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Trivia; meeting the station's "pets"

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Howardh

Howardh

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Last night finally, after many years, met one of Huddersfield stations two bosses, Bolt The Cat. And gorgeous he is too, looks the identical twin of my dear old puss. So friendly and approachable too...must be Transpennine's best employee!!

I presume many stations have their resident cat, but what about dogs, or other species? A goat out in the countryside?? A family of ducks??

Edit - as an aside I note the platforms are in the wrong order, from south to north it goes 2, 1, 3, 4....
 
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Bertie the bus

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I think you are going to struggle to find a station goat.

They weren't station pets but there used to be a couple of regular chicken visitors to Leyland station and its car park, though I've not seen them for a while.
 
Howardh

Howardh

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Bertie the bus said:
I think you are going to struggle to find a station goat.

They weren't station pets but there used to be a couple of regular chicken visitors to Leyland station and its car park, though I've not seen them for a while.
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Aww, I'd be dissapointed about that! Love to see a deer visit somewhere out in the wild as a regular, but I suppose they are too timid for that. One animal that must be a regular evening visitor to stations must be a fox, whether they come because they're "invited" or on the look out for scraps is another matter, but I wouldn't call that a "pet" but certainly a regular visitor known to locals!
 
306024

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Bertie the bus said:
I think you are going to struggle to find a station goat.
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Not at all :)

The Middleton Press book 'Branch lines to Harwich and Hadleigh' has a picture of the station staff at Mistley. The caption says:
"Four horses, one goat, one dog and 18 two-legged creatures".

The goat features in another picture I have at Mistley, probably taken at the same time, somewhere around the early 1900's I think. Admittedly you won't meet a goat there today though.
 
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61653 HTAFC

61653 HTAFC

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Howardh said:
Last night finally, after many years, met one of Huddersfield stations two bosses, Bolt The Cat. And gorgeous he is too, looks the identical twin of my dear old puss. So friendly and approachable too...must be Transpennine's best employee!!

I presume many stations have their resident cat, but what about dogs, or other species? A goat out in the countryside?? A family of ducks??

Edit - as an aside I note the platforms are in the wrong order, from south to north it goes 2, 1, 3, 4....
Click to expand...
I've yet to encounter Bolt, though I have given Felix a few pets over the years. A few years ago I was waiting on platform 4 and saw a rat scurry along platform 1 and down the gateway where the gents is. Two TPE staff members also saw, and one said to the other "where the **** is Felix?"

I can only assume she was on strike in sympathy with the DOO on Northern thing that was going on at the time... I guess the laws against secondary picketing don't apply to our four-legged comrades! ;)

On the platforms, the order is 2, 1, 4a/b, 5, 6, and 8. There is no platform 3 (it was at the Leeds end of P1 near the stable blocks. Last used for parcels and stabling an 08 or a 'spare/thunderbird' loco) or 7 (which is now possibly the most shaded flowerbed on the network!). Platform 2 is numbered out of order because the original P2 (where the old mk1 sits) had closed in the 60s or 70s. The current P2 was added in the 1989 remodelling by widening P1 out to meet what was a non-platform line.
According to the plans, when the remodelling is done the Penistone bay will be renumbered platform 1, with the current P1 becoming number 2. Platform 4 will become P3 with 2&3 being the fast line platforms. Bays 5&6 will go, the current P8 becomes P4 (up slow) with new platforms 5 (through, down slow) and 6 (bay towards Deighton) built where the stabling sidings are.

Back on topic there was a big ginger cat who used to hang out at Denby Dale several years ago. Not an official station pet of course, the station being unstaffed... but I never saw a rat there when he was around!
 
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Tethered goats would be ideal for vegetation clearances on tracksides exclusive of stations. I can think of one West Wales location where this was done - albeit on a freight only line , and a good few years ago.
 
Howardh

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ChiefPlanner said:
Tethered goats would be ideal for vegetation clearances on tracksides exclusive of stations. I can think of one West Wales location where this was done - albeit on a freight only line , and a good few years ago.
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Great idea! But as always there's a cavetat - could they injure/poison themselves on the rubbish humans discard, which you cant see because of the vegetation that's grown?!!
 
