faded glory?

[142094]

That's interesting. Do those just go to Morpeth or any further? I suppose logically if the Northumberland Coast line had a decent service again there's no reason why Manors shouldn't be relatively busy.

Just Morpeth (apart from the normal timetabled services to/from Chathill). Was on one today and 3-4 people got on at Manors - 16.15 off Newcastle to MPT for reference.

 

[matchmaker]

Stirling is at least a junction station again- but is till a rather larger station than one with its level of traffic would require. It does, after all, have a platform 10- but only 2, 3, 6 are used by passenger services for most of the day. Built when as well as the services through Larbert, Dunblane and to Alloa, there was the branch to Callender and beyond and numerous other small lines. The legacy has left it with stunning sweeping staircases to the footbridge

There was also the ex North British line through Kippen. Stirling also had until the early 1960's extensive goods yards, a MPD and 3 large signal boxes.

 

[9K43]

Before the Miners Strike in 1984, I had route knowledge of 22 pits, now there are non left, and the mining communites are run down and jobless.
Every time I go down the GN to Doncaster I see locations that were once massive employers of people, all I see now is great waste lands where mighty pits once stood.
Hellifield is no different just an icon of times that will never come back again, sadly thats how the world spins.

 

[jopsuk]

if we're on a bit of a mining tangent, saw that most recently the other week in Cornwall, driving into St Austell across the clay mining area- an industry that once employed thousands, now employs hundreds and declining. Villages crumbling, decaying- within just a couple of miles of the tourist trap coastline, home to low pay service jobs. Does have a railway connection- presumably the reduction in mining output has led to a reduction in trains out of Par and Fowey?

 

[AlexS]

Barmouth Junction - reduced to the tiny halt that is Morfa Mawddach.

 

[9K43]

I went to Healey Mills in 1982, at this time it was one of the busiest rail locations in the UK.
You could hear the bashing of the hump retarders for miles around, Guards links of 12 links of 12 guards per link same with drivers and DA's.
Each train going to PZ from Sheffield had a Peak at the front, and 12 Mk1s behind
Neville Hill had a sidings full of LHCS just waiting for the 4 man at City Station to run a special to Scarboro, with the crews that could go any where on the system and know the MOW for even the smallest siding.
Now we have pretend trains that are packed like sardines with folk who pay over the odds for even looking at a trains.
I might even put in a claim cos my company mobile might have been hacked by some oik that did not like a trade union.
In Yankee land, herds of buffaloes roamed the plains, where are they now.
This is what we call progress like it or lump it thes nowt tha can do abaht it.
My motto is carpe diem, cos if you do not get what you can while you can you will loose out.
The Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchel sums it up to a tee.

Have this one on me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20


This is Doncaster with a class 9 Electrification Train.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0YR7TwHLOM&feature=related

Its good that films exist like this of Major Centers like Donny.
But where has the Plant Gone?

 

[Samtron2000]

Does have a railway connection- presumably the reduction in mining output has led to a reduction in trains out of Par and Fowey?

Par docks are no longer used for shipping and plans are advanced for complete closure. Imerys have no interest in Cornwall any more as they are now mining huge reserves in Brazil. The father in law works in Fowey and reckons the clay jetties Probably won't be in use in ten years time!!!

 

[jopsuk]

I worked several years ago at the Par Moor labs- I understand well what's going on, though it's not entirely mIsery's fault.

 

[chefchenko]

what about carstairs ??? major junction with trains splitting and joining from edinburgh/glasgow, it probably had more staff than passengers but was a big stop !! its a very sad sight nowadays with the horrible modern building on such vast wide platforms.
Also stalybridge ?? used to be a major interchange with the shuttle from stockport before the transpennine trains were brought through manc picc.
Great buffet though eh ??

 

[9K43]

what about carstairs ??? major junction with trains splitting and joining from edinburgh/glasgow, it probably had more staff than passengers but was a big stop !! its a very sad sight nowadays with the horrible modern building on such vast wide platforms.
Also stalybridge ?? used to be a major interchange with the shuttle from stockport before the transpennine trains were brought through manc picc.
Great buffet though eh ??

Worked the Hogwarts Express from SB to YK, with the lady herself as the only passenger.
The loco was a Spam Can, we took the train to York Stn then into Holgate and YYN into the Museum.
Also 6E72 into the Achem Sidings at the far side of the Station by the signal box for many years.

 

[Toots]

Where to start?...
Patricroft,a five platform station,with a huge engine shed and massive goods yard,now just two platforms,no staff and a couple of brick shelters,although the Top House (Queen's Arms) reputedly the first railway pub still serves a cracking pint.

Guide Bridge,Even I remember this being a significant junction station with a huge red brick building and several platforms,now reduced to bus shelters.

Kenyon Junction,a large junction station on the Manchester to Liverpool line,yet there is virtually no trace of it left.

Wakefield Kirkgate,not my neck of the woods,but I think what remains of it shows not only what its original size was,but also it's importance.

Accrington,a very important triangular platformed station at the hub of industrial east Lancashire which employed twenty one people in its heyday,now its one person in the booking office.

And finally Entwistle,this tiny single platformed halt once sported a station building,its own goods yard and large sidings and a gantry mounted signalbox and yet even in it's halcyon days it was fairly isolated....

 

[chefchenko]

Where to start?...
Patricroft,a five platform station,with a huge engine shed and massive goods yard,now just two platforms,no staff and a couple of brick shelters,although the Top House (Queen's Arms) reputedly the first railway pub still serves a cracking pint.

Guide Bridge,Even I remember this being a significant junction station with a huge red brick building and several platforms,now reduced to bus shelters.

