What is below the trap door at Haywards Heath railway station?

[infobleep]

Hi there

At Haywards heath station on platform 1 is some wood doors in the platform. Does anyone know what is underneath? I'd love to have a look down but I imagine health and safety might prevent such a thing, even on a open house weekend. Open house weekends being in September when organisations are encourage to open up to visitors and allow them to see things they might not otherwise normally see.

 

[Yew]

My bet is its a Saarlac Pit

 

[Johnuk123]

 

[edwin_m]

If there is/was a bar in the building behind it, it's probably for delivering barrels into the cellar.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Presumably it's where Southern put the people who try to travel on GX services while holding Southern DaySavers.

Could it possibly be for electrical equipment? It's both quaint and practical enough to look like something the Southern Railway would install during electrification.

 

[IanD]

It's the enatrance to the secret Underground line that serves Buckingham Palace. I've seen the Queen emerge from it many times to board the Royal Train at Haywards Heath.

 

[matchmaker]

Short cut to the Strategic Reserve?

 

[fgwrich]

However, depending on the structure above it on the platform / buildings, it could be a tap door leading down to a subway or tunnel which goods may have been hoisted up/down in the days of the SR when goods were carried by rail. Looks similar to the type of trap doors you would find in a mill, so it could have had a platform/canopy mounted hoist above it at some point in the stations life.

 

[ASharpe]

Could be a baptism pool - for those who need to proclaim the belief in the omniscience of the almighty signallers.

 

[yorksrob]

If there is/was a bar in the building behind it, it's probably for delivering barrels into the cellar.

I remember the station buffet on the down side used to have cask ale in the mid 1990's, so maybe that's it.

 

[bluenoxid]

Surely it's a Sponsored Facebook Advertisement.

 

[90019]

Hi there

Hello.

Does anyone know what is underneath?

People who ask too many questions.

 

[Gathursty]

You've just set me off on Youtube all night reliving my childhood! Thank you

 

[swj99]

It's my wine cellar.

 

[infobleep]

Thanks for the amusing and the odd sensible reply.

 

[Johnuk123]

Thanks for the amusing and the odd sensible reply.

Have you thought of asking somebody at the station, you might find somebody who knows.

 

[steevp]

I wish it was where they put the people who keep asking the monthly "what is this?" question and show a picture of a datum plate

 

[Joseph_Locke]

I wish it was where they put the people who keep asking the monthly "what is this?" question and show a picture of a datum plate

What's a datum plate?

 

[infobleep]

You mean this http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=39072

Didn't know that was a datum plate until now, although I had a vague idea of its purpose.

Anyway without asking people don't find out.... Well expect if they illegally break in to find out. Not something I plan on doing.

 

[Blindtraveler]

A bit late to the party here, but I think that trap door leeds to a crack training school where G4s teach people with limmited English and even more limmited manners and common sense how to spot law abiding fare paying passengers and turn them into faredodgers whilst the real ones get away with it. At the dead of night the hatches are opened and the newly qualliffied bullies are hearded onto a fleat of steam heat MK1s and taken to Manchester to practice there traid!↲
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Oh and in the corner is a soundproof cubbywhole where Atos Anne sits and pronounces station names wrongly for CIS systems nationwide!

 

[talltim]

A bit late to the party here, but I think that trap door leeds to a crack training school where G4s teach people with limmited English

I'm an irony spotter and I've just got another red line in the book!

 

[steevp]

What's a datum plate?

Ok Mr Locke - into the hole you go!

 

[ushawk]

Thinking about the layout of the station, it was probably used to send goods down to the concourse/ticket office level as at Haywards Heath, the platforms are on top of the subway and ticket office - so putting 2 and 2 together, id say it was for that.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Would this have been via a hoist type arrangement?

 

[fgwrich]

Thinking about the layout of the station, it was probably used to send goods down to the concourse/ticket office level as at Haywards Heath, the platforms are on top of the subway and ticket office - so putting 2 and 2 together, id say it was for that.

Would this have been via a hoist type arrangement?

However, depending on the structure above it on the platform / buildings, it could be a tap door leading down to a subway or tunnel which goods may have been hoisted up/down in the days of the SR when goods were carried by rail. Looks similar to the type of trap doors you would find in a mill, so it could have had a platform/canopy mounted hoist above it at some point in the stations life.

As I drew to on page one, presumably so with hoist above.

 

[acg5324]

Having worked at the Travel Centre and ticket office back in the 1980's the trap doors are next to the Buffet nowhere near either subway or the lifts to the main subway. I seem to remember them open and beer barrels spring to mind

 

[infobleep]

Beer barrels seem most likely, yet I couldn't imagine a bar on the platform in the 1930s, which was when Southern redeveloped the station.

The current lifts at the station use to be the old fashioned type with single sliding folding red door.

 

[12CSVT]

Is that where Berk, Boni and Drutt live ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9dbAQJIu1o

 

[LowLevel]

My money is on a cellar. I don't know of many old stations without something like that below floor level.