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The most decrepit, derelict station photo challenge


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Ryder Brow near Gorton was a dismal place in the late 80s. As I recall the waiting room was a box made of welded steel sheets and the glassless window opening was covered by a piece of concrete reinforcement mesh. I never thought to photograph it, flashing an expensive camera in such surroundings was probably not advisable. 

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Dowlais Top, the B & M terminus, was pretty bleak and desperate even when it was looked after.  Known locally as Dowlais Tip, only partly because it was built out of the mountain on an embankment of Ironworks slag.  Hirwaun was a festival of rusty corrugated iron that acted as a wind tunnel, and Barry Island Network Rail side hasn't got a lot going for it either despite being interchange for a heritage line.  Pontypridd has been smartened up, but in the 70s was pretty far gone.  Pontypool Road went through some hard times as well, not helped when the derelict station building was demolished and a breeze block bus shelter put in it's place, standing in the midst of that vast island platform like a gravestone.

 

Bristol Parkway as originally built was a pretty good substitute for Hirwaun; it seemed to be built as a derelict.  Don't recall that Severn Beach had much to offer in those days either.  

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30 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

Dowlais Top, the B & M terminus, was pretty bleak and desperate even when it was looked after.  Known locally as Dowlais Tip, only partly because it was built out of the mountain on an embankment of Ironworks slag.  Hirwaun was a festival of rusty corrugated iron that acted as a wind tunnel, and Barry Island Network Rail side hasn't got a lot going for it either despite being interchange for a heritage line.  Pontypridd has been smartened up, but in the 70s was pretty far gone.  Pontypool Road went through some hard times as well, not helped when the derelict station building was demolished and a breeze block bus shelter put in it's place, standing in the midst of that vast island platform like a gravestone.

 

Bristol Parkway as originally built was a pretty good substitute for Hirwaun; it seemed to be built as a derelict.  Don't recall that Severn Beach had much to offer in those days either.  

 

I vaguely remember a pretty run-down Pontypridd in the 1980s.  I've often thought Hirwaun should be one of the easiest and lowest cost reopenings, but the local authority seem to have allowed housing to be built on the obvious station site.  I never stop being amazed how myopic Welsh local government can be on rail matters.

 

I agree about the original Bristol Parkway, it was basically some glorified Portakabins and must be pound-for-pound the most successful station BR ever opened.  The new station is quite good but is still clearly designed as somewhere you pass through quickly and not as an interchange.  

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Welsh local government; not just on rail matters!  Myopic, venal, self interested, mostly corrupt, racist in Welsh speaking areas, and generally useless.  I doubt English or Scottish equivalents are much different.  

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Oldham station always seemed a run down place in the 1980s and 1990s.  It didn't help that you had to cross an busy expressway and a dingy underpass to get to its remaining island platform.  Manchester Victoria was similar, but there was a certain 'faded grandeur' about the place.

 

Maybe its my age, but in some ways the late 1970s / early 1980s was a golden age.  Old goods yard buildings still hadn't been replaced by Tescos, many Victorian station buildings remain unmolested and many local stations (at least in the Midlands) still had staff. Perhaps that's why so many people model the period?

 

I remember going to my own run down local station (Hinckley) in about 1982 and buying a ticket from a ticket office window that hadn't changed since the 1880s.  I then sat on a LNWR station seat in a run-down but very atmospheric waiting room that stank of tobacco.  In retrospect, it now seems like a 'heritage railway' experience.  Since then the station has been 'modernised' twice  - the facilities have got worse each time and it is only staffed in the morning (although the two regular members are staff are excellent). We also had loco hauled trains of 5-8 carriages. Now we only have 2-3 DMUs, even though passenger numbers have soared as much as the ticket price...

 

Better stop now... I'm sounding like a grumpy old man....

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On 04/05/2020 at 19:51, Joseph_Pestell said:

I think it is hard to beat East Brixton, closed circa 1977 due to its dilapidated condition. Always a surprise that nobody had fallen through the platform 30' to the roadway below.

 

It looks like the paintwork hasn't been touched for a while and the platform definitely looks a bit dodgy.

 

East Brixton station (8), 1975

 

East Brixton station (6), 1975

 

East Brixton station (1), 1975

 

East Brixton station (5), 1975

 

East Brixton - 2

 

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On 05/05/2020 at 12:22, 34101 said:

St Leonards West Marina just before closure was pretty grim.

We lived in one of the white railway houses overlooking the station.

Great for train spotting although wild in a south-westerly gale.

Sorry no pictures but several online.

 

I looked at some pictures and it had the engine shed opposite the station at one time, so yeah it would have been wonderful for trainspotters!

 

It didn't look too good post closure either...

 

1120 St Leonards West Marina

 

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Can we nominate parts of stations?  If we can, the footbridge that used to connect Gloucester Eastgate and Central stations was, um, atmospheric.  Central looked a bit run down in those days compared to Eastgate, but the bridge... 

 

It was a long one, crossing the throat of the MR loco shed and carriage sidings which were in the vee between the stations, steel frame supports with a wooden covered walkway.  This changed direction and level several times in the process of crossing the great divide, and the effect was nightmarish, I was going to say at night but it was always night up there.  Everything was filthy, damp from steam, and lit by bare bulbs which were also filthy and probably only 40 watters to start with, few of which were working and some of which were always flickering creepily.  Because of the changes in direction and level, you could never see anyone, you were always alone up there, but you could hear footsteps and see shadows moving around the corners, both vertical and horizontal.  These were always running footsteps, ramping up the general stress of the place, because platform staff at one end or another or both blew whistles up the staircases to hurryup connections.  And of course there was an echo.

