disused stations
 

does anybody know of any disused/ abandowned stations in south/south east england.

i have been looking on http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/sites.shtml

but being 16, i do not hav much knowledge of all the places around.

andy

Andy,

I will own up and say that I dont recognise the names of at least 75% if the abandoned satitions on that excellent website. I would be guessing for the locations of many of the the rest of them too.

One of my favourite old station ruins is the old Gosport terminus station of the London and Portsmouth railway. The story has politics, money, petty bureacracy and a WW2 bomb. Many other old stations have facinating individual histories and can be used as a "window back in time".

I sugget you get an old railway map from approx 1948. These are often reprinted in modern books and these books then find their way into the second hand shops at railways for 50p. (someone here will probably come up with a web page) Then pick your local region or county, or perhaps get to know a long closed branch line maybe the Meon Valley line - and find out about its history and stations.

The whole railway subject is so vast and varied that most of the fun for many of us is in the finding out about and piecing together incresingly obscure stories. Just dont try to learn all of it, all at once. It is overwhelming.

ok, thanks shed cat.

indeed, if that Gosport is the one i have just looked at, it looks very interesting. and its very sad to see somthing like it/ any nice old station and line, derelict, left and or torn up.

Andy,

Shed Cat makes many valid points in his response.

A starting point bookwise might be this one : http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/pr...3&cat=0&page=1 although it has its drawbacks notably the need for a jeweller's loupe to read it. LoL

For opening/closing/renaming dates you could do a lot worse than to acquire Railway Stations by R.V.J. Butt. It's long been out of print but I picked up a nearly mint ex-libris copy on fleabay for about sixteen quid a couple of years ago.

Gaining knowledge of the subject is, indeed, a very long process. My own interest stemmed from my luggage label collecting bug. It's all very well holding a piece of railways history in one's hand but where on earth is/was the station on the label and what became of it? It's proved to be a fascinating journey over a seven year period and showed up just what Shed Cat was suggesting. I thought I had an encyclopaedic knowledge of Britain's railways when I started collecting but that idea was quickly put to bed.

Your own immediate area (Guildford) isn't replete with abandoned railways although you do have the erstwhile ex-LBSCR line to Horsham to investigate. Check out Bramley & Wonersh, Cranleigh, Baynards, Rudgwick and Slinfold on that web site you've found.

One should bear in mind that abandoned stations and other old railway structures have become increasingly hard to find as most have been either demolished, redeveloped or turned into private residences as has been the case on the line mentioned above.

Mike M.

ok.

thanks for that interesting infomation mike. i shall have to go exploring one day and see if i can find somthing from the old line.

andy

Well the one that springs to mind on my route only became disused a month ago - and that's Kings Cross Thameslink (thank goodness ;)).

Here are a couple of good books for finding lines/station..

I've given the Abebooks URL as I'm a meanie when it comes to buying books ;)

1) Lost Lines Southern...http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Se...uthern&x=0&y=0

2) Lost Lines London....http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Se...ndon&x=19&y=12

HTH, Foggy

Hi Andy,
I only have one piece of advice. Get the camera out to day and photograph all you can find. These sites have a nasty habit of vanishing into thin air, or more likely under a motorway, at the blink of an eye.
I have been caught out too many times to let it happen again.
Post some of your results when you have some.
Paul.

thanks for those book links foghut, i wont buy them just yet, as i am putting all my cash towards the 10 1/4 bagnall i want to build.

i shall do that paul.
yes they do vanish because of some bad things, the worst be beeching.

i was on google earth the other day, looking at the Takeley station, which to my understanding is currently not in use for anything. all boarded up, and suffering from graffiti.
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l6...gh/takeley.jpg
a screneshot from google earth of the Takeley station, you can clearly see where the line used to be in each direction.
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/s...ey/index.shtml
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l6...eymotorway.jpg
after following the line east, i got to a field, and a horrible site in the middle of it. a motorway. i have marked where the line opens into the field and goes out of the field with red marks.

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l6...ustrailest.jpg
after exiting the field and continuing through trees, it then comes to a industrail estate or retail park. :'(
just before it is where hockerill halt used to be.
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/s...lt/index.shtml

does anyone know how much it would cost to buy a station like that?
just out of general interest.

Nice bit of aerial investigation.

