Worst line side view from train or station?

[TheSeeker]

This interesting tweet popped up. Can anyone top it? I remember the Eurostar coming into Waterloo and there is a huge scrap yard at Wandsworth on the right hand side as the track turns towards Vauxhall. Often overheard gasps from people seeing their first view of London.

 

[Flying Claret]

Travelling from Darwen to Blackburn you have to pass Ewood Park. That's as bad as it gets...
Arriving at Burnley Central the first thing you see are the two burnt out former pubs, the reindeer and adelphi. A very grim welcome to the town...

 

[bunnahabhain]

Longton station must surely be one of the top contenders!

 

[DanTrain]

Liverpool Lime Street

 

[Ianno87]

Liverpool Lime Street

It's impressive if you like civil engineering!

 

[Failed Unit]

Lincoln Central coming from Newark direction, the scrap yard and buildings they are pulling down are not exactly welcoming as you go around the Boutham curve.

 

[6Gman]

I'd nominate Bank Hall.

Brick walls each side and a burnt out pub if you leave.

 

[Ken H]

Liverpool Lime Street

Nooooo!

Proper railway atmosphere.

I actually like the approach to New St from Proof House, and from 5 Ways for the same reason. Then down with a bump as you get to the platforms.

And from Haymarket to Waverley

 

[DanTrain]

Nooooo!

Proper railway atmosphere.

I actually like the approach to New St from Proof House, and from 5 Ways for the same reason. Then down with a bump as you get to the platforms.

And from Haymarket to Waverley

Much prefer New Street from the London/Derby end - quite a nice approach that way!

Sheffield is much the same with tunnels, so is Kings Cross for that matter!

 

[northwichcat]

I recall when travelling to Middlesbrough from the York direction the train got stopped at a red signal overlooking a car scrapyard.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The southern approach to Wolverhampton is pretty grim, with an abandoned iron foundry next to the viaduct and grimy industrial relics all around.
The northern approach has the delightful burnt-out brewery building.
In between, the canal basin is briefly quite attractive!
Hopefully the station rebuild will improve the immediate station surroundings.

Warrington BQ has the Unilever complex on its western side, accompanied by the strong aroma of soap.
The eastern approaches to Glasgow are no great inspiration either.
The Birmingham approach from the south east offers the waste of the former Curzon St terminus - hopefully to be transformed by HS2 in the next decade.
Meanwhile the cityscapes around Salford Central and Manchester Oxford Road change by the week as new high-rise towers spring up alongside the railway.

I once did a rail run from Charleroi to Liege in Belgium, along the river Meuse/Maas, and it's at least as bad for derelict industry as our old industrial areas.
Some consider the acres of wind turbines as a blot on the landscape (eg over Beattock).
Or the opaque avenues of fir trees along much of the West Highland line.
To come with HS2 will be long, dark tunnels, extensive cuttings and miles of sound barriers to spoil the view.

 

[Thistley]

The Maryhill line should be a contender. The climb out of Cowlairs is depressing, and it makes its way through the delights of the north Glasgow schemes, taking in the sights of derelict warehouses around Possil, lineside trash throughout, the schemes at Possil and Summerston. The scenery gets somewhat better after Maryhill however.

 

[Ianno87]

The southern approach to Wolverhampton is pretty grim, with an abandoned iron foundry next to the viaduct and grimy industrial relics all around.
The northern approach has the delightful burnt-out brewery building.

Seconded!

 

[Dr_Paul]

I remember the Eurostar coming into Waterloo and there is a huge scrap yard at Wandsworth on the right hand side as the track turns towards Vauxhall. Often overheard gasps from people seeing their first view of London.

This used to be a yard with a rail connection, around the eastern side of the viaduct. The yard is on this postwar map by Linford Street, and is shown as a Midland Railway depot on this older map. The line into the yard was still there into the 1970s, I don't know if it was still in use by then. The trackbed was built on when the curve round to Nine Elms was constructed.

I remember going by train from Liverpool up to Southport around 1980, and the view of Bootle from the viaduct was one of almost total devastation: grid-style streets with every house demolished and the odd lonely pub remaining on the street corner. I imagine that it's been rebuilt since then. A ride through Wolverhampton on the way from Euston to Barmouth on a very dull and wet day in the 1980s was pretty grim as well.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

South Bank station possesses a pretty grim view, being directly next to the coke ovens and factories and other industrial whatnot.

 

[urbophile]

Liverpool Lime Street

Only if by 'worst line side view' you mean 'no view of anywhere further than a metre or so from the train windows', well yes. Except that there are several other stations approached by a continuous dark tunnel which beat the Lime Street approach on that score. I find the contrast between the frequent short tunnels and bridges, followed by the red sandstone cuttings relieved with ferns and moss, and occasional sections of brickwork. fascinating. Especially on a sunny day. And the stretch before that, coming up to Edge Hill from the south and looking across terraced streets and parks towards two cathedrals, with a hint of the river beyond, lifts the spirits of any Scouser (native or adopted).

