Halts in all their glory

[EddieB]

Slightly tongue in cheek, there are two frequent misconceptions when it comes to railway halts:

 

1) Halts were uncommon, possibly even rare;

2) The majority of halts were to be found on smaller/independent companies' lines (often of the Colonel Stephens family) -  or on the Great Western.

 

Certainly there were a number of halts on the Great Eastern Railway network, including many well-documented examples on light railways (e.g. Elsenham & Thaxted, Kelvedon & Tollesbury), but others were to be found on branch lines throughout the system.

 

In RC Riley's "Great Eastern Album", there is an exquisite photograph (taken by the equally exquisite Dr Ian C Allen) of Seven Hills Halt (on the Thetford - Bury St Edmunds line), showing the basics of the most basic of halts: - a cleared area, a name board, an oil lamp, a trespass notice and a set of wooden steps to carriage running board height.

 

Here is a photo of one of the most celebrated surviving halts - Berney Arms in Norfolk.  It was taken in 1973 (my Instamatic days) before the halt was "modernised" with a raised platform, shelter (which I think was actually provided by a group calling themselves "The Friends of Berney Arms") and revised signage.  Then as now, you would need to advise one of the train crew (conductor-guard in those days) if you wanted to alight there, as the cleared (slightly raised) "platform" area was considerably shorter than even a single carriage of the regular two-car DMU.  Then, as now, there is no road access.

 

[Nearholmer]

The pagodas of Appleford prompt me to give an Honourable Mention to Denham Golf Club, which still has three!

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denham_Golf_Club_railway_station

 

And http://www.trainspots.co.uk/locpage.php?ts_number=1217

 

Does anyone live near Combe, in the Chilterns, or Shippea Hill, near Ely, because they are up there with Teesside Airport in sparsity of train service.

 

The National Rail Enquiries website acknowledges the existence of these places, but most attempts to find journey times between them result in a picture of a strangely foreign-looking buffer stop, and a message "Oh no! We can't find that page", except one, which yields "Long journey, do you want to upgrade to first class for £38".

 

Some beauties being highlighted here, thank you!

 

K

Edited May 17, 2017 by Nearholmer

[great central]

As well as Shippea Hill, there's Lakenheath and Spooner Row all on the Ely-Norwich line. I can claim to have stopped at Spooner Row several years ago when there was an incident at Wymondham which blocked the line for a while.

[phil_sutters]

Searching Dad's files for 'halt' only came up with these two

 

There is a derelict one at Tide Mills west of Bishopstone (note the trespassing enthusiasts) and an operational one at Southease, both on the Seaford branch. I am not sure whether Southease ever had more than a shelter or two, or if it was called Southease Halt originally. I remember Weston Milton Halt north of Weston-super-Mare and I have a feeling that there were one or more halts, on the B&E line out of Bristol TM, in the Bristol suburbs. Weren't 'halts'  the rail equivalent of bus request stops, where you had to let the guard know you wanted to alight or stick your hand out if you wanted to board.

Edited May 17, 2017 by phil_sutters

[Nearholmer]

Didn't it used to be called 'Southease and Rodmell', and isn't it (in)famous as the place where Virginia Woolf walked into the water, with her pockets filled with stones, and never came out alive? [correction: no, it was where he body washed-up, not where she went in]

 

And, there is a book ........ just stumbled on it while trying to buy a cycling map. It looks 'OK to receive as a present, but not worth buying' to me.

 

K

Edited May 17, 2017 by Nearholmer

[phil_sutters]

Didn't it used to be called 'Southease and Rodmell', it may well have been until it was realised that that the ten minute walk across the Ouse Valley to Southease village was quite enough and the further 15 to Rodmell was ridiculous.

 isn't it (in)famous as the place where Virginia Woolf walked into the water, with her pockets filled with stones, and never came out alive? The Monks House at Rodmell was her home at the time and is now a National Trust house.

[eastglosmog]

On 17/05/2017 at 14:31, Nearholmer said:

The pagodas of Appleford prompt me to give an Honourable Mention to Denham Golf Club, which still has three!

