Examples of Platforms built out over old tracks

[Steve Harris]

Yes. I'm old enough to remember when the goods roads were roughly where the platform 7 and 8 island is now.

There were big changes in the early 1980s when power signalling was installed. This included a small bit of platform being built over what used to be tracks when the south end of platform 1 was straightened. The carriage sidings, which were between the station and the goods roads, were replaced by reception roads, though, after electrification, these were mainly used for stabling EMUs. It all changed again when platform 7 and 8 were built, and is expected to change again for East West Rail.

I'm a little confused by your first statement. You say that Platform 7 and 8 are built on where the goods roads used to be and then go on to say the carriage sidings (which became the reception roads) used to be between the goods roads and the station. Therefore your statement is incorrect by your own admission. Because P7&8 are in fact where reception roads 1-4 used to be. The line through P7 is still on the same alignment as what was reception road 1.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Nov 2025 ==

Platform extension at Sandy built literally over the tracks

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/194830-after-the-beeching-cuts-why-did-br-rip-up-the-rails-of-the-closed-lines/#findComment-5931360

That would be the sidings which led to a grain terminal. That track certainly wasn't a running line.

 

[Magdalia]

I'm a little confused by your first statement. You say that Platform 7 and 8 are built on where the goods roads used to be and then go on to say the carriage sidings (which became the reception roads) used to be between the goods roads and the station. Therefore your statement is incorrect by your own admission. Because P7&8 are in fact where reception roads 1-4 used to be. The line through P7 is still on the same alignment as what was reception road 1.

Reception roads 1-4 only existed after the early 1980s resignalling.

They replaced carriage sidings and the goods roads.

This shows the Cambridge South track plan in 1965:

Cambridge South 1965

Scheme Plan for Cambridge South dealing with the closure of the LNWR line to Sandy/Bedford and Oxford dated bonfire night 1965. The Oxford and Cambridge didn't die there, having survived until 1999 as a run round and headshunt for the Charrington's yard. It was then all removed by the...

www.flickr.com

Scheme Plan for Cambridge South dealing with the closure of the LNWR line to Sandy/Bedford and Oxford dated bonfire night 1965.

And here is a picture:

Cambridge Station Panorama - British Railways c1960

A bit out of focus but interesting nonetheless. The photographer and date the photo was taken are unknown. A digitally restored image from an original negative in my collection.

www.flickr.com

Cambridge Station Panorama - British Railways c1960​

A bit out of focus but interesting nonetheless. The photographer and date the photo was taken are unknown. A digitally restored image from an original negative in my collection.​

 

[Steve Harris]

Reception roads 1-4 only existed after the early 1980s resignalling.

They replaced carriage sidings and the goods roads.

This shows the Cambridge South track plan in 1965:

Cambridge South 1965

Scheme Plan for Cambridge South dealing with the closure of the LNWR line to Sandy/Bedford and Oxford dated bonfire night 1965. The Oxford and Cambridge didn't die there, having survived until 1999 as a run round and headshunt for the Charrington's yard. It was then all removed by the...

www.flickr.com

And here is a picture:

Cambridge Station Panorama - British Railways c1960

A bit out of focus but interesting nonetheless. The photographer and date the photo was taken are unknown. A digitally restored image from an original negative in my collection.

www.flickr.com

Well, your obviously thinking that platforms 7&8 take up a lot more space than they actually do.

Compare the 2008 https://maps.app.goo.gl/qqsQYhgf7GMgzuF46
with the 2014 https://maps.app.goo.gl/CXBFJYUyph9FAunn7 image and using the lighting columns as a reference along with the links you provided you can clearly see that the platforms have been built on the old alignment of reception roads 2&3 (/carriage sidings 2-4).*

And btw going back further in history than 1980 doesn't change the facts. Quite a few readers will never have been around to know anything other than reception roads. I'm old enough to have seen them both as carriage sidings and reception roads and have travelled on them hence why I queried your statement as it is false (google streetview doesn't lie I'm afraid).

* For those not familiar with Cambridge looking left to right in the 2008 street view image you have platform 1, through road, reception roads 1, 2, 3 and 4 (all electrified) and then you have the entrance line to what was Cambridge goods yard (now Cambridge carriagesidings south). If anyone is in further doubt about the layout please refer to Trackmaps.

