Cathays Cemetery halt

[Bob Price]

I am looking for any information on a halt which was located between Heath High Level and Cardiff Queens st stations, which served the cemetery at Cathays. It was supposed to be located by Fairoak road bridge, and there was also a siding which may or may not have also served the cemetery, this can be seen on the maps from the National library of Scotland.

The only info I have is there was only one platform and it was sloped away from the line to avoid coffins rolling onto the tracks.

Any info, leads, research advice is welcome

Thanks

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Was it perhaps the siding seen in the below mid 20th Century map extract (near to Clun Terrace)....

Side by side georeferenced maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland

maps.nls.uk

 

[SargeNpton]

All I can tell you is that it still appeared in the 1956 Handbook of Stations, listed as "Fairoak Road Siding (Cemetary Siding)".

No indication of it being a halt, so perhaps the platform you refer to was a loading dock?

 

[pdeaves]

There is no apparent mention in Michael Quick's 'Railway passenger stations in Great Britain a chronology'.

 

[Bob Price]

There is no apparent mention in Michael Quick's 'Railway passenger stations in Great Britain a chronology'.

Apparently the Fairoak road siding is mentioned as a goods station. Thanks.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Oct 2022 ==

Was it perhaps the siding seen in the below mid 20th Century map extract (near to Clun Terrace)....

Side by side georeferenced maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland

maps.nls.uk

Thats what I thought. I have mailed the Friends of the cemetery to see if they know more. The interesting things is that siding is the wrong direction for trains from Cardiff. They would have to reverse on, what would have been a very busy stretch of line.

 

[pdeaves]

The interesting things is that siding is the wrong direction for trains from Cardiff. They would have to reverse on, what would have been a very busy stretch of line.

Historically, sidings were usually arranged to reverse in. That minimised the number of movements over 'facing' points and was thus safer for all. Nowadays points have locks (and are probably built better, to boot) so such an arrangement is no longer necessary.

 

[Gloster]

Great Western Railway Halts, Volume 2 (Robinson, KRB, 2002) lists a Maindy North Road Platform north of Cathays on the Up Cardiff & Merthyr line, which I don’t think is the one to Heath High or Low Level halts. It appears to have been served by a rail motor that terminated at the one platform before returning to Cardiff. It first appeared in the timetables in May 1907, was renamed Maindy North Road Halt on 10-07-1922 and again to Maindy Halt at a later date; it closed on 15-09-1958.

Other than this possibility, I haven’t found another candidate.

 

[Bob Price]

Great Western Railway Halts, Volume 2 (Robinson, KRB, 2002) lists a Maindy North Road Platform north of Cathays on the Up Cardiff & Merthyr line, which I don’t think is the one to Heath High or Low Level halts. It appears to have been served by a rail motor that terminated at the one platform before returning to Cardiff. It first appeared in the timetables in May 1907, was renamed Maindy North Road Halt on 10-07-1922 and again to Maindy Halt at a later date; it closed on 15-09-1958.

Other than this possibility, I haven’t found another candidate.

Thanks for this, thats a different line. That is another one I need to investigate at some point.

 

[Gloster]

There is also Cathays Woodville Road, which from a look at the low-resolution image on the Signalling Record Society’s site was at Crockherbtown. A single Up platform probably served by the same trains as Maindy. It opened 02-07-1906, lost the Cathays prefix 15-09-1952 and closed same day as Maindy, but used for staff for around three more years. All this from Quick; Robinson lists it as Cathays Bridge Halt.

 

[4069]

Historically, sidings were usually arranged to reverse in. That minimised the number of movements over 'facing' points and was thus safer for all. Nowadays points have locks (and are probably built better, to boot) so such an arrangement is no longer necessary.

That's fine if there is room for a double-ended siding, with a further spur off it to leave vehicles in. A simple single-ended siding which the train reverses into to detach a vehicle is much more suitable in a location where space is restricted, as here. That's why sidings have continued to be designed to trail into the main line for the 150 years since facing point locks became common.

 

[Gloster]

The signalling diagram for Crwys Sidings box (low res. on the SRS site again) shows several trailing sidings on the Up line between Queen Street and Heath .Junction. As it is low res. I can’t read any details.