Darlington railway station
Darlington railway station is on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom, serving the town of Darlington, County Durham. It is 232 miles 50 chains north of London King's Cross and on the main line it is situated between Northallerton to the south and Durham to the north, its three-letter station code is DAR. The station is well served, since it is an important stop for main line services, with trains being operated by London North Eastern Railway, CrossCountry and TransPennine Express, it is the interchange for Northern services to Bishop Auckland and Saltburn. Darlington is the location of the first commercial steam railway: the Stockton and Darlington Railway; the station building is a Grade II* listed Victorian structure and winner of the "Large Station of the Year" award in 2005. The first railway to pass through the area now occupied by the station was built by the Stockton and Darlington Railway, who opened their mineral branch from Albert Hill Junction on their main line to Croft-on-Tees on 27 October 1829.
This branch line was subsequently purchased by the Great North of England Railway a decade to incorporate into their new main line from York which reached the town on 30 March 1841. A separate company, the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway continued the new main line northwards towards Ferryhill and Newcastle, opening its route three years on 19 June 1844; this crossed the S&D at Parkgate Junction by means of a flat crossing which would in future years become something of an operational headache for the North Eastern Railway and LNER. The original Bank Top station where the two routes met was a modest affair, rebuilt in 1860 to accommodate the expanding levels of traffic on the main line. By the mid-1880s this replacement structure was deemed inadequate and so the NER embarked on a major upgrade to facilities in the area; this included an ornate new station with an impressive three-span overall roof on the Bank Top site, new sidings and goods lines alongside it and a new connecting line from the south end of the station to meet the original S&D line towards Middlesbrough at Oak Tree Junction near Dinsdale.
These improvements were completed on 1 July 1887, when the old route west of Oak Tree closed to passengers. The new station, with its broad island platform was designed by T. E. Harrison chief engineer, William Bell, the architect of the North Eastern Railway. and cost £81,000 to construct and soon became a busy interchange on the main East Coast route, thanks to its rail links to Richmond, Barnard Castle and Penrith and the Tees Valley Line to Bishop Auckland and Saltburn. The lines to Penrith, Barnard Castle and Richmond have now gone, but the main line and the Tees Valley route remain busy, it is still possible to travel to Catterick Garrison and Richmond from here, by means of the Arriva North East-operated X26 and X27 buses. The same company operated the Sky Express bus service to Durham Tees Valley Airport from the station, but this was withdrawn in January 2009 due to declining demand. In the 1980s a replica set of Darlington Railway Station was built for an episode of Noel's Saturday Roadshow for the BBC.
On 16 November 1910, an express freight train overran signals and was involved in a rear-end collision with another freight train. On 27 June 1928, an excursion train were involved in a head-on collision. Twenty five people were killed and 45 were injured. On 11 December 1968, a Newcastle to Kings Cross express train was derailed at the south end of the station after passing a signal at danger. No-one was hurt. On 3 October 2009, a Class 142 unit, operated by Northern Rail, hit the rear end of a departing National Express East Coast service. Three passengers from the Northern Rail train were taken to hospital with minor injuries; as noted previous, the station is staffed. There is a waiting room and a first class Lounge on the platform, with the lounge open between 06:00 and 20:00 each day. Self-service ticket machines are provided for use outside the opening hours for the booking office and for collecting pre-paid tickets. Various retail outlets are located in the main buildings, including a coffee shop and newsagents.
Vending machines, toilets, a photo booth and cash machines are provided. Train running information is offered via digital CIS displays and timetable posters. Step-free access to all platforms is via ramps from the subway linking the platforms with the main entrance and car park. Darlington is well served by trains on the East Coast Main Line, with regular trains southbound to London King's Cross via York and northbound to Newcastle and Edinburgh Waverley operated by London North Eastern Railway. Two trains per hour run south to London and north to Newcastle for much of the day with hourly services to Edinburgh Waverley. There are several daily services to Aberdeen and daily direct services to Stirling and Inverness. Due to the introduction of the new ECML timetable on 22 May 2011, LNER only now provide one daily direct service each way between London King's Cross and Glasgow Central which calls at Darlington; the northbound service to Glasgow departs Darlington at 18:09 and the southbound service from Glasgow arrives into Darlington at 10:00.