Cant blame Beeching for everything you know ;) In the 50 years after Beeching its been the Property Developers and Road Builders who have destroyed the old track and buldings.

indeed.

our great past is disappearing and quite quickly

To be fair, if Beeching hadn't closed the lines people couldn't have built on them.

The Yorkshire Steam Heritage and Yorkshire Life have put together a brief guide of the light and steam railways around the county of Yorkshire, which they hope will interest readers. It can be viewed online as a magazine 32 pages, looks good!!!

Email your pictures to [email protected]

http://www.yorkshirelife.co.uk/main-...eritage--18789

Yorkshire Steam Heritage
 

http://www.yorkshirelife.co.uk/main-...eritage--18789
This is a brief guide of the light and steam railways around the county which we hope will interest to you. Many of you, we know, are interested in the history of transport. We hope you will help us celebrate the many kinds of vehicles, past and present, by emailing pictures to us to be featured in our historic transport pages on our website.
Email your pictures to [email protected]

Steam Heritage
 

Here is a brief guide of the light and steam railways around the county which we hope will interest to you.
http://www.yorkshirelife.co.uk/main-...eritage--18789

thanks steammiester

On the suject of disused stations, there is a platform unused on the line between Peartree and Derby, I even think it had a name - was this previously a station of some sort?

David,
It's called Ramsline Halt. There's some info about it here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsline_Halt

Thanks John. Interesting to find that out. From what I remember it was very close to Derby so it would explain it being the location of the former Derby football ground.

I'm going to take it for granted that you want buildings that still exist as opposed to just used to be there.

there is a station building just off the midland mainline, (fast line side) south of luton airport parkway near a tiny village that I believe is called east hyde. the station was Chiltern Green.

there are also remnents of two stations between west hampstead thameslink and kentish town but they are little more than bricks and stuff in the ten foot now.

also heard that some of the stations on the old luton to leighton buzzard line still exist, can't confirm it though.

And whilst you're travelling on the Thameslink line don't forget to look out for Snow Hill/Holborn Viaduct Low Level station. It starts literally as you leave City Thameslink station travelling northwards, until you reach Smithfield Sidings. They often leave the lights on so you have a reasonable chance of seeing it.

Here's a linky to the excellent SubBrit site...http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/s...ll/index.shtml

Although the platforms are no longer there some of the station buildings of Kegworth (north of Loughborough on the Midland main line) remain.

are yousure this is the old station as it is directly linked to city platform 1 (or is it 2? the northbound one) if my memory serves.

on that subject, on the right as you approach farringdon in the tunnel is a house!:eek:

Yup I'm absolutely certain. I used to drive through here several times every day, as well as having a good nose-around whilst at Smithfield sidings.

There are several structures down there. Firstly there seems to be a platelayers' refuge which looks quite old - This is a photo I took several years ago and posted to Wiki. We drivers have had alot of discussions about this, and wonder if it is part of the old station.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...unny_Patch.jpg

It's just off the north end of what remains of the down (southbound) line platform, and the photo has been taken whilst standing at the king points of Smithfield sidings

Additionally there are much newer 'equipment blockhouses' on the Up line, which have been built on top of the old Snow Hill platform itself. You must remember that Snow Hill station was located very close to Holborn Viaduct, so that when they modernised the area they tore down the old raised Ludgate Hill station and arches to the Holborn Viaduct complex, and built City Thameslink pretty much in the hole that was created. There is no gap; where Snow Hill station ends, City T/L begins. VS346 signal (which by no coincidence is the last northbound main aspect signal controlled by Victoria ASC before control switches to West Hampstead ASC) just about defines where the old and the new 'meet'.

If you look at the link to Nick Catford's excellent site which I embedded in my previous post, it might help you visualise.

HTH,
Foggy

What an incredible photo!
On the line, long gone, that ran from Pinxton,Nottinghamshire, to join the line to Nottingham Victoria at Awsworth Junction, was a viaduct known locally as "Forty Bridges. This had quite a few of the arches bricked up and these had houses in them. As a kid in the 1950's I can remember going in, the by then derelict houses. The staircases were still in them and the lathe and plaster ceilings, very unsafe though and even we little brats did'nt dare try and climb up them.
Paul.

You wouldn't believe I worked there for 6 years would you!!!:eek: the pics really have brought the memory back and yeah it kinda makes sense. I imagine the former arch in the picture made up the triangle of track that was there. I only went into the sidings once, so my memory was a bit rusty.