Trivia: Stations that look identical to each other

[Revaulx]

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.

It seems to have been a Great Central thing. Wath Central was the same, though the barge-boards there appear to have been less elaborate than the CLC ones.

 

[Whisky Papa]

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.

Yes, a very handsome design indeed! The building of this pattern at my former local station Urmston also survives as a pub (pre-Covid, anyway) but was always a bit of an oddity as it was on the Liverpool-bound platform, not the far-busier Manchester side. There used to be a waiting room and ticket window in a smaller building on the Manchester side, which is logically where the modern replacement is located.

 

[Efini92]

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!

Wasn’t Denton only ever 2 platforms and reddish had 4?

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, a very handsome design indeed! The building of this pattern at my former local station Urmston also survives as a pub (pre-Covid, anyway) but was always a bit of an oddity as it was on the Liverpool-bound platform, not the far-busier Manchester side. There used to be a waiting room and ticket window in a smaller building on the Manchester side, which is logically where the modern replacement is located.

Glazebrook is very attractive, but definitely in need of some TLC !

 

[Taunton]

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.

The whole of the onetime Wilts Somerset & Weymouth Railway, from Chippenham down through Westbury and Yeovil to Weymouth, had stations of a common architectural design, stone-built with huge high brick chimneys, widening at the top. As stations along a new line are all designed together in the architect's office, it's not surprising they use common features. Many have gone and been replaced, but there are still some nice ones around.

The halts had been typical GWR timber structures when built and opened in the 1920s-30s, which were dilapadated by the period from 1952 to 1962 when the Southern Region had responsibility for the line, hence replacing structures coming from Exmouth Junction works rather than the WR concrete works at Taunton. Maiden Newton footbridge was replaced in the same era, in a prefab concrete style that looks like something from the London suburban area.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Wasn’t Denton only ever 2 platforms and reddish had 4?

No it also had twin island platforms just as Reddish did. If you back track to post #37 and click on the link Denton Station Signalbox, scroll the images to the left and there is a shot of a class 101 dmu standing at the down fast platform, whilst the former down slow platform face can be clearly seen to the left of the shot. I’m guessing that these were taken OOU around 1950 when the stations on the Guide Bridge Avoiding Line (via Hooley Hill) closed although I’d be grateful of proper confirmation of this.

 

[Waldgrun]

The original stations on the Portsmouth Direct Line are of interest, as two designs where used for 7 stations, Godalming and Petersfield share the larger design as they where the two largest settlements when the line was built, Witley, Haslemere, Liphook, Liss and finally Rowlands Castle. Were built to a slightly smaller design. Haslemere was extended in the 1930's but the original building formed the core of the rebuilt station,. Liss was replaced in the 1970's by a CLASP building. As the building was rotten and falling apart, I was told by someone who worked there, in the 1950/60s, that to enter the locked booking office, all one had to do was lean on the wall near the entrance, and the door would swing open!
Also, of interest is the fact that the Portsmouth Direct Line was a contractors line, meaning it was built by someone with no intension of operating the line, but making a sale to one of three rival companies at a profit! The line being cheaply constructed, tight curves, steep gradients etc. Different contractors being used for each section and each station. So, while the building may look very similar there are slight differences! Also, the building quality varied, it would seem that Liss was the poorest!

 

[Efini92]

No it also had twin island platforms just as Reddish did. If you back track to post #37 and click on the link Denton Station Signalbox, scroll the images to the left and there is a shot of a class 101 dmu standing at the down fast platform, whilst the former down slow platform face can be clearly seen to the left of the shot. I’m guessing that these were taken OOU around 1950 when the stations on the Guide Bridge Avoiding Line (via Hooley Hill) closed although I’d be grateful of proper confirmation of this.

Was it 4 tracked all the way to Heaton Norris originally? Was the avoiding line the one that went off to the right at Denton junction and came back in at staly?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Glazebrook is very attractive, but definitely in need of some TLC !

Which other station on the line does/did Glazebrook most closely resemble?

 

[yorksrob]

Which other station on the line does/did Glazebrook most closely resemble?

Widnes, Urmston, Irlam etc. It's the same type essentially.

 

[Ken H]

Langwathby, Lazonby and Armathwaite are medium sized ones.

Settle Carlisle trust have further details on their website here:

Station Buildings - The Settle Carlisle Railway

settle-carlisle.co.uk

Note that this only covers open stations though - most of the closed ones are largely intact too.

