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Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales a Chronology 2nd ed
Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales a Chronology by ME Quick
Spiral Bound SECOND EDITION
410 pages
Copyright 2003
CONTENTS
Section I
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Corrections
Section II
Outline History of Passenger Services
Section III
Sources
Magazines
The Information
Secondary Sources
Combined List of Sources
Atlases
Section IV
Stations
Abbreviations of Railway Companies Names
Glossary
Section V
Notes
Section VI
Metro Lines
Section VII
Some Marginal Items
Section VIII
Diagrams
INTRODUCTION
The object is to show the outline history of all stations in England, Scotland and Wales and to do so as accurately as the limitations of the evidence allow. The aim is to see matters as far as possible from the point of view of the traveller in times past, not, as so many railway histories do, from the companies' standpoint. Thus the information given is what did happen, not what `officially' happened. Therefore details are given not only for stations which appeared in the public timetable but also for those provided on the main system for e.g. the private use of a landowner, workmen only, or sporting events only. Inevitably, information about this second group is far more patchy. Those stations built but not opened are not included unless they appeared, in error, in a timetable or in the publications of the Railway Clearing House. Some non-timetable services that operated detached from the main system are included in outline in Section VI, the object of which is to give a general idea of usage of railways and, where possible, to list books containing more about the topic. Those used only for railway enthusiasts' specials are not included.
At many points arbitrary decisions have had to be taken over what should be included and what not. No definitions can be constructed that allow watertight distinctions to be made; some stations do not fit neatly into the categories of `public' and `private' mentioned in the first paragraph. Even the term `railway' is impossible to define exactly. Generally, for the purpose of this work, a railway is a form of transport running on rails that has exclusive use of its route, as opposed to a tramway operating along public streets with other traffic. However, mongrel lines, such as that to Weymouth Quay or the earlier part of the modem Manchester Metrolink did and do make some use of public roads whilst mostly operating on dedicated track; they are included. As far as these mongrel lines are concerned, stops on street tramway sections are ignored unless at some stage they were termini. Systems such as that in Sheffield are in Section VI, which accommodates lines that for a variety of reasons are sometimes included in railway books but are not railways in the sense described here.
It is hoped that this compilation will be of use and interest to a wide spectrum of readers, from those who just want the answers to those with a serious interest in railway history who might want to use it as a help for their own research. It is mainly for the latter that very full reference is made in Section III to the sources used; others will probably find the summary form of the explanation given at the start of Section IV adequate for their needs. Whilst reasonably reliable dates for closures have been available for many years, the same cannot be said about opening dates. For these much contradictory evidence is in print, including many errors copied from book to book down the years. Great difficulty was often found in compiling the present work because many writers do not give the source of their information and it was impossible to tell which of two (or more) rival dates was more likely to be correct. Whilst it cannot be claimed that this work has traced everything back to its source, at least it can be reasonably claimed that much has been done to eradicate errors and that the approach used has been designed to make it as easy as possible for others to see where further work is most likely to be needed. The basic rule for those setting out on their own researches must be: check as much as you can for yourself, including material presented here. Sources have been included in the body of the text rather than as footnotes, because the numbering involved in the latter method would in itself have added substantially to the acreage of the book and driven both the compiler and those wanting to use them to distraction.
Ideally, all dates should have been derived from contemporary sources such as railway company records and local newspapers; these reduce the likelihood of error to a minimum, though they do not eliminate it completely. In practice, this is impossible, given the huge volume and geographical spread of the material that would need to be consulted. Thus secondary sources have had to be used for many items. Much has been derived, though, from primary sources, especially local newspapers, and these have generally been used in preference to secondary sources of even the most reliable kind. The obvious West Country bias that will be noted here arises because the compiler lives in Taunton. It is hoped that over time coverage of the country as a whole will become more uniform.
Much has also been derived from The Times. This is not a perfect source, since some of its items, especially those concerned with matters well away from London, look to be second-hand. However, it is an accessible source, albeit one that has been much under-used by railway historians (the traditional letters to the Editor have the makings of an interesting book on their own).
The organisation is designed to enable extra material and corrections to be fitted into any later edition that might be published. The type of material presented here is notoriously liable to misprints and copying errors. Each time it is rewritten, further errors are likely to creep in and old ones come back. The aim is to create a basic text that can be adapted rather than one that would need rewriting.
Finally, it should be stressed that the information presented here relates only to passenger use. Whilst some stations did open and close for goods on the same dates as they did for passengers, these were a rarity. Parcels traffic, which deserves more attention than it generally receives from railway historians for the role it played in e.g. enabling village shops to offer a much wider range of goods, was generally handled by passenger stations (but not halts) since it was carried in passenger trains. Otherwise, the history of goods traffic can be a complicated matter. Some stations opened for goods long before, others long after, they opened for passengers; some only ever handled one or the other. It could happen that the first consignments of coal, general goods and livestock arrived at widely separated times. Closure could similarly occur by instalments. A further complication is that the Railway Clearing House, especially in the early years, tended to list in its Handbooks, and even show on its maps, separate passenger and goods stations in the same to as though they were a single, combined station, even though they were on clearly different sites. Goods traffic is an aspect of railway history where much further research is needed. Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots at least provides a start for those wishing to deal with this aspect for themselves.
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