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Shortest journey on National Rail


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7 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

Monument to Bank isn’t quoted as the stations aren’t adjacent on track, but they are vertically superimposed and there is an escalator connection between them. 

 

Operationally, they are one station; one supervisor and the staff cover roles at both places.

 

Stewart

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29 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

Operationally, they are one station; one supervisor and the staff cover roles at both places.

 

Stewart

 

Maybe so, but they are different names, different platforms, different entrances, different ticket barriers and different lines - not forgetting the DLR/Northern Line connection. They were originally constructed as separate stations, only linked by escalator in 1933; the DLR connection also post-dates the construction of the original DLR station. Try going Monument to Bank by train, you’ll see.

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A slightly different situation in Glasgow, where at Glasgow Central the main and low level platforms are part of one station, and numbered in one series, yet have different Stannox and CIS codes, and are controlled from different signalling centres. Trains could run direct between the two (via the Rutherglen West Curve) but none are booked, a rail journey requires a change at Cambuslang.

 

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On 09/09/2019 at 17:06, MidlandRed said:

Chatham to the old Rochester station is approx 27 chains, platform end to platform end. 

 

To to the new Rochester station it's a further 19.5 chains (so a whopping - comparatively - 46.5 chains now). 

 

Nearby, Rochester to Strood is about 55 chains. 

 

 

You'll need to put on a buffet car!

 

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4 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

You'll need to put on a buffet car!

 

 

Slightly more than that I'm afraid - I failed to measure station centre to station centre  - therefore Rochester (old) to Chatham was all of 39 chains or thereabouts! 

 

I also noticed yesterday the modern bridge distances (there've been a few new footbridges) as xx miles xxxx yards (no chains note). Very impressive clearance from rail level as well!! Noticeable extra climb when you cross them. 

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A lot of stations now have lifts. The footbridge at Alton was a fine old L&SWR structure, alas, falling to bits. The new bridge had lifts! When contracting up to Waterloo, our 'wheely-bin' toolboxes where a real bind, dragging them up, and dragging them down the steps. Now, with a lift, smiles all round. My colleague said the last 100 yards home was the real killer.

 

I haven't got a real idea, but some of Cardiff's City Line stops might be pretty close.

 

Ian. 

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On 11/09/2019 at 20:49, rockershovel said:

 

Maybe so, but they are different names, different platforms, different entrances, different ticket barriers and different lines - not forgetting the DLR/Northern Line connection. They were originally constructed as separate stations, only linked by escalator in 1933; the DLR connection also post-dates the construction of the original DLR station. Try going Monument to Bank by train, you’ll see.

But you would not normally do that as it is not signed in that manner. The signs if I remember correctly point from one station to the other.

Same ticket barrier also as I remember it and marked as interconnected on the tube map.

Bernard

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55 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

But you would not normally do that as it is not signed in that manner. The signs if I remember correctly point from one station to the other.

Same ticket barrier also as I remember it and marked as interconnected on the tube map.

Bernard

 

No one would enter the station to make the journey, true. But passengers on the various lines arrive at different parts of the complex ... I once made a “field trip” to London from school, on which we were given the challenge of  travelling around London on a sort of treasure hunt. It was much less obvious in those days that the escalator linked the two, but as a Londoner born and bred I knew that...

 

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1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

 

No one would enter the station to make the journey, true. But passengers on the various lines arrive at different parts of the complex ... I once made a “field trip” to London from school, on which we were given the challenge of  travelling around London on a sort of treasure hunt. It was much less obvious in those days that the escalator linked the two, but as a Londoner born and bred I knew that...

 

My neighbour was born in London about 80 years ago but a couple of years ago she was amazed when I told her that you did not have to go out into the street to walk between the "two" stations.

Things change over time. Take a look at TfL journey planner and it will throw up some surprising route suggestions that nobody with any knowledge of London would dream of taking.

Signing off to let the thread get back to BR stations.

Bernard

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On 10/09/2019 at 11:20, Pacific231G said:

 

The bridge plates I'm most familiar with are on a couple of ex GWR/WR lines in West London. These are in miles and chains from Paddington and the chains do have decimal points .25, .5 and .75 (i.e. poles)  The plates are Rail Authority so post privatisation.

Here are a selection of them from three different bridges, the first on the Greenford Branch on the up side of South Greenford and the other two either side of the Central Line's Perivale Station on the ex GW "cut-off" recently severed at Old Oak Common I have no idea what ANL or WEL 1 stand for.

 

Perivale Golf Course-Greenford Branch

154287979_chains8m14_5ch.jpg.0c6ea5925a0a7113f8d2e38a7efa2859.jpg

398889691_chains8m14.5chRA.jpg.09cdbb51b16a1c8d00ea7a57ba775ae8.jpg

Bideford Avenue: Perivale

2087046092_chains6m42.25chANL.jpg.acbca6ad86c7855e93201e23c367dac1.jpg

367081770_chains6m42.25chRailtrack.jpg.01c702ddcc9682107a32cef88c4f7379.jpg

 

Horsendenden Lane South: Perivale 

609511273_chains6m59.25crailtrack.jpg.b85d9ad1d2bba1bcd044cc698abb4ff8.jpg97360045_chains6m59_25c.jpg.fdd2fd154836f9c837c20add67020018.jpg

Note the difference in name even though both plates are on the same side of the bridge whose south side (LUL) is now protected from overheight vehicles by a massive yellow steel girder mounted in front of the actual bridge.