There is a book on the S&C buildings - can't recall the name of the author.

the midland S&C railway cottages are all the same. Different colour depending on the local stone. Some have odd names, like Salt Lake. (Near ribblehead) - named after construction camps.

 

[Sprinter107]

Which other station on the line does/did Glazebrook most closely resemble?

Hough Green, Widnes, Sankey, Padgate, Irlam, Urmston, are similar to Glazebrook. Think Flixton was also.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Was it 4 tracked all the way to Heaton Norris originally? Was the avoiding line the one that went off to the right at Denton junction and came back in at staly?

It certainly was; there also used to be a fair sized marshalling yard known as Jubilee Sidings on the eastern side of the line between Ash Bridge and Heaton Norris Junc. and yes, the Hooley Hill line was indeed the one you mention at Denton Junc. I believe the later quadrupling of the route was completed in conjunction with the widening work on Stockport viaduct to make it 4 track also.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Hough Green, Widnes, Sankey, Padgate, Irlam, Urmston, are similar to Glazebrook. Think Flixton was also.

Thanks for clarifying. Most of my journeys back in the day were from Urmston were inbound to Manchester Oxford Road, so hardly ever got to see the architecture at the various stations in the Liverpool direction.

 

[Scouseinmanc]

I’d say Swinton & Moorside on the Atherton line out of Mcr are very similar. Standard LYR design roadside ticket offices & long island platforms. Think there may have been more platforms originally?

 

[Thebaz]

Every station between Sutton and Wimbledon could easily be any of the others

 

[pbaran]

District Line stations in the Barking/Upminster area with long ramps

 

[noddingdonkey]

Many of the stations in West Yorkshire which WYPTE reopened in the 80s and early 90s are pretty similar. Bramley, Slaithwaite, Walsden, Deighton, Filtzwilliam, Crossflatts, Saltaire, East Garforth, Cottingley, Featherstone, Pontefract Tanshelf, plus the Mirfield loop platform are all clearly built from the same kit of parts

 

[david_g]

Mention of Slaithwaite brings up the earlier incarnation, also built from a kit of parts viz. the LNWR sectional wooden buildings. The four Colne valley stations were two very similar pairs: Golcar and Marsden had the booking office built of brick on an overbridge with LNWR buildings on the platforms; Longwood & Milnsbridge and Slaithwaite had a subway between the platforms, again with LNWR buildings on the platforms. I can still recall the distinctive smell of the booking hall at Golcar, 70 years of steam locomotive exhaust permeating the wooden floor.

 

[MrEd]

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.

You can only tell the difference (as far as I can see) from the train shed shape- the one at Wick is a perfect triangle, while the one at Thurso has a curved frontage.

 

[urbophile]

Most stations on the West Kirby branch of Merseyrail Wirral Line are very similar, in a sort of stripped-down back to basics version of Charles Holden's Underground stations. Hoylake is a bit more distinctive with its Holden-style cylindrical concourse, and West Kirby itself retains its Edwardian (?) buildings but I don't think they are in railway use.

 

[Ianno87]

Many of the stations in West Yorkshire which WYPTE reopened in the 80s and early 90s are pretty similar. Bramley, Slaithwaite, Walsden, Deighton, Filtzwilliam, Crossflatts, Saltaire, East Garforth, Cottingley, Featherstone, Pontefract Tanshelf, plus the Mirfield loop platform are all clearly built from the same kit of parts

In Greater Manchester, Lostock, Hall I’ th‘ Wood, Hag Fold, Flowery Field, Woodsmoor (and probably others) are in the same wooden style, dating from the same period.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Not sure if anyone’s said it but immediately the Wimbledon Sutton loop springs to mind, some of the island platform stations look very similar to each other

 

[Djgr]

Most stations on the West Kirby branch of Merseyrail Wirral Line are very similar, in a sort of stripped-down back to basics version of Charles Holden's Underground stations. Hoylake is a bit more distinctive with its Holden-style cylindrical concourse, and West Kirby itself retains its Edwardian (?) buildings but I don't think they are in railway use.

From Leasowe onwards (not Bidston). Hoylake is the only one listed.

Although much of the original (Victorian, just, I think) West Kirby station has been converted into retail/cafés you still pass through it to access the platforms. (West Kirby is cafe central during lockdown, especially when people swarm to the Wirral beaches whilst the Welsh ones are forbidden)

 

[AJS90]

The canopy on platforms 2&3 at Walsall that was built in the 1990’s has similarities with the Jewellery Line stations that were built at roughly the same time.