My thoughts on the railway approaches to major urban centres

[ccityplanner12]

When I was younger, I travelled Europe by rail (I wouldn't go so far as to say extensively). One of my favourite experiences was passing all the suburban stations on a wide (at least 4 tracks) approach to a city. These sorts of approaches are rather under-rated & all have their own individual character. Here are the ones I've done:

• London
  • Waterloo (from Richmond): The first section has low-density suburban housing, with a mysterious island platform at North Sheen. After Mortlake, it seems to run on the street along the Worple Way. The north side peels away (to make way for the curve onto the Hounslow line), before the line widens to 4 tracks at Barnes, where, thanks to Barnes Common, the section feels rural. It then gradually runs into a cutting through Putney, before running through the massive brick columns for the now-gone line from Wimbledon. There is then a viaduct through Wandsworth Town. Running through Queenstown Road feels like incorrectly using metro tracks as an express (the other side to this is that local trains from the mainline get to feel like intercity expresses for a bit).
  • Waterloo (from Southampton): The approaches into Waterloo is over an embankment which feels rather exposed. The large-looking art-deco station at Surbiton is preceded by the parasequence of the Down HC viaduct, which looks comically long for a single track; Berrylands station is bus stops either side of a mainline, & it looks tiny next to the four tracks; New Malden has an island which, despite being overgrown, has dot-matrix indicators which still display that the next train is not scheduled to stop; the lines going down & off at Raynes Park look particularly mysterious, & it has an interesting skewed footbridge; the tunnel before entering Wimbledon aggrandises that station's 5 islands; this is followed by a concrete flyover next to a long depot; Earlsfield, the only station with a DF platform but no UF platform, is on a rare space-inefficient section (in general the line is relatively space-efficient); the section of cutting ends suddenly for Clapham Junction; the tiny-looking Queenstown Road sits in the middle of a complex junction in which this line manages to remain straight; the final wending approach through Vauxhall, despite being slow, manages to feel purposeful, perhaps due to its space-efficiency, & glimpses of surrounding landmarks break up the monotony of this slow 8-track section.
  • Victoria (from Brighton): One of the most-seen by visitors must be the approach to Victoria used by the Gatwick Express. All the stations have a set of side platforms for each tracks (except Balham, which has an island platform, & Battersea Park, which has no platform on the UF). It starts & ends with a complex junction. It frequently alternates between cutting & embankment on its winding path.
    
  • London Bridge (from Brighton): This line feels small due to the many 2-platformed stations & the hills which hem it in consistently.
  • Victoria (from Chatham): This line has only 2 tracks & is surrounded by hills for most of its length, so feels tiny. It feels like the train is going very fast along an unimportant suburban route. In Brixton, the line feels subordinate to those around it.
  • Victoria (from Chatham when you go on the annoyingly slow diversion via Catford): This line feels low-priority, compounded by its slow speed, & seems to spend much of its time swerving around other railway lines. It still feels immersive & dynamic.
  • London Bridge (from Tonbridge): even semi-fasts skip every station on the final stretch from Orpington, which towards the start has a large but barely noticeable junction. It is very straight & surrounded by yards until Hither Green, after which it swerves to avoid Lewisham. The way in which Lewisham is swerved around portrays it as important, but there is no station on the main line, which feels mysterious. The many flyovers on the Southwark Park section have a slow-motion feel to them, before a wide fast & high straight into London Bridge.
  • Fenchurch Street: This is a 2-track line & has no proper non-stop intercity expresses, but you still get to count off the District line stations before it peels away at Bromley. There is then a final space-inefficient section from Limehouse.
  • Liverpool Street (from Shenfield): Once you have passed Brentwood, which looks unyielding & powerful with its massive railway swerve, this line is Roman-straight. The stations are large as they have platforms on all tracks. After the sudden enthusiasm of Stratford, it's back to business along an unusually dark viaduct which transitions into a very dark cutting.
  • Liverpool Street (via Hackney Downs): The dark Clapton area is followed by a light & narrow viaduct, before a very dark section when trains run onto the mainline.
  • Kings Cross: Hornsey and Harringay are both tiny-looking stations surrounded by yards. There is a very space-inefficient section after Finsbury Park, before 2 tunnels. One of the bores in each set of 3 is used by a works access road rather than by tracks.
  • St Pancras: This approach is almost unique in running next to a motorway. Road & rail feel of equal importance here. A short while after some yards, the train emerges at West Hampstead, before a dark section into St Pancras.
  • Euston: It can be fun to count off the DC stations on the line into Euston. When there does come a station that has mainline platforms, it feels important. Willesden Junction is an entertaining suburban complex of a station. Then the line seems to gradually shrink before emerging to the complex track layout & constant dips & diveunders of Euston itself, which as a new arrival must I suppose be rather underwhelming.
  • Marylebone: There is a space-inefficient junction at South Ruislip, followed by some stations which have a lot of unoccupied space behind relatively narrow platforms. Wembley stadium has a huge gap in the middle (which ought to have a passing loop). The real fun can be had on the section where it runs parallel to the Jubilee line. All the stations have a uniform design, but their own special features. The best feature of this line is the break in the tunnel to pass over the WCML. It is only a short but noticeable distance from the tunnel mouth to the platforms, which unusually for a big terminal are made of brick.
  • I have arrived into Paddington, but I can't remember the last time I arrived on an express.
• Birmingham Moor Street: This 2-track line is paralleled by an additional pair of tracks which are disused. These still go wide for all the islands. The final stretch through Bordesley is one of the most space-inefficient stretches of railway I know of.
• Liverpool Lime Street: My Transpennine Express departing Lime Street used all these tiny single-track tunnels on the northernmost line next to the main tunnel (they must be an extension).
• Manchester Exchange: Most of this is alongside a motorway through Weaste, before suddenly slowing down to curve through Salford. It must've been nice when it was 4-track.

