My most depressing station is ...

[Trog]

Birmingham New Street all the style of Wembley Central Mainline but with the solitude spoilt by wall to rail Brummies too thick to spread them selves down the platform enough to let other people onto the platform.

[Branksome71B]

Birmingham New Street all the style of Wembley Central Mainline but with the solitude spoilt by wall to rail Brummies too thick to spread them selves down the platform enough to let other people onto the platform.

 

Totally agree. Back in the 80s, the Wolverhampton - Euston and other services had empty coaches front & back whilst those which stopped by the stairs were always rammed leaving New St.

[russ p]

The station I most unfairly dislike is Fort William, not because there's anything terribly wrong with it apart from being terminally dull, but because the old terminus was such a loss. 

 

 

I feel much the same about the CP metre gauge terminus in Nice.

 

Nice_CP terminus jun08_0035.jpgNice_CP terminus jun08_0141.jpg

 

It's a perfectly decent modern station but to get to it from the nearest tram stop I had to cross a hideous car park and a somewhat dangerous road with no pedestrian crossing.

 

What makes it worse is that the car park was on the site of the once magnificent Sud France terminus reduced when I was last in Nice is 2008 to little more than a derelict facade

 

Nice_ancien Gare CP jun08_0034.jpg

Nice_ancien Gare CP jun08_0032.jpg

Nice_ancien Gare CP jun08_0033.jpg

 

The first time I visited Nice I arrived from Grenoble using the CP from Digne for the latter part of the journey. Though a bit run down, the neo-classic Sud France terminus was still impressive.   

In about 1991 the CP moved about 300 metres down the line to a new terminus on the former site of the loco sheds. This was apparently to make way for a grand development project of the site that never happened. Much the same happened at Fort William though there it was to make way for a new bypass that did hapen.

 

The irony in Nice is that the old terminus is right next to a tram stop and the metre gauge line does carry fairly heavy commuter traffic.

 

The station building remained derelict for over twenty years but has now been restored as a library with the train shed, designed by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame, being re-assembled as a food market.

Is that second picture a skytrex 101

[Andy Y]

I wholeheartedly agree with the nominations of Rotherham Masborough (the first time I went through there I thought it was a closed derelict station; it wasn't, that was still 10 years away) and Blaenau Ffestiniog (on a wet day it could achieve 256 shades of grey long before image software could) but for sheer desolation and depression I don't think Filey Holiday Camp Station could be beaten - it just had the feel of a concentration camp.

[russ p]

That reminds me of when I was a kid and we had holidays in Filey ,for some reason I thought there were armed guards to stop people leaving Butlins!

[hmrspaul]

Regarding non-UK stations, Warsaw Central was pretty grim. Big subterranean concrete maw, bit like New Street, but without the charm.

 

I suppose a lot of these stations had what you might call "atmosphere"-but then so did the Colisseum when they were feeding Christians to the lions..........

That's also a good description of Brussels MIdi - I could never understand criticism of New Street after a few moments at this horrible concrete underpass, which has trains to many parts of Europe. Indeed I think all of the main central Brussels surface (sic) railway lines had unpleasant stations. I do accept having such a simple through the capital service was vastly better than our ring of terminals linked by a very crowded underground, unsuited to people with luggage.

 

In the UK the original newly constructed Kings Cross Midland was dangerously cramped as well as unattractive. Fortunately, it must be on the list for one of the shortest lived stations. http://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/emus/e52ba3d7e

 

Paul

Edited July 26, 2017 by hmrspaul

[rodent279]

 

In the UK the original newly constructed Kings Cross Midland was dangerously cramped as well as unattractive. Fortunately, it must be on the list for one of the shortest lived stations. http://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/emus/e52ba3d7e

 

Paul

 

Yes, I always thought the old KX Thameslink was an accident waiting to happen. During peak hour, the doiwn platform could be rammed with punters trying to crowd onto the next service north. Good to see that Thameslink was such a success, but the KX-T transformation into the new St Pan really was long overdue.

