Where is your local station?

[Buffer68]

Where is your local station and what do you think of it?

Mine is Branksome which is between Bournemouth and Poole. It is unmanned but has a lovely red brick station building and although they have been shortened, there is a canopy on each platform. I love going here because when there is no one waiting for a train, I imagine that it is MY station! Also it is here that different trains come occasionally from London and reverse into Bournemouth works. Recently we have had Junipers and Darth Vaders.

 

[Blue Pool Halt]

Mine is the next stop along - Parkstone , or 'Parkstone for Sandbanks' as it was once called.
Although the old tramway to Lilliput has long gone, you can still get a sense of the original makeup of the station by its original station building. The WH Smith has gone on the down platform, but the foot bridge remains minus its cover - a great view can be had of the railtours climbing the Parkstone Bank out of Poole .

btw Buffer68 , if you are on Facebook , you will find some of the local stations , bridges etc as Facebook check-in locations that I have added For example I have added Bournemouth West Station - look for the '::' prefix . Educating Joe public by social media is my idea

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Branksome is staffed...

 

[4SRKT]

Saltaire. This is one of the first spate of WYPTE reopenings in the days when they were done on the cheap with wooden platforms. Luckily the fact that it was in a Conservation Area (now a World Heritage site) meant that the shelters are built in the local sandstone rather than the crummy bus-type shelters provided at similar stations from the period such as Crossflatts. At what point was it decreed that reopenings had to be done with super-expensive facilities, rather than opening a couple of wooden platforms next to a road overbridge so that not even a footbridge had to be provided? Brighouse must have cost many, many times what Saltaire cost 15 or so years earlier.

I actually use Shipley more because of the more frequent service, but although an interesting, intensively worked triangular station, it's a pretty grim and lonely place to wait for a train, especially after dark.

 

[SWT_USER]

Hanwell/ Drayton Green. Neither anything to write home about and only a half hourly service with no trains on Sunday.

 

[4SRKT]

Hanwell/ Drayton Green. Neither anything to write home about and only a half hourly service with no trains on Sunday.

Mine used to be West Ealing many years ago.

 

[Rich_D3167]

Healing (between Barnetby & Grimsby Town) is my local shack. However, only the 2 hourly Cleethorpes to Barton on Humber service calls here, & Monday to Saturday only at this time of year (there's 4 return services on Summer Sundays). I tend to drive to either Habrough or Grimsby Town to get the benefits of the East Midlands Trains services to Lincoln & Newark Northgate or the TransPennine Expresses to Doncaster, Sheffield & Manchester.Also, the Saturdays-only Cleethorpes to Sheffield via Gainsborough Central can come in handy if I need to travel when it's running! Regularly get Class 153's on the Barton services, plus EMT 153's, 156's, the occasional 158, & TPE Class 170's & 185's passing non-stop, as well as the odd 142/144 or 153 on the Saturday-only Gainsborough Central jobs.

 

[snowy24]

Where is your local station and what do you think of it?

Mine is Branksome which is between Bournemouth and Poole. It is unmanned but has a lovely red brick station building and although they have been shortened, there is a canopy on each platform. I love going here because when there is no one waiting for a train, I imagine that it is MY station! Also it is here that different trains come occasionally from London and reverse into Bournemouth works. Recently we have had Junipers and Darth Vaders.

i use this one too, lovely station with staff in the morning

 

[Schnellzug]

Mine is the next stop along - Parkstone , or 'Parkstone for Sandbanks' as it was once called.
Although the old tramway to Lilliput has long gone, you can still get a sense of the original makeup of the station by its original station building. The WH Smith has gone on the down platform, but the foot bridge remains minus its cover - a great view can be had of the railtours climbing the Parkstone Bank out of Poole .

Nice job they make looking after that, with the flower tubs and the little garden.

 

[Urban Gateline]

Mine is Hampton Court,
It's in a lovely area but the station buildings don't do it any justice, in dire need of renovation!
Trains every half hour (class 455's), albeit the slowest stopping service into Waterloo for such a short distance. The ticket office is reasonably well staffed and there's 3 TVMs.

