Things we don't see at stations these days

[32475]

Didnt they have suffixes too if they were pre-nationalisation? 4SUBs had them I think?

They did indeed and had a repeat letter after the numbers, for example a pre-nationalisation carriage would be numbered S12345S.

 

[Ken H]

Electric tow trucks on platforms for pulling coupled trollies.

Were some not painted in BR sector liveries? An Inter City one with claret stripe and swallow?

 

[pdeaves]

Locos parked in a bay platform ready to be deployed to rescue failed trains.

Still there in some places (Rugby springs to mind). Granted, a lot less than days of yore.

 

[Taunton]

They did indeed and had a repeat letter after the numbers, for example a pre-nationalisation carriage would be numbered S12345S.

To be precise, it was if they were to a pre-nationalisation design. A lot of such stock was built under BR in the late 40s/into the 1950s, and this was of course what was left running in more recent times, including most of the EPB electric stock, which didn't even first appear until the early 1950s, but was on recycled Southern Railway frames, or new ones built to the old size.

 

[Rescars]

To be precise, it was if they were to a pre-nationalisation design. A lot of such stock was built under BR in the late 40s/into the 1950s, and this was of course what was left running in more recent times, including most of the EPB electric stock, which didn't even first appear until the early 1950s, but was on recycled Southern Railway frames, or new ones built to the old size.

In similar vein, all those fish-named departmental/pw wagons (salmon, sturgeon, seacow, dogfish, etc, with a shark brake van at the end of the rake).

 

[32475]

To be precise, it was if they were to a pre-nationalisation design. A lot of such stock was built under BR in the late 40s/into the 1950s, and this was of course what was left running in more recent times, including most of the EPB electric stock, which didn't even first appear until the early 1950s, but was on recycled Southern Railway frames, or new ones built to the old size.

Very true Taunton- thanks for verifying.
Meanwhile, another thing you don’t see now are finger boards on platforms denoting stops for the next trains. These were often kept in an upright timber case so that the appropriate boards could be selected by platform staff. I particularly remember at Haywards Heath there being a mix of older green boards with hand painted straw coloured lettering and the more modern black ones with printed white lettering.
As timetables changed from year to year, some destination stations on the boards were painted out and others crudely painted in.
Occasionally you’d see a board with chalked destinations for unusual trains such as specials. There were also red boards saying ‘Do not board this train’.

 

[Falcon1200]

My dad remembers seeing someone trying to weigh a parcel on it but its weight wasn't within the machine's weight range so the recorded voice said "No weight", but this man wouldn't take no for an answer so he kept inserting another coin and saying "Of course there is weight".

Pity he didn't just think of weighing himself with and then without the parcel, so using only two coins!

Broad gauge track (in GW territory).

Or GWR style ATC (Automatic Train Control) ramps, although these lasted till a bit later than broad gauge track (early 1970s?)

 

[Rescars]

Very true Taunton- thanks for verifying.
Meanwhile, another thing you don’t see now are finger boards on platforms denoting stops for the next trains. These were often kept in an upright timber case so that the appropriate boards could be selected by platform staff. I particularly remember at Haywards Heath there being a mix of older green boards with hand painted straw coloured lettering and the more modern black ones with printed white lettering.
As timetables changed from year to year, some destination stations on the boards were painted out and others crudely painted in.
Occasionally you’d see a board with chalked destinations for unusual trains such as specials. There were also red boards saying ‘Do not board this train’.

Sutton had a sophisticated version, where frequently used boards were raised and lowered by levers into a magazine, a bit like a crude form of semaphore signal. There was also a case of boards showing the details for less regular workings.

 

[nw1]

To be precise, it was if they were to a pre-nationalisation design. A lot of such stock was built under BR in the late 40s/into the 1950s, and this was of course what was left running in more recent times, including most of the EPB electric stock, which didn't even first appear until the early 1950s, but was on recycled Southern Railway frames, or new ones built to the old size.

I remember the SR-design EPBs did indeed have this numbering ("S12345S").

At the time I assumed the second "S" meant "suburban".

 

[Western Sunset]

Water cranes
Barrow crossings
Ladies rooms
Porters rooms

All those little nooks and crannies.

Nowadays everything seems so grey, and bland, and cold, and concrete, and clinical, and unwelcoming...

