[trivia] Smallest station not to close after Beeching and largest to close

[theageofthetra]

In terms of platform numbers, the biggest stations closed were probably:
Blackpool Central
Glasgow St. Enoch
Nottingham Victoria
(10 or more platforms)

then
Birmingham Snow Hill
Manchester Central
(about 8 or 9 platforms)

followed by
Sheffield Victoria
Liverpool Central
Glasgow Buchanan Street
Edinburgh Princes Street
(5 or more platforms)

Cromer High, mentioned above, and closed long before Beeching. had 4 platforms, and was not very busy in later years.

What about Broad Street and Holborn Viaduct?

 

[infobleep]

And, of course, the hassle of closing individual intermediate stations - see innumerable discussions on Norton Bridge et al.

True but plenty of tiny intermediate stations were closed. Just look at the West Coast route to Scotland and even the East Coast route.

Yes these were way out stations most likely not used much but they closed them. Some would be good for walkers now but would impact on high speed intercity services.

 

[infobleep]

I thought it was all rural rail north of Edinburgh/Stirling that was at risk? In which case Barry Links probably takes the cake as it's normally one of the bottom ten stations nationally.

So was Barry links inaccessible to buses?

 

[edwin_m]

What about Broad Street and Holborn Viaduct?

Both survived into the 80s.

 

[Scouseinmanc]

In terms of platform numbers, the biggest stations closed were probably:
Blackpool Central
Glasgow St. Enoch
Nottingham Victoria
(10 or more platforms)

then
Birmingham Snow Hill
Manchester Central
(about 8 or 9 platforms)

followed by
Sheffield Victoria
Liverpool Central
Glasgow Buchanan Street
Edinburgh Princes Street
(5 or more platforms)

Cromer High, mentioned above, and closed long before Beeching. had 4 platforms, and was not very busy in later years.

Birkenhead Woodside was also a large 5 platform station to close as a result of Beeching.

 

[yorksrob]

Birkenhead Woodside was also a large 5 platform station to close as a result of Beeching.

Not to mention Manchester Exchange, six platforms.

 

[Scouseinmanc]

Not to mention Manchester Exchange, six platforms.

& Leicester Central - 6 platforms

& one more I've just thought of; Leeds Central - 8 platforms

 

[eastdyke]

Low Moor had 5 platforms.

 

[eastdyke]

& Leicester Central - 6 platforms

& one more I've just thought of; Leeds Central - 8 platforms

Some nice shots of Leeds Central have been put together here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHQFs0PrMeA

 

[najaB]

So was Barry links inaccessible to buses?

I think the fact that it is adjacent to Barry Buddon probably saved it.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I seem to recall that Birmingham Snow Hill's four main through platforms were actually sub-divided and signed as two platforms for operational purposes.

The 'inside' pair, either side of the centre roads has scissors crossovers and could definitely be used as two platforms each. The 'outside' ones presumably had mid-Platform signals.

So for passenger purposes (and including the four bays at the Wolverhampton end) Snow Hill had 12 numbered platforms. According to historical sources it had around 7.5 million passengers per year even in the early 1960s.

 

[Liam]

I thought it was all rural rail north of Edinburgh/Stirling that was at risk? In which case Barry Links probably takes the cake as it's normally one of the bottom ten stations nationally.

Everything out of Inverness was threatened, but I've never heard that Aberdeen was. Maybe the stations were under threat, but didn't it come down to a choice between the North British line or the Caledonian line to Aberdeen?

 

[yorksrob]

& Leicester Central - 6 platforms

& one more I've just thought of; Leeds Central - 8 platforms

Indeed, Leicester Central was quite an efficient use of space with its two through and four bay platforms.

 

[yorksrob]

So for passenger purposes (and including the four bays at the Wolverhampton end) Snow Hill had 12 numbered platforms. According to historical sources it had around 7.5 million passengers per year even in the early 1960s.

It would have been quite easy to rationalise the layout at Snow Hill by just retaining four through platforms. The fact that it's back now suggests that getting rid of it altogether was a rationalisation too far.

 

[Bevan Price]

Some additions.

Before Beeching closures:
Southport Lord St (5 platforms)

Also - an oddity and not very busy, but the triangular station at Queensbury had 6 platforms, I believe.

Marples / Beeching era closures:
Fleetwood (5 platforms)

More recent closures:
Liverpool Exchange (10 platforms)
Bradford Exchange (replaced by Interchange )

and some might argue, but effectively closed and replaced by new stations, carrying the old name:
Bradford Forster Square (?? 6 or 8 platforms)
Wrexham Central (5 platforms originally)


And, whilst still open, Blackpool North has lost 9 of the original 16 platforms, and may lose more during the electrification scheme works.