 

[Mattmatt]

Mine is Reddish North; It's on the Marple / Sheffield line out of Manchester (not TPE) Its the local stopping service. Mainly Pacers and the occasional 150. It's a nice station with friendly station staff. It is dire need of a bit of a refurb, freezing cold waiting room! Northern have just installed a new info system on when the next train is coming & CCTV etc. Many years ago it looked like it had a yard with sidings etc, now sadly its a timber yard, with the engine shed now either offices or an elaborate store.

 

[paul1609]

Mine are Wittersham Road on the Kent and East Sussex railway single platform with no facilities only served by Santa Specials this week. After New Year no service until Easter.
and Appledore (Kent) End of the double track on the Marshlink Line and also the junction for the Dungeness branch. Two 2 coach platforms with PIS but no other facilities. Booking office Closed in 1970s.
Hourly 171 service to Ashford International or brighton. The marsh link line was a survivor from Beeching and is probably unique in the South east as a still Rural line.

 

[Class377/5]

Mine's Highgate. I know it's a Tube station but the high level platforms are still there some years after they actually closed! Shame really to see the station not living upto it's full ability.

 

[OMGitsDAVE]

Mine's Seaton Carew or Hartlepool.

Both have improved dramatically over the past year and a half, so im keen to use them! (The Seaton one even has a new Sainsburys Local just down the ramp)

 

[Harbon 1]

Burton on Trent. On the Derby - Birmingham line (10.67 miles from Derby). All Cross Country Turbostars stop here, some Voyagers and the odd HST. On a regular day, it has two staff, one guard and on in the ticket office. (The man who works in the ticket office looks like Alistair Darling) Not a bad service, one in each direction at least every 30 mins. The building is in need of a facelift, but at least the asbestos has nearly gone in the roof now. The toilets smell... Also a lot of freight, Mostly 66 hauled, but a 70 once a day apparently.

 

[150222]

Saltaire. This is one of the first spate of WYPTE reopenings in the days when they were done on the cheap with wooden platforms. Luckily the fact that it was in a Conservation Area (now a World Heritage site) meant that the shelters are built in the local sandstone rather than the crummy bus-type shelters provided at similar stations from the period such as Crossflatts. At what point was it decreed that reopenings had to be done with super-expensive facilities, rather than opening a couple of wooden platforms next to a road overbridge so that not even a footbridge had to be provided? Brighouse must have cost many, many times what Saltaire cost 15 or so years earlier.

Walsden is another one clearly done on the cheap.

My local is Todmorden. Decent service but I don't really like the station itself as the subway usually smells of urine.

 

[Minilad]

Burton on Trent. On the Derby - Birmingham line (10.67 miles from Derby). All Cross Country Turbostars stop here, some Voyagers and the odd HST. On a regular day, it has two staff, one guard and on in the ticket office. (The man who works in the ticket office looks like Alistair Darling) Not a bad service, one in each direction at least every 30 mins. The building is in need of a facelift, but at least the asbestos has nearly gone in the roof now. The toilets smell... Also a lot of freight, Mostly 66 hauled, but a 70 once a day apparently.

And I will be doing that twice later today
My local is Warwick. Decent service into Birmingham and down to that London.
Nice old boy works in the ticket office which is open till 13.30 each weekday.
Very pleasant little station all in all

 

[Kernowfem]

Kiveton Park (not bridge) no toilets only shelters, but a lovely signal box to admire.

 

[Nym]

End of t'road is Bolton, new toilets that are already wrecked (on Pt4 at least), so many electrical cable trays it would confuse someone who used to do MoD cabling, PIS that works properly only on days with a Y in them or when there's a full moon (Thanks Thales), on the upside, very good and helpful staff, on and off platform, just a shame about some of the older G4S staff that think they can get way with murder and are passing it onto the new staff, and all the faredodgers that use the Orlando Bridge entrance to fare dodge and shout abuse at a conductor when asked to buy a ticket.