 

[Transilien]

Kilmaurs, platform built over the northbound trackbed.

Glasgow Queen Street Low Level used to have 4 platforms. The outer two tracks were removed and the platforms extended over where they used to be.

When was this done at Glasgow Queen Street Low Level?

 

[adc82140]

Farnborough. Platforms 1 and 2 were both extended over up facing bays in the 1960s.

 

[Magdalia]

Well, your obviously thinking that platforms 7&8 take up a lot more space than they actually do.

The reception roads 1-4 took up a lot more space than what they replaced.

In particular, the gap between the through line and reception road 1 is very wide to accommodate signals, overhead line supports and various other lineside equipment. There was also a wide gap between reception roads 2 and 3.

It isn't just a matter of counting tracks.

The platform 7 and 8 island is necessarily wide to accommodate the footbridge. Note that on the old station side platform 5 had to be truncated to accommodate the footbridge, and that also qualifies as a bit of platform built out over old track.

 

[james73]

When was this done at Glasgow Queen Street Low Level?

I assume it was when the line was electrified c.1960.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Liverpool Street platforms 17/18. The original P 17 was built over to use the tracks of P18, which then became P17.

And, on the opposite side, platforms 1 and 2 used to be through lines, descending and curving sharply to a junction with what are now the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines.
The mainline station's platform 1-2 end, concourse and LU booking hall area are where the old through lines ran.

 

[edwin_m]

If you go back far enough there used to be a track crossing the concourse at Waterloo, going over the bridge (which is still there) to link with Waterloo East.

 

[Steve Harris]

The reception roads 1-4 took up a lot more space than what they replaced.

In particular, the gap between the through line and reception road 1 is very wide to accommodate signals, overhead line supports and various other lineside equipment. There was also a wide gap between reception roads 2 and 3.

It isn't just a matter of counting tracks.

The platform 7 and 8 island is necessarily wide to accommodate the footbridge. Note that on the old station side platform 5 had to be truncated to accommodate the footbridge, and that also qualifies as a bit of platform built out over old track.

We can argue till the cows come home, but as a family member has worked on the permanent way at Cambridge (and ive actually travelled down them) The reception roads broadly take up the same space as the carriage sidings did (4 v the previous 5), and as you point out that there is a big gap between rec 2 and 3 which means that the new platforms can't be sitting on the goods lines alignment.

As for counting lines, I dunno where you get that from. Just because I didn't want to break trackmaps/Quails copyright by posting a pic of the relevant diagram I politely pointed out what was what for the people who have never been to Cambridge. Afterall, this forum isn't just for Cambridge citizens.

But we will end it there as we are drifting OT.

 

[py_megapixel]

I think there some examples of former island platforms on the Northern Line in London, which were widened by rerouting one of the running lines into a separate tunnel with a new platform, and then extending the original platform over the disused trackbed.

 

[d9009alycidon]

Platform 3 at Queen Street High Level, used to be 3 tracks between platforms 2 and 3, what is now platform 3 Road was a carraige siding. Think there are a couple of new platforms at Edinburgh Waverley built on thd site ofvold sidings

 

[150219]

Well the one that immediately springs to mind for me is Birmingham Snow Hill, although there was a 15 year gap when there were no trains (or tracks). I'm assuming that the current Platforms 2 & 3 roads are on the site of the former through roads while the platforms themselves are on the sites of the platform roads.

Yes, you're spot on there.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

The current Bradford Interchange/Exchange and Bradford Forster Square stations are smaller and further out of town than the originals.

So I suspect that the current platforms may overlap the alignments of some of the original tracks but cannot be sure.

 

[YorksLad12]

The current Bradford Interchange/Exchange and Bradford Forster Square stations are smaller and further out of town than the originals.

So I suspect that the current platforms may overlap the alignments of some of the original tracks but cannot be sure.

I think it's reasonable to say that Forster Square is a wholly separate development; see the National Library of Scotland map at https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...97&lon=-1.75229&layers=168&right=GoogleSatHyb.

