Shortest Lived Train Station - Chee Dale Halt?

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

My candidate would be Chee Dale Halt which was opened in July 1987 and closed in September 1987. The station was closed because of operational difficulties regarding the signaling. I know Rams Line Halt only ever saw one train but I don't think it closed as quickly as Chee Dale.

I did manage to use Chee Dale in the summer of 1987 and personally I think it’s a great shame that it closed. Ideal if you wanted a day on the Monsal Trail, even more so now that the tunnels have been opened up!

Any other candidates?

Regards,

Richmond Commuter!

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Workington North?

Seriously though, there were some (presumably permanent) stations back in Victorian times that lasted 18 months or less. There was one out in the middle of nowhere on the Brum-Bristol line IIRC. Another is Churchdown near Cheltenham, lasted six weeks before reopening again some decades later (and closed again under Beeching).

 

[RichmondCommu]

Workington North?

Seriously though, there were some (presumably permanent) stations back in Victorian times that lasted 18 months or less. There was one out in the middle of nowhere on the Brum-Bristol line IIRC. Another is Churchdown near Cheltenham, lasted six weeks before reopening again some decades later (and closed again under Beeching).

There are a few like that on the southern end of the MML but I think they all lasted longer than three months!

 

[fsmr]

Swithland Station on the Great Central, if you go with the local stories, was constructed all the way up to and including the platforms before being abandoned due to its proximity to nearby Rothley a mile away so it didn't actually open!! The bricked up island platform stairwell can still be seen in the GCR preserved over bridge and is now the site of their Swithland sidings and access to the Mountsorrel branch

If anyone is interested there is a bit on here about it
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/swithland/index.shtml

Always fascinated me as a lad in the 60s being driven under the bridge and wondering what the bricked up door was for in the wall

 

[RichmondCommu]

Swithland Station on the Great Central, if you go with the local stories, was constructed all the way up to and including the platforms before being abandoned due to its proximity to nearby Rothley a mile away so it didn't actually open!! The bricked up island platform stairwell can still be seen in the GCR preserved over bridge and is now the site of their Swithland sidings and access to the Mountsorrel branch

If anyone is interested there is a bit on here about it
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/swithland/index.shtml

Always fascinated me as a lad in the 60s being driven under the bridge and wondering what the bricked up door was for in the wall

Fanstastic stuff. I think that might be the winner!

 

[12CSVT]

Chettisham ? Temporary station for a few weekend possessions near Ely North Junction in October 1991.

Carlisle South ? Another temporary station at Upperby for an Easter blockade at Carlisle in the 1990s.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Heathrow Junction was open for five months and three days in 1998.

 

[edwin_m]

There have been occasions when a platform was built for a single train. I recall one at Cambridge Science Park on the old St Ives branch for a visit by the VSOE Pullman set in (probably) 1984.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Yep, there was a 4th platform built for one day at Princes Risborough recently.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Heathrow Junction was open for five months and three days in 1998.

Thanks for that but it doesn't beat Chee Dale!

 

[Tomnick]

Swithland Station on the Great Central, if you go with the local stories, was constructed all the way up to and including the platforms before being abandoned due to its proximity to nearby Rothley a mile away so it didn't actually open!! The bricked up island platform stairwell can still be seen in the GCR preserved over bridge and is now the site of their Swithland sidings and access to the Mountsorrel branch

If anyone is interested there is a bit on here about it
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/swithland/index.shtml

Always fascinated me as a lad in the 60s being driven under the bridge and wondering what the bricked up door was for in the wall

The platforms at Swithland were, to the best of my knowledge, never built - though the stairwell and bricked up opening were (and there are still some signs of the stairwell at track level!).

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Thanks for that but it doesn't beat Chee Dale!

That's what you get for starting the show with the show stopper.

 

[steamybrian]

In the past BR built temporary platforms for shuttle trains to and from depots on open days. I have used them to go to Old Oak Common, Chart Leacon and Coalville, Leicestershire.
A few years ago a temporary station was built at Chettisham during engineering works at Ely but unsure how long it was in use for.

 

[RichmondCommu]

That's what you get for starting the show with the show stopper.

