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What is a Bay Platform??

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keith1879

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Apologies if answered elsewhere ... I did do a bit of a search but found nothing.

Having been interested in railways since the 1960s I was always quite clear that a bay platform was a terminal platform which was let into a longer platform (usually a through platform but on occasion a longer terminal platform). So the west facing terminal platforms at Stalybridge are both bays, and platform 17 at Leeds is a bay....but ordinary terminal platforms with barriers leading onto a concourse are not bays (generally speaking).

A fair rule of thumb would be that to gain access to a bay platform you had to walk along another platform.

In particular Manchester Victoria had about 10 terminal platforms where the Metrolink station is now ...these were not bays.

These days it seems to be increasingly the case that ordinary terminal platforms are called bays.

Any views on this?
 
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Peter C

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I always thought a bay platform was essentially a shorter terminating platform which was physically connected to another platform, and, as you say, you have to walk down another platform to reach the bay platform.
The old bay platform at Banbury:
Banbury_railway_station_MMB_06_165012_168005_165003.jpg

(not my photo) /\ Bay platform illustrated by the rightmost Class 165.

Is what I'd consider to be a "bay". It's part of a longer platform (essentially, being in the middle of the current Platforms 1 and 2) and is a terminating platform.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_platform says the following:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_platform said:
In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines.[1] It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms.

Overview[edit]
Bay and island platforms are so named because they resemble the geographic features of the same name.

Examples of stations with bay platforms include Carlisle railway station; Nottingham railway station (pictured), which has a bay platform inset into one of its platform islands; and the San Francisco International Airport BART Station which has three bay platforms, two of which are in use. Chicago's CTA O'Hare Airport Station features a bay platform with one track on the bay and a track on each side of the platform. The Hoboken and 33 St Stations on the PATH train line have bay platforms. Ferry Avenue on the PATCO Speedline also has a bay platform. However, in the New York City Subway, such platforms are thought of as side or island platforms connected at the ends, rather than bay platforms.

Trains which use a bay platform have to reverse direction and depart in the direction from which they arrived.
Which I think does a pretty good job of explaining the whole thing in more detail than I could ever do.

-Peter

EDIT: There is also this:
220px-Platform_types_en.svg.png

Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_platform
And this page says:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_platform said:
This diagram illustrates different types of platform. Platform 1 is a "bay" platform, while platforms 2, 3 and 4 are "through" platforms. The platform accommodating 3 and 4 is an "island" platform
 

keith1879

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Thanks ..... instead of making irritating and self-important corrections to other posts I shall merely smile quietly to myself in the knowledge that you and I are both right. :p
 

Peter C

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Thanks ..... instead of making irritating and self-important corrections to other posts I shall merely smile quietly to myself in the knowledge that you and I are both right. :p
Excellent. Glad I could help - I don't know a lot about the railways and the technical terms, but the stuff I do know I tend to know a bit about. Platforms not really being one of those things, so a "correct" answer from me surrounding them is a plus! :)

-Peter
 

swt_passenger

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My view: There isnt a rule and there isnt an agreed or correct definition. The term can mean whatever you want it to mean.
I also reckon it’s only needed to differentiate the type when both occur together. So if you take somewhere like Waterloo as an example, they can just be “platforms” because they’re all the same. So it follows that you probably don’t need to refer to through platforms either, when there are no bays?

(You could also probably ask if a “dock” is a type of bay...)
 

LAX54

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The term Bay Platform we use at Colchester box, is one that is simply a dead end with stops :) Colchester P5 and 6, Manningtree Platform 1, (and 4) and Ipswich Platform 1, but at Norwich which is the terminal, none are called bays !
 

30907

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Not su
I also reckon it’s only needed to differentiate the type when both occur together. So if you take somewhere like Waterloo as an example, they can just be “platforms” because they’re all the same. So it follows that you probably don’t need to refer to through platforms either, when there are no bays?

(You could also probably ask if a “dock” is a type of bay...)

Agree with first para.

A dock may or may not be a bay - it can/could be at the end of a goods road - but one clear difference is that it will not be used for passenger trains, whereas a bay can be (unless it is further described - are/were there parcels bays?).
 

swt_passenger

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[…]
A dock may or may not be a bay - it can/could be at the end of a goods road - but one clear difference is that it will not be used for passenger trains, whereas a bay can be (unless it is further described - are/were there parcels bays?).
I’ve seen various terms used, parcels bay, parcel dock and there’s a few parcels platforms. Maybe a dock implies level side access or end access though?
 

PHILIPE

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Queen St is all through lines, has been for a long time.