It looks like there was a lot of redevelopment of the lines into the old Exchange station, so difficult to see what was what, when. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...10&lon=-1.74968&layers=260&right=GoogleSatHyb

 

[CarltonA]

Slough platform five was extended over the up relief about sixty years ago. Prior to that there was a through road. That explains why there is a fairly modern canopy in front of the nineteenth century original.

 

[Ian Hardy]

I think it's reasonable to say that Forster Square is a wholly separate development; see the National Library of Scotland map at https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...97&lon=-1.75229&layers=168&right=GoogleSatHyb.

It looks like there was a lot of redevelopment of the lines into the old Exchange station, so difficult to see what was what, when. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...10&lon=-1.74968&layers=260&right=GoogleSatHyb

If you use the Georeferenced Maps viewer on the NLS website and use the slider for the transparency you can see the underlying image through the old Ordnance Survey mapping, it is a lot easier than comparing the image and map side by side:
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.4&lat=53.79058&lon=-1.75006&layers=168&b=ESRIWorld&o=26

For Bradford Interchange - on this site: http://disused-stations.org.uk/b/bradford_exchange/index.shtml there is photograph of the throat of Bradford Exchange in June 1973: http://disused-stations.org.uk/b/bradford_exchange/bradford_exchange_old1.jpg which confirms that at least some of the Bradford Interchange platforms were built where the lines into the old Exchange station used to go.

At Forster Square the new platform 0 looks as though it might cover the western most platform of the old station.

 

[Rescars]

Are there any examples of this between West Croydon (apart from the bay already mentioned previously) and Wimbledon. With the conversion of this route twice, from Surrey Iron Railway to LBSC/LSWR etc and then to Tramlink, along with the closure of the Merton Abbey loop, it does seem likely. Anyone know of any?

 

[oglord]

Newport High Street old Platform 8 (now P4) was extended over the entrance to Godrey Road sidings.

 

[steamybrian]

Are there any examples of this between West Croydon (apart from the bay already mentioned previously) and Wimbledon. With the conversion of this route twice, from Surrey Iron Railway to LBSC/LSWR etc and then to Tramlink, along with the closure of the Merton Abbey loop, it does seem likely. Anyone know of any?

Merton Park tram stop is built on the former junction with the line to Merton Abbey/Tooting.

Waddon Marsh tram stop "may" have been built on sidings to the former gas works but it will need further investigation to clarify.

 

[fgwrich]

Maybe less a platform extended out but both Plymouth and Newton Abbot have had platforms filled in or cut. Newton Abbot once had two through roads where the entrance and car park is now, whilst Plymouth had two through platforms cut and two bay platforms created when the access from the main entrance to Platform 4 / 3 was created.

 

[EnriqueEspaña]

Hi All. Really appreciate all the great responses, please keep them coming!

 

[edwin_m]

The London end of Derby station was re-aligned so the platforms are now where the tracks from platforms 3-6 used to be.

Ely station platform 1 was built out over the platform loop to face the former through road, so the canopy is well back from the edge (apologies if already mentioned).

 

[RDP]

When the south island platform at Folkestone Central was abandoned in order to divert the up line into what used to be the down fast the north island was built out over the old formation at the east end it not being possible to slew the track before the station due to the presence of the bridge over Cheriton Road and the line being on an embankment leading to Foord Viaduct. This problem did not exist over the former four track section west of the station where the present up line resumes the previous up slow alignment before reaching Folkestone West.

 

[d9009alycidon]

Another Scottish example is Hamilton Central, The station used to have four lines running through between two platforms. The central two through lines were removed in the 1950s. The Glasgow bound platform is an original with the Motherwell bound platform a replacement built approximately where the southbound through line ran in preparation for electrification in the 1970s.

 

[EnriqueEspaña]

When the south island platform at Folkestone Central was abandoned in order to divert the up line into what used to be the down fast the north island was built out over the old formation at the east end it not being possible to slew the track before the station due to the presence of the bridge over Cheriton Road and the line being on an embankment leading to Foord Viaduct. This problem did not exist over the former four track section west of the station where the present up line resumes the previous up slow alignment before reaching Folkestone West.

Do you know how far it was built out? Had a look on Google maps and I can clearly see how the line is slewed as you describe, but from pictures it doesn't look like the platform was built out, looks like still space to reinstate up fast if they wanted.