T'other end of t'road, Lostock, nice guy from G4S, and a car park that for some reason, still fills up by 10am, better than Bolton that fills up by 6:50am though, and you get to see amusing scenes of idiots in 7.5 and 18 tonne vehicles trying to get between the bollards...

Lostock has no toilets, 2 shelters, and usually a scally sat on platform two cupping himself...

 

[Tomonthetrain]

stourbridge town - not a bad service really

 

[newbie babs]

Chapletown, not bad right next to Asda and the chaos

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Mine's Cherry Tree, which is served by 142s, or sometimes a 150 (especially ex-LM ones), or, if you're lucky, a 156. It gets an hourly service to Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and Colne to the east, and to Preston and Blackpool (South) in the west Monday-Friday, with a 2-hourly service commencing mid-morning on a Sunday, to Colne as per usual eastwards, though to Preston only in the west in the winter, with services extended to Blackpool South in the high summer. On the station there are bus shelters, useless new automatic announcements (though at least now they mention every train, the old system never used to, even if it was cancelled), but no trace remains of the station building where the eastbound platform entrance is now, closed in the late 1960s.

Mine are ... and Appledore (Kent) ... Booking office Closed in 1970s. ... The marsh link line was a survivor from Beeching and is probably unique in the South east as a still Rural line.

I had Appledore booking office down as closing on 4 October 1991. Further, I thought Maidstone West-Paddock Wood and Dover Priory-Faversham were quite rural.

Walsden is another one clearly done on the cheap.

The platforms have been done up there recently, most of the cheap building materials have been replaced and I think it has been resurfaced too. I can only assume the same will be done at the other post-1960s station in the WY Metro area.

 

[newbie babs]

MattE2010

How long has Cherry Tree had a railway station, my brother used to live there and I don`t remember a station when I visited him

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Not long, only since 1846!

 

[EM2]

Wanstead Park on LO. When it was part of NR, it was horrible, a really foreboding place with no staff, no help points and no shelter!
Since TfL took over, it has been transformed with staffing, new lighting, PA, shelters, info screens and help points. And of course, new stock with the 172s.

 

[newbie babs]

MattE2010

Stupid me :roll:

wonder how I missed that, question for my brother !!

 

[jonb]

Shenfield is mine, fairly busy station with 5 platforms and the starting point for stopping trains into Liverpool Street. Platforms 1/2 & 3/4 feature cafe facilities in the form of 'Pumpkin'. Other services are provided in the form of 'semi fasts' heading to Braintree, Clacton, Colchester Town, Ipswich & Southend Victoria. Typically most of these are worked by 321/360 units.

Unfortunately since the timetable change in May, LHCS ceases to stop at Shenfield which is a shame as it was quite handy to use to get to Norwich.

 

[Schnellzug]

End of t'road is Bolton, new toilets that are already wrecked (on Pt4 at least), so many electrical cable trays it would confuse someone who used to do MoD cabling, PIS that works properly only on days with a Y in them or when there's a full moon (Thanks Thales), on the upside, very good and helpful staff, on and off platform, just a shame about some of the older G4S staff that think they can get way with murder and are passing it onto the new staff, and all the faredodgers that use the Orlando Bridge entrance to fare dodge and shout abuse at a conductor when asked to buy a ticket.

T'other end of t'road, Lostock, nice guy from G4S, and a car park that for some reason, still fills up by 10am, better than Bolton that fills up by 6:50am though, and you get to see amusing scenes of idiots in 7.5 and 18 tonne vehicles trying to get between the bollards...

Lostock has no toilets, 2 shelters, and usually a scally sat on platform two cupping himself...

Do they sub-contract that g4S outfit to provide staff, then? Seems a bit fishy to me.

 

[sprite]

When home - New Pudsey (should be called Farsley station really)
At Uni - Manchester Oxford road is the closest, but I often get the 147 bus to Manchester Picadilly and sometimes walk to Manchester Victoria. So all 3 really!

 

[lordhinton]

unfortunatly i have south wigston station for my local station, unmanned, used as a club on fridays...

not too nice to be at after dark, but for freight things are picking up with the usual xc170's 66's and 70's

thanks hinton