Loneliest place on the network

[IanD]

Coombe Junction Halt after about 11am.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Haborough is fairly quiet and lonely.

Chathill was positively weird when I was waiting for the evening service late last year on my own in the near pitch black. The station was lit by the neighbouring level crossing (seemingly there was a fault with the lighting), well, I say lit, I stayed down that end of the platform and could hardly see anything, except the level crossing and the headlights of the passing trains....

 

[David Barrett]

Not for passengers but Bellwater Junction, isolation in the Lincolnshire Fens and once regarded as the most remote location on the G.N.R. You wouldn't even recognise it as having been a junction at all such a thorough job being done of reclaiming the former New Line's route to Woodhall for agriculture.

 

[jopsuk]

Despite it being surround by busy roads and with trains thundering through every few minutes, I'd have thought Angel Road would be pretty lonely place, even with one of the few trains due.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Carstairs gives me the creeps and must be the most dire place in Scotland.

The proximity of the State Hospital does not add to Carstairs's attraction.

 

[bishdunster]

Moreton, Dorset, is in the middle of a wood alongside a quiet road. There are a couple of houses adjacent but that's it.



Not really, you're in the middle of an urban area on a main road, and there's a big Morrisons literally round the corner :P

And dont forget Thr Frampton Arms next to the level crossing !

 

[davetheguard]

I've set myself the task of getting on or off at England's, Scotland's, and Wales' remotest stations.

For this purpose, I had to nominate somewhere, and although not in any way a scientific process I came up with: Berney Arms; Rannoch; & Sugar Loaf respectively, all of which have been suggested elsewhere in this thread. Others have equally valid suggestions, and I'll admit that Corrour is probably even more remote than Rannoch.

Anyway, I got on at Berney Arms two summers ago, after walking from Great Yarmouth, and a visit to the Berney Arms pub. It's a request stop, so you stick your arm out, and become very grateful when the train does actually stop to pick you up.

In two weeks time, we're off to Scotland & will get off the last down train at Rannoch to stay at the hotel in the middle of nowhere (as did Michael Portillo).

That just leaves Sugar Loaf, which -with the Central Wales Line timetable being less frequent than it probably should be for its own good- may well turn out to be the most difficult to do; it will almost certainly require a hotel stay in Llandrindod or somewhere similar.

 

[marks87]

Considering Rannoch is served by a 'B' road, I wouldn't describe it as "remote" when compared with Corrour or Altnabreac, which have little more than dirt tracks leading to them.

 

[ValleyLines142]

I've been stood at the London-end of Bristol Parkway station at about 1am waiting for the last train from London heading towards Cardiff. Not that it is isolated, as in the day it's busy and there's several roads and buses nearby, but at night there is no bus service and no reason to be there and it was quite spooky.

I also caught the 0137 from Temple Meads to Cardiff two weeks ago. Again, TM was eerily quiet compared to what it is in the day! Not a sounds except for 150106 sat in the platform making a clicky sound!

 

[cuccir]

A slight tangent, but which station in Great Britain is furthest away geographically from any other station? I mean absolute distance here, rather than journey by rail/road? The stations don't have to have services to one another (eg Lockerbie's nearest station is Dumfries)

I'd throw in Berwick-upon-Tweed as a difficult one to beat at roughly 22 miles to Chathill. Are there any railway stations that are further from their nearest neighbour than that?

 

[Anon Mouse]

Moreton, Dorset, is in the middle of a wood alongside a quiet road. There are a couple of houses adjacent but that's it.



Not really, you're in the middle of an urban area on a main road, and there's a big Morrisons literally round the corner :P

not on the platform though!

 

[causton]

I have been to Berney Arms and Doleham and I'm going to Sugar Loaf on Friday and Altnabreac in July! Perhaps I must like spending some time alone

 

[RailProfileUK]

Hindlow yard in the peak district especially winter, foggy, cold (all year round), blizzards, remote.

Or in the middle of the Forth rail bridge when the sea har comes in, it's deadly silent and all you can hear is the fog horn from the shore. Spooky!

 

[trickyvegas]

Chapel en le Frith. Overslept on a train from Blackpool and Buxton and jumped off there on a Saturday night, fair distance from the town itself and felt very dark - plus there was about a 90 minute wait for the next train back to Manchester - had to get a friend to come and rescue me.

 

[Chapeltom]

Entwistle feels very isolated, especially when you walk towards Chapeltown. Isolated but also very peaceful, it was a superb night to tick off Turton FC (who play in Chapeltown).

Middlewood feels literally like your in the middle of a wood, I used it a few times in mid-afternoon, felt very lonely!

I'd also go with Harborough, felt very isolated, I was changing off a service from Sheffield to head down to Barton Upon Humber, that was a very long 53 minutes!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Chapel en le Frith. Overslept on a train from Blackpool and Buxton and jumped off there on a Saturday night, fair distance from the town itself and felt very dark - plus there was about a 90 minute wait for the next train back to Manchester - had to get a friend to come and rescue me.