Edited July 26, 2017 by rodent279

[The Johnster]

Staying with my sister in Selby in '66, a spectacularly wet summer, I decided to have a run over to Crewe, and changed off a Trans-Pennine at Stalybridge for a 101 to Stockport.  The TP rattled off towards the Golden Lands of the West, and I was left alone on a rain-soaked platform with a grim featureless wall behind me and a view over acres of sidings, empty and derelict, with a single 16ton mineral rusting in the middle of them in case you'd missed the point.  The rain, that particular sort of soul destroying all-consuming Manchester rain, fell relentlessly and gurgled in the drains and gutters.  Dimly discernible on the far side of the sidings, which in my memory were at least a mile across, was a sort of dystopian Lowry backdrop of Dark Satanic Mills, Dark Satanic Churches, and Dark Satanic Houses presumably inhabited by Dark Satanic People.  Plenty atmosphere, but, by 'eck, it's grim oop North!

 

The 101 crept in as if it was ashamed of it all, and not a moment too soon...

[waggy]

I wholeheartedly agree with the nominations of Rotherham Masborough (the first time I went through there I thought it was a closed derelict station; it wasn't, that was still 10 years away) and Blaenau Ffestiniog (on a wet day it could achieve 256 shades of grey long before image software could) but for sheer desolation and depression I don't think Filey Holiday Camp Station could be beaten - it just had the feel of a concentration camp.

 

Filey Holiday Camp was actually used as a POW camp during the second world war

[Gwiwer]

Filey Holiday Camp 
Rotherham Masborough
Denton
Loughborough Junction
Mill Hill Broadway
Aldrington
Darnall

All are good contenders.  All score highly on the scale of depression.  There was a wry joke made by students when I lived near the area that of stations to be mugged at Stepney Green ranked top of the list; despite it's subsequent makeover it's still quite high.

 

But my vote goes, shamefully, to the station I overlooked from home for many years and which still serves - just about - as a gateway to my adopted home town.  Drum roll please ..... the honour goes to:

Hayle.

 

Stripped of absolutely everything it now boasts two bare platforms.  There are small "shelters" but they have no seats, no glazing where there should be windows and no doors.  They shelter you from nothing.  The signalbox is long gone.  So are any other buildings.  There is nothing to tell you when the train might actually arrive unless you visit on a rare day when the "information screen" is working.  Usually it is not.  You are left high (above the town) and sometimes dry (but often wet) hoping that the occasional train which is timetabled to call will actually run and be something akin to on time.  There are gaps of several hours when nothing stops to serve a town of around 7000 permanent and 1500 additional summer residents.   Even the Paddington HSTs sometimes stop at Saltash and tiny St. Germans but not usually at Hayle.  If the railway, in its collective sense, wanted to show depression talk to people who would dearly love to use the train id only it stopped.  And if you could shelter while waiting.  And if you could buy a ticket (which you can't - there's not even a machine) rather than be harassed for a penalty fare on board the train.  In fairness there's a tiny bit of nice beach view.  But half of what there was is now obscured by a supermarket.  

 

And yes there is a Samaritans notice at the platform end is very appropriately placed immediately before the viaduct.

[PatB]

I'm not sure what it's like now, but I always found Stapleton Road to look pretty miserable. Obviously once important but reduced to uninviting but excitingly menacing bare platforms.

 

I discovered Manors in 1985-86 and found it similar, although I perceived it (rightly or wrongly) as a rather less potentially dangerous place, at least in daylight.

Edited July 27, 2017 by PatB

[anroar53]

Filey Holiday Camp 

Rotherham Masborough

Denton

Loughborough Junction

Mill Hill Broadway

Aldrington

Darnall

 

All are good contenders.  All score highly on the scale of depression.  There was a wry joke made by students when I lived near the area that of stations to be mugged at Stepney Green ranked top of the list; despite it's subsequent makeover it's still quite high.

 

But my vote goes, shamefully, to the station I overlooked from home for many years and which still serves - just about - as a gateway to my adopted home town.  Drum roll please ..... the honour goes to:

 

Hayle.

