Trivia; stations with the worst view from the platform?

[tigerroar]

Barton on Humber didn't look that great

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerimages/14949725562/in/album-72157646153827869/
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it was used as a backdrop for one of the best music videos of the year this summer. Even if you don't like the song spend a moment with the video as you can spin the camera around 360 degrees during the song without interrupting it.

WOW, never seen that before. Like it.

 

[tsr]

Barton on Humber didn't look that great

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tigerimages/14949725562/in/album-72157646153827869/

Looks remarkably like a hideous version of Uckfield (a station which is quite nice, apart from the occasional unmentionable smoking cannabis in the shelters - it has a new building, an old restored signalbox, and is positioned over the top of the river).

 

[RobShipway]

It's amazing that Newhaven Harbour Station has been like that since the early 90's. As far as I can tell nothing has even changed there - the white house (was it part of the station ever?) has been abandoned 20+ years. How it is still standing I have no idea....

So, get's my vote

t.

Ian

The white house has always been there as it was the station masters house and office I believe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhaven_Harbour_railway_station

 

[6Gman]

How about we start a subthread for the prettiest? In which case, I vote Dovey Junction as by far the best in the country. Almost total silence, mountains in all directions. Beautiful.

Not many mountains to the west!

But agree it's nicely set. A lot of the stations on the former Highland Railway are rather nice.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Colwyn Bay must rank as one of the most down-graded views.
Instead of wide sunny views of the bay and the pier, you now have an ugly curtain wall to look at while waiting to go east.
Mind you, if they put the view back, it would be full of the wind turbines of Gwynt y Mor.

 

[sprinterguy]

Sunderland. Just walls

I think that the light wall that was installed a couple of years ago is quite creative and appealing. Beats looking across the abandoned island platform in my view at any rate.
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I love the view of the cooling towers !

Indeed; I always find power station cooling towers to be impressive structures.
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Burton-on-Trent is quite bad its just beer factories that once per week make the whole town stink.

Personally I find the presence of an active brewing industry, with a lengthy historical "pedigree" (), to be quite reassuring.
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Bristol Temple Meads with the derelict former Royal Mail sorting office adjacent to platform 15.

That I have to agree with, the derelict sorting office is a real eyesore.

 

[FS-2-11]

Crosshill (Cathcart Circle, Glasgow) - a narrow island platform on a curve in a cutting, with a sizeable portion of the platform situated in the gloom beneath Albert Road overbridge.

 

[MisterWhippy]

Spalding, nondescript station. Just thinking about it makes me shiver.

 

[AndyNLondon]

Dunno what it looks like from the front, but the backside is truly horrendous, and I would bring back the stocks for people who designed that
At the very least a lick of paint might improve things, I know the railway is behind but if I lived in a house overlooking then I'd be chaining myself to the Town Hall gates demanding they pay MY council tax!!! Grrrr.

Google Streetview has a look at the front - yes, there's the classic "grubby concrete" effect going on, but the stepped shape does start to make sense when you see how it gives each flat a private outdoor space that's more than just a balcony. The shape was also designed to block out noise from the railway, and there are rubber pads in the foundations to reduce vibrations, so pretty well thought-out.

Back to the bad views from stations: Drayton Park. A concrete retaining wall on one side, some long-overgrown sidings followed by walls on the other, and the underneath of the bridge into the Emirates stadium overhead.

 

[gnolife]

I always quite liked East Midlands Parkway - the power station is interesting. Admittedly the only time I went there it was snowing and barely light, but I liked it - https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbuck007/sets/72157632735262939




My nomination is, as ever, Severn Beach. It's just miserable.

Severn Beach is infinitely better than St Andrews Road though, which is one of the more bleak stations I've been tii

 

[HSTFan57]

Bristol Temple Meads with the derelict former Royal Mail sorting office adjacent to platform 15.

It's so staggeringly ugly that it's almost worth a trip to see it. On a dark cold winter morning it reminds me of The Fastness from Iain Banks' Feersum Endjinn.

 

[Spankthemonkey]

Spalding, nondescript station. Just thinking about it makes me shiver.

Sort of agree. The derelict platforms and bridge are an eyesore. The station house is a lovely old building, far from nondescript, but behind is a selection of ugly retail outlets frequented by the chavs and yokels of a strange town.

 

[Scotty]

Spalding, nondescript station. Just thinking about it makes me shiver.

I use it every weekday to commute, and the best place to be is inside the waiting room (utilising the WiFi)!

 

[Busaholic]

South end of Preston station isn't wonderful, you've got the car park on the left and the other side is the Royal Mail depot and former sidings where Network Rail store equipment.

My wedding night in November 1969 was mostly spent on Preston Station waiting for a train to London - a freight train had derailed at Carnforth or somewhere and the train from Glasgow was interminably delayed,
eventually reached Euston at 3.30 a.m.!

