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Stations far from their town/city centre
- Thread starter johnnychips
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According to walkit.com it's 0.7/0.8 miles to the Cabot Circus/Broadmead area, 1 mile exactly to the Whitson St entrance of Bristol Bus Station and 1.3 miles to the University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building or 1.5 miles to the main campus in Tyndalls Park.
All a pleasant stroll if the weather is fine, nothing too excessive, except maybe the walk up the hill to the top of Park St for the Uni area!
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Clapham (Yorkshire) is a few miles away from the village.
Ashwell & Morden station is 3-4 miles from Ashwell & further from the Mordens (Guilden Morden & Steeple Morden)
The reason for Hitchin being a mile from the town centre was the local landowners refused permission for the line to be built in the 1850s so it bypassed the town centre.
Similarly, Cambridge university thought the railway would be a distraction to the students so the station was built outside the city centre (as the University owned most of the land in the City centre & still does)
Ashwell & Morden station is 3-4 miles from Ashwell & further from the Mordens (Guilden Morden & Steeple Morden)
The reason for Hitchin being a mile from the town centre was the local landowners refused permission for the line to be built in the 1850s so it bypassed the town centre.
Similarly, Cambridge university thought the railway would be a distraction to the students so the station was built outside the city centre (as the University owned most of the land in the City centre & still does)
balne-wonderer
Member
Yep Howden station is a decent walk from the town but if you walk and are early for your train you are rewarded with an excellent little pub next to the station.
Id disagree slightly here and be a little pedantic.
Moorgate/Fenchurch st and Liverpool st are all in the City of London along with Victoria being in the City of Westminster.
I'd fogotten about Bournemouth...a bloody disaster, luckily I was collected by car. The station is quality but the town is just a big roundabout: grim.
HaHa, if you're going to bring in closed stations etc then this thread will start competing with the East Coast meals one, which TBH is just a bit boring now...sorry contributors but take a picnic.
ex-railwayman
Member
Why would the railway be a distraction for the students, did they assume that they would spend half their term gricing, or something similar. They should have offered degrees in Trainspotting, I'm sure applications for placements would have rolled in from all over the UK......
Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
Go on then...closed stations!
Errol on the Perth to Dundee (closed in the 70s?) was gas lit to the end and was (is, as it's a museum now), a mile and a bit from Errol village.
However on the same line, at Inchture which must have had some importance, the Caley (in Caley colours) ran a horse drawn rail-tram the couple of miles to the station. One of the horses was called Speedy I seem to remember reading. The line closed in 1917!
I bet the carriage served good use as a summerhouse as the area is quite wealthy being good farmland.
There's a great snap (c/o of Perth Museum) in the excellent Smith and Anderson book on 'Tayside's Railways...Dundee and Perth' if anyone is interested in such obscure stuff. Jim
Errol on the Perth to Dundee (closed in the 70s?) was gas lit to the end and was (is, as it's a museum now), a mile and a bit from Errol village.
However on the same line, at Inchture which must have had some importance, the Caley (in Caley colours) ran a horse drawn rail-tram the couple of miles to the station. One of the horses was called Speedy I seem to remember reading. The line closed in 1917!
I bet the carriage served good use as a summerhouse as the area is quite wealthy being good farmland.
There's a great snap (c/o of Perth Museum) in the excellent Smith and Anderson book on 'Tayside's Railways...Dundee and Perth' if anyone is interested in such obscure stuff. Jim
mirodo
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Why would the railway be a distraction for the students, did they assume that they would spend half their term gricing, or something similar. They should have offered degrees in Trainspotting, I'm sure applications for placements would have rolled in from all over the UK......
Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
I think the worry was that they would use it as an escape to the iniquitous fleshpots and taverns of London.
12CSVT
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And while we're on stations with "Junction" in their name, it's a fair walk from Loughborough Junction to Loughborough town centre!
Loughborough Junction got its name from the fact that 1st Baron of Loughborough owned an estate in that area.
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They recently put parking charges on the road for quite substantial distances either side of the station. http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/9..._making_residents_face__scary__woodland_walk/
It's also quite close to that most brilliantly named Pratts Bottom.
And while we're on stations with "Junction" in their name, it's a fair walk from Loughborough Junction to Loughborough town centre!
If we were going to include signal boxes as well as stations, Loughborough Junction to Loughborough is a mere stone's throw compared with North Pole Junction to the North Pole.
swcovas
Member
Llanbister
It's Llanbister ROAD! "Road" is always a good indication that it's a fair hike from somewhere......in this case about 5 miles of country lanes!
Fishguard Harbour is quite a way away from Fishguard, not quite as far as some of the places mentioned so far I suppose. However, if you are walking from Fishguard harbour to Fishguard itself, there is the vertical distance to consider as well as the horizontal.
Haverfordwest station isn't that far from the town centre, but you have to cross one of two dual carrigeways (your choice which) without the assistance of a bridge, subway or zebra(/puffin/pelican/whatever animal you care to mention) crossing.
On a much smaller scale, I think the address of Clarbeston is now Clarbeston, Clarbeston Road, as the village around the station is larger than the original village.
fairysdad
Member
The other one I was going to mention is Fareham - though having been much littler when I was last there I can't say for certain if it actually is as far away from the town centre as it seemed...
Ivo
Established Member
Several Anglian stations, in particular Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich, often get banded around in discussions like this. Colchester is roughly one mile on foot from the junction of Head Street and High Street (the closest corner of the central road system), but has Town station to compensate; the other two aren't really valid. Not including Cambridge (which is roughly one mile from the centre as stated by Google Maps, but only half of that from the edge of the centre), the most obvious station in that (rather large) area in my opinion is Harlow Town, at roughly one mile.