I use Chapel quite a lot and forgot to say in my own post, didn't want to mention it really! I've walked up there for the first train on a winters morning, a 15 minute walk from my house, saw no cars, no people, nothing, no sounds or much light, and it was a foggy, chilly morning. I got up there and I've got to be honest, I heard the wind blowing and it frightened the life out of me.

 

[bunnahabhain]

Try Havenhouse!

 

[33056]

Most rural stations on the Bedford to Bletchley line.

Can't say any of the stations on that line are particularly rural any more - Kempston Hardwick is probably the furthest from civilisation and that has a fairly well-used road crossing.

Ridgmont was one of the lesser used stations when I worked down there (long before Mr Amazon arrived) and that was far from remote with the M1 nearby and the level crossing on a minor road that was used as a bit of a rat-run.

 

[anthony263]

Taunton station was completely empty when I got off the last train from Cardiff at around 2340. I then ended up waiting til 0215 for the sleeper to London Paddington.

I ended up up going for a walk to a takeway to get some food. The station did get more peope arriving shortly before 2am to get the sleeper services to London and Penzance.

Claberston Road is also another station which can be pretty lonely if you have a long wait between trains.

 

[High Dyke]

I was at Pontefract Baghill in Dec complete with fog. Only me around.

That you could see...

As someone mentioned larger stations when no-one is around can take on a certain element of mystery. (probably not the right word). Although it is surrounded by houses Heckington station the other morning at 04:30 was very quiet and desolate, especially after the repair team resurfacing the level crossing had stopped making so much noise and disappeared into the night. Not another sound could be heard.

 

[Tilehog]

Paddington - After the apocalypse

 

[LE Greys]

From another point of view, Waterloo at about 18:00 on Friday evening. Entirely surrounded by people, but I've never felt more lonely in my life. Virtually none of them spoke to each other (except if they had a mobile phone) and almost all would have been City workers heading off for the commuter belt, a social group a student and aspiring author had absolutely nothing in common with. It was as though I was a lone horse in a herd of Wildebeest (and invisible).

 

[Daimler]

Very atmospheric. Just the pitch black of the mountain in front of you and the stars above. Might just see the light from a car along the main road. Or look back and see the staggered lines of platform lights receding into the darkness. Not a sound except the wind in your ears, until you make out a faint rumbling of the train in the distance emerging from Blea Moor tunnel.

Absolutely You can just see the line disappearing into what appears to be thin air at the start of the viaduct. Despite the loneliness, the little waiting room on the northbound platform is rather a cosy place to wait for a train at night though.

 

[Eagle]

A slight tangent, but which station in Great Britain is furthest away geographically from any other station? I mean absolute distance here, rather than journey by rail/road? The stations don't have to have services to one another (eg Lockerbie's nearest station is Dumfries)

Penrith? It's about 20 miles or so from both Windermere and Carlisle.

 

[LE Greys]

Penrith? It's about 20 miles or so from both Windermere and Carlisle.

But only about 5 miles from Langwathby (it seems like a fairly decent walk from overhead views). Berwick is a similar distance from other stations on the same line (21 miles from Chathill and 28½ miles from Dunbar by rail, not sure of the proposed distance from Galashiels).

 

[imagination]

Penrith? It's about 20 miles or so from both Windermere and Carlisle.

Less than 5 from Langwathby

What about Tiverton Parkway? It's not as far as Berwick but it's about 15 miles from Taunton (Edit: Whimple is slightly closer)

Welshpool is about 13 miles, Wick about 12.

 

[yorksrob]

Absolutely You can just see the line disappearing into what appears to be thin air at the start of the viaduct. Despite the loneliness, the little waiting room on the northbound platform is rather a cosy place to wait for a train at night though.

It is. Part of me prefers it in the depths of winter when it's pitch black and there's noone there !

 

[Eagle]

But only about 5 miles from Langwathby (it seems like a fairly decent walk from overhead views).

Oops, missed that (and to think I checked all the stations on the Cumbrian coast...)

 

[imagination]

Stranraer is about 17-18 miles or so from Barrhill. I think that's the second furthest after Berwick's 20 or so

 

[cjp]

Corrour.

Not with the restaurant across the track
http://www.corrour-station-house-restaurant.co.uk/

Unless it was a Monday night and the restaurant was closed until Wednesday

 

[tsr]

I have to say that London Victoria felt very lonely when I was waiting for the last train in a period of severe winter weather. There was absolutely not a soul around - rarely, virtually nobody wanted to risk getting the last train, which I'd expect even with a foot of snow on the ground. There were about four or five other passengers in the whole entire station, two cleaners on the far side of the concourse, two people in a Caffe Nero booth... and that was it. All the shops shut. No TOC staff to speak of, no BTP, and very few people coming up from the Tube (which was actually really busy). Ironically, the place was all clean and tidy - it looked wonderful, as if it had just been cleaned and shut down on Christmas Eve. There were about two other people on my train between there and Clapham Junction.