Some that must've been particularly nice before BR did their thing with it:

• Newcastle Central (from Sunderland): Passing the substantial island-platform shelters at Pelaw and Felling. I suppose this now has the feeling of most other intercity approaches, with the Metro forming the suburban line.
• Manchester Victoria (from Atherton): All the platforms are island platforms on the local tracks, giving a detached feeling. A perfect "counting-off" line.

Ones I have yet to do:

• Liverpool Lime Street
  • (from London): I have only arrived on a stopper, not departed or used an express.
  • (from Manchester): I have only departed on an express, not arrived or used a stopper.
• Birmingham New Street: I have used suburbans from this station numerous times, but as for expresses, only Cross-Countries on the (currently) stationless Midland lines.
• Manchester Victoria
  • (from Bolton)
  • (from Rochdale or Tameside)
• Manchester Piccadilly
  • (via Stockport): It has a large viaduct at Stockport, & all the stations (except Stockport Edgeley) have side platforms on the slow lines only.
  • (via Gatley)
  • (via Ashburys)
• Leeds City (MR from London)
• Leeds City (GNR from London)
• Leeds City (LNWR from Huddersfield)
• Leeds City (GNR from Bradford)
• Leeds City (MR from Skipton)
• Leeds City (from York): I do recall seeing Leeds Minster as I left here on an intercity from Kings Cross to Scotland.
• Newcastle Central (from Scotland)
• Newcastle Central (from Sunderland)
• Newcastle Central (from Carlisle)
• Newcastle Central (from London): although I did pass through on the aforementioned London–Edinburgh intercity.

Here are some of my favourites from the continent:

• Brussels Central: every station has its own character, but there aren't that many local ones. Forest South is dwarfed by the surrounding yards (it's hard to make out even on Google Maps); Midi is a massive & somewhat piecemeal station, but feels small in comparison to the yards to its south; Chapelchurch is one of the best examples around of an approach station, being mysteriously quiet; Central is underground (& a very disorientating place to get off a train); North is 6 monotonous sets of side platforms followed by a large junction; Sharebeck is so big it could be mistaken for a central station.
• Berlin East: passes many suburban stations & landmarks as it snakes its way around the city centre.
• Paris North: Despite having up to 7 platforms, the stations look small. All the yards & depots are parallel to the line, which has the effect of making them look bigger.
• Rome Termini from the north: just 2 stations, but a very wide, complex & land-inefficient line surrounded by depots. I passed through when Tiburtina was being rebuilt.

I even have my own criteria for how to do it. It should be arriving in a city, ideally for the first time, & always on the fast tracks in a set of 4 or more. It is best if you've been on the train for as long as possible, with no or little crowding & old carriages.
Features of the line, such as the track arrangement, whether the fast lines have platforms at most stations & whether the majority of platforms are side or island, can make a big difference. My personal favourite is the type of layout that the L&Y used on their Liverpool–Manchester route: UF-DF-US-DS with island platforms only on the slow lines.
Is anyone familiar with this? Do you think I have missed anything out?

