Stations that fell from grace- stations still in use today that once were significantly more impressive.

[WesternBiker]

I'd add Highbridge (Highbridge & Burnham) - with the loss of the Somerset & Dorset platforms, all the original buildings, and the adjacent railway works.

I remember being impressed by the original Exmouth station, with its 4 platforms and terminal building: the replacement building is okay, if dull, but there's just one platform - and it's 100m further from the town.

And, while it's on a preserved railway, I feel sorry we have lost the wonderful canopies on the station at Douglas, IoM. The one narrow-gauge station that really matched standard gauge termini.

Weston-super-Mare is reasonably intact, but the overall site is missing the adjacent 4-platform excursion station and sidings, known as Locking Road; although technically a separate station, it made the site quite impressive, dealing with up to 30,000 passengers on a Bank Holiday.

 

[Killingworth]

Mention has been made of both Chinley and Dore, the western and eastern ends of the Midland Railway's Dore & Chinley Railway opened in 1894. Both were already open for express mainline services to St Pancras from Sheffield and Manchester.

Chinley now. and back in the day



Dore & Totley now and 100 years ago

 

[fgwrich]

Perth
Cromer (Beach)

Perth has to be up there for the large stations. Yes, architecturally it is still an impressive station, but it has become something of a run down, pigeon infested dump the last time I passed through it, with trees growing out of the side of one of the buildings. Hardly befitting a major city in Scotland and certainly in need of renovation / rationalisation / remodelling.

 

[NoRoute]

I will throw in Northampton, formerly Northampton Castle. Not so much for the architecture but rather the loss of so many destinations, a check of a 1930s timetable shows that you could catch trains heading north upto Market Harborough and onto Leicester, now gone. Could catch a train up the Nene valley to Wellingborough and upto Peterborough, allowing connections to Kettering and Corby, all now gone. There were even a few trains that went east over Leamington Spa and Warwick, now gone.

All that remains are the WCML services, with the station now cut off from many of the surrounding towns and cities.

 

[Greetlander]

Halifax should get a mention. Formerly three island platforms with two bays, huge goods yard and a northern junction for the Queensbury line. Now one island, with another disused one begging for its track back.

 

[Tracked]

Hatfield and Stainforth
Before:

pt0098 - Hatfield & Stainforth Railway Station , Yorkshire - print 6x4 | eBay

Woody-iow note is not on the print. Condition is Very Good.

www.ebay.co.uk

After (this makes it look better than it is ... ):

Hatfield & Stainforth railway station,... © Nigel Thompson

Opened in 1866 by the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway on what is now the line from Doncaster to Cleethorpes, for good measure this station has also been known as Stainforth & Hatfield in the past. View north east towards Thorne and Cleethorpes.

www.geograph.org.uk

 

[modernrail]

Yes I know.

Why was it shortened?

 

[zwk500]

Why was it shortened?

To release the town centre site for redevelopment, I suspect.

 

[Railsigns]

Why was it shortened?

The line was shortened to allow the A82 to be diverted along the shore of Loch Linnhe and away from the town centre.

 

[70014IronDuke]

I will throw in Northampton, formerly Northampton Castle. Not so much for the architecture but rather the loss of so many destinations, a check of a 1930s timetable shows that you could catch trains heading north upto Market Harborough and onto Leicester, now gone. Could catch a train up the Nene valley to Wellingborough and upto Peterborough, allowing connections to Kettering and Corby, all now gone. There were even a few trains that went east over Leamington Spa and Warwick, now gone.

All that remains are the WCML services, with the station now cut off from many of the surrounding towns and cities.

Northampton, for its size, is very poorly served by rail, outside the London - Rugby corridor. I'm one who thinks the E-W trains should terminate in Northampton, rather than MK, to add better connectivity. Or at least some of them.

BTW, you forgot the Bedford branch.

EDIT - Of course, when first introduced (2012 or so?) the semi-fasts to Crewe via Stoke went via Northampton. Then LNW or whoever decided they could get more out of things by going via Weedon.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

The line was shortened to allow the A82 to be diverted along the shore of Loch Linnhe and away from the town centre.

For part of that route on the railway formation and passing through the old station site. Station Square still exists albeit now in a different configuration.

 

[zwk500]

I will throw in Northampton, formerly Northampton Castle. Not so much for the architecture but rather the loss of so many destinations, a check of a 1930s timetable shows that you could catch trains heading north upto Market Harborough and onto Leicester, now gone. Could catch a train up the Nene valley to Wellingborough and upto Peterborough, allowing connections to Kettering and Corby, all now gone. There were even a few trains that went east over Leamington Spa and Warwick, now gone.

