Stations worked only in one direction?

[RJS1977]

Dungeness, RH&DR!

[br2975]

There were also two halts on the up line on the TVR coming out of Cardiff.  they were only worked in one direction by auto trains.

 

So you could catch a train nearer to Cardiff, but due to the out and return nature of the working, those getting on nearer to Cardiff, actually spent longer on the train!

 

Regards

 

Richard

 

As Richard says, between Cardiff Queen St. and  Llandaff (for Whitchurch) were Woodville Road Halt & Maindy Halt.

.

'Up' auto trains stopped at Woodville Road on the 'up' journey only and then reversed at Maindy Halt returning to Queen St and Bute Road (or wherever).

 

At one time Cathays had a 14XX which was used on this service.

 

Brian R

[Andy Kirkham]

I believe Scafell Halt on the short double-track section of the Cambrian between Newtown and Moat Lane had a platform on one side only.

[Pacific231G]

For far too many years South Greenford only had a platform on the down side so if you wanted to go to Ealing or Paddington you had to board the down train to Greenford and wait (not for long) for it to turn into the next up train.

This follwed a collapse of the embankment in I think the early 1990s and a new platform was finally opened in Sept 1999 making it a two way station again (Hurray! it's useful!)

[Edwin_m]

The trams in central Croydon operate a one-way loop but those going through from one side to the other only use one side of the loop, so for example westbound trams do not serve West Croydon station.  The Nottingham tram has a one-way section which means that three stops are northbound only with two southbound stops in a parallel street. 

[ForestPines]

Wasn't Ribblehead station only served in one direction for a number of years?

Correct - it only had an up platform for some time.

[clecklewyke]

The southern station on the Scarborough North Bay Railway is worked in one direction only - it's on a reverse loop, a bit like the Liverpool underground.

[Fat Controller]

One of the more extreme versions of freight trains working in only one direction were the cement trains from Ketton Cement Works near Stamford. There was only a trailing connection to the works, so loaded trains to Kings Cross worked via Peterborough (logically enough). However, return workings went via the Midland Main Line to Syston Junction, where they picked up the line to Peterborough.

I'm not sure how this train is worked, now that the terminal has moved to the other side of the station throat at St Pancras. I suspect trains work as far as Peterborough, run round, then return whence they came, using the MML in both directions.

[The Stationmaster]

One of the more extreme versions of freight trains working in only one direction were the cement trains from Ketton Cement Works near Stamford. There was only a trailing connection to the works, so loaded trains to Kings Cross worked via Peterborough (logically enough). However, return workings went via the Midland Main Line to Syston Junction, where they picked up the line to Peterborough.

I'm not sure how this train is worked, now that the terminal has moved to the other side of the station throat at St Pancras. I suspect trains work as far as Peterborough, run round, then return whence they came, using the MML in both directions.

 

When we were doing the SPAD risk assessment (and fiddling about adjusting the plan for the siding's exit signal as part of that) the working was planned to be MML in both directions).

[Pacific231G]

I've remembered one fairly extraordinary example that comes straight out of the "prototype for everything" box

This was a station on the metre gauge Chemin de Fer du Beaujolais on the line between Monsols and Villefranche-sur-Saone where, to satisfy local pressure for a station at Perréon, the line was extended by two kilometres in a spur. The station was on the southern edge of Perréon and a few hundred metres from the adjoining village of Vaux- which was the inspiration for Clochemerle- so giving it a joint name. By ending the spur with a balloon loop there was no need for locos to run round their trains nor to be turned (the line's 0-6-0 tank locos always worked chimney first)

 

When the line opened the station was served by three through passenger trains a day plus one from Villefranche that terminated at Perréon. The  timetable only allowed seven minutes between this train's arrival and its return to Villefrance so it must have used the loop rather than running round. Through trains only spent three minutes at the station. In the original 1901 timetable no trains crossed at Perréon but a later one from 1925,  when there were only three trains each way a day, shows two of them crossing at Perréon without actually being in the station at the same time so they must have followed one another around the loop.

 

So far as I can tell from photos of trains in the station the loop was always worked anticlockwise so that trains stopped at the station before taking the loop. There were no signals and as with most French minor railways the line was worked by  timetable and telephone. 

The line opened in 1901 and closed in 1934.

