The most decrepit, derelict station photo challenge

[Mark Saunders]

1 minute ago, caradoc said:

 

At least the platforms are in the open ! Earlier this year I had the misfortune of changing trains at Sunderland, and I have never been to a darker, more depressing station, ever. It is worse than Birmingham New St, even there the platform ends are outside. 

 

 

You should have seen it before it was refurbished when Tyne & Wear Metro took over the local Newcastle services!

[Zomboid]

New Street is far from derelict. Might not be super attractive, but it's not even playing the same game as the last days at Snow Hill or most of the other places here. Crawley is similar - a dreadful station no doubt, but not derelict and neglected.

 

I think Shotton is the worst I can remember using (changed trains so both of them, the Holyhead line platforms were worst), but it wasn't bad really.

[caradoc]

47 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

You should have seen it before it was refurbished when Tyne & Wear Metro took over the local Newcastle services!

 

What didn't help my 'appreciation' of Sunderland was the fact that I, and all the other passengers for the Northern service to Newcastle, were waiting in the designated area, only for the train to stop way back along the platform resulting in a (seemingly totally unnecessary) mad dash, and delay to the train.

 

[eastwestdivide]

I know the OP suggested photos of stations in use at the time of the photo, but I couldn't resist this of Sheffield Victoria in 2013, with the leaf spraying train running through on the single remaining track. With the amount of vegetation, it's no wonder they need to spray.

Wicker Arch on the right, so I'm looking towards Darnall/Worksop with the Woodhead route behind the camera:

Edited May 9, 2020 by eastwestdivide

[96701]

On 05/05/2020 at 22:59, APOLLO said:

Middleton station (near Oldham) was a grotty station just before closure in the 60's.

 

 

Brit15

 

Middleton still has pole position for me.

[62613]

I can remember seeing a photo in a book once, of Oldham Central on the last day of O.A & G.B. passenger services; it was a wreck!

 

 

[SM42]

May I nominate, no photos unfortunatley

 

Woodhouse, nr Sheffield

 

 

Bordesley, Small Heath, Spring Road and Duddeston, Birmingham

 

None of these are particulary inspiring places to be.

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

[1E BoY]

IBM Halt was pretty bleak and was photographed on 29th November 2018 just a few days before closure.

 

Built to serve the IBM computer manufacturing complex - you could not leave the platform unless you had access to the factory. The factory was demolished and thus its purpose no longer existed. When this picture was taken the platform was surrounded by a lot of derelict land - the site having been cleared. (second picture).

 

The station may reopen if a proposed housing development takes place.

 

Scotland has many beautiful stations. Sadly this was not one of them!

[caradoc]

Another uninspiring Scottish station is Springburn (sorry no photos and no means to get any just now !) which for the last two years of my railway career was the one for my workplace, having been moved out from Glasgow city centre. So bleak was it that, if I had a while to wait for a train, I would walk to Glasgow Central (approx 40 minutes) rather than hang about there. Plus the only access to the platforms is via steep stairs, so tough luck if you are disabled or unsteady on your feet.

 

[1E BoY]

4 hours ago, caradoc said:

Another uninspiring Scottish station is Springburn (sorry no photos and no means to get any just now !) which for the last two years of my railway career was the one for my workplace, having been moved out from Glasgow city centre. So bleak was it that, if I had a while to wait for a train, I would walk to Glasgow Central (approx 40 minutes) rather than hang about there. Plus the only access to the platforms is via steep stairs, so tough luck if you are disabled or unsteady on your feet.

 

Two from February 2014

Edited May 10, 2020 by 1E BoY
Date correction

[1E BoY]

17 hours ago, SM42 said:

May I nominate, no photos unfortunatley

 

Woodhouse, nr Sheffield

 

 

Two from March 2016

[1E BoY]

Two more of Woodhouse near Sheffield in March 2016

[Nearholmer]

Good money has been spent re-roofing those rather nice buildings, but why are they painted, and in such bizarre colours??

[eastwestdivide]

34 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Good money has been spent re-roofing those rather nice buildings, but why are they painted, and in such bizarre colours??

Woodhouse was tidied up, and now has a little waiting room area (the blue doors). It doesn't look too decrepit to me - worst part is the palisade fencing surrounding it.

The brickwork, presumably graffitied, was overpainted in brick-ish colour paint. I imagine the top coat was done by someone with a shorter ladder than the previous coat. The upper colour seems to be more toned down here, in 2013:

[Tim V]

How about Dinting? Great view from the working platform.

 

[Nearholmer]

6 minutes ago, eastwestdivide said:

brick-ish colour paint

A colour-blind person with a short ladder.

[eastwestdivide]

24 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

A colour-blind person with a short ladder.

Brick-ish colour paint, just not the same sort of bricks as the building it's applied to!