All that remains are the WCML services, with the station now cut off from many of the surrounding towns and cities.

How often were they connected to those destinations, and how long did the journeys take though?

Northampton, for its size, is very poorly served by rail, outside the London - Rugby corridor. I'm one who thinks the E-W trains should terminate in Northampton, rather than MK, to add better connectivity. Or at least some of them.

BTW, you forgot the Bedford branch.

There's a good argument for some to do so but freight competes for capacity and Northampton-MK isn't underserved.

 

[Dr_Paul]

The only parts of Euston worth saving were the Great Hall, which was plumb in the way of any sensible redevelopment, and the Arch, which should have been saved. The rest of the station was a mess!

I'd agree with that. I've heard it said several times that the old Euston was a marvellous place for railway enthusiasts, but a horror for railway workers and passengers alike.

We've had Gunnersbury and Highbury and Islington mentioned already. Some other North London Line stations have been stripped of their extensive and often elegant station buildings and left with a bus shelter, such as Caledonian Road and Canonbury. Willesden Junction has lost its mainline platforms and its huge overall roof. South Hampstead now has a skimpy station building on the road over-bridge and bus shelters on the platforms, and its four mainline platforms have been disused and bare of buildings for decades.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'd agree with that. I've heard it said several times that the old Euston was a marvellous place for railway enthusiasts, but a horror for railway workers and passengers alike.

From what I've seen of it it was a bit like a worse and lower capacity version of the utter dive that is Paris Gare du Nord with a Great Hall stuck in the way such that the suburban platforms would have been 4-car at best.

I don't hate present Euston other than the silly method of operation and those useless new departure boards, but there's little I'd like to see more than the manky concrete monstrosity being knocked down and replaced with a Manchester Piccadilly or Kings Cross-a-like with a nice glass concourse, a proper single gateline and a high, impressive trainshed plus perhaps 15 12-car platforms (this sort of thing was originally proposed before HS2 became victim of death by a thousand cuts) but the old station had to go, it would have had little more capacity than Marylebone and wouldn't have been able to cope with modern-day service levels nor the number of people.

As to that arch, it's monstrous, I don't know why people want to see it back.

 

[urbophile]

I'd agree with that. I've heard it said several times that the old Euston was a marvellous place for railway enthusiasts, but a horror for railway workers and passengers alike.

Architecturally the present building is quite impressive, though the lack of visual integration with the platforms is a pity. If that whole side of the concourse opened up onto a large train shed, as Bletchleyite suggests, it would have been much better.

It would not have been impossible to save the arch, even if it would have had to be resited. However, the furore its destruction caused probably helped to inspire other successful conservation campaigns such as St Pancras.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Architecturally the new building is quite impressive. But it would not have been impossible to save the arch, even if it would have had to be resited. However, the furore its destruction caused probably helped to inspire other successful campaigns such as St Pancras.

The arch could have been put between the two relocated porticos at the entrance to the bus station (I can't think of anywhere else sensible for it). But it would have got somewhat in the way even there.

I don't see what people saw in it, it was monstrous.

 

[urbophile]

I don't see what people saw in it, it was monstrous.

De gustibus...

 

[Meerkat]

The arch could have been put between the two relocated porticos at the entrance to the bus station (I can't think of anywhere else sensible for it). But it would have got somewhat in the way even there.

I don't see what people saw in it, it was monstrous.

Not just me then! Never seen why there was so much fuss about it. An awfully crass thing that you might expect in the Gulf, a dictator's palace or Las Vegas.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not just me then! Never seen why there was so much fuss about it. An awfully crass thing that you might expect in the Gulf, a dictator's palace or Las Vegas.

Indeed.

I think one of the problems with Euston is that because few are old enough to remember what the Great Hall was actually like, from the photos it's easy to scale it up and imagine it was on the sort of scale of New York's Grand Central Terminal, which looked a bit like it but is more the size of the present station. It wasn't, it was really quite small, using the seats in photos of it for scale it looks about the same size as Leeds old concourse, say. I think people also picture it being where the present hall is, not half way along Platform 10 rendering the local bays no use for much more than a 4-car EMU.

From what I can see it looked fancy but wasn't at all practical for even 1980s levels of loadings, and definitely not for today's.

 

[stuu]

The arch could have been put between the two relocated porticos at the entrance to the bus station (I can't think of anywhere else sensible for it). But it would have got somewhat in the way even there.

I don't see what people saw in it, it was monstrous.

