When was the Farnborough island platform removed?

[silverfoxcc]

When was this removed as i recall using it going to an Airshow there in the mid 60s, or is my memory all askew!!

 

[John Webb]

A diagram at https://signalbox.org/~SBdiagram.php?id= 271 showing the station layout in 1944 has no island platform shown on it. But there is a large gap between the up and down through lines as though there had once been an island platform. Regret I've no other information available.

 

[Brush 4]

I'm sure it was a grass bank until the 70's, unless I'm thinking of Winchfield.

 

[adc82140]

There's a photo in the Middleton Press book "Woking to Southampton" with it being a grass bank decorated with some rather smart shrubs. Can't recall the year though.

A diagram at https://signalbox.org/~SBdiagram.php?id= 271 showing the station layout in 1944 has no island platform shown on it. But there is a large gap between the up and down through lines as though there had once been an island platform. Regret I've no other information available.

The old footbridge had a padlocked gate going to nowhere, where the steps to an island platform would have been.

 

[30907]

I'm sure it was a grass bank until the 70's, unless I'm thinking of Winchfield.

Yes - a quick search produced a photo of a Brighton Atlantic on a special, which shows the bank. Must be before 1959 therefore.

 

[Gloster]

I have a vague recollection of reading that the centre platform was never constructed after the quadrupling at the beginning of the last century.

 

[ViscountFan]

It was certainly a grass bank back in the mid 60s when I travelled to school in Farnborough from Fleet. The regular engine in the morning was Winston Churchill.

 

[swt_passenger]

I have a vague recollection of reading that the centre platform was never constructed after the quadrupling at the beginning of the last century.

I just checked old OS maps, and it is shown as a line of trees in 1931. Older maps are either unclear, or don’t show anything. No footbridge connection is ever shown either.

In older maps still showing the three track layout it is the site of the up platform with an up loop round the back. I’m tending towards never used and partially demolished soon after four tracking.

 

[silverfoxcc]

After 44+ years my memory is going!!!

Thanks to all

 

[Snow1964]

I just checked old OS maps, and it is shown as a line of trees in 1931. Older maps are either unclear, or don’t show anything. No footbridge connection is ever shown either.

In older maps still showing the three track layout it is the site of the up platform with an up loop round the back. I’m tending towards never used and partially demolished soon after four tracking.

The loop around the back of the up platform was shortened and became a London facing bay platform. It was removed about 1965 when platforms were extended for 12car electric trains.

From memory there is a reference to a partly constructed spur (called Farnborough curve) from Frimley Junction on some maps early 20th century, don’t know if it opened, but the bay would have been useful for shuttle service (if it ever happened)

The central mound was the site of the original down platform, but seems to have been taken out of use when the new down lines came into use when line was quadrupled. Must have been a plan to build it (but never happened) otherwise the down lines could have been much straighter as happened at Fleet

 

[Gloster]

The loop around the back of the up platform was shortened and became a London facing bay platform. It was removed about 1965 when platforms were extended for 12car electric trains.

From memory there is a reference to a partly constructed spur (called Farnborough curve) from Frimley Junction on some maps early 20th century, don’t know if it opened, but the bay would have been useful for shuttle service (if it ever happened)

The line at the London end of the Up platform at Farnborough was, at least latterly, a siding and it may never have been used as a bay.

Until October 1964 there were Spur lines from Sturt Lane Junction, just over a mile to the east of Farnborough station, round to Frimley Junction. I am fairly sure that local trains did run between Frimley Junction and places further east over the East to North Spur, and local services may also have run over the West to North Spur, but not necessarily as a shuttle from Farnborough.

There was also an East to North Curve joining the LSWR Woking-Basingstoke line to the SER Ash-Reading line, but this was never connected at the LSWR end.

 

[DerekC]

There was also an East to North Curve joining the LSWR Woking-Basingstoke line to the SER Ash-Reading line, but this was never connected at the LSWR end.

It's surprising this wasn't reinstated and connected both ends in WWII. Both routes must have counted as strategic.

 

[30907]

It's surprising this wasn't reinstated and connected both ends in WWII. Both routes must have counted as strategic.

Probably because there were adequate diversionary routes already for both the LSW main line and the ex SER.

 

[RichJF]

Farnborough, Hampshire

Southern E Group

 

[The Ham]

Farnborough, Hampshire

Southern E Group

It looks very different now, with a new bridge, significant changes to the road layout and car parks and high rise building around.

 

[Roger1973]

When was this removed as i recall using it going to an Airshow there in the mid 60s, or is my memory all askew!!

Just a thought - could it have been Aldershot Station that you travelled through?

A book I have on the bus operator Aldershot and District says that most of the bus shuttles to / from the Air Show were provided from the slightly more distant Aldershot Station rather than Farnborough in the 50s at least, and implies that the Southern Region was more able to provide extra trains to Aldershot (which was on an electrified line) than to Farnborough (which at that time was not.)

 

[EbbwJunction1]

According to Mr W Pedia, it could have been in the early 1900s.

This is what he has to say: "As with Hook and Winchfield, there is a wide gap between the tracks. Originally, an island platform stood between them. When the railway was quadrupled, the existing up track became the down fast. The former up platform, an island which had a loop line running behind it was demolished with the loop line becoming the up fast. The new up slow line and a new platform for up services were built at this time (early 1900s)."

 

[Gloster]

A rereading of an article by Colin Chivers and Mike Rhodes in Volume 18, Nos 7 and 8 of the South Western Circular makes it clear that the middle platform was never constructed after the quadrupling of the early twentieth century. However, the space was left between the Fast Lines in case it was later decided to bring it into use. The bay on the Up side does not appear to have been intended for passenger use and was extremely short.