Good point very well made! To be honest along with Rams Line Halt thats the only one that came immediately to mind. There are others near Kentish Town on the MML but I'm in Cheshire tonight and away from my railway reference books!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

In the past BR built temporary platforms for shuttle trains to and from depots on open days. I have used them to go to Old Oak Common, Chart Leacon and Coalville, Leicestershire.
A few years ago a temporary station was built at Chettisham during engineering works at Ely but unsure how long it was in use for.

Yes I remember the one at Coalville. I also remember scoffing my sandwiches on board a class 151 in the goods shed!

 

[EM2]

How about Lullingstone? Platforms, canopy and buildings completed, as well as steps to a footbridge, but no train ever stopped there.

 

[SansPareil]

Trowse Station, 28th to 31st March 1986, technically a reopening, done for the remodelling of Norwich Thorpe station throat. Imagine them doing that now! It would be rail replacement buses all the way.

 

[syorksdeano]

Hoe about Leeds Whitehall?

 

[Shimbleshanks]

There was a temporary station at Amlwch in 1993 for the handful of special passenger trains that were run that year - it can't have lasted more than a couple of months or so.

 

[Shunterboy]

Meadowbank Stadium, in edinburgh, built for three weeks for the 1986 commonwealth games

 

[unlevel42]

1Day
Griffiths Crossing (Ferodo Platform) near Caernarfon for the Royal train on 1st July 1969,

 

[Taunton]

Canary Wharf station on the DLR was constructed the same as the other wayside stations, two short platforms and a little round-topped prefab shelter on each. Literally weeks before the line opened the big redevelopment of Canary Wharf was agreed, and by the time the DLR first opened in summer 1987 the completed structure was already being dismantled again. However the ATO control couldn't be adjusted in time so trains still stopped there for 30 seconds; however the doors were not opened. The ATO was modified some time later.

Here presumably on opening day at 0.20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6zkPz3_dIc

 

[IanD]

G'day everyone,

My candidate would be Chee Dale Halt which was opened in July 1987 and closed in September 1987. The station was closed because of operational difficulties regarding the signaling. I know Rams Line Halt only ever saw one train but I don't think it closed as quickly as Chee Dale.

I did manage to use Chee Dale in the summer of 1987 and personally I think it’s a great shame that it closed. Ideal if you wanted a day on the Monsal Trail, even more so now that the tunnels have been opened up!

Any other candidates?

Regards,

Richmond Commuter!

So where exactly was it?

 

[Buttsy]

Didn't Crewe South exist for a while during the remodel in 1985?

 

[plarailfan]

There was a station not far from where I live, which opened and closed in June 1874.
It was originally named "Dungeon Wood" but then, the nameboards were changed to Woodfield just before it opened.
The station was near to Beaumont Park, on the Huddersfield to Meltham branch which closed in 1965/66.

 

[DarloRich]

There was a platform built on the Carlisle Upperby through siding to allow Tyne valley trains to run during an engineering blockade in the 90's – I don’t know how long it lasted – It may have been one weekend - but I did use it on a day Darlo were beaten by Carlisle!

 

[RichmondCommu]

So where exactly was it?

Chee Dale Halt was on the freight only line from Chinley to Buxton, more specificaly between Great Rocks and Buxton. The service ran to and from Edale.

 

[Bright Boy]

Royal Showground between Brent and Willesden in North London was opened from 13th June 1903- 4th July 1903 - 22 days, this was on a short branch opened up from Willesden Jct

There have been several stations built but not opened, and never used for railway travel, so would they count as "shortest lived stations" if not used ?

Kensington for example, when the West London Railway was built they built a station close to Kensington basin at the end of the former Kensington Canal just off Warwick Road in 1840, but as it was poorly sited and could not be seen from the main road, so they decided to build another elsewhere, the station building being used for goods offices for that railway company (there were no platforms), they opened the line on 27th May 1844 to the first true Kensington station a short distance away

 

[Darren R]

Preston Maudlands was the name given to a temporary station open for two days in March 1991 to allow a bridge to be replaced on the Blackpool line.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

On the Whelley loop line, in January 1872, there were two stations opened at Whelley and at Amberswood which were then closed very shortly after their openings.

 

[Bright Boy]

Hi Paul

The information I have is that both stations opened on 1st January 1872, and closed to passengers on 1st March 1872, I have read somewhere that Whelley stayed open for goods for some years after but I do not have what date it closed fully, I do not know if Amberswood stayed open for goods after passenger closure, do you have any info about when they closed for goods?