 

Stripped of absolutely everything it now boasts two bare platforms.  There are small "shelters" but they have no seats, no glazing where there should be windows and no doors.  They shelter you from nothing.  The signalbox is long gone.  So are any other buildings.  There is nothing to tell you when the train might actually arrive unless you visit on a rare day when the "information screen" is working.  Usually it is not.  You are left high (above the town) and sometimes dry (but often wet) hoping that the occasional train which is timetabled to call will actually run and be something akin to on time.  There are gaps of several hours when nothing stops to serve a town of around 7000 permanent and 1500 additional summer residents.   Even the Paddington HSTs sometimes stop at Saltash and tiny St. Germans but not usually at Hayle.  If the railway, in its collective sense, wanted to show depression talk to people who would dearly love to use the train id only it stopped.  And if you could shelter while waiting.  And if you could buy a ticket (which you can't - there's not even a machine) rather than be harassed for a penalty fare on board the train.  In fairness there's a tiny bit of nice beach view.  But half of what there was is now obscured by a supermarket.  

 

And yes there is a Samaritans notice at the platform end is very appropriately placed immediately before the viaduct.

 

Would agree about Mill Hill Broadway, with the gloomy approach under the M1. It used to be my local station long ago. How it used to look in the early 1960s

 

 

The new subway had just been opened, and you can just make out the old subway under the canopy with a closed sign at the top of the stairs. The Signal Box beyond the bridge and the semaphores would soon be gone. The station didn't really get the chance to fall into decay, being officially flattened long before it happened. Still remember the coal fire in the Waiting Room seen here on Platforms 2 & 3. Apart from the passing trains it was fairly peaceful, now a constant din of traffic on the adjacent Motorway.

[micklner]

Dagenham Dock.  Like something from the Terminator film  with surroundings to match .

[Welly]

Darnall

Your mentioning Darnall brought back memories of my university days back in the early 1990s! Whenever I was going back to uni from home after the occasional weekend at home, the sight of the bare wet island platform on a Sunday evening made me thankful I was not getting off there! 

[DavidR]

Retford: stranded there in 1999 on a wet Sunday evening, whilst attempting to get from Lincoln to Doncaster. Inept station staff at Lincoln and dozy conductor on Sheffield train conspired to cause a 2hr wait for IC 125 to Donny. Station staff seemed to have disappeared.   Found out that Retford is second windiest station in U&K, after Didcot !

[D854_Tiger]

For me it was Birmingham Snow Hill circa 1970.

 

I had twice, as a kid, previously seen it in all its Summer Saturday glory but by the 1970s it had become an unstaffed halt with just a handful of peak time trains.

 

All the track was still there though, rusted over and still leading into that tunnel, for a young train lover like myself it seemed as if the world was coming to an end.

 

Though, on the bright side, and nowadays catching a 100 mph loco-hauled express once again to London, well, back then who would have thought it would ever be possible.

 

Tell that young man back then one day you will once again see four tracks heading to Wolverhampton and even a Deltic heading towards the tunnels blimey ....... pigs do fly, really.

[Pacific231G]

Is that second picture a skytrex 101

No it's a railway terminus in Nice 

In the train seen here the larger vehicle is probably X303 an autorail¹ built for the railway in the 1970s by CFD² (Chemins de Fer Departmentaux),  Some autorails built later for the CP by CFD are described by the railway as being "moins autocar" - less buslke- though when I took these photos I'd just been for a short trip up the line using a couple of these earlier vehicles (X301 and X302) and they certainly didn't feel like buses.The smaller vehicle is XR1331 rebuilt from a Billard autorail trailer

 

Notes

¹ Autorail translates literally as railcar but generally includes DMUs. X is the usual French prefix for a diesel railcar and in XR1351, the R is short for remorque or trailer so XR means an unpowered autorail trailer. (Electric railcars known as automotrices usually have the prefix Z with ZR for their unpowered trailers.)

