Urban Terminal Stations

[Katier]

Given compact space, one of the most popular layouts is a BLT. However Minories proved that we can run Urban terminuses in the same kind of space as a BLT.

 

The advantage, of course, of a Urban terminus is more regular traffic and a greater variety of traffic.. and indeed two of my three layouts are ULT's and neither are minories..

 

But I love planning and throwing together ideas, both for the future and for giving ideas for people in the layout planning section I figured I'd start researching prototypes that could be used for such layouts.

 

Ideally the prototype should have a variety of facilities and take a variety of sizes of passenger services from small branch line trains through to expresses or stopping inter-city services.

 

Examples that spring to mind include :-

 

Birmingham Moor Street

Birmingham Curzon Street

London Fenchurch Street

Scarborough

Great Yarmouth

Norwich

 

Obviously ideally stations should be shrinkable so the main london ones are simply too big to use as inspiration (even Norwich and Curzon are probably too large as prototypes) - also obviously they don't have to be current stations.

 

Anyway - any other prototypes people can think of?

 

[Siberian Snooper]

There is one quite compact terminal in London and that is Moorgate.

 

SS

[Nick Holliday]

London - Holborn Viaduct, Crystal Palace High Level, Croydon Central (Used for terminating GER and LNWR trains)

[Katier]

Thanks folks - keep them coming (some outside london would be good ).

[Kris]

You could call Penzance urban, just.

[Metr0Land]

It's London again - Marylebone.   Many moons ago there was quite a good layout in RM based on Marylebone called 'London Central' so no reason why something similar couldn't be 'Anytown Central'

[Oldddudders]

Brighton Kemp Town

[Satan's Goldfish]

Lowestoft.

[Rivercider]

Bristol St Phillips, Midland Station

Weston-super-Mare Locking Road  (Excursion Station)

Exmouth (perhaps)

 

cheers

[LN Lancs]

Glasgow used to have Bridgeton, Clydebank east, and Hyndland.  Helensburgh Central, Balloch and Milngavie still exist and are very busy to this day.

[Welly]

Instead of finding a compact urban terminal to model, why not model just part of a large mainline terminal? For example platforms 7 to 10 of Kings Cross, or platforms 1 to 4 of Waterloo?

[woodenhead]

As a variation on the theme of urban stations, Manchester Oxford Road whilst not a terminus offers an interesting compact prototype. If you exclude the Freightliners and operate a purely passenger centric timetable then it's all dmu operation with a smattering of emus. Apart from the periods where Loco hauled Trans Pennine services operated and Virgin had HSTs on Cross Country it's all nice small unit operation that lends itself to short cassettes especially in N.

[caradoc]

Both Bradford termini ( as they were pre 1980s), Exchange and Forster Square.

Swansea

Inverness

Aberystwyth

Llandudno

Weymouth

Blackpool North

[greslet]

Instead of finding a compact urban terminal to model, why not model just part of a large mainline terminal? For example platforms 7 to 10 of Kings Cross, or platforms 1 to 4 of Waterloo?

That's certainly an interesting thought. I'm increasingly taking a view that the model doesn't need to show a whole station....yard......or whatever. If the viewing point is set up in the right way then the eye can be fooled into seeing something that appears a lot bigger than the actual model .

 

Think about standing on the end of a platform at Kings Cross. At any one time it isn't possible to see the whole station, but turning your head, moving round etc, you can take in more and more of the scene. So, if the layout viewing height is at eye level, and the viewer's perspective on the layout can be controlled then modelling part of platforms 7 to 10 might just work. Next time you are in a big station, stand still look straight ahead and take note of how little you can see without moving.

[SNCF stephen]

Oldbury, Stourbridge Town and Southport Central all spring to mind as some urban based termini in a variety of sizes. It would be difficult to justify freight traffic visiting Stourbridge Town in its current guise but Oldbury station had a reasonable level of facilities in the height of its operation. 

[Katier]

Yarmouth; Vauxhall, South Town or Beach.

