[Trivia] How many stations still have wooden platforms?

[infobleep]

A colleague shared a news report that Berrylands station is due to temporarily close next year.

Berrylands station in southwest London will have to close for several months next year to repair its wooden platforms.

Berrylands station wood platform repairs to close the station for several months

Berrylands station in southwest London will have to close for several months next year to repair its wooden platforms.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

It got me wondering, how many other stations have wooden platforms, eirher in or out of use?

In total I am aware of Berrylands, Hersham and an out of use platform at Queenstown Road (Battersea).

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Happy to be corrected, but fairly sure that the rather basic Humphrey Park station (on the Manchester Oxford Road to Warrington Central line) has predominantly wooden platform(s).

 

[bramling]

A colleague shared a news report that Berrylands station is due to temporarily close next year.

Berrylands station wood platform repairs to close the station for several months

Berrylands station in southwest London will have to close for several months next year to repair its wooden platforms.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

It got me wondering, how many other stations have wooden platforms, eirher in or out of use?

In total I am aware of Berrylands, Hersham and an out of use platform at Queenstown Road (Battersea).

Mill Hill East I believe still has.

 

[Haywain]

A colleague shared a news report that Berrylands station is due to temporarily close next year.

Berrylands station wood platform repairs to close the station for several months

Berrylands station in southwest London will have to close for several months next year to repair its wooden platforms.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

It got me wondering, how many other stations have wooden platforms, eirher in or out of use?

In total I am aware of Berrylands, Hersham and an out of use platform at Queenstown Road (Battersea).

If you’re building a list, I’ll throw Berney Arms into the mix. But I think you’ll find that there are a surprising number of stations across the network where the non-slip surface hides a significant amount of timber, particularly those new build stations of the 1980s in metropolitan areas.

 

[InkyScrolls]

Crossflatts, Frizinghall, I believe Steeton also.

 

[BucksBones]

Berrylands looks similar to platform 4 at Cheddington. They closed that some time ago for a couple of months to stop it falling down the embankment but all they did was shore it up with some very temporary looking scaffolding

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Hag Fold and Hall I' th' wood are both wooden.

I think the old Horwich parkway was too before it was rebuilt.

 

[yorksrob]

Several in West Yorkshire (Saltaire, Crossflatts, East Garforth plus others).

Also, don't forget Brighton !

 

[infobleep]

If you’re building a list, I’ll throw Berney Arms into the mix. But I think you’ll find that there are a surprising number of stations across the network where the non-slip surface hides a significant amount of timber, particularly those new build stations of the 1980s in metropolitan areas.

I didn't realise they were building wooden platforms as late as the 1980s.

 

[yorksrob]

I didn't realise they were building wooden platforms as late as the 1980s.

A very cost effective way of opening new stations. We could learn from it.

Also Lelant Saltings.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I didn't realise they were building wooden platforms as late as the 1980s.

Humphrey Park station was built rather cheaply in the mid 1980s.

 

[infobleep]

Several in West Yorkshire (Saltaire, Crossflatts, East Garforth plus others).

Also, don't forget Brighton !

Of course, I'd forgot about Brighton.

 

[yorksrob]

Of course, I'd forgot about Brighton.

There can't be many other big main line stations with them.

 

[D6130]

Ribblehead (Down Platform)

Giggleswick (part of both platforms)

Clapham (North Yorks) - part of both platforms)

Steeton & Silsden

Mytholmroyd

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Several in West Yorkshire (Saltaire, Crossflatts, East Garforth plus others).

Also, don't forget Brighton !

Quite a few which won't be around for much longer:
Deighton will gain new platforms as part of the Trans-Pennine route upgrade, and Mirfield platform 3 will be removed. Cottingley is set to close at some point and be replaced by White Rose. Slaithwaite has wooden platforms currently but I expect they'll be replaced when that section is upgraded.

 

[infobleep]

A colleague commented that he was surprised more wooden platforms hadn't caught fire from a spark off the third rail or someone starting a fire in some way.

It then got me thinking about cinders from steam engines back in the day.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I didn't realise they were building wooden platforms as late as the 1980s.

Now I'm wondering which is the most recent wooden construction... Streethouse and Featherstone were both reopened with wooden platforms in 1992, anything newer than those? The temporary platform on Whitehall Curve in Leeds was timber-framed.

Later extensions to wooden platforms at Mirfield and Deighton are steel framed, but Slaithwaite's extensions have timber frames.

 

[yorksrob]

Quite a few which won't be around for much longer:
Deighton will gain new platforms as part of the Trans-Pennine route upgrade, and Mirfield platform 3 will be removed. Cottingley is set to close at some point and be replaced by White Rose. Slaithwaite has wooden platforms currently but I expect they'll be replaced when that section is upgraded.

Indeed. But they got the job done, and forty years later we will still have those stations, albeit with new platforms.

 

[swt_passenger]

There were a few answers to this question in 2012, if anyone needs a hint:

Stations with wooden platforms

Are there any stations in the UK (not heritage) which still have wooden platforms? I would be interested to see some of them, if there are any... Thanks

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[The exile]

A colleague commented that he was surprised more wooden platforms hadn't caught fire from a spark off the third rail or someone starting a fire in some way.

It then got me thinking about cinders from steam engines back in the day.

A single spark from the third rail wouldn’t be enough - unless the timber had been doused in petrol or something first! Arson is of course a different matter.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

The up platform at Crowle

 

[yorksrob]

A single spark from the third rail wouldn’t be enough - unless the timber had been doused in petrol or something first! Arson is of course a different matter.

Indeed. When you consider steam locomotives, people smoking like chimneys etc, wooden platforms are far less likely to self-immolate these days

 

[Gostav]

Are there any legal restrictions on new building such full wooden structures for public, how to pass fire code inspection?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

I always assumed it either wasn't real wood and just looked like wood or had some kind of fireproof coating on it (either or both may be wrong).
Either way I don't think any new platforms would be built out of wood now.

 

[yorksrob]

I always assumed it either wasn't real wood and just looked like wood or had some kind of fireproof coating on it (either or both may be wrong).
Either way I don't think any new platforms would be built out of wood now.

Maybe soaked in tar, like a railway sleeper - also not likely to ignite ?

Not the case for Brighton, which looks like very thick floorboards (platforms 8 and 9).

 

[frodshamfella]

Heswall and Neston both have wooden platforms

 

[D6130]

Does Dilton Marsh still have wooden platforms? I'm pretty sure it did have when I first passed through in the mid-1970s.

 

[Pnerick81]

Lostock hall nr preston .

 

[nwales58]

WYPTE, keen to get modal shift onto rail by building new trial stations, horrified by BR’s costs, drove this concept of the simplest possible design.

If demand did not show up the station could cheaply be removed. If successful a better station could be built for the proven flow. People were actually very proud of it, and the new much cheaper trains, Pacers, that made modal shift almost affordable.

That is all from memory, I was a young planner at the time. No point in asking for sources. It’s pre-Internet and most of my paper-based library went in the recycling 5 years ago.

I don’t recall any other PTE doing it.

Pity that the basics of cost-driven engineering and the ‘let's get something built to see how it’s used’ attitudes then have died. Does anyone get promoted for actually getting passengers onto public transport nowadays?

 

[Ashley Hill]

Also Lelant Saltings.

No,it was built of concrete sections (possibly second hand).

Does Dilton Marsh still have wooden platforms? I'm pretty sure it did have when I first passed through in the mid-1970s.

No,rebuilt in the 1990s.