Trivia: Stations that look identical to each other

[30907]

I'm sure many stations on the same line built together will fit into this category. Swanley and St. Mary Cray have always looked the same to me from the platforms and, apart from the road structure, from above too.

Interesting, because they were (re)built 20 years apart.

Normans Bay and Pevensey Bay - Identical concrete halts accessed by level crossings.

And a few more the other side of Brighton...

I never did understand why Doleham retained one wooden platform (long since gone) when all the others were replaced with concrete !

Presumably it was still fit for purpose?

 

[bishdunster]

I would think a few on the Great Central, island platforms accessed by steps up or down from road level.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Reddish South and Denton stations were close to identical back in their heydays in terms of the street level brick built booking office with covered steps down to each island platform where stood predominantly wooden LNWR prefabricated structures manufactured at Crewe then assembled on site. Its hard to imagine these days that at one time both these stations actually had four platform faces!

 

[Sprinter107]

T

Reddish South and Denton stations were close to identical back in their heydays in terms of the street level brick built booking office with covered steps down to each island platform where stood predominantly wooden LNWR prefabricated structures manufactured at Crewe then assembled on site. Its hard to imagine these days that at one time both these stations actually had four platform faces!

That would be interesting to see. I dont suppose there are many photographs.

 

[yorksrob]

Interesting, because they were (re)built 20 years apart.


And a few more the other side of Brighton...


Presumably it was still fit for purpose?

Swanley and St Marys Cray on the face of it are similar layouts, but the architecture of Swanley is very 1930's Southern Railway (eg metal frame windows) while St Marys Cray is 1950's BR (pannels under the windows).

With Doleham - perhaps - I can't think of any other explanation

 

[Snow1964]

The ex LSWR country stations of mid 1880s are virtually identical
New Milton, Sway, Hinton Admiral, and now closed stations on Andover-Romsey line like Wherwell, Longparish.
Worpseldon is very similar style

 

[Ash Bridge]

Not sure I can get this link to work properly? There is a better shot showing a Met Cam 101 if you scroll back one shot from the signalbox, will try to attach a Reddish South one next.

Denton Station Signal Box, Manchester Road, Denton, Manchester.

This is Denton Station Signal Box located to the south side of the road bridge on Manchester Road, Denton (Lancs) around 1972. Under the bridge and to the north side of Manchester Road are the platforms of the former Denton Station. If you have any pictures of Denton Station, for which the...

www.flickr.com

Reddish South, these shots are credited to JW Sutherland.

 

[vlad]

Wick and Thurso are surprisingly similar. Single-platform but two-track termini with a train shed covering part of the platform, and a fairly empty concourse inside a fairly featureless building.

 

[Ashley Hill]

If you think about it many stations built by one railway company,designed by the same architect and especially on the same stretch of line will no doubt be very similar if not the same. Likewise a companies standard design of the time will appear all over its system.

 

[Sprinter107]

Not sure I can get this link to work properly? There is a better shot showing a Met Cam 101 if you scroll back one shot from the signalbox, will try to attach a Reddish South one next.

Denton Station Signal Box, Manchester Road, Denton, Manchester.

This is Denton Station Signal Box located to the south side of the road bridge on Manchester Road, Denton (Lancs) around 1972. Under the bridge and to the north side of Manchester Road are the platforms of the former Denton Station. If you have any pictures of Denton Station, for which the...

www.flickr.com

Reddish South, these shots are credited to JW Sutherland.

Thanks for those. I visited both of those stations a couple of years ago, so these pictures are really very interesting. You cant believe they are the same stations.

 

[superjohn]

Stevenage, Broxbourne and Harlow Town have always seemed very similar to me. I guess they were all products of the Eastern region architects at around the same time. Barking station is of the same era and also bears some resemblance at platform level.

 

[yorksrob]

Charing, Lenham, Harrietsham, Hollingbourne and Bearstead. There are some different stylings between them though !

 

[Grecian 1998]

Good luck trying to differentiate Chetnole and Thornford on the Heart of Wessex line. Both concrete platforms on the Bristol-bound side of the station, in the middle of the Dorset countryside served by a pedestrian bridge spanning from a road bridge at the south end of the station.

 

[David Goddard]

If we just look at buildings the 1970s CLASP structures at Fleet and Wokingham were very similar. Fortunately both have now been replaced with something easier on the eye.

Indeed the replacement buildings have even more similarities than the CLASP ones they replaced. As two stations that we are near to and have used a lot the replacement was a welcome change, just sad that the new open and airy buildings were spoilt with gate lines a few years after opening.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Thanks for those. I visited both of those stations a couple of years ago, so these pictures are really very interesting. You cant believe they are the same stations.

Yes it’s an eye opener really in comparison to whats there today. I can remember Reddish South as a youngster around 1967/68 when the ticket office above was still staffed and with all its buildings and functioning platform gas lamps still intact except for those on the Up/Down slow lines island platform; I’ve never been able to work out excactly when passenger services ceased using these as I’ve seen photos from the mid 50s with the buildings removed yet the slow lines still saw the occasional Stockport-Stalybridge dmu (non-stop on Sunday) up until closure in about 1970/71.

 

[fairysdad]

A number of the station buildings on the North Devon Line share architectural similarities (Umberleigh and Morchard Road are the two that spring to mind), but as mentioned above it's quite common that stations built at the same time on the same line will be so identical to each other.

