Afternoon all,

I was at West Croydon station recently, and i noticed that the platform
layout is a bit funny. I can't find any good aerial photos of it, so i'll
draw a diagram (lines are lines, #s are platforms):

----------------\
############### +-\
X ######### \ \
---------------------X-+---- up Wallington
----------------------+------ down Wallington
###############

So you've got two through lines and a bay off on the up side, with an
island platform in between the bay and the up, and a normal platform (a
mainland platform?) on the down.

The funny bit is the shape of the island: where it has faces on both
tracks, it's very wide, but it is't so all along - where i've put an X,
there's quite a long bit where it's narrower, standing well back from the
through line. Specifically, apparently exactly far enough back to fit
another track in between it and the existing track.

Any idea of there's a reason for this? Was there ever a third track there?
With the present platform layout, it would have to have been a bay
platform, but one which would have received trains from the Sutton
direction, which seems unlikely. Was it the case that the island platform
was narrower, and there were three through tracks? Was this line ever
four-track? Looking out of the train window further to the west, i thought
there probably would have been room for that - some of which is now taken
up by a tram track, but most of which is empty.

Bonus Croydon query: apparently, on the tram line west of Church Street,
which splits into branches to West Croydon and Reeves Corner, the junction
is right after the stop, with a stretch maybe 100 metres of interlaced
track before the branches diverge. Any idea why?

tom

--
I know you wanna try and get away, but it's the hardest thing you'll
ever know

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006, Tom Anderson wrote:

The funny bit is the shape of the island: where it has faces on both
tracks, it's very wide, but it is't so all along - where i've put an X,
there's quite a long bit where it's narrower, standing well back from
the through line. Specifically, apparently exactly far enough back to
fit another track in between it and the existing track.

Any idea of there's a reason for this?

Belay that question - answer found after thirty seconds of searching.

Was there ever a third track there? With the present platform layout, it
would have to have been a bay platform, but one which would have
received trains from the Sutton direction, which seems unlikely.

But apparently true:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Cr...tation#History

The track that is now Tramlink used to run from Wimbledon to such a
platform.

tom

--
I know you wanna try and get away, but it's the hardest thing you'll
ever know

It was a dark and stormy night when Tom Anderson
wrote in article ...
Afternoon all,

I was at West Croydon station recently, and i noticed that the platform
layout is a bit funny. I can't find any good aerial photos of it, so i'll
draw a diagram (lines are lines, #s are platforms):

----------------\
############### +-\
X ######### \ \
---------------------X-+---- up Wallington
----------------------+------ down Wallington
###############

So you've got two through lines and a bay off on the up side, with an
island platform in between the bay and the up, and a normal platform (a
mainland platform?) on the down.

The funny bit is the shape of the island: where it has faces on both
tracks, it's very wide, but it is't so all along - where i've put an X,
there's quite a long bit where it's narrower, standing well back from the
through line. Specifically, apparently exactly far enough back to fit
another track in between it and the existing track.

Any idea of there's a reason for this? Was there ever a third track there?
With the present platform layout, it would have to have been a bay
platform, but one which would have received trains from the Sutton
direction, which seems unlikely. Was it the case that the island platform
was narrower, and there were three through tracks? Was this line ever
four-track? Looking out of the train window further to the west, i thought
there probably would have been room for that - some of which is now taken
up by a tram track, but most of which is empty.

Bonus Croydon query: apparently, on the tram line west of Church Street,
which splits into branches to West Croydon and Reeves Corner, the junction
is right after the stop, with a stretch maybe 100 metres of interlaced
track before the branches diverge. Any idea why?

You've answered your own question. The trams from Croydon to Wimbledon
used to be a full-scale rail line, and ran into the now-empty bay
platform at West Croydon.

Grebbsy
--
Grebbsy McLaren

Tom Anderson wrote:

With the present platform layout, it would have to have been a
bay platform, but one which would have received trains from the Sutton
direction, which seems unlikely.

Does it? There were semifast trains from Guildford which terminated at West
Croydon until a few years ago.