 

[najaB]

Everything out of Inverness was threatened, but I've never heard that Aberdeen was. Maybe the stations were under threat, but didn't it come down to a choice between the North British line or the Caledonian line to Aberdeen?

As I understand it, the proposal was pretty much express trains only for Inverness and Aberdeen.

In the end it did come down choosing one route or the other for Aberdeen - the North British route was chosen since it kept services to Dundee (though, the Tay Bridge was seen as expensive).

 

[steamybrian]

The original station at Epsom Downs had 9 platforms in its prime but was finally closed in 1989 to be replaced by a new single platform station.
see http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/e/epsom_downs/index.shtml

For reference purposes Broad Street had 9 platforms in its prime and at closure had one short platform in use..!
Holborn Viaduct had 6 platforms in its prime and at closure had 2 in use.

Bournemouth West had 6 platforms when closed in 1965
Southampton Terminus had 6 platforms- closed 1966

 

[gg1]

Another possible candidate for the largest station in terms of usage to close pre-Beeching is Bishopsgate, the GER's London terminus which was closed when Liverpool Street opened in 1874.

 

[infobleep]

I seem to recall that Birmingham Snow Hill's four main through platforms were actually sub-divided and signed as two platforms for operational purposes.

The 'inside' pair, either side of the centre roads has scissors crossovers and could definitely be used as two platforms each. The 'outside' ones presumably had mid-Platform signals.

So for passenger purposes (and including the four bays at the Wolverhampton end) Snow Hill had 12 numbered platforms. According to historical sources it had around 7.5 million passengers per year even in the early 1960s.

Now it has 3 platforms and 2 for metro but this will soon become 4. Fall from grace.

 

[Lankyline]

Blackpool Central was closed by BR after being petitioned by Blackpool council who wanted the land, Beeching wanted Blackpool North closing, imo, one of his better recommendations.

This must be the first Beeching related thread of 2017 !

 

[DarloRich]

In another current thread Steamy Brian mentioned Blackpool Central as one of, if not the largest station to close with 13 platforms (which out of interest I read a bit about).
How about Coombe Junction for the smallest that's managed to stay open? Or somewhere on the Far North Line maybe?

Removed - see post above - sorry!

 

[meridian2]

So for passenger purposes (and including the four bays at the Wolverhampton end) Snow Hill had 12 numbered platforms. According to historical sources it had around 7.5 million passengers per year even in the early 1960s.

It would be interesting to know what were the largest stations by user numbers closed under Beeching, but difficult to tell. The former GCR city stations were constructively run down prior to closure, leaving them a shadow of their former selves.

 

[Millisle]

Everything out of Inverness was threatened, but I've never heard that Aberdeen was. Maybe the stations were under threat, but didn't it come down to a choice between the North British line or the Caledonian line to Aberdeen?

The HML and Inverness- Aberdeen would have been threatened by options in Serpell, though not Beeching.

 

[Parallel]

By far not the biggest but the closest large station to me that closed is Bath Green Park. I always thought it was a bit of a shortfall closing this one as it's left several towns nearby with no rail link and Bath Spa severely overcrowded at peak times with commuters and especially at Christmas with long distance travellers. A lovely station too that still exists!

 

[exile]

Nearly all the closures mentioned were the result of rationalisation within a large city and didn't lead to any great inconvenience (in fact, in some cases the opposite - not sure anyone really missed having to walk from Leeds Central to Leeds City).

I wonder what was the largest (or busiest) station in a town which lost all its services and was therefore removed from the rail network? Some towns with large populations that were "Beechinged" had relatively small stations that were not heavily used.

Another issue is what would have happened to some of our large stations had Beeching been fully implemented - eg Liverpool Lime St which would have lost many of its services eg local trains to Earlestown/Manchester Exchange, St Helens and Wigan, as well as the services to Chester which were actually withdrawn. We'd have been left with an enormous station just serving hourly expresses to Manchester/Yorkshire/Newcastle, trains every hours alternately to Birmingham and London, locals to Warrington/Manchester and locals to Runcorn/Crewe - probably just 5 trains an hour off peak. Liverpool Exchange would just have been left with locals to Ormskirk after trains to Wigan/Bolton/Manchester and Southport were withdrawn as planned.

 

[gg1]

I wonder what was the largest (or busiest) station in a town which lost all its services and was therefore removed from the rail network? Some towns with large populations that were "Beechinged" had relatively small stations that were not heavily used.

Dudley is a contender. AFAIK It didn't have any long distance services in BR years but it was the hub of an extensive network of local services to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Old Hill and Stourbridge.