Parkway stations

[Compound2632]

16 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

At the university where I work (not in teaching), sadly there are some who have yet to learn those skills by the third year...

 

Well, they'll be the ones that get the thirds and lower seconds.

[Miss Prism]

4 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

https://rchs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GWR-STNS-GWJ-STNS-1941-TO-1947-COMBINED-ISS-C-31-03-2024.pdf

 

That's a terrific resource. Thanks.  (I will be making a reference to it on gwr.org.uk)

 

Back on subject of 'Parkway' stations, here is the list of GWR (not the modern imposter) station names with 'Road'. I've omitted names that include obvious realname roads, e.g. Plymouth (North Road).

 

BODMIN ROAD 
BERKELEY ROAD
BRANSFORD ROAD
BREAN ROAD HALT

BRIXTON ROAD
BUILTH ROAD
CEMMES ROAD
CHURCH ROAD
CLARBESTON ROAD 
DRYBROOK ROAD
DERWYDD ROAD
DINGLE ROAD HALT
GRAMPOUND ROAD
GWINEAR ROAD
GADLYS ROAD PLATFORM
HADLOW ROAD
HARTON ROAD
LLANRHYSTYD ROAD
LLANSILIN ROAD
MAENTWROG ROAD
LONGDON ROAD
MATHRY ROAD
MELLS ROAD
MITCHELDEAN ROAD
PLEALEY ROAD
PONTYPOOL ROAD
RAGLAN ROAD CROSSING HALT
ST. ANDREWS ROAD
ST. COLUMB ROAD 
SOUTHAM ROAD & HARBURY
SOUTHERNDOWN ROAD
SPEECH HOUSE ROAD
SPRING ROAD
TALLEY ROAD HALT
TRIMSARAN ROAD
WANTAGE ROAD

 

 

Edited 22 hours ago by Miss Prism

[Jeremy Cumberland]

9 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

 

That's a terrific resource. Thanks.  (I will be making a reference to it on gwr.org.uk)

 

Back on subject of 'Parkway' stations, here is the list of GWR (not the modern imposter) station names with 'Road'. I've omitted names that include obvious realname roads, e.g. Plymouth (North Road).

 

BODMIN ROAD 
BERKELEY ROAD
BRANSFORD ROAD
BREAN ROAD HALT
CHURCH ROAD
CLARBESTON ROAD 
DRYBROOK ROAD
DERWYDD ROAD
DINGLE ROAD HALT
GRAMPOUND ROAD
GWINEAR ROAD
GADLYS ROAD PLATFORM
HADLOW ROAD
HARTON ROAD
LLANRHYSTYD ROAD
LLANSILIN ROAD
MAENTWROG ROAD
LONGDON ROAD
MATHRY ROAD
MELLS ROAD
MITCHELDEAN ROAD
PLEALEY ROAD
PONTYPOOL ROAD
RAGLAN ROAD CROSSING HALT
ST. ANDREWS ROAD
ST. COLUMB ROAD 
SOUTHAM ROAD & HARBURY
SOUTHERNDOWN ROAD
SPEECH HOUSE ROAD
SPRING ROAD
TALLEY ROAD HALT
TRIMSARAN ROAD
WANTAGE ROAD
 

Some of those aren't traditional GWR "Road" stations (the nearest station to a distant town). For example Dingle Road is on Dingle Road in Penarth (and Alberta Place station was at the other end of town). Raglan Road Crossing Halt didn't serve Raglan (there was station named Raglan closer to the village). Church Road served Lower Machen. I expect there are others.

[Miss Prism]

15 minutes ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

Some of those aren't traditional GWR "Road" stations

 

Yes. That's why I clarified 'obvious realnames', i.e. only the ones I knew were real road names. The listing is a flavour, not scientific evidence. Also, the scope of the source doc is 1941-47, so a wider date range could throw up further examples.

 

Edited 22 hours ago by Miss Prism

[Rivercider]

42 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

 

That's a terrific resource. Thanks.  (I will be making a reference to it on gwr.org.uk)

 

Back on subject of 'Parkway' stations, here is the list of GWR (not the modern imposter) station names with 'Road'. I've omitted names that include obvious realname roads, e.g. Plymouth (North Road).

