disused stations

[andysleigh]

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

[Shed Cat]

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.

[andysleigh]

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.

[Upney Sidings]

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.

[andysleigh]

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

[Foghut]

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

[Foghut]

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

[paul miller]

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.

[andysleigh]

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.

[Shed Cat]

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.