Bonus Croydon query: apparently, on the tram line west of Church
Street, which splits into branches to West Croydon and Reeves Corner,
the junction is right after the stop, with a stretch maybe 100 metres
of interlaced track before the branches diverge. Any idea why?

50 metres. I was told, by someone who should know, that the reason is to
keep the points in a tram-only area, to protect them from the weight of
lorries and to protect tramway workmen from traffic. However, looking at an
aerial photo, this doesn't seem right. It looks more likely that they didn't
want cars coming out of Drummond Road to be blocked by trams waiting for the
points to change. Or maybe they didn't want trams to have to wait for the
points to change, so they put the points right at the stop where the tram
would wait anyway (although if that were the case, surely they would just
put the transponder by the stop, and put the actual points at the
divergence).

In Amsterdam the interlaced track before junctions is sometimes long enough
to hold three or four trams. This is so that several trams can sort
themselves onto the right tracks while the lights are red, and then shoot
through the junction in various directions when the lights are green,
without having to waste green-time waiting for points to change. I don't
think that is the issue here though.

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006 Tom Anderson wrote:

Afternoon all,

I was at West Croydon station recently, and i noticed that the platform
layout is a bit funny. I can't find any good aerial photos of it, so i'll
draw a diagram (lines are lines, #s are platforms):

----------------\
############### +-\
X ######### \ \
---------------------X-+---- up Wallington
----------------------+------ down Wallington
###############

So you've got two through lines and a bay off on the up side, with an
island platform in between the bay and the up, and a normal platform (a
mainland platform?) on the down.

The funny bit is the shape of the island: where it has faces on both
tracks, it's very wide, but it is't so all along - where i've put an X,
there's quite a long bit where it's narrower, standing well back from the
through line. Specifically, apparently exactly far enough back to fit
another track in between it and the existing track.

Any idea of there's a reason for this? Was there ever a third track there?
With the present platform layout, it would have to have been a bay
platform, but one which would have received trains from the Sutton
direction, which seems unlikely. Was it the case that the island platform
was narrower, and there were three through tracks? Was this line ever
four-track? Looking out of the train window further to the west, i thought
there probably would have been room for that - some of which is now taken
up by a tram track, but most of which is empty.

Yes, I'm sure there was a bay there. And I have an idea that the
platform numbering still reflects this.
--
Thoss

Tom Anderson wrote:

I was at West Croydon station recently, and i noticed that the platform
layout is a bit funny. I can't find any good aerial photos of it, so i'll
draw a diagram (lines are lines, #s are platforms):

----------------\
############### +-\
X ######### \ \
---------------------X-+---- up Wallington
----------------------+------ down Wallington
###############

Any idea of there's a reason for this? Was there ever a third track there?
With the present platform layout, it would have to have been a bay
platform, but one which would have received trains from the Sutton
direction, which seems unlikely. Was it the case that the island platform
was narrower, and there were three through tracks? Was this line ever
four-track? Looking out of the train window further to the west, i thought
there probably would have been room for that - some of which is now taken
up by a tram track, but most of which is empty.

This was platform 2 (and bizarrely is still labelled as such by a Southern
sign that can't have gone up until nearly a decade later). It was the
terminal platform for the line from Wimbledon which now forms part of
Tramlink. It was lifted when the line was transferred over. Most of the gap
you noticed was the track for the line - Tramlink diverges early with the
flyover that was built.

As for receiving trains from Sutton, I seem to remember that there was a
points connection from the track that runs into platform 3, but I can't
recall it ever being used. In the bay's last years this would not have been
as unlikely as you suggest as there was a South West Trains shuttle service
from Epsom (only calling at Sutton in between, though later it took over the
Epsom to Guildford route off peak) that terminated at West Croydon. It used
platform 3 (the through London bound one) to terminate and set off again -
not the easiest of operations. I always wondered if platform 2 would be a
better choice, although I'm not sure if it would be long enough (it
certainly wasn't for 8 cars and the Wimbledon service was a 2 car unit).

John Rowland wrote:

With the present platform layout, it would have to have been a
bay platform, but one which would have received trains from the Sutton
direction, which seems unlikely.

