Hoping this is a future to come for railway stations

[jetmorgan]

I'm hoping this will show a good future for stations and station buildings that have been out of use 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42085145

[Andy Y]

Phil and I recently had a good look behind the scenes at Culham station when we were on our way to film at Pendon (BRM February DVD) where we met the owner Dan who runs a printing and framing business from the station and his father who is amassing a nice railwayana collection in the waiting room. Most of the original furniture is in place including the booking office desk with a bullet wound which has a story behind it which we cover on the DVD.

 

Well worth a visit if you are going to Pendon - http://www.culhamstation.co.uk/index.html

[The Stationmaster]

Phil and I recently had a good look behind the scenes at Culham station when we were on our way to film at Pendon (BRM February DVD) where we met the owner Dan who runs a printing and framing business from the station and his father who is amassing a nice railwayana collection in the waiting room. Most of the original furniture is in place including the booking office desk with a bullet wound which has a story behind it which we cover on the DVD.

 

Well worth a visit if you are going to Pendon - http://www.culhamstation.co.uk/index.html

 

Very interesting thanks Andy - it's one of those places where I can say 'if I had a £ for every time I've driven past it (on the road)  ...  etc, etc.  

 

However he does need a liitle bit of descriptive sorting out as the things he describes as 'ticket punches' are nothing of that kind but are actually (ticket) date presses which were used to add the date to an Edmundson card style ticket before it was issued.  Very quick in use if you were practised in the art of date stamping tickets but potentially nasty things if you didn't know how to use them properly as some designs could 'press' the fingers very effectively - one such incident actually led to the subsequent death of a Booking Clerk who'd had his fingers 'pressed' and died of septicaemia as a consequence.

[corneliuslundie]

No mention of Dolau on the central Wales Line (OK Heart of Wales if you insist). Perhaps the reporter's budget didn't stretch so far. Definitely one for a leisurely visit with four trains a day.

Jonathan

[jetmorgan]

No mention of Dolau on the central Wales Line (OK Heart of Wales if you insist). Perhaps the reporter's budget didn't stretch so far. Definitely one for a leisurely visit with four trains a day.

Jonathan

I don't think there was any mention of Dolau on here but it is still a great advert for the line

 

[jamesg]

Borth station, on the Cambrian line just North of Aberystwyth, houses a small railway museum ( http://www.borthstationmuseum.co.uk/ ).

[Steamport Southport]

Terrible behaviour!   

 

Yellow lines are there for a reason young lady.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason

[jetmorgan]

Well it would appear the future could be bright....the future could well be rail

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42157853

[brianusa]

Is restoration the thing of the future?  In a similar vein to recent comments, today on BBC News there is an article on renewing old and abandon lines quoting the success of the Borders Railway.  There are many who would like to see their favourite disused line come back to life but how much of this is practical or even desirable?

 

Brian

[jetmorgan]

Is restoration the thing of the future?  In a similar vein to recent comments, today on BBC News there is an article on renewing old and abandon lines quoting the success of the Borders Railway.  There are many who would like to see their favourite disused line come back to life but how much of this is practical or even desirable?

 

Brian

I think that while not being THE future it is certainly one of several possible futures for Britain's railways as long as there can be a case for "Value for Money" for the reinstatement of the line. I think there is a presumption in many people's minds that restoring the line means restoring all the wayside stations with their pick up goods yards and steam engine with it's one coach....just like preservationists have done. I think we, as train enthusiasts will have to accept that any old lines reopened will have to be very different and likely have few intermediate stations between two large town/city centres, just those stations that can now serve a small town that has grown with extra housing.

 

At the risk of opening myself up for all sorts I think that closure of numerous lines in the 1960's was needed, there were too many lines serving too few people so a rationalisation was needed even though British Railways should have been run as a service rather than as a profit making business. Don't forget that line closures were also going on long before Beeching ever came along. Granted there were many mistakes in the line closures that happened as a result of the Beeching report, the former Great Central Main line would today have been an ideal route for HS2, if I remember rightly, it was built to continental loading gauge so could have served as a freight only route to the Midlands and the North West until some point that it's use could have changed to passenger and freight, you just close the stations. I think it was just a lack of imagination of the future and short term-ism as to what other uses lines and stations could be put to and a lack of advertising that the railway was there for the community, also the rush to get the railway looking like it was making a profit was the biggest mistake. But I find that unsurprising considering the minister concerned at the time Ernest Marples was a pro roads minister and even owned a road building company, Marples Ridgeway, before going into politics. Going back to my very original posting an addition to the future of opening old lines would be opening up the old stations as well to the local communities to use as well...so have play schools there so parents can drop off their kids before going to work....or have shops in some of the old buildings, community centres and also set up local volunteer groups to help look after the stations with small grants.

[Fat Controller]

The GCR was built to UK loading gauge, not 'continental'- it had platforms at UK height, and the rest of the structure gauge appears to have been to British norms.

Marples transferred his interests in the road-building company to his wife's name after he started his ministerial career.

[Northmoor]

Marples transferred his interests in the road-building company to his wife's name after he started his ministerial career.

There was an interesting radio programme on R4 a few years ago where this oft-repeated scandal was discussed; apparently no evidence has ever been put forward to corroborate this story.  Not that Marples wasn't a sleazy politician; he made some of John Major's errant ministers look like saints.

 

I have read a lot about rail closures and as jetmorgan says above it is often forgotten both how long the process had been going on and how little traffic was carried on most of the closed branch lines.  The Beeching Report largely brought forward about five years of closures into a two year period and much of it was justifying the closures that had already been implemented.  There is an amazing correlation between the lines re-opened (or with a prominent re-opening campaign) since the 1980s and the closure dates.  Almost all were closed post 1968, suggesting that most of the mistakes were made long after Beeching had left his BR job.  

[Reorte]

I think that while not being THE future it is certainly one of several possible futures for Britain's railways as long as there can be a case for "Value for Money" for the reinstatement of the line. I think there is a presumption in many people's minds that restoring the line means restoring all the wayside stations with their pick up goods yards and steam engine with it's one coach....just like preservationists have done. I think we, as train enthusiasts will have to accept that any old lines reopened will have to be very different and likely have few intermediate stations between two large town/city centres, just those stations that can now serve a small town that has grown with extra housing.

If a line reopens even if the original building is still there I think everyone accepts we'll probably get a bus shelter on a platform and no staff presence at most of them, let alone the old pick-up goods yard. AFAICT the Borders Railway was considered a fairly marginal case and has rather exceeded expectations, which I'd think would help bolster the case for other reopenings, at least where there isn't too much built over.