 

[Esker-pades]

South Bank station possesses a pretty grim view, being directly next to the coke ovens and factories and other industrial whatnot.

See, I find the line from Middlesbrough to Redcar through all that TATA Steel stuff rather majestic.

 

[Ken H]

See, I find the line from Middlesbrough to Redcar through all that TATA Steel stuff rather majestic.

The Doncaster-Goole line threading through Hatfield pit was always interesting.

I remember the bus ride through Rylstone Quarry (Skipton-Grassington 71 bus) before they built a bypass. Used to go under conveyors.

And the ride past Abercwmboi coke ovens on the Aberdare line was interesting too.

 

[507021]

The line between Edge Hill and Lime Street.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Hailing from London, where industry has always been of a relatively light nature, I would have found a rail journey through the industrial parts of Britain absolutely fascinating. However smoky it was, I would have thoroughly enjoyed such a trip. When I look at the 25" OS maps of industrial areas on the National Library of Scotland website, I am amazed at the amount of factories, sidings, depots and other features that would have been visible from a train window. But then, of course, most of it has gone now...

 

[Bald Rick]

The southern approach to Wolverhampton is pretty grim, with an abandoned iron foundry next to the viaduct and grimy industrial relics all around.
The northern approach has the delightful burnt-out brewery building.
In between, the canal basin is briefly quite attractive!
Hopefully the station rebuild will improve the immediate station surroundings.

Seconded!

I quite like it - it’s like looking back into the country’s industrial past. And the Great Western PH is very nice.

In contrast, the view from around the Hawthorns station is dreadful.

 

[TheSeeker]

I once did a rail run from Charleroi to Liege in Belgium, along the river Meuse/Maas, and it's at least as bad for derelict industry as our old industrial areas.

Yes, I've had a good look around that area on my scooter and it is a dream location for a sci-fi set director. Everytime time I go home to South Wales I see similar things have been mostly removed, tidied up and grassed over.

 

[Fearless]

It's long gone now, but Manvers Main colliery (on what used to be the cross-country run between Rotherham and York) was like a vision of hell. Not just the grimy industrial buildings on both sides of the track, but the flames that used to burst out of the walls. The whole place was demolished in the late 1980s and part of the site is now a nature reserve managed by the RSPB.

 

[Polarbear]

The run on Sheffield Super Tram to Rotherham isn’t exactly the most scenic bit of line I’ve ever traversed

 

[Ken H]

It's long gone now, but Manvers Main colliery (on what used to be the cross-country run between Rotherham and York) was like a vision of hell. Not just the grimy industrial buildings on both sides of the track, but the flames that used to burst out of the walls. The whole place was demolished in the late 1980s and part of the site is now a nature reserve managed by the RSPB.

was that on the old cross country route via Grimethorpe?

 

[TheSel]

The run on Sheffield Super Tram to Rotherham isn’t exactly the most scenic bit of line I’ve ever traversed

Maybe not, but you can get a decent shot a hundred yards from the Parkgate terminus, which makes it all worthwhile. Well, almost!

Photo: 399302 arrives at Rotherham Parkgate, as commercial barge 'Exol Pride' passes by on the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal.

 

[Gostav]

Industry area is always dirty and as stains on the landscape，garbage disposal factory and vehicle recycling yard are always impossible to clean, also that is why industry in developed countries always to shrink.

 

[initiation]

The view out from platform 15 and 13 at Bristol Temple Meads (these are the platforms where most Paddington services arrive) must be up there. The derelict building and land looks awful. Redevelopment can't come soon enough.

 

[TonyM]

Travelling from Darwen to Blackburn you have to pass Ewood Park. That's as bad as it gets...
Arriving at Burnley Central the first thing you see are the two burnt out former pubs, the reindeer and adelphi. A very grim welcome to the town...

They have never been burnt out and the Reindeer was demolished two years ago. Having said that the scene greeting you on leaving the station is grim. If the area could be cleared it would make a good bus interchange and get some joined up transport in Burnley. But don't hold your breath there is not much common sense in local planning.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It's long gone now, but Manvers Main colliery (on what used to be the cross-country run between Rotherham and York) was like a vision of hell. Not just the grimy industrial buildings on both sides of the track, but the flames that used to burst out of the walls. The whole place was demolished in the late 1980s and part of the site is now a nature reserve managed by the RSPB.

Was this possibly the location?
I only used the old Midland route in South Yorkshire once before it closed, but somewhere near Cudworth (I think) there used to be a huge block of coke ovens alongside the line which belched vast amounts of dirty black smoke all day.
Sometimes we forget what clean air legislation has done to improve things.
And yet in Victorian times, belching chimneys were regarded as a good sign, because it meant there were jobs.