Shortest journey on National Rail

[rockershovel]

That's because a lot of them seem to disengage their brains when anywhere near a railway! Maybe they'd find it easier if we renamed platforms "terminals" and made them check-in......

 

Some of the questions from passengers to staff that I've overheard are mind numbing - makes you wonder how they survive crossing the road to get to the station.

 

John

It's just a thing that "frequent flyers" become resigned to.... the old BA Baku/LHR flight came in at T1 and disembarking passengers would then walk to T2, being the only Terminal open by that time of night. As an occasional bonus, the baggage handling crew at T2 would have gone home, their last flight being long gone, and there would be a further indefinite delay while someone was recruited to load the carousel... I used to just leave, and leave BA with the cost and nuisance of forwarding my kitbag..

[corneliuslundie]

Sorry for rerouting the thread. Obviously a signalling error.

Back to Cardiff, I don't know how long the two platforms are at Ty-Glas and Birchgrove but at 374 yards or 1122 ft centre to centre and assuming platforms long enough for a four car DMU, so about 250 ft, that makes a 4mm/ft layout with both stations about 1375 x 4 mm = 3.5 metres, still longer than some of us have room for, but certainly do-able at 2mm/ft - as long as one puts a road bridge at each end! Unfortunately the only real road bridge is the wrong side of Birchgrove station.

Jonathan

[D854_Tiger]

IIRC Smethwick Galton Bridge to Smethwick Rolfe Street is 33 chains. 

 

Smethwick West remained open for a while (after Galton Bridge had opened) awaiting formal approval for closure.

 

That was even closer though the service was reduced to the obligatory once a week.

 

Later it was discovered that had they called the new station Smethwick West, rather than Galton Bridge, they could have avoided the cost of the closure procedure and public inquiry.

 

Then there was nothing to stop them remaining it after.

[sir douglas]

Pontefract Tanshelf to Monkhill

 

Wakefield Kirkgate to Westgate

Edited August 16, 2017 by sir douglas

[AMJ]

Often wonder if you have a long train if you could probably stop at both but end up with the ability to walk from the rear carriage to the front between the two stations!

 

Talking about airports, last year I was in Atlanta and there is an underground railroad linking the terminals. There are parallel walkways and between two close terminii you are probably going to be quicker walking.

[Coryton]

On 17/08/2017 at 17:38, AMJ said:

Often wonder if you have a long train if you could probably stop at both but end up with the ability to walk from the rear carriage to the front between the two stations!

 

Talking about airports, last year I was in Atlanta and there is an underground railroad linking the terminals. There are parallel walkways and between two close terminii you are probably going to be quicker walking.

 

Resurrecting an old thread, I worked out a while ago that if you put a Caledonian Sleeper (full length) train in the right place, you could walk down it from Birchgrove to Ty Glas.

[soony]

Birmingham Moor st to Birmingham Snow Hill has a very regular connecting service,  How far are they apart.?

[Fat Controller]

14 minutes ago, soony said:

Birmingham Moor st to Birmingham Snow Hill has a very regular connecting service,  How far are they apart.?

Moor St chainage is given as 128 mile, 66 chains; Snow Hill is 129 miles and 36 chains. I'll let someone else do the sums..., but it's less than a mile.

[IncorrectlySpelt]

 

44 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

I'll let someone else do the sums..., but it's less than a mile.

Works out to be 50 chains or 0.625m so not very far at all

[Pacific231G]

I don't think anyone has mentioned Barry Island to Barry pier which were at opposite ends of a 280yd (12-13 chain) tunnel. I don't know what the official distance between the two stations was.

I only saw it once after arriving on a P&A Campbell paddle steamer (I'm not sure whether it was the Cardiff or the Bristol Queen)  in about 1964-65 on an excursion from Weston s Mud where I'd gone on an awayday. I think there was a train to meet the steamer but I'm not sure and it was all DMUs by then anyway. I did walk to Barry Island station (not through the tunnel!) but just remember sidings with a couple of DMUs sitting in them.  My memory is that, by then, Barry Pier was just a single line emerging from the tunnel onto a single platform alongside where the steamers docked. I don't think it had its own signal box so was presumably worked as an extenson to Barry Island station.

 

Waterloo East to Charing Cross is pretty short though probably not record breakingly short.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2019 by Pacific231G
typos

[ElectroSoldier]

Shortest I know of is Wrexham General to Wrexham Central (33Ch). Couldnt tell you exactly how far it is for Ryde Esplanade to Pier head.

Edited September 5, 2019 by ElectroSoldier

[Zomboid]

Dumbarton Central to Dalreoch is all of 27 chains. No way would both have been built if it weren't for the Leven viaduct between them.

 

Botanic to City Hospital in Belfast is about the same.