Kenyon Junction,a large junction station on the Manchester to Liverpool line,yet there is virtually no trace of it left.

Wakefield Kirkgate,not my neck of the woods,but I think what remains of it shows not only what its original size was,but also it's importance.

Accrington,a very important triangular platformed station at the hub of industrial east Lancashire which employed twenty one people in its heyday,now its one person in the booking office.

And finally Entwistle,this tiny single platformed halt once sported a station building,its own goods yard and large sidings and a gantry mounted signalbox and yet even in it's halcyon days it was fairly isolated....

guide bridge yes,good shout !!! ive seen pics from the past .

 

[PinzaC55]

What about Whitby? Overall roof, engine shed, 2 signalboxes, services to Saltburn, York, Scarborough, Stckton via Stokesley and to Middlesbrough.Plus a second station at Whitby West Cliff.

Now has one platform and four trains a day to Middlesbrough.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

guide bridge yes,good shout !!! ive seen pics from the past .

Guide Bridge had 4 through platforms and (a bay for the milk), the next stop Fairfield is now a complete shadow of its former self, 6 platforms now reduced to just 2 (4 for the Manchester and 2 towards Reddish TMD) and beyond

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There are two threads on the NR Discussion Forum that talk about a station that saw much more importance in days long gone....which is CHINLEY.

In 1902, it had five through platforms and one bay platform. It now only has two through platforms.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

There are two threads on the NR Discussion Forum that talk about a station that saw much more importance in days long gone....which is CHINLEY.

In 1902, it had five through platforms and one bay platform. It now only has two through platforms.

amazing what happens when a station loses its importance amazes me how big the one island that is left is considering what usage there is.

 

[yorksrob]

I think the old Epsom Downes would have been excellent to explore in it's faded days with seven disused platforms. Unfortunately the developers just pipped me to the post in the nineties !

 

[ATW Alex 101]

hooton used to quite big and was served alot

 

[exile]

After a visit to North Wales today - Llandudno. A shadow of its Edwardian heyday. Even in the 80s summer Saturdays would see a series of loco-hauled trains turn out hundreds of passengers from across the North and Midlands. Today there are actually plenty of trains, but they decant passengers in something that resembles an ancient ruin.

 

[fairysdad]

May I throw out Yeoford on the North Devon Line? Admittedly not high in numbers of people starting or ending a journey there, but it was the LSWR junction for people - and freight - between the North Devon and Plymouth lines. Now just one platform... (I know there are two lines, but Okehampton trains are still non-stop through Yeoford). Perhaps not as large as some, but still quite a fall from grace for this station!

 

[IanXC]

Selby and Snow Hill stand out for me on this thread, however..

Bridlington

Direct trains to Hull, Scarborough, Malton, Selby, Market Weighton, Leeds, Sheffield, Doncaster, York, London, Derby, and other locations in the Midlands. At its height it had 8 platforms, 2 turntables, 2 signal boxes, a loco depot and carriage sidings.

Today 3 platforms remain, and services to Scarborough and Hull (Doncaster and Sheffield via Hull) and Bridlington South signal box.

 

[Smudger105e]

How about Skegness? 7 platforms for one train an hour in each direction, and it is the same train that turns round.

 

[bnm]

Templecombe.

Once an important junction between the LSWR and S&DJR. Now just a single platform.

Although it does retain its Southern Railway art deco signal box, built in 1938.

 

[Southern Steve]

Crystal Palace (Low Level). One of (then) two grand stations built to cater for traffic to the eponymous palace. Despite rationalisation of the buildings and platforms (most recently for the introduction of London Overground services) this junction station remains impressive, and completely out of keeping to its current inner-suburban commuter role.

 

[Buttsy]

Oban - once had a magnificent overall roof and a multitude of platforms, now just 2 platforms, the ones that were outside the main trainshed and an identikit station building.

 

[apk55]

Penistone between Barnsley and Huddesfield is a mere shadow of its former self. Now just a passing loop on a single track line, it once a junction for lines to Manchester and Sheffield. It used to have platforms for Manchester trains as well as many siding for freight.

 

[andyfrommk]

Bletchley
On the crossroads of the WCML and the Varsity line (Oxford to Cambridge).
It had an engine shed, carriage shed and goods shed now only three of its eight former platforms are now in use.
It had the arched roof removed when electrification came in and lost the intercity service to Milton Keynes Central when that opened in 1982.

 

[Bedpan]

I always find Seaton Junction quite evocotive, not that I ever went there or even through it when it was open. Its the way that the single line (actually what was the up main, there were four tracks between the two main line platforms) forges through the site nowhere near the platform faces, and under two footbridges, one of which is extremely long having carried a public footpath over the entire site.

 

[Welshman]

Penistone between Barnsley and Huddesfield is a mere shadow of its former self. Now just a passing loop on a single track line, it once a junction for lines to Manchester and Sheffield. It used to have platforms for Manchester trains as well as many siding for freight.

I frequently used Penistone when changing from trains from Halifax and Huddersfield to the GC trains to Sheffield Victoria.

There were two signalboxes - Huddersfield Junction, just to the east of the station and a smaller one on the Huddersfield line at the end of the platforms before the viaduct, and because the overlap between the starting signal on the arrivals platform from Huddersfield and the junction with the Manchester-Sheffield line was insufficient, you were often held at the other end of the platform, unable to access the station until a freight train bound for Wath Yard had trundled through. Then it was across the line under supervison as there was neither bridge nor subway and await the sleek DC electric loco to whizz you down to Sheffield Victoria in 15 minutes.

I remember many a wait in what I consider was one of the coldest locations I'd ever used!