Jump to content

Most Disused Railway Stations...surely?


Calvin72

Recommended Posts

Having a particular interest in disused railways and stations as well as Sheffield's past, it occurs to me that we have a particularly complex railway history. Is it unusually so? And specifially do we hold the record in the title? Wikipedia lists 27 closed Sheffield railway stations and i make it 6 current stations. I live near Broughton Lane station site and until very recently i didn't even realise where it was, but almost everyone in Sheffield must live near the site of a disused station!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the reasons that the Sheffield Area has so many closed stations might be down to the fact that two railway companies (the LNER & LMS) both operated services from here. With several lines all going to the same places. With the event of British Railways there was no need for competition of the lines so the loads of stations were closed down. Oddly the lines to the different places didn't close and very little track was lifted. Many of the lines are still there even if down to one track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of the stations in Sheffield (and elsewhere) should never have closed, yet another example of the government(s) of the time looking no further than the end of their noses (and in many cases the dividends on their private investments - nothing controversial there then :P).

Getting back to the proposed Central Station, the timing (1894) is interesting, but who would have had running rights there ? The Midland, Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire, Lancashire & Yorkshire, London & North Western all had interests in Sheffield at the time. It couldn't have replaced both MS&LR Victoria and MR Sheaf Street. Maybe it would have resulted in even more smaller stations being opened too.

I would love to see more about this proposal, which I have seen mentioned a few times before in passing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The idea of a Central Station for Sheffield cropped up again in Abercrombie's plans for the area in the 1930's. It was even bigger than that one! As this part photo of the plan shows:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All very well having a grand Sheffield station but they would have to have knocked down half of Sheffield to build it!

Look around. They've done that anyway. Albeit to put money in the pockets of a different set of people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not sure I have yet quite got the hang of quoting other people's posts when replying to them. So, in case it doesn't show, this is in reply to History Dude's post no.4.

Indeed the old Great Central (LNER) and Midland (LMS) lines did serve a number of the same destinations, such as Leicester, Nottingham and of course London. Such was British Railways' dynamism that in only 20 years they managed to eliminate this duplication. I am not sure that a great deal of the Great Central track remains: Marylebone to Aylesbury or thereabouts survives as a commuter line, and of course there's the admirable preserved section in the Loughborough and Quorn areas. I have heard that some of the old track bed may be used for the deplorable HS2 line, in the unfortunate event of its ever being built.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not sure I have yet quite got the hang of quoting other people's posts when replying to them. So, in case it doesn't show, this is in reply to History Dude's post no.4.

Indeed the old Great Central (LNER) and Midland (LMS) lines did serve a number of the same destinations, such as Leicester, Nottingham and of course London. Such was British Railways' dynamism that in only 20 years they managed to eliminate this duplication. I am not sure that a great deal of the Great Central track remains: Marylebone to Aylesbury or thereabouts survives as a commuter line, and of course there's the admirable preserved section in the Loughborough and Quorn areas. I have heard that some of the old track bed may be used for the deplorable HS2 line, in the unfortunate event of its ever being built.

So as not to spoil this topic, I have moved some posts to here .... http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic/14584-quoting-posts/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...