Seconded! Don't know what the fuss is about

 

[krus_aragon]

That would be TfW. They also have a policy of letting redndant buildings / spaces to community groups at peppercorn rents. Presumably the buildings as Pontypridd will be made available as some stage.

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/no...ed-buildings-victorian-train-station-19896811

It's a good policy, though the pictures I provided of Pontypridd (from Wikimedia Commons) all predate TfW, if I recall correctly.

 

[eisenach]

Well, I'll chuck in Leominster as a modest example. Four platforms and two branches (Kington & Bromyard to Worcester), now just a halt on the Marches line.

 

[james73]

Isn't the station at Ayr compromised by that hotel that will surely fall down at some point in the future, if it isn't demolished first after mysteriously catching fire?

Ayr has two bays and two through platforms. I *think* the dangerous bit of the hotel is towards the south part of the through lines. Something will have to be done (I've lost track of what's happening with it) and the station will definitely lose a lot of character if, or when, the building is razed.

 

[NoRoute]

How often were they connected to those destinations, and how long did the journeys take though?

For example:
1934 LMS timetable - Northampton to Leicester stopping service took 1hr 30 mins (looks like 6 per day)
1934 LMS timetable - Northampton to Leicester express took 55 minutes (2 services per day)

2023 X7 bus - Northampton to Leicester stopping service, 1hr 28 minutes. (hourly)
2023 Megabus - Northampton to Leicester direct, 40 minutes. (1 service per day)
2023 rail journey - Northampton to Leicester, 2 changes, 1hr 40 minutes.

The rail service was actually better 90 years ago and the modern bus equivalent merely matches that available in 1932, you've got to love our public transport infrastructure in the East Midlands!

 

[Harvester]

I assumed it was the Coast train at first, but then saw the time on the station clock!

Such a shame. This was a station Stockton could be proud of.

It was most probably the afternoon SuO Sunderland-Kings Cross which departed Stockton at 2:43pm, so was running to time. From my own observations this train was regularly Deltic hauled for many years, from 1963 onwards.

 

[willgreen]

Could the reopening of the Ashington line to passenger services see a mini revival of Manors? Or does the timetable prevent more trains stopping there?

Believe the plan at least was to stop all Ashington services at Manors, giving it 3tph each way - not sure if this is still the plan but it is in principle fairly well located for the north and east city centre (and has a connection to the Metro Coast line unlike Central)

 

[devon_belle]

Exeter Central
Yeovil Junction (see also original station with overall roof)
Tattenham Corner
Exmouth
Oban
Barnstaple [Junction]
Henley-on-Thames

Have all fallen from grace in my opinion

 

[airantraigh]

Perth has to be up there for the large stations. Yes, architecturally it is still an impressive station, but it has become something of a run down, pigeon infested dump the last time I passed through it, with trees growing out of the side of one of the buildings. Hardly befitting a major city in Scotland and certainly in need of renovation / rationalisation / remodelling.

I agree with this and all the other Perth comments in this thread.

It is a very "wide" station with deep platforms, made worse by the fact it is sat on the junction itself. I had a transfer through it coming from Dundee up to Inverness (platform 1 to platform 7) a couple of weeks ago and i am very happy i had allowed myself such a long changeover-solely to walk all the way across to platform 7! The place is an absolute mess of bridges and buildings, not near the centre of town at all, and was eerily quiet, even on a Friday afternoon.

 

[d9009alycidon]

I agree with this and all the other Perth comments in this thread.

It is a very "wide" station with deep platforms, made worse by the fact it is sat on the junction itself. I had a transfer through it coming from Dundee up to Inverness (platform 1 to platform 7) a couple of weeks ago and i am very happy i had allowed myself such a long changeover-solely to walk all the way across to platform 7! The place is an absolute mess of bridges and buildings, not near the centre of town at all, and was eerily quiet, even on a Friday afternoon.

Even in the 1970s it was a quiet station, only back then it always seemed to be bursting at the seams with parcels and newspaper vans, with the almost constant burbling of an 08 shunter shuffling them about.

 

[Nova1]

Maybe Henley-In-Arden could join the list?

Once three platforms, now just two through running with an hourly service.

Had two quite impressive classic GWR buildings on both platforms with waiting rooms, ticket offices, etc, with most of the local services terminating here then going back to Birmingham. It was also a lot busier before the spur from Henley-In-Arden to Lapworth (now the chiltern main line) was shut in the war.

Now there's only an hourly service, an abandoned building on platform 1, with the platform 2 buildings long gone. There was also a signal box to the south of the station buildings, again gone when signalling moved to Satley but the burrow crossings are still there.