Paddington platform 1

[ess]

Why is this platform so very, very, very long?


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[Manchester77]

Why is this platform so very, very, very long?


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For sleepers I'd imagine

 

[yorkie]

Indeed, and motorail.

 

[gage75]

I would also have thought parcels and the like

 

[G_A_C_C_C]

And newspaper trains. Used to be quite a few out of Paddington to West/South West each evening.

 

[edwin_m]

On the south side of the lines just outside Paddington there are carriage sheds, partly covered over by blocks of flats. I have vague recollections that parcels/newspaper traffic used these, but I assume the tracks inside them have long since gone. Platform 1 would have provided walking access to these, as well as to the various railway offices in the south range of buildings.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

And newspaper trains. Used to be quite a few out of Paddington to West/South West each evening.

Indeed so....similar to the long newspaper trains that were found in late evenings on the also extremely long platform 11 at Manchester Victoria station.

 

[Emyr]

Indeed so....similar to the long newspaper trains that were found in late evenings on the also extremely long platform 11 at Manchester Victoria station.

I'm certain they were found in the late evenings on the extremely long platforms at Manchester Exchange station.

 

[Rugd1022]

On the south side of the lines just outside Paddington there are carriage sheds, partly covered over by blocks of flats. I have vague recollections that parcels/newspaper traffic used these, but I assume the tracks inside them have long since gone. Platform 1 would have provided walking access to these, as well as to the various railway offices in the south range of buildings.

There have never been any carriage sheds 'just outside Paddington', the nearest are at Old Oak (on the north side of the mainline) which is three miles away. There used to be three loops just beyond Royal Oak on the south side which were used as loco / carriage sidings, and there used to be some sheds at West London Sidings where part of North Pole Depot stands now, but these all are long gone.

Are you thinking of the carriage shed just outside Euston instead...?

We used to shunt parcels vans in and out of platform 1 via the old parcels platform (1a) which was a right ball ache, sometimes it was a struggle to see the shunters' hand signals.

 

[edwin_m]

There have never been any carriage sheds 'just outside Paddington', the nearest are at Old Oak (on the north side of the mainline) which is three miles away. There used to be three loops just beyond Royal Oak on the south side which were used as loco / carriage sidings, and there used to be some sheds at West London Sidings where part of North Pole Depot stands now, but these all are long gone.

Are you thinking of the carriage shed just outside Euston instead...?

We used to shunt parcels vans in and out of platform 1 via the old parcels platform (1a) which was a right ball ache, sometimes it was a struggle to see the shunters' hand signals.

I was thinking of the ridged sheds visible on this view:

http://binged.it/1BaCnV7

There certainly often used to be vans visible either just inside or just outside this shed. Possibly this is the platform 1a you refer to?

 

[Sacro]

Because it was built that way?

 

[Rugd1022]

I was thinking of the ridged sheds visible on this view:

http://binged.it/1BaCnV7

There certainly often used to be vans visible either just inside or just outside this shed. Possibly this is the platform 1a you refer to?

That's the roof of the old parcels platform 1a and not a shed, the only bit of track which was covered was a short siding round the back at the Ranelagh Bridge end, it was lifted many years ago now - it was initially laid in to provide an unloading area for milk churns in GW days. You can drive a car down there these days as it's the entrance to the car park where RB fuelling point used to be. It felt very strange parking my car where once upon a time I used to park 31s, 47s and 50s!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

For sleepers I'd imagine

The Sleeper went off platform 3 when I was on it on the 14th... Then again, the current Sleeper rake is rather shorter than it used to be!

 

[John Webb]

Platform one was the departure platform for the GWR and BR(W) principle trains to the West Country. These were often formed up with a number of slip coaches to be dropped off en route. The trains were also lengthy in the Summer holiday period to cope with the crowds heading off on holiday, hence the lengthy platform.

 

[30907]

According to Trackmaps it's only 1 coach longer than 2-3 now, but it used to be an ideal place for spotting. I reckon it was that long because it could be (!) rather than because of a specific need. Might have been useful in ww2?

 

[ess]

Had a better look today and actually it's not one great big long platform, actually it's a separate platform from halfway along - platform 0 in my book

 

[L&Y Robert]

When I was a student (that's the 60's of course) the Oxford trains always left from P.1. Dunno why.

 

[gwr4090]

That's the roof of the old parcels platform 1a and not a shed, the only bit of track which was covered was a short siding round the back at the Ranelagh Bridge end, it was lifted many years ago now - it was initially laid in to provide an unloading area for milk churns in GW days. You can drive a car down there these days as it's the entrance to the car park where RB fuelling point used to be. It felt very strange parking my car where once upon a time I used to park 31s, 47s and 50s!

Platform 1a was known as the Excursion platform but was used mainly for parcels and latterly Motorail trains. I once boarded a passenger train at this platform. It was once a large island with another platform face at the rear, but I don't recall if this had a number.