The NRE website station plan is very difficult to follow. Apparently, it's not a triangle but has a single track line passing over the other lines.
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/sjp/SHY/plan.html?rtnloc=SHY
Maybe we need a new thread for "unusual plan layouts" - this is certainly about the furthest from reality and most unhelpful one I've seen. (As an aside, the new - since I was last there - footbridge between p3 and p4 looks much more appealing than the old subway. Used to hate arriving on p4 late at night and having to use it.)
Agreed - completely unhelpful. What these plans don't show (probably for simplicity?) is the huge curve that some of the platforms have. Had I looked at this before going to Shipley station, I think I'd have been pretty confused on arrival!
Arram has its platforms positioned either side of a level crossing, so that a train calling at the station does not cause the crossing to be closed while making a station call.
(I'm sure there must be other examples of this set up, but I didn't see any on the thread.)
There are also plenty that don't. The West Coastaway is a good example, with at least Southbourne and Warblington with both platforms on one side of the barriers. Since this is also the passenger crossing between platforms, leave arrival too late and you may miss the train!
In the case of Southbourne, it seems like for trains crossing over the LC towards London, the barriers go down when the train is in the Emsworth area, meaning they are down for some time. On the Havant bound platform (which is the one that holds the road up), there is a starter signal and the train seems like it can be brought into the previous (platform) section with the signal not cleared, but it is usually cleared well before the train is in the platform, probably to aid on time running.