 

This particular arrangement was unique in France outside of metros and urban tramways but I know of at least two other similar arrangements, one built one never completed,  on French metre gauge railways though these weren't strictly uni-directional.

 

At Loué on the Tramways de la Sarthe the arrangement was similar to Perréon- in this case in order to bring the tramway station into the environs of a main line branch - but the balloon loop was entirely beyond the station so a train using it would come back through the station which was laid out as a conventional passing station. This roadside steam tramway operated from 1888 to 1947

In the Aube Departement at  Cheville St Pouange on the planned Chemins de Fer Electrique de Champagne a similar loop to that as Perréon would have enabled trains to run directly between Romilly and Tonnerre without reversing. Trains to and from Troyes though would have run through the station in both directions crossing there.

However, although rolling stock was ordered and built in 1912 and construction of the line was well under way,  the project was interrupted by the outbreak of war and never completed. 

 

Update: Although no apparent trace of the Perreon-Vaux station or its loop remains today, apart from the name of the Rue de la Gare, using the French Geoportail site to overlay the map of property boundaries onto the aerial photo has enabled me to locate the land occupied by the station and the loop and to scale it. The 210 degree curve forming the end of the loop, which is now the edge of the town's sports field, was about 50-60 metre radius. The distance from the start of that curve through the station to the toe of the points accessing the loop was about 175-185m. I've amended the plan accordingly and it is now fairly close to scale for 1:87 on a 30cm grid though I've not added transition curves.

 

A similar exercise for Loué indicates that the loop there also had a minimum radius of 50 or so metres but both the tramway and the main line station sites have been redeveloped so extensively that it's not possible to scale the rest of the drawing.

[Edwin_m]

Those layouts remind me of Bad Herrenalb in the Black Forest.  This is the southern terminus of what was originally a narrow gauge railway but was regauged and added to the Karlsruhe tram-train network.  Since uni-directional vehicles are used a balloon loop was laid so arriving trams loop round the back of the station and enter from what was formerly the buffer stop end.  Despite this it retains its railway atmosphere including a train shed. 

[Fat Controller]

Despite having visited the area every year since 1976, I was unaware of that peculiar layout for Vaux. I really must organise myself to have a stroll around the visible remains of the CFB, such as they are.

[Pacific231G]

Despite having visited the area every year since 1976, I was unaware of that peculiar layout for Vaux. I really must organise myself to have a stroll around the visible remains of the CFB, such as they are.

Hi Brian

 

If you do I'd love to hear what you find.  I don't think though there's much if anything left on the ground at Le Perréon-Vaux Gare apart from a building on the site of the loco shed that from its roof may be just that and there is also a building that might from its location just possibly be the passenger station itself though it looks more like the extension to a house. If you're lucky you might find a track bolt or two.

 

The Rue de la Gare  runs parallel to the line through the station a few metres to the north of its line and, so far as I can tell, the "boucle" is reflected roughly by the present boundary of the sports field so it's worth looking for interestingly curved paths under the trees.

It was the Parcelles Cadastrales map on Geoportail that really revealed the fairly straight line from the loop back to the main line but what I assume is a sports centre has been built on top of it so that parcel of land doesn't really exist any more. The Rue des Sports appears to be on the line of the railway from the main road (D88) and when it bears left into the spors centre car park passing behind the "engine shed" that should be the line of the boucle at an angle of about 30-35 degrees from the main line.

I estimated the radius of the loop at 50 metres but there are some ground marks including a short bit of curved path showing up on the aerial photo that suggest it might be more like 60 metres with more of an S curve before it straightens up to return to the main line.

The CFB had very distinctive and rather grand single story station buildings usually with separate goods sheds in similar style so any still around should be very recognisable.

[The Stationmaster]

Despite having visited the area every year since 1976, I was unaware of that peculiar layout for Vaux. I really must organise myself to have a stroll around the visible remains of the CFB, such as they are.

 

I dunno about Vaux Brian but I have a pretty good idea there are a pair of much larger balloon loop stations (from each of which trains normally only depart in a  single direction) a lot closer to you

[Fat Controller]

I dunno about Vaux Brian but I have a pretty good idea there are a pair of much larger balloon loop stations (from each of which trains normally only depart in a  single direction) a lot closer to you

The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch? Or do you mean my train set..

[The Stationmaster]

The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch? Or do you mean my train set..

 

Your trainset (the RH&DR has already had a mention, I don;t think your railway has?)