Is Derby Reading’s Little Sibling?
I was at Derby on Saturday and took these pictures of the station and a couple of the old engines hanging about.
The concept of the station is very similar to that of Reading, that I visited earlier in the week. The bridge is narrower and there are no escalators to the platforms.
As Derby pre-dates Reading by a few years, you could argue that Reading is Derby’s bigger sibling.
But it’s a good design nonetheless! Like Reading it has good facilities on the wide platforms.
The big diesel is 37425, which is a Class 37 and although owned by the Class 37 Locomotive Group, it appears to be pulling some form of engineering train for Network Rail.
The other diesel engine is a Class 57. Does DCR stand for Derby College something?, as the college is behind the engine.
A Beagle Comes To Hoxton
One of my Internet trawls found this restaurant, called Beagle, that is opening in Hoxton. I paid it a visit today.
It is conveniently situated underneath the railway arches of the East London line at Hoxton station, just behind the Geffrye Museum.
One of the staff said they would be doing gluten-free food, so I think I’ll give it a try after it opens on Monday the eighth and when I return from my travels to Budapest.
The designers seem to have done a good job.
I wonder if it will set a precedent for stylish restaurants in stations on the London Overground!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to eat and drink your way in a complete circle around London!
Is It Architecture,Engineering Or Art?
I heard good reports on the television of the rebuilt Reading station, so today, as I hadn’t anything specific to do, I decided to go to the town and have a look at the work that has been done.
I think Isambard would have been proud of what has been done, as he rarely did boring! And the new Reading station is certainly not that!
The concept of the station is very simple. The thirty metre wide overbridge is connected to all the platforms by escalators and lifts. Then at one end there is another set of four escalators and lifts to take people to the main south entrance.
But in all my life, I’ve never seen so many people walking wide-eyed in awe around a new building or even an art gallery. One guy told me he’d come into the station specifically to photograph the building and had taken fifty pictures. Even railwaymen who’d probably seen it all, were walking around giving the new station a critical look.
There was also the teacher, who’d travelled with me from London. She was amazed at it all, especially as she had left on Thursday from the old Reading station.
Very little has been reported on the media about the design and quality of this new station. The only news seems to be stories pointing out the fact that the handover is a few days late and there’s a bit of chaos. None of the stories mention, that the project will be completed a year ahead of the original plan.
I do wonder if Reading is the shape of stations to come.
The wide overbridge concept is used in a similar, but smaller and less dramatic form at Leeds and Derby, but how many other stations could benefit from this type of design?
In the pictures, you’ll see some of Inter City 125 trains, that are used on all services from London to the West and Wales. They are genuine high speed trains capable of 200 kph, ride as smooth as silk and they are now forty years old. I doubt they’ll all ever be retired, as for running through the Highlands of Scotland and from Bristol to Cornwall, where electrification is virtually impossible, there is no other fast train, that can handle the route.
So at last, these trains have got a modern station, to complement their design.
It’s Common Sense To Build New Stations
Network Rail has announced a list of six stations it will probably build. These are in addition to some already on the stocks like Cambridge Science Park and Coventry Arena.
I’m a great believer in adding stations at strategic points to existing lines, as often it is a sensible way to generate traffic and the corresponding revenue.
Sebi’s Cafe At Canonbury Station
A lot of the Overground stations have space for a small cafe.
Sebi’s Cafe At Canonbury Station
We need more like this one on Canonbury station.
Canonbury is an ideal place for a cafe, as the platform is wide and there is quite a few passengers changing from the North to East London lines and vice versa.
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Is This A Handrail?
At Limehouse station on the DLR, I noticed these rails surrounding the platforms.
Is This A Handrail?
I was unsure as to their purpose. Especially, as there is a similar rail at floor level.
Are they there to just to protect the window, for decoration or are they a handrail that people can hang on to as the trains approach? I did hold it today, as the train came in, but then I have form in this area, as I reported here.
Hooton Station
To get to Leahurst I needed to go to Hooton station and get a taxi.
It is a charming little station, with very much a country feel about it.
I had asked the train staff how you get a taxi and they told me to ask in the Booking Office and get one of the girls to do it. Very country! The system worked well!
Although the recently opened new bridge with lifts was not what you would get in rural East Anglia. It was built under Network Rail’s Access for All program.
Huddersfield Station Completed The Set For Me!
It wasn’t my visit a couple of weeks ago, but when I visited all football grounds in alphabetical order in 2011, but Huddersfield station was the last of the six Grade One Listed stations still used for trains that I visited.
The others are Bristol Temple Meads, Kings Cross, Newcastle, Paddington and St. Pancras.
The combined list of Grade Two Listed stations and Grade Two* Listed stations is an odd mix. It contains six stations, I’ve either lived near or used regularly; Cambridge, Cockfosters, Felixstowe, Liverpool Lime Street, Oakwood and Southgate.
But the list also includes Bury St. Edmunds, which matches the Abbey ruins and the truly awful Harlow Town.
Understatement From Network Rail
One of my least favourite station is Manchester Victoria, which looks like it was last deep refurbished and cleaned, when its namesake was on the throne. On the Network Rail page about their plans for the station is this classic phrase.
As anyone who has been to Manchester Victoria on a rainy day can tell you, there is a problem with the roof.
But at least something is being done. They state this about the new roof.
The £16m new roof is likely to be made of ETFE (Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) – the material used at Manchester Piccadilly station, the Eden Project in Cornwall and the swimming pool built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, known as the Water Cube. ETFE is lighter, cheaper and lets in more light than glass. It’s also self cleaning, making it an ideal material for roofs.
You do wonder if this material could be used in other places to improve buildings at a more affordable cost than traditional methods.
I’ll look forward to using the new Manchester Victoria station in a few years time.
Readers Favourite Stations
It’s not a scientific poll, but look at this article from the BBC’s web site.
I’ve actually been to most of the stations they show, except for Madrid, St. Louis and Dunedin. Although some were visited years ago.
I think too the article shows what a world-wide serious readership, the BBC’s web site has, as all of the stations were suggested in response to an article a week or so ago, praising Grand Central station in New York.
If I was going to be chauvanistic, I’d leave the choice to the head of SNCF. He has called St. Pancras, the finest station in the world.
But I’ll probably disagree in a few months, as when Kings Cross has the square in front, it might be better than its neighbour.
The Anonymous Widower 