 

[Rescars]

More not heard than not seen, but, apart from an ever diminishing number of locations, those satisfying twings, clanks and clunks of semaphore signalling installations.

 

[Western 52]

More not heard than not seen, but, apart from an ever diminishing number of locations, those satisfying twings, clanks and clunks of semaphore signalling installations.

And bells from signalboxes.

 

[Taunton]

Lots more.

Regional colours. I was used to WR station signs being brown, and LMR ones dark red, but was amazed the first time I went over Standedge to find all the station signs were then suddenly bright orange.

 

[Ken H]

Lots more.

Regional colours. I was used to WR station signs being brown, and LMR ones dark red, but was amazed the first time I went over Standedge to find all the station signs were then suddenly bright orange.

Ticket machines were different. LMR ones were not the same as Eastern Region.

 

[Roilshead]

Bomb damage, or bomb-blasted/burned-out carriages; Army/UDR patrols - NIR 1970s-80s.

 

[peteb]

Unaccompanied dogs tied to lamp-posts before being secured on board a train in the guards van......!

 

[AY1975]

Toilets at almost every station, including a lot of unstaffed halts.

And gents' toilets with no roof over the urinals so they were exposed to the elements - common at many rural stations back in the day.

And WC cubicles with coin operated locks where you had to insert 1d in pre-decimal days (hence the phrase "spending a penny"), 1p in the early days of decimalisation, then 2p, then 4p (2x2p), then 5p. These were mostly replaced by entrance turnstiles in toilets at major stations in the 1980s and '90s, while charging for toilets at smaller stations (that is, where the facilities were still in situ and open by then) was mostly phased out around that time.

In the last few years Network Rail has abolished toilet charges at all stations managed by NR itself. Some stations managed by the train operators (for example Glasgow Queen Street) do still have them, though.

Also, at least in the late 1990s and early 2000s some London Underground stations with toilets (not that many LU stations do have them) had the traditional WC cubicle coinboxes on the external door instead of on each cubicle door. I remember that at Osterley on the Piccadilly Line about 20 to 25 years ago, and I think you had to insert a 20p coin to get in. Not sure if any Tube station toilets still have that, though.

And in the 1980s and '90s at some London suburban stations, toilets for people of one sex only as discussed in this thread: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/trivia-stations-with-toilets-for-people-of-one-sex-only.241981/

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Most staff offices not being secured akin to a Bank with keypads (never seemed to be a problem as "private" seemed to suffice)

Waiting rooms - sometimes with locally sourced fresh flowers (Hereford comes to mind) , others had time constrained gas or electric heaters!

 

[D6130]

Racks of Edmonson card tickets and Bell Punch ticket date stamping machines in booking offices. (Other makes were also available).

 

[Ken H]

Racks of Edmonson card tickets and Bell Punch ticket date stamping machines in booking offices. (Other makes were also available).

Is that the same Bell Punch who made the Ultimate ticket machines used by many bus companies, notably muncipals?

 

[D6130]

Is that the same Bell Punch who made the Ultimate ticket machines used by many bus companies, notably muncipals?

It is indeed.

 

[Roilshead]

The "Railway Patrol".

 

[D6130]

Baskets of homing pigeons.

 

[Trackman]

Fire buckets

 

[The exile]

Broad gauge track (in GW territory). Though plenty of the old rails can still be seen as fencing posts.

Spotted a fence post on Ffairfach that looked as if it must have been narrow gauge track - rail profile looked very small compared with what was laid next to the platform. Wasn’t going to jump down to measure it, though!

 

[D6975]

Trains.
There have been a fair few stations that have gone for long periods without any in recent times.

 

[Bungle158]

Guards waving green flags

For example, Iif a multiple unit fails and subsequently continues in passenger service but loco hauled, and if there is no electronic communication between guard and driver, a green flag will be used. Or at least was, l retired some years ago but used a flag in 2012 on a rescued HST service at Plymouth and up the line to Exeter

 

[Deepgreen]

This - collected tickets parcelled and sent to a head office, in this case thrown out of a guard's van onto the platform at Raynes Park in 1983.

 

[D6130]

Bundles of weekly operating notices and special traffic notices thrown out of a guard's van onto the platform.

 

[Rescars]

Platform ticket machines.