CrossCountry services between Edinbu
Antwerpen-Centraal railway station
Antwerpen-Centraal is the name of the main train station in the Belgian city of Antwerp. The station is operated by the National Railway Company of Belgium; the original station building was constructed between 1895 and 1905 as a replacement for the original terminus of the Brussels-Mechelen-Antwerp Railway. The stone clad terminus buildings, with a vast dome above the waiting room hall were designed by Louis Delacenserie; the viaduct into the station is a notable structure designed by local architect Jan Van Asperen. A plaque on the north wall bears the name Middenstatie; the station is now regarded as the finest example of railway architecture in Belgium, although the extraordinary eclecticism of the influences on Delacenserie's design had led to a difficulty in assigning it to a particular architectural style. In W. G. Sebald's novel Austerlitz an ability to appreciate the full range of the styles that might have influenced Delacensiere is used to demonstrate the brilliance of the fictional architectural historian, the novel's protagonist.
In 2009 the American magazine Newsweek judged Antwerpen-Centraal the world's fourth greatest train station. In 2014 the British-American magazine Mashable awarded Antwerpen-Centraal the first place for the most beautiful railway station in the world; the iron and glass train hall was designed by Clément Van Bogaert, an engineer, covers an area of 12,000 square metres. The height of the station was once necessary for the smoke of steam locomotives; the roof of the train hall was made of steel. During World War II, severe damage was inflicted to the train hall by the impact of V-2 bombs, without destroying the structural stability of the building, according to the National Railway Company of Belgium, it has been claimed that the warping of the substructure due to a V-2 bomb had caused constructional stresses. The impact of the bombs are still visible due to a lasting wave-distortion in the roofing of the hall. In the mid-twentieth century, the building's condition had deteriorated so far that its demolition was being considered.
The station was closed on 31 January 1986 for safety reasons, after which restoration work to the roof and façades was performed. The stress problems due to the impact of bombs during the war was solved by the use of polycarbonate sheets instead of glass, due to its elasticity and its low weight, which avoided the need for extra supporting pillars. After replacing or repairing steel elements, they were painted burgundy. Copper was used during the renovation process of the roof. In 1998 large-scale reconstruction work began to convert the station from a terminus to a through station. A new tunnel has been excavated between Berchem station in the south of the city and Antwerpen-Dam station in the north, passing under Central station, with platforms on two underground levels; this allows Thalys, HSL 4 and HSL-Zuid high-speed trains to travel through Antwerp Central without the need to turn around. The major elements of the construction project were completed in 2007, the first through trains ran on 25 March 2007.
This complete project has cost €1.6 billion. The station was awarded a Grand Prix at the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards in 2011; the station has four levels and 14 tracks arranged as follows: Level +1: The original station, 6 terminating tracks, arranged as two groups of three and separated by a central opening allowing views of the lower levels Level 0: Houses ticketing facilities and commercial space Level −1: 7 m below street level, 4 terminating tracks, arranged in two pairs featuring the world-famous twin level escalators that start off at a gradient become level resume a gradient again. Level −2: 18 m below street level, 4 through tracks, leading to the two tracks of the tunnel under the city; the station is served by the following services: High speed services Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp - Brussels - Paris High speed services Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp - Brussels - Lille High speed services Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp - Brussels - Chambéry - Bourg-Saint-Maurice High speed services Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp - Brussels - Avignon - Marseille Intercity services Amsterdam - The Hague - Rotterdam - Roosendaal - Antwerp - Brussels Airport - Brussels Intercity services Antwerp - Sint-Niklaas - Gent - Bruges - Ostend Intercity services Antwerp - Sint-Niklaas - Gent - Kortrijk - Poperinge/Lille Intercity services Antwerp - Mechelen - Brussels - Nivelles - Charleroi Intercity services Antwerp - Mechelen - Brussels Airport - Leuven - Hasselt Intercity services Antwerp - Lier - Aarschot - Leuven Intercity services Antwerp - Lier - Aarschot - Hasselt - Liège Intercity services Antwerp - Mol - Hamont/Hasselt Intercity services Noorderkempen - Antwerp Intercity services Essen - Antwerp - Mechelen - Brussels Intercity services Antwerp - Mechelen - Brussels - Halle - Braine-le-Comte - Binche Intercity services Antwerp - Sint-Niklaas - Gent Intercity services Antwerp - Herentals - Turnhout Intercity services Antwerp - Mechelen - Brussels - Nivelles - Charleroi Local services Roosendaal - Essen - Antwerp - Puurs Local services Roosendaal - Essen - Antwerp Loca
Motive power depot
The motive power depot is the place where locomotives are housed and maintained when not being used. They were known as "running sheds", "engine sheds", or, for short, just sheds. Facilities are provided for refueling and replenishing water, lubricating oil and grease and, for steam engines, disposal of the ash. There are workshops for day to day repairs and maintenance, although locomotive building and major overhauls are carried out in the locomotive works. MPDs in Britain are now known as traction maintenance depots; the equivalent of such depots in German-speaking countries is the Bahnbetriebswerk or Bw which has similar functions, with major repairs and overhauls being carried out at Ausbesserungswerke. The number of these reduced drastically on the changeover from steam to diesel and electric traction and most modern Bw in Germany are specialised depots responsible for a single rail class. Engine sheds could be found in many cities as well as in rural locations, they were built by the railway companies to provide accommodation for their locomotives that provided their local train services.
