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I'm hoping someone will have a good memory and recall the station Buffet & bars from the 1970s and 1980s.
You may remember, they all had individual names. For example at Carmarthen station it was called the Coracle Buffet and Bar and I think the one at St. Pancras station was called 'The Shires'.
I'm trying to find out about one called 'The Gantry". Does anyone remember what station it was on? I've just bought one of its signs, and it would be great to know where it's from and if I ever visited it back in the day!
I'm hoping someone will have a good memory and recall the station Buffet & bars from the 1970s and 1980s.
You may remember, they all had individual names. For example at Carmarthen station it was called the Coracle Buffet and Bar and I think the one at St. Pancras station was called 'The Shires'.
I'm trying to find out about one called 'The Gantry". Does anyone remember what station it was on? I've just bought one of its signs, and it would be great to know where it's from and if I ever visited it back in the day!
Welcome to the forum.
Are you sure that it was from a Railway Station? For example, I believe that certain Football grounds may have had facilities in 'The Gantry'.
It would be interesting to know whether there is a list anywhere (though the names did tend to change); if I recall correctly, Sheffield had “The Golden Frame”, Cambridge “The Out of Town” and Edinburgh “The Talisman”
It certainly looks very much like the Travellers Fare "corporate identity", in the era mentioned by the OP. It's possible someone else copied that identity, although Travellers Fare wasn't exactly seen as shining example to follow, so I'm not sure why anyone would have wanted to.
Wild guess alert: The only vaguely famous gantry I can think of that might have given its name to a buffet was at Rugby.
The names of the buffets may have slipped into the darkest recesses of memory, but the corruption of the name widely used at the time definitely had not!
Red and yellow wasn't a happy combination was it? Manchester Piccadilly had 'The Peaks' - pity the St. Pancras services via Bakewell had ended. Paddington had 'The Castles' - appropriate for former motive power seen thereabouts I suppose.
It would be interesting to know whether there is a list anywhere (though the names did tend to change)
IIRC Sheffield had “The Golden Frame”, Cambridge “The Out of Town” and Edinburgh “The Talisman”
As far as I remember the Travellers Fare at Liverpool Lime Street was on the other side, not far from the current entrance to the Merseyrail lower level.
I don't see why that necessarily follows. There were probably dozens of stations that had both a buffet and a signal gantry in the 1970s so just having one wouldn't have been remarkable. The fact Rugby had the most impressive one in the country until a few years previously might have been thought notable by whoever chose the names. Looking at the link in #17 I doubt Crewe had a paddock in the 1970s, nor were there any steamcoaches at Stratford or even Castles at Paddington.
'Gantry' doesn't have to be for signals of course - cranes in a port maybe, or in a pub it is the 'bridge' over the bar for glasses etc. Or perhaps it was an outlet on a wide station footbridge.
Yes I remember going to 'The Saxon' in the late 1980s. In those days they were often meeting places when I was going to football or to music gigs. I'd completely forgotten what it looked like. Thanks for posting.
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yes it was my first thought, but the chap I got the sign from had no idea and was pretty sure it hadn't come from anywhere close to where he lived. But thanks for posting - much appreciated.
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Welcome to the forum.
Are you sure that it was from a Railway Station? For example, I believe that certain Football grounds may have had facilities in 'The Gantry'.
Thanks for your post. Yes I'm pretty sure it was from a station (although it could also be from a port / BR ferry) because of the design which all used the same basic graphics and colours. Also from memory the sign I have looks exactly like all the others from the 'Travellers Fare' period from the 1970s and 1980s. Sadly at the time I didn't take much notice of their names, so for example I used the one on Derby station a lot, but I can't for the life of me remember its name! Anyway thanks for your welcome. It's a really good site.
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It certainly looks very much like the Travellers Fare "corporate identity", in the era mentioned by the OP. It's possible someone else copied that identity, although Travellers Fare wasn't exactly seen as shining example to follow, so I'm not sure why anyone would have wanted to.
Wild guess alert: The only vaguely famous gantry I can think of that might have given its name to a buffet was at Rugby.
Yes I'm sure it is a 'Travellers Fare' sign - same graphics / colours and it was designed to be lit from behind. As for Rugby - thats a really good guess, given the famous 'signal gantry' just outside Rugby station - photo attached. I will look into this lead - many thanks
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All good ideas - thanks. As for Rugby - yes I think that massive gantry with 40+ signal arms on it was gone pre WW2 maybe even earlier. However I think it still has possibilities which I shall look into. Many thanks.
From my memory Liv St.(before rebuild) had a buffet called The Jazz…just across platform 1-8 named after the erstwhile GER intensive suburban commuter service…inside there were period railway photos dating from that era. Definitely had the red and yellow sign.
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