²CFD - Chemins de Fer Departmentaux is a company formed in 1881 that once had the concessions to operate around 3000 kilometres of mostly metre gauge railways throughout France including at one time the railways on Corsica.  As most of those lines were closed it focussed more on its rolling stock business which was originally established for the railways it ran. In the mid 1930s, to cut running costs on the many lines it then ran, it commissioned a large fleet of very successfull diesel autorails from the Billard company in Tours along with a number of trailers of almot identical appearance. .

Edited July 27, 2017 by Pacific231G

[Pacific231G]

For me it was Birmingham Snow Hill circa 1970.

 

I had twice, as a kid, previously seen it in all its Summer Saturday glory but by the 1970s it had become an unstaffed halt with just a handful of peak time trains.

 

All the track was still there though, rusted over and still leading into that tunnel, for a young train lover like myself it seemed as if the world was coming to an end.

 

Though, on the bright side, and nowadays catching a 100 mph loco-hauled express once again to London, well, back then who would have thought it would ever be possible.

 

Tell that young man back then one day you will once again see four tracks heading to Wolverhampton and even a Deltic heading towards the tunnels blimey ....... pigs do fly, really.

I can also just about remember Snowhill as a fully active station from my youngest days. I know the tunnel closed for many years but did Snowhill Station itself ever close completely?

[Gwiwer]

Your mentioning Darnall brought back memories of my university days back in the early 1990s! Whenever I was going back to uni from home after the occasional weekend at home, the sight of the bare wet island platform on a Sunday evening made me thankful I was not getting off there! 

 

I had the good fortune to have met a girl who lodged in Darnall during her university days and the depressing misfortune of therefore using that apology of a station rather frequently for a time.

[sharkman]

BIGGLESWADE.......!

 

I visited an elderly couple there back in the 1970`s.

 

When the old lady opened the door she told me I was too late to see Sid as she had sent him to the bottom of the garden to fetch a lettuce and he had collapsed and died on his vegetable plot.

 

When I said I was terribly sorry and asked if she was alright..

 

She said `Oh yes dear.... I opened a tin of peas`

 

Those were the days.............

A couple of us have just collapsed with laughter thanks for posting that.

[railsquid]

I can also just about remember Snowhill as a fully active station from my youngest days. I know the tunnel closed for many years but did Snowhill Station itself ever close completely?

 

Yes, 1972 ~ 1987. The new version is utterly immemorable, fortunately Moor Street is quite a gem.

[Clearwater]

Yes, 1972 ~ 1987. The new version is utterly immemorable, fortunately Moor Street is quite a gem.

I'd add Wolverhampton Low Level that literally sits in the shadow of the High Level station, gently decaying for many years, and not put out of its misery like Snow Hill.

[Zomboid]

I had the good fortune to have met a girl who lodged in Darnall during her university days and the depressing misfortune of therefore using that apology of a station rather frequently for a time.

I used to have a girlfriend who lived near Bristol Parkway.

I bought a car.

[highpeakman]

Gainsborough.

Take your choice of two stations.

Central, which only has trains on a Saturday, is very basic and hidden away from the town (in spite of the name) or Lea Road which was voted Britain's worst station by Andrew Dowd in the Times in 2014 (but it does have daily, regular trains at least).

 

Edit: Rail Magazine Article 2015: http://www.railmagazine.com/infrastructure/stations/neglected-stations-beyond-the-fringe

Edited July 27, 2017 by highpeakman

[EddieB]

The first time I visited Nice I arrived from Grenoble using the CP from Digne for the latter part of the journey. Though a bit run down, the neo-classic Sud France terminus was still impressive.   

In about 1991 the CP moved about 300 metres down the line to a new terminus on the former site of the loco sheds. This was apparently to make way for a grand development project of the site that never happened. 

 

The station building remained derelict for over twenty years but has now been restored as a library with the train shed, designed by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame, being re-assembled as a food market.

I was fortunate enough to visit the old CP terminus in 1990 - a glorious anachronism both architecturally and in terms of the vintage stock still using the station.

 

It would make a great inspiration for a model!