 

Further North but without the variety of traffic perhaps; Hornsea, Withernsea and Alnwick.

 

Hornsea and (definitely Withernsea) are BLT's more than ULT's (is that a new phrase). Scarborough counts because it has the junction just outside plus traffic came from much further afield (York) rather than a single point for the above (Hull and only 30 miles).

 

Great suggestions in general though folks - thankyou (and any others will be welcomed)...

 

The idea of a part of a larger station is valid and certainly has been done.

[Dagworth]

Instead of finding a compact urban terminal to model, why not model just part of a large mainline terminal? For example platforms 7 to 10 of Kings Cross, or platforms 1 to 4 of Waterloo?

The suburban half of Charing Cross? http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66187-charing-cross-london-suburban-side-p1-p3-pointwork/

 

Andi

[Pacific231G]

I'm not sure what ULT stands for. I've always used MLT (main line terminus)

 

The original Fort William (not the present bleak version) was incredibly simple- basically just two sets of points plus a little-used releasing crossover. Though it was single track it was definitely a main line terminus in an urban setting handling expresses and overnight sleepers and, because it was a reversing terminus for the Mallaig extension, there was quite a lot of making and breaking of passenger trains with restaurant cars added and subtracted  etc. while fairly short expresses were entirely prototypical. Though it was limited on goods there had been a through line to the quayside beyond and apparently goods trains backed into the station to get their single line tokens from the signal box. A judicious move of the port facilities to the lochside in front of the station would give more goods potential in the same length. 

 

Maritime stations always seem to have good potential for rather grand trains in small locations. Had Weymouth harbour been built with a less convoluted connection through the town than the actual harbour tramway then it might have seen main line locos bringing the boat trains in and out (rather as happened at Dieppe Maritime) and the harbour station also handled quite a substantial goods traffic. 

 

Ramsgate harbour station crammed a lot into a very small space and you could imagine it as it would have been if it had been retained.

 

Outside of Britain a lot of American passenger terminals were quite small and simple though handling very grand trains. France offers Paris Bastille and Lyon St. Paul (which in a very tight site also had a set of goods facilities) while Istanbul Sirkeci has just one main line platform (plus three suburban) but was the terminus for the Orient Express (and other international trains) and has a train ferry to take goods wagons to Asia.

[Katier]

MLT makes more sense was getting tied up on the word 'Urban' to seperate it from a rural branch terminus

[DavidB-AU]

Baker Street
Manchester Central
Plymouth Friary
Chester Northgate

Cheers
David

[Guest bri.s]

Skegness ,I was there a few years ago and it still had its signal box and semaphore signals at the time I thought it would be interesting to model in any era

[burgundy]

Brighton Kemp Town

The Brighton seemed to have a selection: Eastbourne, Newhaven Harbour, Seaford, Bognor, Littlehampton and Portsmouth Harbour - without even leaving the South Coast. You might also include the original layout at Hastings, where the Brighton had its own platforms.

Best wishes

Eric   

[Fenman]

Examples that spring to mind include :-

 

...

Norwich

 

 

Norwich had two stations and the other one - City - is much more compact and modellable than Thorpe. It was in essence a single wide platform with two faces and, at the country end, two bays.

 

In the same part of the world King's Lynn is a manageable size, and is already being modelled by someone on RMweb.

 

A bit smaller, and Cromer's two termini had a huge variety of trains although High is probably more rural than urban.

 

Paul

[HillsideDepot]

Weymouth

 

Both:

 

Weymouth Town

and

Weymouth Quay

[corneliuslundie]

Lots of head of the valley stations in South Wales. Merthyr High Street is a bit bigger than some, but at one time had a great variety of liveries and destinations served. At the other extreme the two Cardiff terminal stations as they used to be. Barry Island (there was a through line to Barry Pier but used only occasionally).

 

And in North Wales Holyhead or Blaenau Festiniog LNW (a branch but in a very urban area and busy in the old days - and you only need grey paints!).

 

On the other side of the country, Whitby. Either before the closures of most of the local lines or now with preserved steam present.