Previously staffed stations Lancaster - Carlisle via Barrow

[ScottGallagher]

For literally decades only a handful of these stations have ticket offices/staff depending on size but was there ever a time when all stations on the route had staffing of some kind?

At some locations you can see buildings that may have been ticket offices etc other stations may have had buildings which are long gone.

It would be mindblowing these days to think there could once have been a ticket office /porter/ stationmaster at Green Road or Braystones!

 

[hexagon789]

For literally decades only a handful of these stations have ticket offices/staff depending on size but was there ever a time when all stations on the route had staffing of some kind?

At some locations you can see buildings that may have been ticket offices etc other stations may have had buildings which are long gone.

It would be mindblowing these days to think there could once have been a ticket office /porter/ stationmaster at Green Road or Braystones!

I imagine they would've had at least basic staff. The buildings at Braystones suggests at least a booking hall-cum-general waiting room perhaps?

 

[Lemmy99uk]

The ticket office, ticket window, waiting room and toilet are still there at Green Road, in the boarded up station building.

Nethertown had a signal box, booking office, toilets and waiting room, all now swept away.

 

[30907]

Can't speak for the specific route, but until the mid 60s most stations (not Halts) were staffed for most of the day, though maybe with only a single member of staff. Even if there was no goods traffic, there might well still have been parcels.
Working timetables might have an instruction against a late train "guard to collect tickets and extinguish lights at X" - and I've seen the entry "no staff in attendance" somewhere for that period, but can't think where.

Halts were traditionally unstaffed (but not always, especially on the SR, where they could be quite busy).
BR had a period from the 60s where unstaffed stations had "halt" added, and then abolished Halts altogether.

 

[ScottGallagher]

The ticket office, ticket window, waiting room and toilet are still there at Green Road, in the boarded up station building.

Nethertown had a signal box, booking office, toilets and waiting room, all now swept away.

Wow , that must have been a cushy job considering the footfall !!

 

[RT4038]

Halts were traditionally unstaffed (but not always, especially on the SR, where they could be quite busy).
BR had a period from the 60s where unstaffed stations had "halt" added, and then abolished Halts altogether.

I'm not sure that is right - I thought 'Halts' were those stations where goods facilities were not provided. I think many 'halts' had staff in attendance (e.g. Canley Halt), even if not all of the day.

 

[30907]

I'm not sure that is right - I thought 'Halts' were those stations where goods facilities were not provided. I think many 'halts' had staff in attendance (e.g. Canley Halt), even if not all of the day.

Think it depended on the railway a bit.
Canley is the first non-SR staffed halt I have come across, but there may well be others.
They first started being built for rail motor type trains so they wouldn't have dealt with parcels traffic (there were plenty of stations with no goods facilities, especially in the suburbs).
I think the Platform category is unique to the GWR and I believe they were staffed but have no source for that.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Are we talking about previously staffed stations generally or just those on the Lancaster -> Carlisle (via Barrow-in-Furness) line?

 

[WesternLancer]

Wow , that must have been a cushy job considering the footfall !!

Probably not. You have to think that all sorts of other aspects of daily life could / would have revolved around a station - eg dealing with (alive) live stock, parcels and packages, newspaper deliveries. Possibly also supervising / managing (and organizing the payment of) other local railway staff - track gangers / signalling staff etc. Elements of maintenance for example signalling - such as lamping perhaps - topping up the oil, checking wicks in signal lamps (something the station staff member at my local BR(SR) single manned station did as late as the 1980s if not early 90s.

Of course a small station in a small place would have been less busy than others but you have to think about a time when many things in a community would have relied significantly on the railway, and all of those things required people to make them happen, probably well into the mid 20th century.

 

[ScottGallagher]

Probably not. You have to think that all sorts of other aspects of daily life could / would have revolved around a station - eg dealing with (alive) live stock, parcels and packages, newspaper deliveries. Possibly also supervising / managing (and organizing the payment of) other local railway staff - track gangers / signalling staff etc. Elements of maintenance for example signalling - such as lamping perhaps - topping up the oil, checking wicks in signal lamps (something the station staff member at my local BR(SR) single manned station did as late as the 1980s if not early 90s.

Of course a small station in a small place would have been less busy than others but you have to think about a time when many things in a community would have relied significantly on the railway, and all of those things required people to make them happen, probably well into the mid 20th century.

That's a very fair point, I know the population of Millom was much bigger back in the day, especially before the iron works closed in 1968.

A valuable lesson not to view the past through the lens of today!

 

[Lemmy99uk]

Wow , that must have been a cushy job considering the footfall !!

There is a (blurry!) picture of the former buildings at Nethertown here:

Nethertown station c 1970

Nethertown station on the Cumbrian coast c. 1970 complete with signal box and two platforms. This lonely and isolated station, overlooking the Irish Sea, was rarely busy with passengers but boasted some importance for its passing loop on a single-track stretch once busy with goods trains. It...

www.flickr.com

 

[RT4038]

That's a very fair point, I know the population of Millom was much bigger back in the day, especially before the iron works closed in 1968.

A valuable lesson not to view the past through the lens of today!

Probably also depends on what era you are comparing it with - the work would have been greater before the Road Motor age (and during WW2) than say in the mid/late 60s just prior to conversions to an unstaffed halt.

 

[Taunton]

Station staff used to cover everything; freight, parcels and passengers, and at some places the last there was the least important. They also of course did the cleaning etc, which nowadays is outsourced further. In a few places even the signalman had the responsibility, as sole staff member. A stationmaster might have responsibility for several stations.

On the GWR/WR the main rationale behind calling unstaffed stations a Halt was it indicated to other staff that parcels could not be consigned there - there was a separate index for freight, which needed at least a siding but also facilities like a crane or not. Parcels typically went on passenger trains with the guard in those times.

 

[30907]

On the GWR/WR the main rationale behind calling unstaffed stations a Halt was it indicated to other staff that parcels could not be consigned there - there was a separate index for freight, which needed at least a siding but also facilities like a crane or not. Parcels typically went on passenger trains with the guard in those times.

Thanks, that was my take on it. Am I right that Platforms were staffed?

I suspect the SR staffed halts (I used Stone Crossing Halt - as was - earlier this century, but I think there were others eg on the East and West Coast lines (LBSC that is!).

 

[S&CLER]

There is a (blurry!) picture of the former buildings at Nethertown here:

Nethertown station c 1970

Nethertown station on the Cumbrian coast c. 1970 complete with signal box and two platforms. This lonely and isolated station, overlooking the Irish Sea, was rarely busy with passengers but boasted some importance for its passing loop on a single-track stretch once busy with goods trains. It...

www.flickr.com

I've used Nethertown station several times to visit friends who live there, and I seem to recollect that a railway cottage still survives, though not the station buildings. After 1947 when Beckermet station closed, Braystones was the nearest station to Beckermet, a bigger village, and may have been used more. I remember walking up the lane from Braystones to Beckermet village when Michael Moon's bookshop was still there, before he moved into Whitehaven.

 

[AJG3]

I hiked the clifftop coastal way path from Harrington to Parton last week (Lowca Light Railway trackbed etc, plus that great bucket list favourite, Harrington No.10 methane vent). I've been travelling the coast route since I was a nipper in the late 1960s, and cannot recall ever seeing any station buildings at either. In the case of Parton, the two brick bus shelters look circa 1950s, but I maybe wrong.