 

BODMIN ROAD 
BERKELEY ROAD
BRANSFORD ROAD
BREAN ROAD HALT

BRIXTON ROAD
BUILTH ROAD
CEMMES ROAD
CHURCH ROAD
CLARBESTON ROAD 
DRYBROOK ROAD
DERWYDD ROAD
DINGLE ROAD HALT
GRAMPOUND ROAD
GWINEAR ROAD
GADLYS ROAD PLATFORM
HADLOW ROAD
HARTON ROAD
LLANRHYSTYD ROAD
LLANSILIN ROAD
MAENTWROG ROAD
LONGDON ROAD
MATHRY ROAD
MELLS ROAD
MITCHELDEAN ROAD
PLEALEY ROAD
PONTYPOOL ROAD
RAGLAN ROAD CROSSING HALT
ST. ANDREWS ROAD
ST. COLUMB ROAD 
SOUTHAM ROAD & HARBURY
SOUTHERNDOWN ROAD
SPEECH HOUSE ROAD
SPRING ROAD
TALLEY ROAD HALT
TRIMSARAN ROAD
WANTAGE ROAD

 

 

St Andrews Road is actually located just off St Andrews Road, the road between Avonmouth and Severn Beach,

 

cheers

[Rivercider]

Worle station opened in 1990, I remember that when it was in the planning stage it was intended to be a Parkway station.

I think there were disagreements between Regional Railways and Cross Country about cost so it was built with platforms

only 4 coaches long, and Cross Country trains have never been timetabled to call there.

 

When the station opened on quite a few occasions various guards incorrectly announced the next station as 'Worle Parkway'.

 

Interestingly the approach road on the north side is named Park Way, while the newer car park on the south side is

named Worle Parkway Diamond Batch Car Park,

 

cheers  

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I was wondering where North Road and Stapleton Road would fit into the listing (or not).

Then there are the Streets, Lanes, Gardens and a single Broadway...

[Mol_PMB]

1 minute ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

I was wondering where North Road and Stapleton Road would fit into the listing (or not).

Then there are the Streets, Lanes, Gardens and a single Broadway...

Edgware Road? Not sure if that quite counts as GWR, certainly not in the 1940s list.

 

But some of these ought to be in the list I think (ffordd = road)

GROESFFORDD HALT

MINFFORDD

PANTYFFORDD HALT

PEDAIR FFORDD

 

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

Some of those aren't traditional GWR "Road" stations (the nearest station to a distant town). For example Dingle Road is on Dingle Road in Penarth (and Alberta Place station was at the other end of town). Raglan Road Crossing Halt didn't serve Raglan (there was station named Raglan closer to the village). Church Road served Lower Machen. I expect there are others.

Clarbeston Road actually is the name of the village it serves; Clarbeston is a hamlet about 2-3 miles away.  Ironically though, when the station opened it was called Cross inn, because the railway passed through next to the cross roads where the pub was.  When the station moved to the opposite side of the bridge, the station became Clarbeston Road and the village which developed gained the name of the station, rather than the other way around.

[The Stationmaster]

4 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

 

Yes. That's why I clarified 'obvious realnames', i.e. only the ones I knew were real road names. The listing is a flavour, not scientific evidence. Also, the scope of the source doc is 1941-47, so a wider date range could throw up further examples.

 

A widening the date range definitely throws up more -

Wallingford Road (with a building still surviving)  closed when Cholsey & Moulsford station was created as the junction for Wallingford).

Farringdon Road (renamed Challow when the Farringdon branch from Uffington was opened.  Odd that it wasn't named Challow Road although it was nearer to Challow that it was to Farringdon but even odder that it is slightly nearer to Stanford-In-The-Vale than it is to either of the Challows).

[Mikkel]

14 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

https://rchs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GWR-STNS-GWJ-STNS-1941-TO-1947-COMBINED-ISS-C-31-03-2024.pdf

 

Thanks Mike. As Miss P says, a useful resource.

 

Appendix B: "LIST OF STATIONS WITH AMBIGUOUS DATES" is 6½ pages long. This to me suggests proper research.

 

I see a few "Unadvertised Halt for football specials" in there. Opportunities for a quick layout 🙂

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

16 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

No. 1 Son, currently a PhD student, does some first year undergraduate teaching. His view is that ChatGBT produces essays that are at the level of a middling first year undergraduate - one who has yet to learn to assess, evaluate, and structure their material. 

Indeed Stephen. The thing that's often missing (and this applies to much material written about railways too), is critical analysis.

[Compound2632]

Just now, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Indeed Stephen. The thing that's often missing (and this applies to much material written about railways too), is critical analysis.

 

Which is as much as to say that AI is mis-named.

[Michael Hodgson]

13 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

Edgware Road? Not sure if that quite counts as GWR, certainly not in the 1940s list.

 

But some of these ought to be in the list I think (ffordd = road)

GROESFFORDD HALT

MINFFORDD

PANTYFFORDD HALT

PEDAIR FFORDD

 

Not all are closed ....Pen-y-ffordd

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penyffordd_railway_station#/media/File:From_the_level_crossing,_Pen-y-ffordd_railway_station_(geograph_4032576).jpg

 

[F-UnitMad]

On 13/09/2024 at 16:43, Jeremy Cumberland said:

might once have been called Something Road by the Great Western or Somewhere And [name of nearby barn] by the LMS.