 

It was a seriously uninviting and forbidding location, and frankly scary for anyone with an imagination..  And then, years later, you realised that Fred and Rosie must have frequented it sometimes...  

 

Shortly after it's closure, it blew down in a storm; I happened to be there at the time having worked a freight up from Radyr.  Nobody expressed any regret over this.

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1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Can we nominate parts of stations?  If we can, the footbridge that used to connect Gloucester Eastgate and Central stations was, um, atmospheric.  Central looked a bit run down in those days compared to Eastgate, but the bridge... 

 

It was a long one, crossing the throat of the MR loco shed and carriage sidings which were in the vee between the stations, steel frame supports with a wooden covered walkway.  This changed direction and level several times in the process of crossing the great divide, and the effect was nightmarish, I was going to say at night but it was always night up there.  Everything was filthy, damp from steam, and lit by bare bulbs which were also filthy and probably only 40 watters to start with, few of which were working and some of which were always flickering creepily.  Because of the changes in direction and level, you could never see anyone, you were always alone up there, but you could hear footsteps and see shadows moving around the corners, both vertical and horizontal.  These were always running footsteps, ramping up the general stress of the place, because platform staff at one end or another or both blew whistles up the staircases to hurryup connections.  And of course there was an echo.

 

It was a seriously uninviting and forbidding location, and frankly scary for anyone with an imagination..  And then, years later, you realised that Fred and Rosie must have frequented it sometimes...  

 

Shortly after it's closure, it blew down in a storm; I happened to be there at the time having worked a freight up from Radyr.  Nobody expressed any regret over this.

 

I don't remember the place being as you describe, having done the walk a couple of times around 4 in the morning.

Late 1968, early 69, might have been 69-70, on day trips to Barry docks. The only way you could do it then from Nottingham was overnight services to drop you into Cardiff around 06.00.

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1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Can we nominate parts of stations?  If we can, the footbridge that used to connect Gloucester Eastgate and Central stations was, um, atmospheric.  Central looked a bit run down in those days compared to Eastgate, but the bridge... 

 

It was a long one, crossing the throat of the MR loco shed and carriage sidings which were in the vee between the stations, steel frame supports with a wooden covered walkway.  This changed direction and level several times in the process of crossing the great divide, and the effect was nightmarish, I was going to say at night but it was always night up there.  Everything was filthy, damp from steam, and lit by bare bulbs which were also filthy and probably only 40 watters to start with, few of which were working and some of which were always flickering creepily.  Because of the changes in direction and level, you could never see anyone, you were always alone up there, but you could hear footsteps and see shadows moving around the corners, both vertical and horizontal.  These were always running footsteps, ramping up the general stress of the place, because platform staff at one end or another or both blew whistles up the staircases to hurryup connections.  And of course there was an echo.

 

It was a seriously uninviting and forbidding location, and frankly scary for anyone with an imagination..  And then, years later, you realised that Fred and Rosie must have frequented it sometimes...  

 

Shortly after it's closure, it blew down in a storm; I happened to be there at the time having worked a freight up from Radyr.  Nobody expressed any regret over this.

 

When I saw a photograph a couple of years ago, the smell immediately came back. It was just like Proust.

 

Here is a photograph, and another. Yet another, small, but colourful.

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I don't have a suggestion but just wanted to say thanks to @montyburns56 for starting this thread and to all those that have contributed. These images are fascinating - a mixture of moody, mournful, beautiful, poignant, etc. They also tell a story of a decline that we're still dealing with as a society. Great stuff.

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7 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

More from Ardwick

 

I suspect that the grotty 506 probably makes the station look worse than it actually is in this picture.

 

Class 506 EMU, Ardwick, Manchester, July 1984

 

Ardwick Station - Platform 2

 

Freightliner 'Powerhaul' Class 66/5, 66528 "Madge Elliot MBE Borders Railway Opening 2015"

 

Ardwick Nature Park

 

Ardwick Railway Station

 

Ardwick is obviously having anard time

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2 hours ago, Hibelroad said:

Ryder Brow near Gorton was a dismal place in the late 80s. As I recall the waiting room was a box made of welded steel sheets and the glassless window opening was covered by a piece of concrete reinforcement mesh. I never thought to photograph it, flashing an expensive camera in such surroundings was probably not advisable. 

 

Just looked it up on google... yeah I see what you mean. A lick of white and blue paint isn't hiding the brutal metalwork...

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10 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Ardwick is obviously having anard time

Ba-boom-tish.....

Last year I had reason to go to Ashburys, the next stop on that line.  It's pretty much the same. NOT welcoming.

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3 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Ba-boom-tish.....

Last year I had reason to go to Ashburys, the next stop on that line.  It's pretty much the same. NOT welcoming.

I think it would be fair to say that that line, and some of its offshoots, are sadly neglected, certainly until you get to Broadbottom. Dinting we've already had. You wouldn't know Guide Bridge was once the place it was. Of the offshoots, has anyone ever been to Hyde Central? Once was enough!

 

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Hmm ...... the thing about those pictures of Toller is that they give the impression that, on a summer afternoon, with the bees buzzing, it would actually be a sleepily delightful spot for a snooze. Smell of whatever creosote might be left in the sleepers, gentle creaks from rotting timber in the hot sun, nest of swifts under the eaves, and all that.

 

It lacks the essential grim, unwelcoming, ideally threatening, bleakness that characterises the best entrants here.

 

Bere Alston is better, because it is high-up and windy, often a damp and chilly wind.

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