Each engine shed would have an allocation of locomotives that would reflect the duties carried out by that depot. Most depots had a mixture of passenger and shunting locomotives but some such as Mexborough had predominantly freight locomotives reflecting the industrial nature of that area in South Yorkshire. Others, such as Kings Cross engine shed in London, predominantly provided locomotives for passenger workings. Nearly all depots at this time had a number of shunting locomotives. 0-4-0T or 0-6-0T tank engines, these would be allocated to shunt turns and could be found in goods yards, carriage sidings, goods depots and docks. Many large rail connected industrial sites had engine sheds using shunting locomotives; each railway company had its own architectural design of engine shed but there were three basic designs of shed: Roundhouse - where the tracks would radiate from a turntable Straight - a number of tracks that would be accessible from either end Dead End - a number of sidings accessible from one end onlyThe turntables for straight and dead end sheds were outside.
Those in roundhouses could be inside or outside such as that at the East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Company Roundhouse, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, USA. There were six primary activities; when a steam engine arrived on shed it would drop its fire and the ash that had built up would be removed. Disposal of the ash was a filthy job and carried out at quiet times although some bigger depots had facilities for disposing of ash more efficiently. Study of photographs from the steam era show it was not uncommon for piles of ash to be scattered around the depot site. After completing their last duty and arriving on shed locomotives would have a regular boiler washout to remove scale, improve efficiency and protect safety. Locomotives ran on coal; this job was done by hand and many depots had significant coal stacks on site. These would be neatly constructed with the outer walls constructed of dry blocks much in the style of a dry stone wall with smaller pieces behind these; as technology advanced and the bigger sheds got busier this process became mechanised and huge coaling towers above the neighbourhoods indicated where the engine shed was.
The sheds were not clean. The large London depot of Stratford had an engineman’s dormitory and its occupants would “wake up with a layer of coal dust covering them and the bed”. Another key requirement of the steam engine is a supply of water, carried in the tenders or tanks of the engines. In Australia water was carried in water gins due to longer distances covered and scarcer water resources. In depots where the limescale content of water was high water softening plants were introduced. At Norwich engine shed in the UK the sludge was discharged into a tank and emptied every three years or so with the sludge being dumped into the sea at Lowestoft. Tender locomotives required turning. In the early days these were around 45 feet long; as the technology improved and engines got bigger the turntables got longer. In order to turn a locomotive the engine had to be balanced quite on the turntable and it could be pushed around; some turntables could be powered by fixing the vacuum brake of the engine to the turntable and using that to turn the engine.