[guzzler17]

44 minutes ago, Zomboid said:

Dumbarton Central to Dalreoch

 

It's interesting that 3 publications quote different distances between these stations.

 

26ch - Bradford Barton Scottish Region (pocket guide 10)

 

27ch - Quail Scotland 5th edition

 

30ch - Miles and Chains

[guzzler17]

8 hours ago, ElectroSoldier said:

Couldnt tell you exactly how far it is for Ryde Esplanade to Pier head.

 

32ch

[Chris M]

Apologies for going slightly off topic. I run a 1:29 scale PPM 50 in my garden and the run from end to end is approximately just over one mile when scaled up.  As the real thing was used on the 0.8 mile Stourbridge Town branch (now run by the similar PPM60s) I am in the unusual position my model having a longer run end to end than the real thing did. 

[corneliuslundie]

According to Cooke Barry Island 8.76, Barry Pier 9.34, so 38 chains

Jonathan

[The Stationmaster]

Paddington Suburban to Royal Oak is 31 chains but of course since 1967 has not been part of the national network.

[MidlandRed]

I don't think it's been proposed before (and not now possible as Rochester station has been closed and a new version opened closer to the centre) - Chatham to Rochester until a couple of years ago were very close. Separated by Fort Pitt tunnel (432 yds), and a short section of track into the ex Rochester station (platforms, loops still there - along with new unit stop signs and extensive bright yellow post and rail fencing - and ever increasing levels of foliage and buddliah shrubs). 

 

On the same line, Meopham to Sole Street is also close, especially for a rural area, but won't win prizes on this thread!! 

[Coryton]

On 16/08/2017 at 13:07, corneliuslundie said:

Sorry for rerouting the thread. Obviously a signalling error.

Back to Cardiff, I don't know how long the two platforms are at Ty-Glas and Birchgrove but at 374 yards or 1122 ft centre to centre and assuming platforms long enough for a four car DMU, so about 250 ft, that makes a 4mm/ft layout with both stations about 1375 x 4 mm = 3.5 metres, still longer than some of us have room for, but certainly do-able at 2mm/ft - as long as one puts a road bridge at each end! Unfortunately the only real road bridge is the wrong side of Birchgrove station.

Jonathan

 

I don't think Ty Glas platform is long enough for 4 cars.

 

 

[The Great Bear]

Anerley to Penge West seem pretty close, 32 chains if Wikipedia to be believed?

[adb968008]

London Kings Cross to London Kings Cross York Road ?

 

you might be able to travel that route again soon.

[009 micro modeller]

Park Street and How Wood (Abbey line) must be quite close, although not close enough for this thread. The Oakwood Press book on the line suggests that How Wood might actually be closer to Park Street’s original location than the current Park Street station is.

[adb968008]

Cant help thinking of Bury Interchange to Bury Knowsley St, though it cuts through the platforms :-)

 

Bury Bolton St to Bury Knowsley St would have been a short distance in the day.

Moorgate tunnels would have been close stations in BR days too, but how far is Moorgate to Old St on the GN branch still open today ?

[Gwiwer]

On 06/09/2019 at 22:25, adb968008 said:

London Kings Cross to London Kings Cross York Road ?

 

 

Surely not by direct train?  Kings Cross is the main terminus; York Road was the platform off to the eastern side and which led to the Widened Lines for Up trains bound for Moorgate.  You would need to travel via Finsbury Park to get from one to the other.  The Widened Lines platform, and several others on the western side, were known as Kings Cross (Suburban) but were every bit a part of the main station.  York Road really wasn't as you had to leave the platform and walk up the road outside the train shed to reach the main station.

 

The same argument could be advanced for Paddington and Paddington (Suburban) which was how platforms 13 and 14 were known for many years.  As with Kings Cross York Road this was also included separately on DMU destination blinds though whether it helped or confused the general public is a moot point.  IIRC the WR DMUs also had Paddington (Main) in their blinds when they were due to terminate in platforms 1-11.  At the time platform 12 was exclusively used for parcels traffic. 

[Coryton]

35 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

The same argument could be advanced for Paddington and Paddington (Suburban) which was how platforms 13 and 14 were known for many years.  As with Kings Cross York Road this was also included separately on DMU destination blinds though whether it helped or confused the general public is a moot point.  IIRC the WR DMUs also had Paddington (Main) in their blinds when they were due to terminate in platforms 1-11.  At the time platform 12 was exclusively used for parcels traffic. 

 

More useful for passengers on trains leaving Paddington, I'd have thought.

 

Sounds a bit like the way platforms 5-10 and 27-36 in Munich Hauptbahnhof are treated in timetables as if they were different stations from the main platforms, even though they aren't particularly remote from the rest (a bit like 9-11 at Kings Cross).