Trivia: 'Junctions' that aren't. (Stations)

[fairysdad]

Inspired in part by the 'Parkway' thread (and my musing that in days gone by the suffix 'Road' was often used when a station was a long way from its namesake, which often changed to 'Junction' when a branch to the namesake place was built), I'm just wondering how many stations there are with 'Junction' in their name which aren't really junction stations anymore.

The only one that springs to mind immediately is Yeovil Junction; you could argue that it is a junction between the SWT and GWR lines, but with no passenger service between the two lines it's not really a junction station (yes, I know that there's possibly going to be regular trains between Junction and Pen Mill).

I'm also discounting places where there's no station anymore (like Halwill Junction). I'm aiming mostly for stations rather than places where tracks diverge (like Colebrook Junction) but who am I to set the rules?!

EDIT: Perhaps I am the one to set the rules! I'm broadly defining a Junction station as one where passengers might be able to change between different routes, not necessarily where trains might do the same. For instance, in a post below, Stourbridge Junction is named because the Town branch is operationally separate to the mainline, however, passengers at that station would know by its name that they can interchange there to a different line, so that doesn't count. A station like Dalston Junction isn't a junction station where people or trains can interchange between lines, so would count. Make sense?

 

[12CSVT]

Burscough Junction is probably the most obvious example.

And how about Loughborough Junction. True, several lines converge just north of the station, but platforms only survive on one route.

 

[Kite159]

Mitcham Junction
St Helens Junction

 

[30907]

Mitcham Junction

You can still change there! I suppose you could call it Interchange instead but what's the advantage?
Names stick and become attached to local areas. Clapham Junction being an extreme example.

 

[Domh245]

You can still change there! I suppose you could call it Interchange instead but what's the advantage?
Names stick and become attached to local areas. Clapham Junction being an extreme example.

To be fair, Mitcham Junction was once a Junction proper, but then the Wimbledon-West Croydon Line was converted into the tram, and it became what it is now.

Photo from here

 

[thenorthern]

Would you class Watford Junction as a junction?

I know that technically the Abbey Branch Line joins onto the West Coast Mainline there however all trains on the Abbey Branch Line and on the Watford DC Line terminate at the station meaning its not really much of a junction.

 

[142094]

Brampton on the Newcastle - Carlisle line was apparently named Brampton Junction twice, with the name remaining even after the branch to Brampton Town was closed.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Stourbridge Junction possibly, like Watford it has a branch line but I'd always assumed that the 'junction' suffix at Stourbridge was a reference to the junction a few hundred yards of the station where the Snow Hill line (towards Birmingham) and the South Staffs line (towards Dudley) diverge, the South Staffs was mothballed in the 60s and now just a short section of the line towards the steel terminal is open as a freight only route.

 

[yorkie]

Would you class Watford Junction as a junction?

If that's not a junction, then I don't know what is!

 

[Starmill]

If that's not a junction, then I don't know what is!

Really?

It's almost 3 operationally separate stations! Not that this makes it less of a junction than if services were more integrated, e.g. Stourbridge Junction is still clearly a junction - but I can see what was meant.

 

[Quakkerillo]

Dalston Junction

 

[Northern 155]

Rainford junction

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Llandudno Junction is of course still a junction in the true sense of the word, but the area surrounding the station has taken the name "Llandudno Junction"...

So, if a new railway was to be built diverging from the main line at that point, would the new junction be called "Llandudno Junction Junction"?

 

[causton]

Llandudno Junction is of course still a junction in the true sense of the word, but the area surrounding the station has taken the name "Llandudno Junction"...

So, if a new railway was to be built diverging from the main line at that point, would the new junction be called "Llandudno Junction Junction"?

Google Maps calls the area around Tring station, as it is in the middle of nowhere, Tring Station. So Tring station is really Tring Station station

 

[steevp]

Google Maps calls the area around Tring station, as it is in the middle of nowhere, Tring Station. So Tring station is really Tring Station station

Isn't the area around Micheldever station also the same?

 

[tsr]

Llandudno Junction is of course still a junction in the true sense of the word, but the area surrounding the station has taken the name "Llandudno Junction"...

So, if a new railway was to be built diverging from the main line at that point, would the new junction be called "Llandudno Junction Junction"?

Sounds like London's slightly (amongst enthusiasts) famous Junction Road Junction...

 

[Springs Branch]

Rainford junction

Rainford lost its "Junction" suffix a fair while ago (around 1972/73 according to my old BR-LMR timetables). It's interesting that the settlement around Rainford station, which is separated by a short distance from Rainford village, is still known as "Rainford Junction" by locals and appears as such on Ordnance Survey maps.