Turntables were electrically operated. Many diesel locomotives in the UK have a cab at each end removing the need for the turntables. However, in Australia and America there are a number of single ended locomotives and turntables are still in use. Engine sheds would carry out basic maintenance and the bigger sheds would carry out more complex repairs. Locomotives that required further repair were sent to the company’s locomotive works. Withdrawn locomotives could be found at some depots before their final trips to the scrapyard. In the UK the general practice is that one shed would have a number of smaller sub-sheds where there were fewer facilities; when engines allocated to sub-sheds required repairs they were exchanged for a similar engine or just visiting the main depot on a Sunday when traffic levels were lower. In terms of locomotive allocation it seems to have been the practice that for some railways locomotives were all allocated to t
Bristol Temple Meads railway station
Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city. In addition to the train services there are bus services to many parts of the city and surrounding districts, a ferry to the city centre. Bristol's other major station, Bristol Parkway, is on the northern outskirts of the conurbation. Temple Meads was opened on 31 August 1840 as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway from London Paddington, 116 miles 31 chains from Paddington; the railway was the first to be designed by the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Soon the station was used by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, the Bristol Harbour Railway and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. To accommodate the increasing number of trains, the station was expanded in the 1870s by Francis Fox and again between 1930 and 1935 by Percy Emerson Culverhouse. Brunel's terminus is no longer part of the operational station.
The historical significance of the station has been noted, most of the site is Grade I listed. The platforms are numbered 1 to 15 but passenger trains are confined to just eight tracks. Most platforms are numbered separately at each end, with odd numbers at the east end and numbers at the west. Platform 2 is not signalled for passenger trains, there is no platform 14. Temple Meads is managed by Network Rail and the majority of services are operated by the present-day Great Western Railway. Other operators are South Western Railway. In the 12 months to March 2014, 9.5 million entries and exits were recorded at the station. In Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins, the station was one of only ten to be awarded five stars; the name Temple Meads derives from the nearby Temple Church, gutted by bombing during World War II. The word "meads" is a derivation of "mæd", an Old English variation of "mædwe", referring to the water meadows alongside the River Avon that were part of Temple parish.
As late as 1820 the site was undeveloped pasture outside the boundaries of the old city, some distance from the commercial centre. It lay between the Floating Harbour and the city's cattle market, built in 1830; the original terminus was built in 1839–41 for the Great Western Railway, the first passenger railway in Bristol, was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the railway's engineer. It was built to accommodate Brunel's 7 ft broad gauge; the station was on a viaduct to raise it above the level of the Floating Harbour and River Avon, the latter being crossed via the grade I listed Avon Bridge. The station was covered by a 200-foot train shed, extended beyond the platforms by 155 feet into a storage area and engine shed, fronted by an office building in the Tudor style. Train services to Bath commenced on 31 August 1840 and were extended to Paddington on 30 June 1841 following the completion of Box Tunnel. A few weeks before the start of the services to Paddington the Bristol and Exeter Railway had opened, on 14 June 1841, its trains reversing in and out of the GWR station.
The third railway at Temple Meads was the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, which opened on 8 July 1844 and was taken over by the Midland Railway on 1 July 1845. This used the GWR platforms, diverging onto its own line on the far side of the bridge over the Floating Harbour. Both these new railways were engineered by Brunel and were broad gauge. Brunel designed the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway, but this was not opened until 25 August 1863, nearly four years after his death, it terminated at Temple Meads. In 1845 the B&ER built its own station at right angles to the GWR station and an "express platform" on the curve linking the two lines so that through trains no longer had to reverse; the wooden B&ER station was known locally as "The Cowshed". The Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway opened a branch off the Bristol and Exeter line west of the city on 18 April 1867, the trains being operated by the B&ER and using its platforms at Temple Meads. In 1850 an engine shed had been opened on the south bank of the River Avon on the east side of the line to the B&ER station.
Between 1859 and 1875, 23 engines were built in the workshops attached to the shed, including several distinctive Bristol and Exeter Railway 4-2-4T locomotives. The GWR built a 326-by-138-foot goods shed on the north side of the station adjacent to the Floating Harbour, with a small dock for transhipment of goods to barges. Wagons had to be lowered 12 feet to the goods shed on hoists. On 11 March 1872, a direct connection to the harbour was made in the form of the Bristol Harbour Railway, a joint operation of the three railways, which ran between the passenger station and the goods yard, across the street outside on a bridge, descended into a tunnel under the churchyard of St. Mary Redcliffe on its way to a wharf downstream of Bristol Bridge; the B&ER had a goods depot at Pylle Hill from 1850, the MR had an independent yard at Avonside Wharf on the opposite side of the Floating Harbour from 1858. On 29 May 1854 the Midland Railway laid a third rail along their line to Gloucester to provide mixed gauge so that it could operate 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge passenger trains while broad gauge goods trains could still run to collieries north of Bristol.