But how many people would know of the route it suggests from the station? Even I didn't know that way! The more obvious route (to the tourist) of going via Temple Gate results in a journey of upwards of one mile just to get to Broadmead - never mind anywhere else.
Not that far at all to be honest. No more so than the likes of Salisbury.
But how many people would know of the route it suggests from the station? Even I didn't know that way! The more obvious route (to the tourist) of going via Temple Gate results in a journey of upwards of one mile just to get to Broadmead - never mind anywhere else.
Not that far at all to be honest. No more so than the likes of Salisbury.
PaulLothian
Member
I was going to mention Altnabreac; as there is nothing there except the station, is the answer 'infinity'...?
VTPreston_Tez
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Dalton's a fair work from civilization, just a few nearby houses and a zoo that's like 3 miles up a hill.
daniel3982
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Is it Kirkby Stephen that's way up a hill too?
It was not always so. Until about 40 years ago, the original Stevenage station was essentially behind Waitrose on the edge of the Old Town. Originally, a nice walk until they put a dual carriageway down there. They moved it closer to the New Town later, although there is still a dual carriageway in the way. You will be hard-pressed to find any trace of the original station, except perhaps from Bridge Road.
Midlandman
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Several years ago, we stayed at Zell-am-See in Austria. Here begins the narrow-gauge Pinzgauer Lokalbahn to its terminus at Krimml. Now, the main attraction at Krimml is its waterfalls, but we'd seen them. One lazy afternoon, I just fancied a narrow-gauge bash, so I went to the halt near our hotel and boarded the afternoon railcar up the valley. 'Return to Krimml please' I asked the conductor. 'The Falls?' 'No, just Krimml' 'Ah, the bus to the village?' 'No, just Krimml station'.
He looked baffled by this, but pressed lots of buttons on his machine and gave me a ticket. Not until later did I study it properly and realise that he'd given me a Day Return to somewhere called Wald in Pinzgau, which I'd never heard of. It turned out to be the last village before the terminus. When we got to the terminus, everyone else piled on to buses and left for the falls and the village. I walked back down the road until I found a supermarket where I could buy something to drink. The supermarket was in Wald in Pinzgau. Back at Krimml station, I sat in the sun until a roar of bus engines announced the arrival of the other passengers. The crew emerged from the station, unlocked the railcar and we went on our way rejoicing.
I nominate Krimml as not only being a long way from the place it's named after, both horizontally and vertically but as a station to which you can't actually buy a ticket. The Great Western would undoubtedly have called it Krimml Road. (Ryanair would call it Mayrhofen -look at a map)
He looked baffled by this, but pressed lots of buttons on his machine and gave me a ticket. Not until later did I study it properly and realise that he'd given me a Day Return to somewhere called Wald in Pinzgau, which I'd never heard of. It turned out to be the last village before the terminus. When we got to the terminus, everyone else piled on to buses and left for the falls and the village. I walked back down the road until I found a supermarket where I could buy something to drink. The supermarket was in Wald in Pinzgau. Back at Krimml station, I sat in the sun until a roar of bus engines announced the arrival of the other passengers. The crew emerged from the station, unlocked the railcar and we went on our way rejoicing.
I nominate Krimml as not only being a long way from the place it's named after, both horizontally and vertically but as a station to which you can't actually buy a ticket. The Great Western would undoubtedly have called it Krimml Road. (Ryanair would call it Mayrhofen -look at a map)
RichmondCommu
Established Member
Yes the railway station is quite a pull from the centre of the village. Mind you, in all fairness the old North Eastern station was little better!
tbtc
Veteran Member
YES!
I made the mistake a few years ago of thinking "its not that far on the map", not realising that it was almost as far "up" as it was "along"... :-x
The clue is that there is an area near the station known as Highertown.
mr williams
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Not only that, but there is absolutely nothing in the way of amenities anywhere near Pontypool (Road). No pub, shop, cafe, taxi rank, telephone, nothing.
My late grandfather lived in the town and I visited him on the first day of operation of the new Cwmbran station (1986/87-ish?). Being the nearest and cheapest journey three or four confused Cwmbran teenagers had bought day returns to Pontypool to try out the new train only to find themselves in bleak isolation. Pontypool was still manned in the daytime in those days and I listened with wry amusement as he explained why it used to be called "Road". The last thing I heard was a sad "well is there a chip shop nearby?......."
Don't worry I knew that fact, but in all honestly there are so many factors that determined a stations location, and name.
1).Location, find a suitable site, remember our Victorian forebears didn't mind walking, what we think of as great distances to use the new transport revolution! If you can find a site that can serve several locations the better it is!
2). Name, has the local Lord, land owner set any special conditions, has someone from a nearby village (Estate) invested in your company. Is trade likely to come from a larger community nearby and would the business men of that place be offended by your choice of name!
In the South of England, without a great deal of thinking, I can name three stations that if you arrived at them,you would be where you wanted to be.Because of the above factors.
1). Witley on the Portsmouth Direct Line , or to give it it's full name, Witley for Chiddingfold,this station is in the centre of Wormley Village. Also serves the village of Brook.
2) Medstead & Four Marks, station in Four Marks village but known until 1937 as simply Medstead, the more important village when the line was built.
3). Highclere on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line, situated in Spring Lane, Burghclere
daniel3982
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Add in Mossley & Durham to that list.
Isn't Sandwell & Dudley actually nowhere near Dudley?
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