Clifton (Junction) on the Manchester/Bolton line is another example. The station lost the Junction part of its name long ago, but the industrial area adjacent and to the north still appears on current OS maps as "Clifton Junction" (the rail station is correctly marked as just Clifton).

A third example of this is Lostock, west of Bolton. The old Lostock Junction station closed in the 1960s (& has been re-opened with platforms only on the Chorley line, so definitely no-longer a junction), but the residential area around there is still known as Lostock Junction to differentiate it from the part of Lostock along Chorley New Road.

The OP's question related to station names, but there are possibly small settlements up and down the country called "XXXX Junction" where there is no longer a junction, or a station nor even a railway.

 

[TheNewNo2]

Tryfan Junction on the Welsh Highland Railway.

 

[Andyjs247]

On the WCML the following are not junctions in the true sense between different routes but the location of crossover connections between running lines:

Hanslope Jn
Ledburn Jn
Bourne End Jn

At Roade there is no junction where the Northampton loop meets the fast lines via Weedon, the connections being further south at Hanslope.

 

[Radedamer]

Llandudno Junction is of course still a junction in the true sense of the word, but the area surrounding the station has taken the name "Llandudno Junction"...

So, if a new railway was to be built diverging from the main line at that point, would the new junction be called "Llandudno Junction Junction"?

I wanted to change tracks when I was up the junction but I couldn't cos I only had a single.

 

[30909]

Isn't the area around Micheldever station also the same?

Off topic I know, you are correct and it's over 2.5 miles away from Micheldever Village centre. IIRC the station was originally named Andover Road over 11.5 miles to that town.

 

[swt_passenger]

On the WCML the following are not junctions in the true sense between different routes but the location of crossover connections between running lines:

A crossover between pairs of lines lines such as those you mention is still a junction as far as railway terminology goes, referred to as a 'running junction'. The other type where routes diverge being a geographic junction.

A junction name can also describe where an additional track starts - the newly extended up slow south of Eastleigh commences at "Stoneham Junction'...

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Coombe Junction always seamed like it wasn't a junction.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Names stick and become attached to local areas. Clapham Junction being an extreme example.

There are similar examples up here, both Ferryhill Station and Bedlington Station are villages in their own right, even though they've not actually had railway stations there for fifty years.

 

[fairysdad]

The OP's question related to station names, but there are possibly small settlements up and down the country called "XXXX Junction" where there is no longer a junction, or a station nor even a railway.

... which I discounted as well (citing Halwill Junction as my example)

On the WCML the following are not junctions in the true sense between different routes but the location of crossover connections between running lines:

Hanslope Jn
Ledburn Jn
Bourne End Jn

At Roade there is no junction where the Northampton loop meets the fast lines via Weedon, the connections being further south at Hanslope.

Are those stations though?

[Watford Junction not being a junction]
Really?

It's almost 3 operationally separate stations! Not that this makes it less of a junction than if services were more integrated, e.g. Stourbridge Junction is still clearly a junction - but I can see what was meant.

As I'm asking after stations with 'Junction' in their name, I would class Watford Junction and Stourbridge Junction as junctions. I've added a bit of clarification in my opening post, but to say here as well, I'm kind of asking after junctions for people not necessarily trains if that makes sense - somebody would go to Watford Junction knowing that they could change between many trains and routes even if it is operationally three separate stations. Likewise, somebody might go to Dalston Junction believing it to be a station where they could catch trains to many different destinations, but is really just a normal through station (okay, it happens to have terminating lines as well, but hopefully you get my meaning!).

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I'm not sure whether this counts, but Ebbw Junction outside Newport was a depot, but there's never been a station there.

There was and still is a proper junction next to the original depot taking the Ebbw Vale line from Cardiff up the valley - but no station!

 

[furnessvale]

You can still change there! I suppose you could call it Interchange instead but what's the advantage?
Names stick and become attached to local areas. Clapham Junction being an extreme example.

Which Clapham Junction would that be then?

A friend of mine from North Yorkshire used to have no end of trouble with grippers when using his handwritten Edmonson style free passes!

 

[backontrack]

Junction Road on the KESR. It's quite bad advertising when you're telling people that they can drive to the junction!

Also, just in case that there's an 'airport stations that aren't at an airport' thread, I'd just like to say...

...Teesside Airport.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Off topic I know, you are correct and it's over 2.5 miles away from Micheldever Village centre. IIRC the station was originally named Andover Road over 11.5 miles to that town.

Micheldever station is located on Andover Road; I suspect it was re-named to avoid confusion with people going there when they meant to go to Andover itself?

 

[Dent]

Dalston Junction is a particularly bizarre name for a new-build station that has only ever been served by a single through line.