Sidings at South Wales Junction allowed traffic to be transhipped between wagons on the two different gauges. The GWR continued to operate its trains on the broad gauge, but on 3
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof
Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof abbreviated as Frankfurt Hbf and sometimes translated as Frankfurt central station, is the busiest railway station in Frankfurt, Germany. The affix "Main" comes from the city's full name, Frankfurt am Main; because of its location in the middle of Germany and usage as a hub for long and short distance travelling, Deutsche Bahn refers to it as the most important station in Germany. In the late 19th century, three stations connected Frankfurt to the west and south, the Taunus station for the Taunusbahn, connecting Frankfurt to Wiesbaden Main-Neckar-station for the Main-Neckar-Eisenbahn to Darmstadt and Mannheim ) Main-Weser station for the Main-Weser-Bahn to Kassel and from 1860 on used by the Frankfurt-Bad Homburger Eisenbahn; those three stations were placed beside each other on the Gallustor. This situation was considered impracticable due to rising passenger figures in the 19th century, so plans were laid out as early as 1866. At first, a large scale station with up to 34 platforms was considered the number got reduced to 18.
Post and baggage handlings had their own underground facilities, the city council demanded the station to be moved further away from the city. In the end, in 1881, the German architect Hermann Eggert won the design contest for the station hall, his runner-up in the contest, Johann Wilhelm Schwedler was made chief engineer for the steel-related works; the new station was placed about 1 km to the west of the first three stations. The platforms were covered by three iron-and-glass halls; the station was built by the contractor Philipp Holzmann with construction starting in 1883. The Central-Bahnhof Frankfurt was opened on 18 August 1888. Right on the evening of the opening day, a train ran over the buffer stop and the locomotive was damaged. Over the course of the next few years, the area to the east of the new station, the Bahnhofsviertel, was built; until the completion of Leipzig Hauptbahnhof in 1915, Frankfurt station was the largest in Europe. As of today, the 24 platforms with 26 tracks on one level make it the world's largest one-level railway hall.
In 1924 two neoclassical halls were added on each side of the main hall, increasing the number of platforms to 24. During World War II, the building was damaged. In 1956 the station was electrified. One year Europe's then-largest signal box was commissioned, having been built in a contemporary style of the time has now become a listed building. Starting with the construction of the B-Tunnel for the Frankfurt U-Bahn facilities in 1971, a subterranean level was added in front of the main building, featuring the city's first public escalator and including a large shopping mall, one station each for the U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains, an air raid shelter and a public car park; the subterranean stations were opened in 1978 and were built in the cut and cover method, which involved the demolition of the second northern hall and rebuilding it after the stations were completed. Between 2002 and 2006, the roof construction, a listed building, was renovated; this involved the exchange of aged steel girders, reinstallation of windows that were replaced by panels after World War II and a general clean-up of the hall construction.
The operational part of the station is being remodeled as well. This was vital to improve capacity of the station; the new signal box became operational in late 2005 and will allow faster speeds into the station after the remodelling of the tracks. The appearance of the station is divided into vestibule. Dominant in those parts built in 1888 are Neo-Renaissance features, the outer two halls, added in 1924 follow the style of neoclassicism; the eastern façade of the vestibule features a large clock with two symbolic statues for day and night. Above the clock, the word Hauptbahnhof and the Deutsche Bahn logo are situated; the roof of the front hall carries a monumental statue of Atlas supporting the World on his shoulders, in this case assisted by two allegorical figures representing Iron and Steam. The station's terminal layout has posed some unique problems since the late 20th century, since all trains have to change directions and reverse out of the station to continue on to their destination.
