Queen St Guards did have a booked job to Oban which potentially you might have had to cross cover, perhaps working a Rest Day (I note your trip there was unscheduled whilst in training). And perhaps Bridge of Orchy as your limit towards Fort William?
Fort William had booked passenger work to Arrochar but route knowledge to Garelochhead in case of late running - I once got as far as Glen Douglas for the changeover.

Your work from Cadder must have had a fair variety, as well as The West Highland and Falkland Jn, I'm guessing to places such as Perth, Grangemouth, Millerhill, Thornton as well as perhaps to Power Stations such as Longannet/Kincardine and Cockenzie, north Glasgow trip workings and no doubt your share of ballast workings too.
I'd guess you would also work the 01.00 Queen St Oban which balanced with the up Oban freight, meeting at Crianlarich.

I wasn't aware there were Guards at both Cadder and Sighthill, did Cowlairs also have Guards or just Queen St?

To echo @D6130 I look forward to hearing more of your reminiscences in due course.

 

[Chrius56000]

Morecambe almost got epic.

There were plans in the 30s to move out of Euston Road (looks like parcels and some loco sidings) and rebuild Promenade into 14 platforms plus fish dock with an overall roof. Huge sidings to the south (Heysham line singles for a stretch as a shunting neck with the foot crossing moved). Now that would leave a bigger shadow!

This question is obviously pure speculation, but would the new expanded Morecambe Station have got colour–light signalling with its new S.B. if the L.M.S., as it then was, had proceeded with this scheme, or would the L.M.S. have designed and built the layout with mechanical signalling?

As is quite well known the L.M.S. did plan a power signalling scheme for Preston in the late 1930s, but the war supervened before the scheme could be started, and the power frame originally intended for Preston was reused to re–signal London Euston!

 

[LowLevel]

A bit different given there is still plenty there with the depot and sidings but Edge Hill. The size of the place with the MPD, yards, branches, Gridiron and so on must have been something else.

 

[CarltonA]

Windsor & Eton Central has seen a substantial downscaling over the years. Now down to a short platform served by a two car bog unit. The rest of the station is now a shopping centre.

 

[urbophile]

Windsor & Eton Central has seen a substantial downscaling over the years. Now down to a short platform served by a two car bog unit. The rest of the station is now a shopping centre.

Wasn't that Queen Victoria's station of preference?

 

[Dr_Intoxicated]

Indeed! Clapham Junction itself has lost a couple of goods yards, the Kensington sidings off the end of platforms 1 and 2, and the Pigsty Hill sidings off the line from platforms 16 and 17 (there might be a couple of stubs remaining there). Many suburban stations had a goods yard; I can just remember yards at various stations on the Kingston loop in the early 1960s, along with odd sidings here and there serving factories and depots or used to store excursion stock. Wimbledon had three yards, one of which remained until fairly recently as a PW depot. There were quite a few big yards and depots around London until the 1960s, of which only a few still remain, often severely reduced. Although there are still a lot of long-distance and suburban passenger services in and out of London, and not many lines have closed in the London area, the massive decline in freight traffic in the postwar period reduced the 'railway footprint' in and around London, and, for me at least, made things a lot less interesting.

Indeed the freight depot at Feltham was one of the biggest in the country. Part of it has now been repurposed as a depot for the 701s should they ever enter service

 

[RT4038]

The decline of the market town, too.

I don't think many market towns have actually declined (as in population living there) - the actual main market has moved to an out of town site with lots of free car parking, the stalls now large heated/air conditioned sheds, the stall holders consolidated into a few major international names with employees serving the customers.