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The most decrepit, derelict station photo challenge


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1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

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.

 

Correct, the Bridport branch was my nearest line and a delightful part of the World.

Toller in it's pomp...

 

 

 

 

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Edited by maico
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Wow.  "Yes, of course the passengers can walk alongside the building while we demolish it.  What could possibly go wrong?".

 

Colne to Skipton is one of the late post-Beeching closures (1970?) which are the ones which tend to be most regretted.  Looking at Google Earth, the formation hasn't breached in too many places.

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7 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Wow.  "Yes, of course the passengers can walk alongside the building while we demolish it.  What could possibly go wrong?".

 

Colne to Skipton is one of the late post-Beeching closures (1970?) which are the ones which tend to be most regretted.  Looking at Google Earth, the formation hasn't breached in too many places.

 

Yeah, I walked along the trackbed a few years ago and it's mostly intact.

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14 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Wow.  "Yes, of course the passengers can walk alongside the building while we demolish it.  What could possibly go wrong?".

 

Colne to Skipton is one of the late post-Beeching closures (1970?) which are the ones which tend to be most regretted.  Looking at Google Earth, the formation hasn't breached in too many places.

https://www.burnleyexpress.net/news/transport/positive-and-constructive-meeting-campaign-reopen-colne-skipton-railway-line-1378724

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On 07/05/2020 at 19:17, eastwestdivide said:

Derby's old concrete canopies (now replaced) always seemed fairly dull and decrepit, especially when the sun wasn't out.

Here at various times in the 80s:

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Doesn’t that knackered old Ped just fit the picture perfectly.

 

I agree with what’s been said there is something quite sadistically appealing about grotty old run down stations and permanent way.

 

A couple that spring to mind in the past that I visited and felt were quite eerily run down were Norton Bridge, Blackpool South, and even to an extent some larger stations like Sheffield and Preston.

 

Bit before my time but Leicester Central (as indeed most on the GCR at the time) looked to be in a very sorry state in its final years when express trains were long gone and only a token local service remained.

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I don't seem to have visited too many very run down stations in recent years; as I said in a previous post, things have improved a great deal since the days of BR. 

 

Back in 2013 I did make a day trip to West Wales and had a while changing trains at Whitland.  It's unstaffed now so the 1950s station building is boarded up and looks pretty tired.  I've also added shots of the respectively rusty and overgrown Pembroke Dock and Cardigan branch bay platforms, but as neither of them are used for passenger services any more it would be misleading to suggest this is the "operating railway".

 

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56 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I don't seem to have visited too many very run down stations in recent years; as I said in a previous post, things have improved a great deal since the days of BR. 

 

Back in 2013 I did make a day trip to West Wales and had a while changing trains at Whitland.  It's unstaffed now so the 1950s station building is boarded up and looks pretty tired.  I've also added shots of the respectively rusty and overgrown Pembroke Dock and Cardigan branch bay platforms, but as neither of them are used for passenger services any more it would be misleading to suggest this is the "operating railway".

 

100_2906.jpg.bb40e225332886c049e58d7ad8e28380.jpg

 

100_2912.jpg.95b632477d1d40a753cdd0fe196923ab.jpg

 

100_2911.jpg.4a862ac184723f9e8ed7e6e7136d1674.jpg

 

100_2908.jpg.f844359e3a0e3dbbbb894cf555b81247.jpg

 

 

That is one ugly building. But I find it amazing that nobody can be found to take it on and look after it. No RMwebbers in that part of the country needing a layout space?

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3 minutes ago, eastwestdivide said:

Yes, but it's more "basic" than "decrepit" I reckon:

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I agree, it is in better condition than I remember from when I travelled regularly to Yarmouth from London to see my girlfriend. Just realised that it is 45 years ago so maybe my memory is not as good as I thought!

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8 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

There never has been a great deal at Berney Arms station.

Station + Rfd Spoon in 1998.....

 

BA.JPG.46f338c25074bc3dea0fe25e74c5cf57.JPG

 

There was a signal box once to split the section between Breydon and Reedham , this entailed the use of special token machines,  one of which is in the NRM

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1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

I don't seem to have visited too many very run down stations in recent years; as I said in a previous post, things have improved a great deal since the days of BR. 

 

Back in 2013 I did make a day trip to West Wales and had a while changing trains at Whitland.  It's unstaffed now so the 1950s station building is boarded up and looks pretty tired.  I've also added shots of the respectively rusty and overgrown Pembroke Dock and Cardigan branch bay platforms, but as neither of them are used for passenger services any more it would be misleading to suggest this is the "operating railway".

 

 

 

100_2911.jpg.4a862ac184723f9e8ed7e6e7136d1674.jpg

 

100_2908.jpg.f844359e3a0e3dbbbb894cf555b81247.jpg

 

NICE ex-GWR railbuilt buffer stop (or two)

Edited by melmerby
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37 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

That is one ugly building. But I find it amazing that nobody can be found to take it on and look after it. No RMwebbers in that part of the country needing a layout space?

Interesting you should say that. 

 

Whitland is a small town now bypassed by the A40 and its major employer (the Creamery, where I worked one summer in the early 90s) was closed and demolished some years ago.  While waiting there and taking these photos in 2013, I walked round to see the remains of my former workplace and found the entire town closed, on a Saturday afternoon.  Every shop was shut and there was almost no-one around; people go to Carmarthen, Narberth or Haverfordwest for their shopping now. 

 

There has been a proposal to build a large new West Wales Hospital in the area to replace those in Haverforwest and Carmarthen, although this is obviously opposed by the locals in these towns.  Some of the cryptic statements in the planning application suggest that it could be on the Whitland creamery site, which could potentially transform the town and station if it were the destination of hundreds of staff and visitors per day.  However, knowing how local government works in Wales, I wouldn't be surprised if they pick a greenfield location several miles from the A40 and the railway, which requires a new link road to be built and for which public transport provision will be incredibly inconvenient or non-existent.

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1 hour ago, Johann Marsbar said:

Felixstowe Town wasn't exactly inspiring in the early 1980's...

Doesn't a run-down Felixstowe and an equally run-down DMU feature at the very end of Michael Palin's Round the World in 80 Days, when he gets a lift from a lorry driver from his cargo boat to the station?

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On 15/05/2020 at 16:43, maico said:

 

Correct, the Bridport branch was my nearest line and a delightful part of the World.

Toller in it's pomp...

 

 

 

 

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I think it is a shame that the railway didn't grant the station the full name of Toller Porcorum.

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Another picture of Middleton with the added bonus of a DMU. It ticks most of the boxes:

 

1) no sign of paint brush use in living memory

2) no signs of human life

 

The only thing missing are clouds of smoke

 

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Edited by maico
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