This causes long turn-around times and places the passengers in the opposite direction of where they had been sitting. There have been several attempts to change this; the last project, called Frankfurt 21, was to put the whole station underground, connect it with tunnels to the east, so avoid the disadvantages of the terminal layout. This would be financed by selling the air rights over the area now used for tracks as building ground for skyscraper, but this soon proved unrealistic, the project was abandoned. Frankfurt is the busiest in Germany; as for long-distance traffic, the station profits from its location in the heart of Europe. To ease the strain on the Hauptbahnhof, some ICE lines now call at Frankfurt Airport station and at Frankfurt Süd instead of Hauptbhanhof. There are long-distance night trains from Frankfurt, e.g. to Copenhagen, Prague, Zurich and Rome. With regard to regional traffic, Frankfurt Hbf is the main hub in the RMV network, offering connections to Koblenz, Kassel, Stockheim, Fulda, Gießen, Aschaffenburg, Würzb
Train station
A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot is a railway facility or area where trains stop to load or unload passengers or freight. It consists of at least one track-side platform and a station building providing such ancillary services as ticket sales and waiting rooms. If a station is on a single-track line, it has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements; the smallest stations are most referred to as "stops" or, in some parts of the world, as "halts". Stations elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other transport modes such as buses, trams or other rapid transit systems. In British English, traditional usage favours railway station or station though train station, perceived as an Americanism, is now about as common as railway station in writing. In British usage, the word station is understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified. In American English, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station. In North America, the term depot is sometimes used as an alternative name for station, along with the compound forms train depot, railway depot, railroad depot, but applicable for goods, the term depot is not used in reference to vehicle maintenance facilities in American English.
The world's first recorded railway station was The Mount on the Oystermouth Railway in Swansea, which began passenger service in 1807, although the trains were horsedrawn rather than by locomotives. The two-storey Mount Clare station in Baltimore, which survives as a museum, first saw passenger service as the terminus of the horse-drawn Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on 22 May 1830; the oldest terminal station in the world was Crown Street railway station in Liverpool, built in 1830, on the locomotive hauled Liverpool to Manchester line. As the first train on the Liverpool-Manchester line left Liverpool, the station is older than the Manchester terminal at Liverpool Road; the station was the first to incorporate a train shed. The station was demolished in 1836 as the Liverpool terminal station moved to Lime Street railway station. Crown Street station was converted to a goods station terminal; the first stations had little in the way of amenities. The first stations in the modern sense were on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830.
Manchester's Liverpool Road Station, the second oldest terminal station in the world, is preserved as part of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It resembles a row of Georgian houses. Early stations were sometimes built with both passenger and goods facilities, though some railway lines were goods-only or passenger-only, if a line was dual-purpose there would be a goods depot apart from the passenger station. Dual-purpose stations can sometimes still be found today, though in many cases goods facilities are restricted to major stations. In rural and remote communities across Canada and the United States, passengers wanting to board the train had to flag the train down in order for it to stop; such stations were known as "flag stops" or "flag stations". Many stations date from the 19th century and reflect the grandiose architecture of the time, lending prestige to the city as well as to railway operations. Countries where railways arrived may still have such architecture, as stations imitated 19th-century styles.
Various forms of architecture have been used in the construction of stations, from those boasting grand, Baroque- or Gothic-style edifices, to plainer utilitarian or modernist styles. Stations in Europe tended to follow British designs and were in some countries, like Italy, financed by British railway companies. Stations built more often have a similar feel to airports, with a simple, abstract style. Examples of modern stations include those on newer high-speed rail networks, such as the Shinkansen in Japan, THSR in Taiwan, TGV lines in France and ICE lines in Germany. Stations have staffed ticket sales offices, automated ticket machines, or both, although on some lines tickets are sold on board the trains. Many stations include a convenience store. Larger stations have fast-food or restaurant facilities. In some countries, stations may have a bar or pub. Other station facilities may include: toilets, left-luggage, lost-and-found and arrivals boards, luggage carts, waiting rooms, taxi ranks, bus bays and car parks.
