RAILDATE 2024.10.11

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The Weekly Poser: Where is this?

This lengthy undersea tunnel is marked on a Bartholomew Half-Inch map of 1902. Where is it?

Please send your answers to raildate.co.uk@gmail.com

Last week's Where is this?

This terminus had already been closed to passengers for 75 years at the time of this 1950s photo - but then it sprang back into life for a decade. Where is it?

Answer: York old station. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Colin Penfold, Phil Deaves, Bryn Pitcher, Mike Rapp, Chris Gibbard, Simon Wass, Dave Goodyear, Blair Robinson, Neil Kearns, Steve Beck, Andy Sollis, Andrew Treves, Tony Fox, Ian Bromley, Sue Braithwaite, Chris Neale, Jim Allwood, Andy Foster, Paul Hopper, John Lacy, Bernard Gidgin, John Musselwhite, Neil Spencer.

Image credit: Arthur Wells RCTS Collection

York's original station opened in 1841, inside the city walls built on land used for market gardening. It helped that the Mayor of York and Chairman of the railway company were one and the same man - George Hudson. The map below shows how cramped the site was, and how its construction had impacted a lot of archaeology. Its limited size caused bottlenecks for years.

Outside the city walls was a tempting piece of largely open land. It contained a short branch leading to coal staithes on the River Ouse and the main line to Scarborough - oh, and a cricket ground.

1877 saw a new through station opened on that formerly-open land, with the vast railway works and sidings filling every gap. [York was a poser question in March 2023 when I was visiting the National Railway Museum - read the answer here.]

Remember Motorail? The old station became the Motorail terminal 1956-66. Now the site is occupied by council offices. An uncredited photo (below) appeared in a forum, and there's a very interesting PDF showing how the old buildings were incorporated into the council offices. [Thanks to Chris Gibbard for the links]

SMALL PRINT

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©  Matthew Shaw 2024