The surprising one that I have noticed, and although they're not identical they seem very similar to me, are Bournemouth and Stoke-on-Trent stations.

 

[JonathanH]

Indeed the replacement buildings have even more similarities than the CLASP ones they replaced. As two stations that we are near to and have used a lot the replacement was a welcome change, just sad that the new open and airy buildings were spoilt with gate lines a few years after opening.

The ability to install a gate line was of course one of the reasons for a more substantial replacement than the CLASP building.

It might be noted that the shelters built for secondary gate line installations are of a similar design at numerous locations.

 

[John Webb]

Stations & Structures of the Settle & Carlisle Railway by Anderson and Fox. There is also a fair amount in Rails in the Fells by David Jenkinson, but that is probably more difficult to obtain.

The original book was published in 1986 by the Oxford Publishing Co (OPC) with a reprint in 2000, ISBN 0 86093 360 1. But there is a second edition with added material published around 2017 - I saw it on sale at the Friends of the S&C shop at Settle station that year.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Wimbledon Park and Southfields are very similar, except that they are opposite ways round - the entrance at Wimbledon Park is at the north end, at Southfields it is at the south. Very disorienting if you are used to one and are using the other.

 

[Right Away]

Good luck trying to differentiate Chetnole and Thornford on the Heart of Wessex line. Both concrete platforms on the Bristol-bound side of the station, in the middle of the Dorset countryside served by a pedestrian bridge spanning from a road bridge at the south end of the station.

They both use the prefabricated platforms and shelters from the closed Cattistock Halt which was a few miles south of Chetnole. One station got the former up platform and the other the former down platform. Similarly, both of the platforms and shelters survive at the closed Bradford Peverell & Stratton Halt (between Maiden Newton and Dorchester) and are of the same design, produced by the former Southern Railway concrete works at Exmouth Junction.

 

[Sprinter107]

Yes it’s an eye opener really in comparison to whats there today. I can remember Reddish South as a youngster around 1967/68 when the ticket office above was still staffed and with all its buildings and functioning platform gas lamps still intact except for those on the Up/Down slow lines island platform; I’ve never been able to work out excactly when passenger services ceased using these as I’ve seen photos from the mid 50s with the buildings removed yet the slow lines still saw the occasional Stockport-Stalybridge dmu (non-stop on Sunday) up until closure in about 1970/71.

When was it that those 2 stations became unstaffed ? I suppose it was in the paytrain era ?

 

[Ash Bridge]

When was it that those 2 stations became unstaffed ? I suppose it was in the paytrain era ?

It was indeed and if memory is serving correctly I’d say sometime during 1968, the buildings probably then survived another year or so until the inevitable bus shelter replacement was installed. At least Reddish South still retained its signalbox for several years afterwards though!

 

[Ianno87]

Stevenage, Broxbourne and Harlow Town have always seemed very similar to me. I guess they were all products of the Eastern region architects at around the same time. Barking station is of the same era and also bears some resemblance at platform level.

Coventry and Stafford have a clear architectural similarly.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Wandsworth Common, Streatham Common, Norbury, Thornton Heath, Selhurst, Purley Oaks, Purley and Horley clearly have the same architectural hand; unsurprisingly given they were built as the LBSC Railway quadrupled from Clapham Junction to Balcombe Tunnel Junction. East Croydon was, but the station’s had a significant rebuilt since. I assume Coulsdon North was as well.

No idea why South Croydon didn’t get the same treatment. I’ve a vague recollection that St Leonard’s Warrior Square is in the same style.

 

[yorksrob]

Wandsworth Common, Streatham Common, Norbury, Thornton Heath, Selhurst, Purley Oaks, Purley and Horley clearly have the same architectural hand; unsurprisingly given they were built as the LBSC Railway quadrupled from Clapham Junction to Balcombe Tunnel Junction. East Croydon was, but the station’s had a significant rebuilt since. I assume Coulsdon North was as well.

No idea why South Croydon didn’t get the same treatment. I’ve a vague recollection that St Leonard’s Warrior Square is in the same style.

Warrior Square is very South Eastern Railway, but you may be thinking of Bexhill Central which is in the same LB&SCR style ?

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Many of the smaller intermediate stations on the Cheshire Lines Manchester to Liverpool main line and the Altrincham to Chester route are / were of a standard design with only minor variations depending on the site. A very handsome design too, with fancy barge-boards on the two wings and a connecting booking-hall complete with canopy. This cleverly avoided the need for separate platform canopies. Widnes (Farnworth) is probably the best surviving example; Sankey is looking a bit sorry for itself now that it has lost most of its trains. Irlam has been restored as a restaurant / bar (although the canopy is not original) and the closed Cheadle North on the former Tiviot Dale line survives as pub, but modified trackside.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Thanks re Bexhill.

 

[Revaulx]

East Didsbury Gatley and Burnage all look similar, just the steps to the platforms are in a different place

Very much so. When I was a teenager I got off at the first mistaking it for the third.

 

[Paul Jones 88]

Enfield Lock, Brimsdown, Ponders End and Northumberland Park the main buildings are identical.

 

[Ianigsy]

Leasowe to Hoylake inclusive were all rebuilt in 1930s concrete when the West Kirby line was electrified- Hoylake is probably the most extravagant.