 

[urpert]

I enjoyed reading this. It put me in mind of psychogeography / urbex websites i used to read years ago.

 

[alangla]

Amsterdam Zuid or Centraal to Schiphol is interesting, plenty of grade separated junctions, tracks appearing / disappearing, plus the Metro occasionally popping up alongside.

The ultimate for me is probably Sydney, approaching from the north on a Newcastle or Wyong train - once you get past about Berowra you add suburban services, more so past Hornsby and it just gets busier & busier. If you time it right, some peak services do (or did) go via the North Shore line meaning your final approach to the city centre is over the Harbour Bridge.

 

[squizzler]

Thanks for the post. The approach to the city is visually fascinating, and I suppose there is also an emotional overlay to it all as well: expectation (or trepidation ) of arrival, regret (ore relief) at a journey coming to an end, etc.

I feel sorry for the passengers who start getting up and walking to the vestibules when the train is still passing through green fields because they miss all this out! Nothing wrong with being ready to alight when the train arrives, but for those who are not inclined to queue when they paid for a perfect comfy seat for the journey, it is frustrating being unable to get to your bag on the luggage rack because the aisle is full of people with little or no personal effects standing there!

 

[Welshman]

I always found the entry into Manchester Victoria on the L&Y from Wigan Wallgate interesting.

The express to Leeds/Bradford used the fast, platform-less lines from Crow Nest Junction, passing to the right of Daisy Hill, Walkden, etc, and then swooped down over the Brindle Heath flyover to be to the left of the slow lines through Pendleton Broad St. There was a "singing rail" here - the sound magnified by the adjacent wall of the cutting. Then the Bolton lines came in from the left, and along the twisting multi-tracked section [neither Salford Crescent nor Windsor link then - just the freight lines down to Salford docks] to Salford Central, with the LNWR tracks from Liverpool Lime St coming in from the right, but they had no platforms at Salford Central. Then, still on the L&Y tracks, tantalising glimpses of Manchester Exchange on the right- seeing the end of the platforms, and then a wall, and finally round into platform 13 at Manchester Victoria.

All this was usually taken at a fair turn of speed [I hesitate to ask what the official speed limit was], as there was still [in the 1950's-60's] a spirit of competition between the Cheshire Lines, the LNWR and the L&Y from Liverpool to Manchester. The ex -L&Y crews made a valiant effort with their longer line, and the best I remember was 45 minutes by the 6.30pm from Liverpool Exchange, which used the Pemberton loop to avoid Wigan entirely.

 

[TheSeeker]

Bruxelles Chapelle is used so infrequently (you can see it from the platform at Central) that several times staff have forgotten to unlock the gates and passengers alighting there have been trapped inside. The last time this happened a passenger phoned SNCB for help and the staff responding had not even heard of the station.

 

[AM9]

Southampton from Eastleigh is interesting as it transitions from 2 tracks to four plus an additional platform, passing the Railway Works, then a short run past the airport to Airport Station, then under the M27 for a long parallel run past the northern suburbs of Swaythling, then St Denys station where the Portsmouth line joins with four tracks past the Siemens maintenance depot at St Mary's. Then the junction to the old Ocean Terminal on the left as you swing right into a tight bridged cutting before the tunnel that finally opens up at Southampton station throat.

 

[urpert]

I'm very used to the approaches to London termini but am always surprised by the amount of redundant railway land on the approach to major stations outside London (Temple Meads, Moor St, Piccadilly from the west before they made all of the recent layout changes). Reminds me of stations in France where there has been no pressing need to lift the acres of sidings which surround fairly minor stations (Lens is an example that springs to mind).

 

[ccityplanner12]

All of the Southern Region London termini have fairly space-efficient approaches, as do Fenchurch Street, Liverpool Street, St Pancras and Paddington. Kings Cross and Euston have less space-efficient approaches (before the final tunnels), particularly around Willesden, where the main lines used to have wide platforms.
Piccadilly has always struck me as being much more space-efficient than Victoria, Birmingham New Street more than the GWR terminals, and Queen Street more than Glasgow Central (although Queen Street, like Marylebone, has a to narrow for a 2-track tunnel almost immediately outside the station).

 

[Lucan]

All of the Southern Region London termini have fairly space-efficient approaches

That is because they are mostly on brick arch viaducts. You don't create more area on those than necessary.

What a pity there is no railway equivalent of Google Street View.