 

Between them these do seem to cover recent railway history as I think the painted versions are pre-privatisation and the later plates cover both the Railtrack and NR eras. I don't know whether expressing the division of chains into four poles in this way was peculiar to the London Division. 

 

 

Edited by Pacific231G
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This thread has to be quite unique in the hobby.

 

The subject of distance between stations  came up in the office, at which I quoted, without thinking of my audience, the distance mentioned in this thread of Oxford Rd to Deansgate as 28 chains...

 

everyone looked at me as I've i’d taken some pills.

 

I dont think anyone under 50, outside railways, has any idea of measurements in chains.

1 chain = 20.117 metres, so the answer is 563m, if you don't wish to be put in a straight jacket and retain your position in modern society.

 

Edited by adb968008
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On 11/09/2019 at 21:28, caradoc said:

A slightly different situation in Glasgow, where at Glasgow Central the main and low level platforms are part of one station, and numbered in one series, yet have different Stannox and CIS codes, and are controlled from different signalling centres. Trains could run direct between the two (via the Rutherglen West Curve) but none are booked, a rail journey requires a change at Cambuslang.

 

There have been through timetabled services between Glasgow stations.  During various bouts of engineering work and sometimes for other reasons the West Highland line trains use Queen Street Low Level.  On one occasion my train, having already stopped and served Low Level, continued in service via Springburn curve to Queen Street High Level.  

 

Again during engineering works there was a prolonged period when the West Highland service came via Partick, Central Low Level (without stopping) and then to Central High Level via the Anderston Tunnel and Rutherglen Curve. 

 

Before Andserston Tunnel was reopened and Bridgeton was reached from Queen Street Low Level I believe West HIghland trains were, in emergency, able to reach Central High Level via Queen Street Low Level and this route though it isn't one I have managed to do.

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I dont think anyone under 50, outside railways, has any idea of measurements in chains.

Unless they are a fan of cricket.  One chain is the distance between the wickets. 

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5 hours ago, adb968008 said:

This thread has to be quite unique in the hobby.

 

The subject of distance between stations  came up in the office, at which I quoted, without thinking of my audience, the distance mentioned in this thread of Oxford Rd to Deansgate as 28 chains...

 

everyone looked at me as I've i’d taken some pills.

 

I dont think anyone under 50, outside railways, has any idea of measurements in chains.

1 chain = 20.117 metres, so the answer is 563m, if you don't wish to be put in a straight jacket and retain your position in modern society.

 

 

I saw a survey chain quite recently, in a small mining museum in the Lake District. 

 

The last East time I actually encountered chains used as measurement (other than on railways) was during the 1990s, on gas transmission pipelines. The reason was similar; they were a long-distance system dating, in some aspects, from Victorian times and mostly from the 1960s. They were laid out using the OS (much of which then dated from the 1930s and earlier) and also needed to interface with agricultural land management practices. 

 

The replacement or demolition of much of this network during the “Dash For Gas” in the 1990s (when did you last see a gas-holder?) and the arrival of GPS and computers as a practical, cost-effective data storage system meant that most of this information was digitised or simply put aside. 

 

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9 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Before Andserston Tunnel was reopened and Bridgeton was reached from Queen Street Low Level I believe West HIghland trains were, in emergency, able to reach Central High Level via Queen Street Low Level and this route though it isn't one I have managed to do.

 

That is certainly possible, but by a long and convoluted route; From Queen St LL to Sunnyside Jc, the little used link to Whifflet South Jc, then via Motherwell and the Hamilton Circle to Glasgow Central. I would rather just get off at Queen St LL !

 

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9 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Here are a selection of them from three different bridges, the first on the Greenford Branch on the up side of South Greenford and the other two either side of the Central Line's Perivale Station on the ex GW "cut-off" recently severed at Old Oak Common I have no idea what ANL or WEL 1 stand for.

 

Perivale Golf Course-Greenford Branch

154287979_chains8m14_5ch.jpg.0c6ea5925a0a7113f8d2e38a7efa2859.jpg

398889691_chains8m14.5chRA.jpg.09cdbb51b16a1c8d00ea7a57ba775ae8.jpg

Bideford Avenue: Perivale

2087046092_chains6m42.25chANL.jpg.acbca6ad86c7855e93201e23c367dac1.jpg

367081770_chains6m42.25chRailtrack.jpg.01c702ddcc9682107a32cef88c4f7379.jpg

 

Horsendenden Lane South: Perivale 

609511273_chains6m59.25crailtrack.jpg.b85d9ad1d2bba1bcd044cc698abb4ff8.jpg97360045_chains6m59_25c.jpg.fdd2fd154836f9c837c20add67020018.jpg

Note the difference in name even though both plates are on the same side of the bridge whose south side (LUL) is now protected from overheight vehicles by a massive yellow steel girder mounted in front of the actual bridge.

 

Between them these do seem to cover recent railway history as I think the painted versions are pre-privatisation and the later plates cover both the Railtrack and NR eras. I don't know whether expressing the division of chains into four poles in this way was peculiar to the London Division. 

 

 

 

The 3-letter codes are the Engineer's Line Reference (ELR), used to distinguish routes. The phone number shown is an Emergency Line to the relevant Network Rail Control; In Glasgow when any such phone rings a siren is also activated, ensuring that the phone is answered immediately. And finally, in Scotland we do not routinely use chains, just miles and yards.

 

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