[keefer]

Just remembered Dalmarnock station on the Argyle Line in east Glasgow - a very dark and foreboding place due to being in a steep-sided cutting with heavy reinforcing girders above.

https://www.railscot.co.uk/search/index.html?textfield=Dalmarnock

 

It was revamped in 2014 for the Commonwealth Games, but i don't suppose it makes much difference on a dark and wet day (or night)

[Northmoor]

What's noticeable on this thread is how much better the poorest stations are now.  Some of the "crumbling edge of quality" as described by Sir Peter Parker in the early 1980s had to be seen to be believed (Bedford St. Johns on the earlier images wasn't as bad as some); weeds you could trip over, crumbling/missing platform slabs or tarmac , dim, dodgy or sometimes inoperable lighting, graffiti and litter everywhere......... 

 

As enthusiasts we may find the railway less interesting now but for the general public, it is considerably more welcoming than the glorious years of British Rail.  Also mentioned elsewhere is the London Overground; the North London Line was actively avoided by many of the public until about 20 years ago.

[montyburns56]

14 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

What's noticeable on this thread is how much better the poorest stations are now.  Some of the "crumbling edge of quality" as described by Sir Peter Parker in the early 1980s had to be seen to be believed (Bedford St. Johns on the earlier images wasn't as bad as some); weeds you could trip over, crumbling/missing platform slabs or tarmac , dim, dodgy or sometimes inoperable lighting, graffiti and litter everywhere......... 

 

As enthusiasts we may find the railway less interesting now but for the general public, it is considerably more welcoming than the glorious years of British Rail.  Also mentioned elsewhere is the London Overground; the North London Line was actively avoided by many of the public until about 20 years ago.

 

Yeah, I guess it was part of the managed decline attitude which seemed the norm for a lot of BR in the 70s/early 80s.

[Nearholmer]

More to it than that.

 

We tend to think of 1968 as some sort of massive watershed, because that was when steam ended, but moving-on from an outmoded form of traction was only one thing on a list of zillions that BR had to get through between c1960 and c1990 to transform a huge enterprise with absolutely massive estate from "ancient" to "modern".

 

Looking back it does seem odd that some stations, the "shop windows" were quite so far down the list, but there was an awful lot to get done, such a vast amount of  rundown Victorian cr*p to either get rid of or re-use effectively.

 

And, while we bash at BR, it might be worth remembering that multiple other industries went through just the same, creating their own messes of dereliction all over the place in the process. They just tended not to invite you in to buy their wares in the midst of it!

 

 

[Bill Radford]

I'd like to nominate most of the stations on the Derby to Crewe line. The local isn't bad for a wooden platform but Uttoxeter has only been improved slightly by demolition. All the others do not exactly entice you to leave the train, which considering for the past number of years has been a pre-owned Class 153 with not many careful owners is something that is very welcome when you reach your destination!

[Ben B]

I don't believe it has been mentioned yet, so can I nominate Dudley Port?

 

http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/dudley_port_high.php

 

I haven't found my own pics yet, I think they're on a hard-drive in a box at my in-laws, so the excellent Rails Around Birmingham site should give a flavour of the place.

 

Not that decrepit in terms of cracked paving or weeds, just constantly neglected... portacabin ticket office in a too-small car park, urine-smelling tunnel, steep steps up to the windswept and exposed island platform with a draughty bus shelter.  Trains every half hour or so in between which you're buffeted by non-stop services racing past.  I used to use this station when commuting up to Yorkshire to see my girlfriend back in the mid-2000's...  By day the place was pretty unpleasant, but on a cold winters night the place could be downright terrifying, especially if the sole member of staff had gone home and the local youths had come up onto the platform.  Going down the stairs in a rush from an arrived train always made me feel I was going to trip and fall too.

 

Certainly didn't give a good impression to my other half; her local station, Bingley, still had most of its period Midland Railway features (including iron and glass canopies) and trains every 10-15 minutes.  Can't imagine Dudley Port Station does much to encourage people arriving at the town, and that's before you consider the fact it's a 15-20 minute bus ride to the town it supposedly serves.  I've heard that it's never had proper investment because the plan has always been to upgrade properly when/if the Metro (or light rail, or heavy rail, or monorail or maglev or horse tram or whatever else mad proposals existed for the mothballed low level part of the station) came to fruition.  Maybe now the Metro is finally being put through, they'll do a proper rebuild.  Though I doubt it.

[Tim V]

Filton Junction seen here after a fire.

 

[John M Upton]

Newhaven Harbour is a station that has fallen on hard times.  Virtually nothing left of the original station except the platform surfaces and the footbridge, serves a half derelict industrial area, boarded up buildings all around and not even same level access to the up Brighton/London bound platform anymore since the level crossing was shut off last year.

 

Really depressing place.