Larger or manned stations tend to have a greater range of facilities including a station security office. These are open for travellers when there is sufficient traffic over a long enough period of time to warrant the cost. In large cities this may mean facilities available around the clock. A basic station might only have platforms, though it may still be distinguished from a halt, a stopping or halting place that may not have platforms. Many stations, either larger or smaller, offer interchange with local transportation. In many African, South American countries, Asian countries, stations are used as a place for public markets and other informal businesses; this is true on tourist routes or stations near tourist destinations. As well as providing services for passengers and loading facilities for goods, stations can sometimes have locomotive and rolling stock depots (usually with facilities for storing and refuelling rolling stock an
Newcastle railway station
Newcastle railway station is on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom, serving the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and Wear. It is 268.633 miles down the line from London King's Cross and on the main line it is situated between Chester-le-Street to the south and Manors to the north. Its three-letter station code is NCL. Opened in 1850, it is a Grade I listed building and is located in the city centre at the southern edge of Grainger Town and to the west of the Castle Keep, it is a nationally important transport hub, being both a terminus and through-station on the main line between London and Edinburgh, the Durham Coast Line to Middlesbrough and Nunthorpe the Tyne Valley Line to Carlisle via Hexham. It is served by the adjoining Central Station on the Tyne and Wear Metro; as of September 2017, the main line station is managed by London North Eastern Railway. All London North Eastern Railway services between London and Edinburgh stop at Newcastle. CrossCountry supplements services to Scotland, operates trains southbound to the South West and South Coast of England via Birmingham and the wider Midlands region.
The station is a terminus for TransPennine Express, which connects Newcastle to Liverpool Lime Street, via Leeds and Manchester Victoria, with some services running to Manchester Airport. Northern variously combines three routes out of Newcastle in order to provide both terminating and through services. To the west, trains connect the city to the MetroCentre shopping centre and Carlisle with intermittent extensions to Whitehaven, north to Morpeth on the main line, with extensions to Chathill. To the south east, the Durham Coast Line connects to Sunderland via Heworth and County Durham and Teesside. Important stops include Hartlepool, Stockton and Nunthorpe the line is shared with the Tyne and Wear Metro to Sunderland. Additionally and Abellio ScotRail jointly operate a limited service to Glasgow Central via Carlisle. Together with the Tyne and Wear Metro and numerous local bus routes, the complex is one of the most important transport hubs in the North East. There are two Metro and 12 main line platforms seeing 13 million passengers annually, in light of increasing patronage the main line station has undergone a major refurbishment to increase retail space and enhance the station environment including the controversial pedestrianisation of the portico.
In Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins, the station was one of only ten to be awarded five stars. A scheme for a central station was proposed by Richard Grainger and Thomas Sopwith in 1836 but was not built; the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway had agreed to relinquish their insistence on using their Redheugh terminus on the south bank of the River Tyne. They agreed with George Hudson near the Spital. Instead of crossing the Tyne by a low level bridge and climbing to the Spital by a rope-worked incline, they would build an extension crossing at Scotswood and approaching on the north bank, they opened this line and a temporary station at Forth, passenger trains started using that on 1 March 1847. Hudson, known as the "Railway King" was concentrating on connecting his portfolio of railways so as to join Edinburgh with the English network, his Newcastle and Berwick Railway obtained its authorising Act of Parliament in 1845, but for the time being it was to use the Newcastle and North Shields Railway's station at Carliol Square.
Building a crossing of the Tyne was going to be a lengthy process, so that he gave the construction of the general station a low priority. The Tyne crossing became the High Level Bridge. In February 1846 the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway exerted pressure for the general station to be built, the architect John Dobson was appointed by Hudson to design it, in association with the engineer T E Harrison, Robert Stephenson. By now the general alignment of Hudson's railways was becoming clear: a main line from the south via Gateshead would approach over the High Level Bridge and enter the general station from the east. Newcastle and Carlisle Railway trains would of course enter from the west. Dobson produced general plans for the station, now being referred to as the Central station, on a broad curve to front Neville Street so as to accommodate the alignment of the approaching railways at east and west, it was to a "Romano-Italien design with ornamental work of the Doric order". Two through platform lines were shown, with two at the east end.
There were to be three trainshed roofs with spans of 60 feet. Extensive offices as well as refreshment facilities were shown, there was to be a covered carriage drive on the Neville Street side extending from the porte-cochère at each end. On 7 August 1847 a contract was let for the main part of the work to Mackay and Blackstock, for £92,000. A considerable amount of groundworks was necessary on the large site prior to the actual building work; the work did not progress speedily, in 1849 Hudson's collection of railway companies suffered a financial shock. At a time of more difficult trading and a tighter money market, Hudson's personal dealings were exposed as shady; the York and Berwick Railway had been formed by merger of the previous smaller companies, the YN&BR wished to reduce the financial commitment to the Central Station substantially. One of the through platforms was removed f
