There is something very sad in lost train stations. Not just the history but the feeling of lost capacity and capabilities, abandoned possibilities. That a place once traveled by so many should, in the passing of time and the changing of the world become first abandoned and then lost forever. It gives a sense of how time changes things, and not always for the better.
Have you ever seen old pictures of The Great Central Railway in England or any of the old interurban systems in the mid-west of The USA. It's jawdropping how fast these systems were constructed and destroyed...Like it's pretty much impossible to the full understanding of how much was built and destroyed in a matter of 100 years.
@@robotx9285 But there seems too little material about them here around theirtube. At a local, yearly, mighty weekend model trains fair here, I'd once spent a whole mesmerising day gazing through a few binders' worth (massive-like) of photographs and postcards featuring the valley's metropolitan trams and interurbans over decades of the past. The only ones featured digitally here were limited to Chicago. I remember reading how some interurbans outpaced inter-city steam trains, and that the longest trip possible via interurbans had been something phenomenal like 1380 miles via pretty straight lines for the most part. I muse what must've become of all those plates out there...
@@Clivestravelandtrains but that's just Corporate-speak that unfortunately is overly heard even around Quebec here...also, don't be haughtily comfy at your BI there, because clearly Britons're goofing even more, for your historically-steeped bases aren't turning out to be that stoic after all, are they...
it took a FUCKINGLY long time getting used to Montreal restaurants simultaneously playing the radio and TV *loudly* and then even longer to just commonplace mania itself here (an ex-Wurzel) 👀
I learned of Broad Street station from John Betjeman's excellent book on London stations. And so, on a trip to Britain in 1980, and being at Richmond, I got a North London train to Broad Street. It was a sad sight. The station building still had its French character, but the rest of it was bleak and deserted. I was surprised to learn here that it had been so busy in its heyday.
It was underused and served two slow lines in the end with minimal amounts of passengers. The station had been badly hit when the service to Poplar was cancelled in 1944 and peak time services to Cambridge and Hertford East were stopped in 1953 and 1976. Also intermediate stations at Shoredtich and Hoxton had been destroyed by bombing in 1940 and never reopened.
Interesting film - but could have been so much better if I could hear the narration. It was totally swamped by the classical music - something has gone wrong in the compilation and editing prior to upload?
Dalston Junction isn't the only station on the line to survive; Haggerston and Hoxton have also reopened as part of the Overground extension. Broad Street originally thrived because it gave direct access to the City rather than going via Euston or Kings Cross. When the Circle Line was electrified and the deep tube lines were built in the early 1900s, they provided quicker and simpler alternatives, hence the gradual decline of Broad Street.
Hagerstown is on a slightly different site; I don’t know why it was moved. Hoxton is a new station. The other original station on the line, Shoreditch, was not re-opened; it would have been too close to the new Shoreditch High Street station.
I only travelled on it once, probably early eighties to visit a school friend who was living in Richmond whilst at Uni. It was an interesting, if slow route. I chose it over the district line out of interest. I would normally travel from Dagenham Heathway (174 Bus from Grange Road). I’m glad I did, because I didn’t know it was due to be closed.
I sometimes used the service to Liverpool Street, but the trains were often cancelled and ran at times that were inconvenient to passengers - so they had to travel via other routes, such as changing trains at Highbury and Islington and going to Moorgate station via the Northern City Line.
Broad Street station also made an appearance in a movie staring former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. It was called *Give My Regards to Broad Street* which came out in 1984.
I went to Broad Street in 1985, just before the closure and the demolition work began. One year later, it was literally a shadow of its former self, with most of the station gone, and just one platform face still in use at peak times. That soon got decommissioned and disappeared before the year end in 1986.
I worked along the North London Line's "City Extension" ('The happy afterthought') in 1969-'70, have read books about the NLL a lot, and am in the North London Railway Historical Society - Yet saw no site evidence, nor have ever heard, of an original Hoxton station (AFAIK being new for Overground), which I believe is at, or close to, the site of the former Dunloe Street yard and signal box. Those whose who keep mentioning Hoxton as being reopened, are you sure there ever was such a station pre-Overground ?
GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROAD STREET! It is so sad to see how small the British railway network has become! the UK INVENTED THE RAILWAYS and now in the league table of world railways - the UK is near the BOTTOM we were once TOP!" We have the slowest railways and trains in Europe - everyone else is now travelling and nearly 180 mph! AAARGJ PLEASE BIN THAT AWFUL MUZAK! The video is great but NOT THAT!
The British railway system has always been poorly run and very expensive to use, whether in the 19th, 20th or 21st centuries. The high cost of tickets in the private and fragmented network of the Victorian era led to a Commons inquiry and the (failed) imposition of penny-a-mile trains.
