Historical UK White Elephant stations - How about Trent?

[Taunton]

Trent only had two platforms and lasted just over 100 years in its original form. Obviously it had waiting rooms and refreshment facilities to suit its role but it was hardly ‘big’. It also aided operational efficiency in terms of staff access to other nearby facilities.

I actually used it just a year or two before closure. I do recall it was effectively an unstaffed halt, one big island platform. There were certainly no staff visible because we were uncertain then what to do - we were on our way (with permits) to Toton shed. Fortunately a Toton driver had also been on our train from Derby, and showed us the BR bus (never seen one before) waiting outside. Contrary to some other accounts it did have road access, via a subway from the platform. Having followed instructions to walk to Toton from there, the lengthy bus journey showed this to be clearly impossible.

 

[WesternLancer]

I actually used it just a year or two before closure. I do recall it was effectively an unstaffed halt, one big island platform. There were certainly no staff visible because we were uncertain then what to do - we were on our way (with permits) to Toton shed. Fortunately a Toton driver had also been on our train from Derby, and showed us the BR bus (never seen one before) waiting outside. Contrary to some other accounts it did have road access, via a subway from the platform. Having followed instructions to walk to Toton from there, the lengthy bus journey showed this to be clearly impossible.

I guess this would be what is shown on modern maps as Trent Lane, running along the south side of the lines, with the lane leading east till it meets Meadow Lane which runs north into Long Eaton town. Looks like a good 4.5km from my crude measurement to follow that into Long Eaton and beyond as far as Toton shed (possibly longer to skirt round the large Toton sidings area to the shed itself).

As a matter of interest what instructions did the Ian Allan shed guide give as instruction to visit Toton shed? but to Long Eaton and walk from there? I suppose in earlier years Long Eaton town station services would have got close enough to walk more easily.

 

[etr221]

Thanks for confirming. Might just have been the very last race meeting there and so the last time the old Gatwick Racecourse station was used, prior to its 1958 makeover.

The most complete history of Gatwick Racecourse and Airport, down to the opening of the Airport we know and love/hate in 1958 that I have found is The History of Gatwick Airport 1241AD to 1958 (on a British Caledonian memorial website)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The most complete history of Gatwick Racecourse and Airport, down to the opening of the Airport we know and love/hate in 1958 that I have found is The History of Gatwick Airport 1241AD to 1958 (on a British Caledonian memorial website)

That seems (on page 2) to confirm the April 1948 point to point as the last race meeting of any kind at Gatwick Racecourse, and the last time the old station was used.

 

[LickeyIncliner]

....and on a similar theme - not too far away - I give you Verney Junction.

And in a different direction - and I think on a slightly larger scale - Melton Constable.

Others will know more, but my impression is that some of the "white elephants" were deliberate, if not necessarily well-judged, attempts to keep labour costs and staff turnover to minima by creating fairly isolated communities where the railway was the only significant employer. Of course the same may have been true for Swindon and Crewe - the difference between a white elephant and whatever the opposite is being that, one way or another, they grew to be more diverse and less railway-dependent.

 

[etr221]

That seems (on page 2) to confirm the April 1948 point to point as the last race meeting of any kind at Gatwick Racecourse, and the last time the old station was used.

Post war, the Racecourse station was, as mentioned on that webpage, a bit above the mention of the last race meet, used for Air Pageants in 1948 and '49. A query I have raised before, elsewhere, but without getting an answer, is when was it officially declared closed and not available/maintained/fit for further use (in connection with any future events).

And in a different direction - and I think on a slightly larger scale - Melton Constable.

Others will know more, but my impression is that some of the "white elephants" were deliberate, if not necessarily well-judged, attempts to keep labour costs and staff turnover to minima by creating fairly isolated communities where the railway was the only significant employer. Of course the same may have been true for Swindon and Crewe - the difference between a white elephant and whatever the opposite is being that, one way or another, they grew to be more diverse and less railway-dependent.

I doubt any such were deliberate attempts 'to keep labour costs and staff turnover to a minima' (though that might have been a result), but rather the result of geography (railway and otherwise) and the availability of relatively cheap open land for the company to use for its facilities. And in terms of retaining or recruiting labour, a two edged sword - while there may not have anywhere else nearby for staff to go, there wasn't anywhere for then to come from.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Post war, the Racecourse station was, as mentioned on that webpage, a bit above the mention of the last race meet, used for Air Pageants in 1948 and '49. A query I have raised before, elsewhere, but without getting an answer, is when was it officially declared closed and not available/maintained/fit for further use (in connection with any future events).

Wouldn't spectators for these (slightly later) air pageants have used the late 1940s version of Gatwick Airport station (the one at Tinsley Green which opened September 1935 and permanently closed May 1958) so as to access the old airport via The Beehive (former terminal)?

Doubt that Gatwick Racecourse station, as was, ever officially closed, it was just no longer being used as there were no further race meetings after 1948, although there must have been a period of time in the mid 1950s when it couldn't actually have been used, due to the station's substantial reconstruction and the building of the nearby brand new Gatwick Airport air terminal.

 

[etr221]

Wouldn't spectators for these (slightly later) air pageants have used the late 1940s version of Gatwick Airport station (the one at Tinsley Green which opened September 1935 and permanently closed May 1958) so as to access the old airport via The Beehive (former terminal)?

My understanding is that they did use the Racecourse station (quoted in Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in GB): the pageants were actually held on the RAF station, which had taken over much of the racecourse as well as the former, 1930s, airport (which AIUI had essentially closed as such before the war). How much use of the 1930s Airport station was ever made for 'airport' use (as distinct for 'local' use to Tinsley Green) I don't know - I suspect very little before closure in 1958 - the Airport had only been used for commercial flights in 1936-37, and then post war in 1950-56. So perhaps that was the true 'white elephant' station.

Doubt that Gatwick Racecourse station, as was, ever officially closed, it was just no longer being used as there were no further race meetings after 1948, although there must have been a period of time in the mid 1950s when it couldn't actually have been used, due to the station's substantial reconstruction and the building of the nearby brand new Gatwick Airport air terminal.

You may be right, but I would expect that after its use for the 1949 Air Pageant (after which there was probably an expectation of its use the following year - except that there wasn't another pageant) there would at some point before the engineers moved in for reconstruction in 1956 a decision (if only by default) that it wouldn't be used in future, with appropriate change in the railway's documentation (sectional appendix, etc).

 

[Falcon1200]

As a matter of interest what instructions did the Ian Allan shed guide give as instruction to visit Toton shed? but to Long Eaton and walk from there? I suppose in earlier years Long Eaton town station services would have got close enough to walk more easily.

The 1962 Shed Directory gives walking times of 15 minutes from Stapleford & Sandiacre and 30 minutes from the then Long Eaton stations. By 1972 it was a bus from Nottingham or Derby to the site of Stapleford & Sandiacre, but the walking time from there to the Depot was only 10 minutes!

 

[WesternLancer]

The 1962 Shed Directory gives walking times of 15 minutes from Stapleford & Sandiacre and 30 minutes from the then Long Eaton stations. By 1972 it was a bus from Nottingham or Derby to the site of Stapleford & Sandiacre, but the walking time from there to the Depot was only 10 minutes!

Thanks - interesting to read that.