That bit made me laugh out loud. 🤣

 

I seem to recall reading somewhere that when Oldbury (on the WCML) was going to be rebuilt it was going to be named 'Oldbury Parkway', but ended up being named 'Sandwell & Dudley'. It does have a big car park....

[AY Mod]

6 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

Sandwell & Dudley

 

The station for a town that doesn't have a station and a station that doesn't have a town.

[Matt37268]

29 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

That bit made me laugh out loud. 🤣

 

I seem to recall reading somewhere that when Oldbury (on the WCML) was going to be rebuilt it was going to be named 'Oldbury Parkway', but ended up being named 'Sandwell & Dudley'. It does have a big car park....

Named after the local authorities that funded the upgrade work in the 1980’s Have a feeling it used to be Oldbury though, (have a feeling it may have even been Bromford Lane at one point) 

[Audens Pledge]

On 19/07/2024 at 14:15, Phil Parker said:

Someone has emailed into BRM, and asked, "What is the criteria for naming a station with the name parkway?"

 

I know it is out-of-town, and has a car park, but is there a definitive answer?

 

I don't know if out of town is the criteria, as Port Talbot Parkway is very much in town.

[Edwin_m]

On 12/09/2024 at 14:48, Enterprisingwestern said:

Then there's East Midlands Parkway, which seems to fall between about 3 stools, IMHO it would have been better being called Airport, connections being somewhat distant with a hit and miss directional bus service, and Leicester, which despite being the county town of the county the airport is in, doesn't get a mention, despite only being 5 miles more distant than Nottingham and Derby.

 

On 12/09/2024 at 15:03, Ian Hargrave said:

 Road access carries heavy traffic and the M1 is frequently stuffed by  tailbacks at the nearest intersection so if driving to the station for your train after exiting there,extra time is needed. The nearest area for “ convenience “ logically seems to be the south western edge of Nottingham. 

Midland Mainline, the then train operator, was pushing for this station.  The airport angle was frequently mentioned but can't be much of a demand generator, as few people want to travel long distances to a regional airport especially when it's several miles from the station and for most of its history there's been no obvious way of getting between them.  From discussion with people involved in the project, the real opportunity they saw was to tap into drive-up custom for London passengers from the surrounding area.  But most such from the area south and west of Nottingham tend to drive to Grantham for the faster train service, and I suspect people further west would drive to the WCML instead.  It served a useful role for a while when the Megatrain operation provided connecting coaches for London trains, but that ended when Stagecoach lost the franchise.  And it may yet start doing better when the adjacent power station site is re-developed into a new business park.  

 

For park and ride into the "local" city, buses and trams are generally more suitable than national rail because they can offer "turn up and go" service frequency.  Short-distance travellers won't want to risk waiting say 30min on a journey they could probably drive in less time, and those visiting from further away risk being delayed in traffic and also facing a long wait.  They are more suitable for relatively local customers wishing to make a longer-distance outward train journey.  I believe Oxford Parkway does both, with buses into Oxford and trains to London.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

14 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Clarbeston Road actually is the name of the village it serves

As, of course, is Llandudno Junction. I wonder how many other places are named after the railway station, rather than the other way round.

[F-UnitMad]

1 hour ago, Matt37268 said:

Named after the local authorities that funded the upgrade work in the 1980’s Have a feeling it used to be Oldbury though, (have a feeling it may have even been Bromford Lane at one point) 

It was opened as Oldbury & Bromford Lane.

The other Oldbury station was on a short GWR branch from Langley Green, it opened later than Oldbury & Bromford Lane (so the 'Bromford Lane' bit was not originally to distinguish it from that one) but closed to passengers as early as 1916. The branch remained open for freight (Oldbury Goods depot was further past the station) until the 1960s, when the depot was closed by BR & by 1970 the branch was curtailed by the M5 motorway as well. After that the remaining stub was used for chemicals traffic to Albright & Wilsons chemical works, until 1996, when ironically the opening of the Channel Tunnel put an end to the continental ferry tankers that were the staple traffic by then.

Edited 3 hours ago by F-UnitMad

[Tom Burnham]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

As, of course, is Llandudno Junction. I wonder how many other places are named after the railway station, rather than the other way round.

Swanley Junction for one - the sizable place that developed around the station was known by that name for many years (the LT Country Area garage had code SJ), while the little village of Swanley is a mile or so away.

[Edwin_m]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

As, of course, is Llandudno Junction. I wonder how many other places are named after the railway station, rather than the other way round.

Ratho Station west of Edinburgh.  There's at least one in North East England too, can't immediately remember where.  And did the distinction between Eaglescliffe and Egglescliffe arise because the railway got the station name wrong?