Cardiff Queen St does have a Bay which is used exclusively for the Bay shuttle. It was created when the lay out was altered about 5 years ago and the introduction of a new Platform 5 through road. It is Platform 1
 
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sw1ller

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It’s a good question to be fair. I’ve just thought about it now and if someone at Chester said there’s a train in “the bay” then it’s not in P1, 2, 5 or 6, it’s in the parcels bay. We never use the term for the other bay platforms.
 

Aictos

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Hertford North’s Platform 3, Gordon Hill’s Platform 1 can be considered bay platforms indeed on the signalling panels that is what they are referred to as.
 

edwin_m

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The former bay platform 5 at Derby was signalled by "B" on the route indicator, unlike all the other platforms that displayed numbers. I believe this was to remind drivers that 5 was a short platform to be entered more cautiously.
 

keith1879

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Interesting....they both appear to qualify according to my definition that you have to traverse another platform ....but they aren't really let into another platform being more or less the full length of the station. It does feel as though the use of the term has expanded since I (quite literally) was a lad.
 

WatcherZero

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Ive always understood it to mean a terminating platform with no possibility of through running.

Dictionary definition seems to just be "an area with a specific function", e.g. loading bay or parking bays for road vehicles.
 

delticdave

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The new platform 6 at Shenfield should qualify.
As do platforms 1 & 4 at Wickford. Both are used by the Southminster branch trains, as are the through platforms too...
Arrivals in 1, 3 & 4, departures on 3 as well, for the 1st two trains of the day that arrive in Wickford ECS from Southend.
 

swt_passenger

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I doubt the purpose of this thread was an attempt to list examples around the country of bay platforms?

But then it also occurred to me to check the definitions in Mr Ellis’ railway engineering encyclopaedia:

Bay
A common contraction for Bay Line.

Bay Line
A track, which is not a through line, at a station, which has a platform provided at one or both sides and a buffer stop at the end.

Bay Platform
The side platform adjacent to a Bay Line.
 

oddiesjack

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I suggest that the term "bay" is used to describe a terminating platform at a station which is mainly a through station. If the station is a terminus, or mainly a terminus (like Manchester Piccadilly is) then the terminating platforms are just platforms.
"Mainly" can probably be defined as when there are more terminating platforms than through ones.
 

randyrippley

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Platform 1 at Yeovil Junction was always described as a bay platform until it was eventually changed in the 1980s.
It ran the full length of the station and was originally only used for the shuttle to Yeovil Town. There was a headshunt at the western end, which allowed a loco to runaround via platform 2.
It was a bay quite simply because it could only be accessed by a train from one end.
 
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Portsmouth and Southsea has two bay platforms which are only connected to each other (used to be 6, all bays and only connected at the concourse end to each other)

A bay is just a terminating platform in a through station. It doesnt have to be connected to a longer platform, like at Crewe to be called a bay.
There are many instances of bay platforms, but they shouldnt be confused with what were once goods loading platforms. Runcorn station is a good example of that.
 

eMeS

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I could faecetiously suggest these bay platforms:
800px-ColwynBayStation1-P1042428.JPG

Through platforms at Colwyn Bay station. :p

Wow! That brings back pleasant and distant memories.

Living close to Manchester during WWII, we had our annual holidays at Colwyn Bay, and I spent much happy time watching movements in the adjoining goods yard - now sadly gone! Compared to the CLC at home, Colwyn Bay had "proper trains" with engines pointing the "right" way, unlike our local railway at Chassen Road, where many of the trains were hauled by tank engines, pulling with the coal store at the front. ... and I learnt to like the smell of coffee in the restaurant on the pier.
 

hermit

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Usage obviously varies from person to person. In my view it’s not enough for a bay to be a terminating platform in a through station - it also has to be adjacent to a through platform. So I would not regard the low level terminating platforms at Portsmouth and Southsea as bays - you have to walk from the platform ends and climb a staircase to reach the through (high-level) platforms.

Woking has a classic bay set into the main platforms at the London end. Closer to my home there is also a bay, used for overnight stabling, at Ryde St John’s Road.
 

krus_aragon

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Wow! That brings back pleasant and distant memories.

Living close to Manchester during WWII, we had our annual holidays at Colwyn Bay, and I spent much happy time watching movements in the adjoining goods yard - now sadly gone! Compared to the CLC at home, Colwyn Bay had "proper trains" with engines pointing the "right" way, unlike our local railway at Chassen Road, where many of the trains were hauled by tank engines, pulling with the coal store at the front. ... and I learnt to like the smell of coffee in the restaurant on the pier.
Times have changed significantly though: The station was reduced to two platforms when the A55 was threaded through the town, the goods yard is now a shopping centre, and the pier has been demolished. The occasional steam engines on railtours do still point the right way, unless they're heading up the Conwy Valley (in which case they'll be working tender-first to Llandudno Jn).
 
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