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61653 HTAFC said:
A few years ago I was waiting on platform 4 and saw a rat scurry along platform 1 and down the gateway where the gents is. Two TPE staff members also saw, and one said to the other "where the **** is Felix?"
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If Felix is anything like my cat, he/she'd have seen the rat and though 'flipping 'eck that's big, I'm staying in bed.' Cats tend to go for mice and shrews, rather than the much bigger and feistier rodents.
Howardh said:
Great idea! But as always there's a cavetat - could they injure/poison themselves on the rubbish humans discard, which you cant see because of the vegetation that's grown?!!
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They can indeed injure themselves on rubbish, or even just other plants. But the goat won't really care, it'll just keep chomping. We had neighbours who kept a goat for a while and it ate it's way through the hedge, wire fence and all. My mum was quite concerned, not just because it had butted the house, but also because it meant it had worked through an entire laurel bush, which is poisonous to goats.
 
Howardh

Howardh

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61653 HTAFC said:
On the platforms, the order is 2, 1, 4a/b, 5, 6, and 8. There is no platform 3 (it was at the Leeds end of P1 near the stable blocks. Last used for parcels and stabling an 08 or a 'spare/thunderbird' loco) or 7 (which is now possibly the most shaded flowerbed on the network!). Platform 2 is numbered out of order because the original P2 (where the old mk1 sits) had closed in the 60s or 70s. The current P2 was added in the 1989 remodelling by widening P1 out to meet what was a non-platform line.
According to the plans, when the remodelling is done the Penistone bay will be renumbered platform 1, with the current P1 becoming number 2. Platform 4 will become P3 with 2&3 being the fast line platforms. Bays 5&6 will go, the current P8 becomes P4 (up slow) with new platforms 5 (through, down slow) and 6 (bay towards Deighton) built where the stabling sidings are.
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Thanks for the info about P3, I always thought that was the one facing P1, but I've never either joined or alighted a train there so didn't know it's number! So looks like, from Manchester, I alight on P4 then go under the subway to get me to the pubs and cats! Will the Yorkshire drought restrictions mean they shut down the fountains? Last week dozens of kids were playing in them...could have kicked them out of the way to have a shower myself!!
 
D6130

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There used to be a very friendly ginger and white tom cat called Dinky at Todmorden station. He had his own bed and food/water bowls on the very wide window ledge in the booking office/waiting room on the Up platform and was a great favourite of regular commuters. On sunny days he often used to lounge on the platform - often dangerously close to the edge - but I never saw him actually cross the tracks. Unforunately he departed for the great cattery in the sky sometime in 2016. Somewhere, I some photos and will post them on here if and when I find them.
 
Howardh

Howardh

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D6130 said:
There used to be a very friendly ginger and white tom cat called Dinky at Todmorden station. He had his own bed and food/water bowls on the very wide window ledge in the booking office/waiting room on the Up platform and was a great favourite of regular commuters. On sunny days he often used to lounge on the platform - often dangerously close to the edge - but I never saw him actually cross the tracks. Unforunately he departed for the great cattery in the sky sometime in 2016. Somewhere, I some photos and will post them on here if and when I find them.
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#"Will the white tom cat currently on the edge of the platform please move back behind the yellow line"#

"No!".

Love to see the photos!!
 
Mordac

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George at Stourbridge Junction is very friendly and seems to be a pretty efficient mouser
 
Western 52

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Years ago there was the story of the Inter-City Kitty, who I think lived at Crewe Station and found his way around by train. How true the story was, I don't know!
 
Gathursty

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Hindley has/had a peacock
Kinbrace at night has rabbits, deer and ducks.
 
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SteelWeelApeal

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When I was last at Berney Arms, the only way out of the station was "guarded" by a very large, intimidating bull (although not in the station itself). Also, when last at Pontypridd with my grandad, he remarked that "last time I was here, a flock of coal-smeared sheep was roaming the platforms". I think that was quite a number of years ago though. Of course, it used to be quite common for railways to carry livestock.
I think I remember watching a video about stray dogs using the metro somewhere, knowing which stops to get off at to get to their desired parts of the city (possibly somewhere in Russia?).
 
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Not current but during the 80's at Lichfield TV, I remember the station master brought his large black cat to work. It slept on the counter close to the ticket window but did not hear of anyone getting scratched.
 
Andy Pacer

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There used to be "Shag" the Grantham station cat who unfortunately was run over by a taxi outside the station some years ago.
There is a memorial plaque towards the north end of platform 1.
 
RichJF

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Parallel

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I’ve seen the cat who has adopted Digby & Sowton a few times when passing through. It’s sometimes asleep on top of the TVM, and sometimes rolling around on the ground on the platform.

(Not rail but a cat as also adopted my local Tesco. He likes to sit in the entrance and lap up all the attention!)
 
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