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denham_Golf_Club_railway_station

 

And http://www.trainspots.co.uk/locpage.php?ts_number=1217

 

Does anyone live near Combe, in the Chilterns, or Shippea Hill, near Ely, because they are up there with Teesside Airport in sparsity of train service.

 

The National Rail Enquiries website acknowledges the existence of these places, but most attempts to find journey times between them result in a picture of a strangely foreign-looking buffer stop, and a message "Oh no! We can't find that page", except one, which yields "Long journey, do you want to upgrade to first class for £38".

 

Some beauties being highlighted here, thank you!

 

K

Wasn't aware of a Combe station in the Chilterns.  If its Combe in the Cotswolds you are after, its up the OWW about 6 miles from me. As with other minor halts on the Cotswold line, it has one train each way a day, weekdays only, so not surprised you find it difficult to get to!  Was planning on wandering down there over the weekend and getting a few piccies for this thread!  In the meantime, here is one of Finstock, the next halt down the line, with Mayflower belting through two years ago.

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by eastglosmog
Restore photo

[Nearholmer]

Brilliant!

 

Sorry I moved it to the Chilterns; I know full well where it is, really!

 

Honourable Mention for North Hayling. I do have a photo of it after closure, taken by my father, but since it shows me semi-naked while changing after falling out of my cousin's dinghy, not one for here! It once had a siding for loading oysters, but we only ever got cockles, and some horrible long worms that were used for bait. http://haylingbillyheritage.org/category/places/north-hayling/

 

K

[eastwestdivide]

Two wildly different halt photos, 30 years apart.

 

Hoo Junction Staff Halt in 1984, with a route learner passing:

 

Berney Arms in 2014:

[eastglosmog]

On 16/05/2017 at 22:07, Zomboid said:

I don't have pictures, but Conwy is a nice one. And I was once on one of the very few trains to call at Manea.

But I do, so here is one!

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by eastglosmog
Restore photo

[EddieB]

As well as Shippea Hill, there's Lakenheath and Spooner Row all on the Ely-Norwich line. I can claim to have stopped at Spooner Row several years ago when there was an incident at Wymondham which blocked the line for a while.

I guess this raises a question as to what is a halt and what is a lightly used unstaffed station?

 

For instance,was Blake Hall a station or a halt?  Until it closed, Blake Hall, on the Ongar branch of the Central Line, was the least used station on the Underground network - but I would still regard it as a station in terms of its infrastructure (the "1865" style station house/booking hall was sold off before closure as a private residence, however), that it had full length platforms (I know - I measured them once!) and because trains were scheduled to stop.

 

Spooner Row is certainly a very quiet place!  With its short, staggered platforms and lack of amenities it might be seen as a modern day halt. It also satisfies another "halt condition" in that the (admittedly few) scheduled services are timetabled "stops on request only".

 

 

On the other hand, it once possessed station buildings - until they burnt down the the 'seventies.  So was it a halt or a station back then?

 

(1975 photos).

[EddieB]

And I was once on one of the very few trains to call at Manea.

You might be able to get a cream for that!

 

In my book Manea always was a station rather than a halt.  The softness of the fens led to its austere, light-weight structures (the main wooden buildings had been removed by the time of these views from 1977).

 

[Nearholmer]

Classically, I think a 'halt' was a stopping place that had no booking facility, but the distinction has become very blurred since, first, lots of station booking offices were closed, then, second, lots of stations without booking offices gained ticket issuing facilities by way of machines. Some that started life as genuine 'halts' now have a quite sophisticated terminal, which does pretty much what you can do from home over the internet ....... so ........

 

BR got rid of the term halt in about 1968, IIRC, but there are at least two places on the national network that have since been renamed "halt". I know of: Coombe, and St Keyne Wishing Well (anyone got a piccy of the latter; my photo shows, basically, a lot of trees, and a railcar concealing the halt!).

 

And ...... well ....... this is a hobby, so .......

 

I will try to discover whether, or not, the BoT/MoT/DfT had/have any 'rules' on the definition.

 

K

 

PS: The 1950 version of the MoT Requirements is really unhelpful! It says the below, but doesn't actually seem to define what a 'halt' is .......

Edited May 17, 2017 by Nearholmer

[LBRJ]

I seem to recall that BR officially dropped the use of the word Halt because more and more stations were fitting the literal description!