Adopting my Basil Fawlty persona for a moment, Torquay Station gives you a view of Torquay, so I think I win first prize.

 

[GospelOak117]

Great Yarmouth has a lovely view of Asda.

This is the biggest eyesore for me actually, stations (particularly termini) where the adjacent railway lands have become a hideous brightly coloured supermarket. Like with Yarmouth, I seem to remember Cromer having a nasty yellow morrisons next door.

Just depressing

 

[yorksrob]

Adopting my Basil Fawlty persona for a moment, Torquay Station gives you a view of Torquay, so I think I win first prize.

I would have thought that would be quite impressive, what with all of those herds of wildebeest, sweeping majestically across the plain

 

[Requeststop]

Severn Beach is infinitely better than St Andrews Road though, which is one of the more bleak stations I've been tii

I spent a miserable half hour at Clifton one rainy evening in September. Horrid View of nothing interesting.

On the other hand St Ives has one of the best views in the nation, although I do admit to being biased. As to a station building - Weymss Bay is a gem.

 

[sprinterguy]

This is the biggest eyesore for me actually, stations (particularly termini) where the adjacent railway lands have become a hideous brightly coloured supermarket. Like with Yarmouth, I seem to remember Cromer having a nasty yellow morrisons next door.

Just depressing

I disagree, I'd rather see a supermarket than look out across an overgrown, abandoned goods yard. At least the land is being put to good use, and Morrisons do a good breakfast when you're stuck for anywhere else. I find them a useful presence at many provincial stations, particularly termini, even if they aren't particularly visually appealing.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Google Streetview has a look at the front - yes, there's the classic "grubby concrete" effect going on, but the stepped shape does start to make sense when you see how it gives each flat a private outdoor space that's more than just a balcony. The shape was also designed to block out noise from the railway, and there are rubber pads in the foundations to reduce vibrations, so pretty well thought-out.

You are not going to see it from the platform but it's also worth mentioning that the building is about half a mile from the most famous zebra crossing in the world.

Yes, they moved the location of the crossing back a few yards from where it was in the sixties but it's still a ridiculously popular tourist attraction.

If you've never seen it before then check the webcam: http://www.abbeyroad.com/Crossing

During the hours of daylight don't think you are ever more than a minute from people trying to recreate the photograph.

 

[Gathursty]

The best view from a platform is worthy of it's own thread but I'm torn between the dramatic Kyle of Lochalsh and Carbis Bay.

 

[yorksrob]

This is the biggest eyesore for me actually, stations (particularly termini) where the adjacent railway lands have become a hideous brightly coloured supermarket. Like with Yarmouth, I seem to remember Cromer having a nasty yellow morrisons next door.

Just depressing

I find it more depressing when you need a supermarket and there's nothing near by. Bristol TM and Chester are two that currently suffer that affliction.

 

[Howardh]

I find it more depressing when you need a supermarket and there's nothing near by. Bristol TM and Chester are two that currently suffer that affliction.

Wonder which station is the furthest from a shop (even a tiny newsagent would classify as a shop!)? Presume the answer lies on the highland line/s - but other than that?

 

[tsr]

Wonder which station is the furthest from a shop (even a tiny newsagent would classify as a shop!)? Presume the answer lies on the highland line/s - but other than that?

The forum springs to life with its one-word answer for everything remote and obscure:

"Altnabreac"!

Although I am sure there are other contenders.

 

[Kite159]

Wonder which station is the furthest from a shop (even a tiny newsagent would classify as a shop!)? Presume the answer lies on the highland line/s - but other than that?

Might also be some small rural station on other lines where the hamlet or village lost its shop

Dovey Junction!

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Bangor has to be up there.

Bangor is grey and depressing, the platforms are sandwiched between a tunnel either end and no view of anything but a main road and a old yard opposite.

Can't agree with that! The 'old yard' is actually a piece of history ie the old loco shed, very few are left..it is quite easy to imagine what it must have been like many years ago. Well, that's my view anyway!

 

[Townsend Hook]

Wonder which station is the furthest from a shop (even a tiny newsagent would classify as a shop!)? Presume the answer lies on the highland line/s - but other than that?

Smallbrook Junction - even if there was a shop you'd have no way of getting to it

 

[nottinghamcity]

Incredible! 86 posts and no Wolverhampton! In fact no west Midlands at all with New St. Having been disqualified.

 

[Whistler40145]

Yeah, Wolverhampton isn't exactly picturesque, then again neither is Aston, Birmingham International or Coventry.

 

[A0]

Drayton Park - particularly if you're not interested in football.

Bletchley?

 

[Whistler40145]

Newton near Motherwell isn't much better.