Does it? There were semifast trains from Guildford which terminated at
West Croydon until a few years ago.

Yes but they never used platform 2. I'm not sure if it would have been long
enough - it's definitely too short for eight cars and may not even take
four. Instead they terminated and then set off in the other direction from
platform 3. I remember one hilarious Bank Holiday when South West Trains
(this was their only service on the line after Epsom) decided it was a
Saturday whilst Connex (or whatever, they ran all the other trains) decided
it was a Sunday. Cue chaos at West Croydon because the platform was blocked!

Tom Anderson wrote:
Afternoon all,

I was at West Croydon station recently, and i noticed that the platform
layout is a bit funny. I can't find any good aerial photos of it, so i'll
draw a diagram (lines are lines, #s are platforms):

----------------\
############### +-\
X ######### \ \
---------------------X-+---- up Wallington
----------------------+------ down Wallington
###############

So you've got two through lines and a bay off on the up side, with an
island platform in between the bay and the up, and a normal platform (a
mainland platform?) on the down.

The funny bit is the shape of the island: where it has faces on both
tracks, it's very wide, but it is't so all along - where i've put an X,
there's quite a long bit where it's narrower, standing well back from the
through line. Specifically, apparently exactly far enough back to fit
another track in between it and the existing track.

Any idea of there's a reason for this? Was there ever a third track there?
With the present platform layout, it would have to have been a bay
platform, but one which would have received trains from the Sutton
direction, which seems unlikely. Was it the case that the island platform
was narrower, and there were three through tracks? Was this line ever
four-track? Looking out of the train window further to the west, i thought
there probably would have been room for that - some of which is now taken
up by a tram track, but most of which is empty.

Bonus Croydon query: apparently, on the tram line west of Church Street,
which splits into branches to West Croydon and Reeves Corner, the junction
is right after the stop, with a stretch maybe 100 metres of interlaced
track before the branches diverge. Any idea why?

tom

--
I know you wanna try and get away, but it's the hardest thing you'll
ever know


That would be the old bay platform for the line to Wimbledon via
Mitcham (now part of Tramlink)
Used to be known locally as the 'Two Train', the trains were formed of
two carriages (2 EPB), had a route code of 2 & there were two trains
required to run the service.
The single line joined the Sutton line where the Tramlink flyover is
now & ran alongside it until it terminated at West Croydon.

http://www.croydon-tramlink.co.uk/in...diag.php?num=7 &
http://www.croydon-tramlink.co.uk/in...diag.php?num=8 gives you
some idea of the track layout.


Peter

On 4 Nov 2006 08:08:45 -0800, wrote:




That would be the old bay platform for the line to Wimbledon via
Mitcham (now part of Tramlink)
Used to be known locally as the 'Two Train', the trains were formed of
two carriages (2 EPB), had a route code of 2 & there were two trains
required to run the service.
The single line joined the Sutton line where the Tramlink flyover is
now & ran alongside it until it terminated at West Croydon.

http://www.croydon-tramlink.co.uk/in...diag.php?num=7 &
http://www.croydon-tramlink.co.uk/in...diag.php?num=8 gives you
some idea of the track layout.





It's about time that station was rebuilt. To get to the Down platform
from the barriers you have to go up a few steps, over the footbridge
and down a long slope. To the Up platform there's steps then a long
walk.
At least the up platform could be extended back over the old bay to
allow trains to stop further back.
Another option would be to close the current entrance and reopen the
entrance with a new ticket office adjacent to the tram stop and a new
footbridge with lifts.


David

"Dave" wrote in message

It's about time that station was rebuilt. To get to the Down platform
from the barriers you have to go up a few steps, over the footbridge
and down a long slope. To the Up platform there's steps then a long
walk.
At least the up platform could be extended back over the old bay to
allow trains to stop further back.
Another option would be to close the current entrance and reopen the
entrance with a new ticket office adjacent to the tram stop and a new
footbridge with lifts.

I understand a branch of the extended ELL will terminate in West
Croydon -- wil this be net extra traffic, or just an existing service
from a different start point? If the former, I assume it'll increase
the platform demand.