 

There is a good picture of St Keyne on it's Wikipedia page.

I think the adding of "Halt" to Coombe Junction and "Wishing Well Halt" to St Keyne was a touch of whimsical marketing - Causeland and Sandplace both escaped the re-brand.

Edited May 17, 2017 by LBRJ

[keefer]

It would seem to imply that the spec for platforms, lighting and fencing are as stated but anything else is an optional extra!

That said, some of the aforementioned halts would struggle to satisfy the minimum standard

[eastglosmog]

I do not claim to be an expert on the matter, but I don't think the distinction between station and halt was that trains were only scheduled to stop on request at the latter - at least not on the GWR and who cares what other railways thought!     I have just been looking at the GWR timetable for 1947 and Combe, Fawler, Rollright and Milton (all Halts) all have timetabled stops - there is no mention of stopping by request and on the same page as the services to Combe and Fawler, there is a mention of stopping by request at Yarnton (junction for Fairford)

Edited May 17, 2017 by eastglosmog

[Tim R-T-C]

I'd wondered how Teesside Airport managed to be britain's least used station. There is someone waiting patiently in that shelter, though!

 

K

 

That would be my good lady wife who accompanied me on the completely pointless but entertaining errand.

[EddieB]

More pondering along the lines of "when is a halt not a halt"...

 

When National Express East Anglia were responsible for signage, the intermediate stop on the Romford to Upminster line was named "Emerson Park Halt".  Since its recent takeover by London Underground, it has dropped the "halt" from its name. 

 

[Nearholmer]

"...... my good lady wife........"

 

She must be very good indeed to allow herself to become involved in this sort of thing. Mine can now spot a cunning ruse to visit an obscure railway installation at five hundred paces, following early incidents of me declaring, with faux innocence: "Oh,what a surprise! We seem to have stumbled upon an abandoned bog railway, purely as a result of taking a wrong turning!".

 

Emerson Park? A rose by any other name ....... (even one that looks as if the last bloke with a paint-pot who visited was on the payroll of the LNER).

 

K

Edited May 17, 2017 by Nearholmer

[great central]

Rushcliffe Halt on the GC was provided for the nearby golf club, and possibly the adjacent gypsum works. Also Bulwell Hall and Holinwell Halts north of Nottingham both again for golf clubs although Holinwell also gave access to the adjacent Annesley yards and shed.

[Rivercider]

Here are some photos of Polsloe Bridge on the Exmouth Branch, which have featured before on another thread.

Polsloe Bridge Halt was opened by the LSWR in 1907, other halts were opened nearby at  Whipton and Mount Pleasant Road and the oddly named Lions Holt Halt

and were served by rail motor services.

Polsloe Bridge was later rebuilt in concrete with components made at the nearby Exmouth Junction Concrete Works which could be seen from Polsloe Bridge.

It was my local station until the age of 11 and we often caught the train to the seaside at Exmouth from here, I can just about remember the early journeys being steam hauled,

there was a small concrete booking office on the down platform, but this was demolished many years ago, the line was singled around 1973 when the down platform was taken out of use.

it was renamed Polsloe Bridge on 5th May 1969.

 

Here are some views from April 2009.

Polsloe Bridge, the remaining up platform looking down towards Exmouth

The remaining up platform looking up towards Exmouth Junction.

The remaining up platform looking down towards Exmouth

 

cheers

[Gordon A]

I always thought Dilton Marsh, between Westbury and Warminster was classified as a halt. But according to the internet it is classified as a station.

 

Gordon A

[Davexoc]

Station or Halt? The goods shed is fairly substantial and the Station Master's house is a private residence, but Ruskington just north of Sleaford fits the bill these days.

 

RHTT heading for Lincoln

 

73096 stopping for water from an ex-Hampshire Fire Service water tanker, with far more onlookers than any service, bar Lincoln Christmas Market days when it was 100+ in a single 153!

 

Dave

[brianusa]

We used to get off at Polsloe Bridge halt to go around 72A. Exciting times!

 

Brian.

[NittenDormer]

I can safely say that this pair have never graced the internet before. Corrour on the Fort William line in January 1996 looking north, plus a fuzzy freight working heading south 3 days later.