Station/Halt

[district]

Is there any difference between a 'halt' and a 'station'?

Three Oaks is still defined as a halt, as is Doleham and I'm wondering what differs them from a station?

 

[First class]

Who defined Three Oaks and Doleham as halts, as any internal railway publication do not refer to "halts".

 

[district]

It was an un-official publication. Did 'halts' ever exsist?

 

[Cherry_Picker]

I'd always thought of a halt as a very small or infrequently used station, and that it is a purely informal term.

 

[exile]

A halt was an unstaffed station, with no goods facilities. However not all railway companies used this term. A "platform" was staffed but at a minimal level and again with no goods facilities.

The term is not officially used now.

 

[CarterUSM]

A halt was an unstaffed station, with no goods facilities. However not all railway companies used this term. A "platform" was staffed but at a minimal level and again with no goods facilities.

The term is not officially used now.

IBM Halt.

 

[W-on-Sea]

A very recent NXEA sign at Emerson Park

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45801463@N05/6012224940/

(incongruous, as it's not referred to as "Emerson Park Halt" anywhere else at all, as far as I know, and hasn't been for decades)

At least two of the four stations on the North Cotswolds line that have one train a day in each direction, and that have very short platforms (Finstock , Combe) are referred to locally as "the halts", but again I doubt this has any (current) official standing

 

[David Goddard]

First Great Western revived the term in 2008 for two stations on the Liskeard to Looe line. Coombe became "Coombe Junction Halt" while St Keyne became "St Keyne Wishing Well Halt"

Full report at: http://www.carfreedaysout.com/news/looeaction.pdf

These are shown as such in the current NRT and FGW timetable books, however only the latter carries the suffix on the FGW website map:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/JANUARY09_Route Map FGW2.pdf

 

[LE Greys]

Weren't some Halts request stops?

 

[Oracle]

I always thought a halt was a station that trains stopped on request by telling the guard or hailing the driver?

Does anyone recall Upper Halliford on the Shepperton branch as being signed Upper Halliford Halt?

 

[Old Timer]

A Halt was a location where a train did not have to stop as a matter of course. The guard would advise the Driver of anyone travelling there, and the Driver need not stop if there was no-one on the platform.

The Halt was also an unmanned location with no staff to sell tickets or deal with trains. Parliamentary trains were also not required to stop at these locations (unless there were passengers there) because they were not classed as stations.

Going back some years, a (passenger) station was defined as such by the fact of being able to issue tickets, and a (goods) station by virtue of being able to receive and handover merchandise/goods, etc to the public.

Those old enough may remember the phrase of a station being demoted to a "Halt" during the modernisation and structural changes of the 1950s/60s/70s.

With regards to topics on fare evasion, it should also be remembered that a passenger on a train without a ticket could legitimately be there without first having bought a ticket when starting their journay at a Halt. This would not be the case where the passenger had boarded at a station.

 

[David Goddard]

The halt is a lovely term which enhances the quaintness of these backwaters that have been here for so many years and will continue to do so owing to the unique part they play in the life of the communities they serve.

Examples given such as Three Oaks and Doleham are key ones, but there are many more where the term is rightly deserved. Berney Arms in Norfolk is a classic example, along with some of the more obscure ones on branch lines in Wales, Scotland and Cornwall.

To qualify, any location would surely:
*Be unstaffed
*Consist of just one platform on a single line.
*Be no more than one coach in length.
*Be of "Request Stop" status

 

[yorksrob]

Doleham and Three Oaks were all built as Halts (as was Snailham - the next one along until it closed in 1959) but they became stations in the late sixties/early seventies when I think BR got rid of the term "Halt" as it was a bit old fashioned.

 

[37 418]

British Rail actually banned the use of the term halt if I remember correctly, as Birmingham Snow Hill became the largest halt on the network at one point with all the mass de-staffing of stations!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

A Halt was a location where a train did not have to stop as a matter of course. The guard would advise the Driver of anyone travelling there, and the Driver need not stop if there was no-one on the platform.

The Halt was also an unmanned location with no staff to sell tickets or deal with trains. Parliamentary trains were also not required to stop at these locations (unless there were passengers there) because they were not classed as stations.

Going back some years, a (passenger) station was defined as such by the fact of being able to issue tickets, and a (goods) station by virtue of being able to receive and handover merchandise/goods, etc to the public.

Those old enough may remember the phrase of a station being demoted to a "Halt" during the modernisation and structural changes of the 1950s/60s/70s.

With regards to topics on fare evasion, it should also be remembered that a passenger on a train without a ticket could legitimately be there without first having bought a ticket when starting their journay at a Halt. This would not be the case where the passenger had boarded at a station.

Nice to see that one of our generation can make a posting so clear and concise on this manner. Yes, I most certainly remember the changes made in the 1950 - 1960 - 1970 period.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Aren't the tiny little staff stations ( like Durnsford Road at Wimbledon ) still officially called "staff halts"? I'm sure I've seen one somewhere that is actually labelled thus?

 

[yorksrob]

Aren't the tiny little staff stations ( like Durnsford Road at Wimbledon ) still officially called "staff halts"? I'm sure I've seen one somewhere that is actually labelled thus?

Come to think of it I think Hoo Junction still is !

 

[Safety365]

Aren't the tiny little staff stations ( like Durnsford Road at Wimbledon ) still officially called "staff halts"? I'm sure I've seen one somewhere that is actually labelled thus?

Battersea Pier Staff Halt is signed as 'Staff Halt'

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Isn't Wimbledon too?

 

[WatcherZero]

Some services on the Atherton line still only stop at stations upon request, though the stations arent named halts, last station named Halt I remember was the one at Old Trafford.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Some services on the Atherton line still only stop at stations upon request, though the stations arent named halts, last station named Halt I remember was the one at Old Trafford.

Entwistle station, very popular with hikers, on the Blackburn to Bolton line is a request stop (the only one on the line), but I am not certain if it would have "official" halt status, thought it seems to meet all the requirements for one.