Railway Architecture

[p2h5 3]

 

The world's busiest station (in terms of people) is Shinjuku station in Tokyo:

 

 

Not very good looking, but i bet it does its job very efficently, like most things in Japan.

 

 

Clapham Junction station in London is the world's busiest, in terms of having the most trains passing through it:

 

 

It has 17 platforms, but quite a lot of trains don't actually stop there.  It is very ugly, thus there aren't really any other pictures of it. 

 

The largest railway station in the world, in terms of area, is Nagoya station in Japan:

 

 

And Grand Central in New York has the most platforms.  Copenhagen station doesn't have a world record, but it is of an unusual style:

 

 

 

 

 

[deadwoods 542]

I was catching the train daily from Shinjuku a few weeks ago. The picture doesn't do it justice. There are two department stores on top of it, probably a dozen JR lines running through it N-S, a subway station underneath and atleast two private lines ending there.

There are just people anywhere. The place is so busy you have to pick your target point, put your head down and go. If you show any sign of trying to be polite and letting people go, the whole system breaks down and doxens of people are crashing into each other. I was travelling against the flow, so it was like a trout swimming upstream[:0]

[Compromise 1]

Yes I have heard about Shinjuka station, it seems to have that built a bit at a time feel bout it.

[frogface 352]

a better pic of Clapham Junction, not very nice looking at all. Just simply loads of platforms and a long footbridge. quite typical station architecture

[Gryphonite 0]

 

I always quite liked the look of Brighton Station:

this older pic is better (note the trolley bus):

 

an aerial shot:

Inside (its painted blue now):

 

Eastbourne Station is also quite good (nice clock tower), but I can't seem to find any decent pictures of it.

I always thought that 'Cottage in the Sky' at Clapham Junction was rather odd. I spent many an hour standing on platform 13, trying to return home, during my time at university.

[airmale007 3]

Inside of St.Louis,MO Union Station:

[beke1 0]

Hello!

This is my first post in this forum.

 

I will show some pictures of Berlins stations in past, present and future.

 

 

(1) - The Past

 

1) Anhalter Bahnhof (Built in 1880 by Franz Schwechten - architect of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ged

[Superchan 23]

here is a site for Louisville Union station: http://www.zeke.tzo.com/timecruncher/unionstationhome.html

i tried to find pictures of indianapolis union station, but there is little information on it.

 

here is a link to an old picture of the head house

 

here is another picture of the head house

 

 here is the original union depot in the 1850s

 

another 1850 picture

[Compromise 1]

Date: 7/28/2005 8:55:36 AM Author: frogface

a better pic of Clapham Junction, not very nice looking at all. Just simply loads of platforms and a long footbridge. quite typical station architecture

quote>

Yes I have seen Claphan Junction a lot. South West Trains said they were going to redevelop it but never have because they say there franchise is not long enougth to be viable.

[Odainsaker 2,134]

A cool opportunity to show off another building I find truly fascinating--the red brick Tokyo Central Station of 1914.  Similar to, if not inspired by, Amsterdam's Central Station, Tatsuno Kingo's Renaissance/Queen Anne landmark was the culmination of 50 years of crash westernization, a bold symbol of Japan's ability to build rail stations on a scale equal to the west.  Though never considered Kingo's best work, and indeed criticized even at the time as being too gargantuan and slavish to the garish imported styles of eclectism, the old red brick and white gingerbread Tokyo Station remains a publicly popularly milestone in the development of modern Japan.  It is claimed that Kingo originally intended a building in a more traditionally Japanese architectural style with sweeping tile roofs and upturned eaves, but the Emperor Meiji himself suggested that since railroads were a Western invention, a rail station should also be Western in style.  Whether that story is true or not, the national slogan of the time in Japan was Civilization and Enlightenment, and that meant Westernization.

 

Above we see the main the approach around 1915, from the boulevard leading to the plaza before the Imperial Palace in a great ceremonial axis.  The station was divided into three sections:  public arrival and departing terminals under the two flanking domed wings, and an Imperial terminal for important royal visitors under the central pavilion.  This is the gateway to new imperial capital of a new modern Japan.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tokyoeki2.jpg align=baseline>

 

Below is one of many great Taisho and Showa era postcard images of this station.  I must admit, I am greatly attracted by the nostalga of old rickshaws, horseless carriages, and kimono-clad ladies with parasols before this red brick building and its eclectic domes and turrets (and this is relatively restrained eclecticism!).  Fifty years earlier, within memory of a generation, Japan was still a closed nation of feudal shoguns and top-knotted samurai.

 

 

Oh! Brave New World, Tokyo style!

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tokyoekientrance.jpg align=baseline>

 

This district of Tokyo between the station and the palace, former estates of high-ranking officials within the outer moats of Edo castle, was still relatively underdeveloped, and the station would be the focus of development for the new Tokyo center of Marunouchi.  That all the surrounding land now being turned into prime real estate with direct station access happened to be held by the goliath government/industrial zaibatsu combine of Mitsubishi surely was not the driving factor in station's siting.  At any rate, as we can see in 1920's aerial below, the station turns its back towards the chaotic bustle of Nihonbashi, the dynamic heart of old Edo (in upper right of photo), in preference for Marunouchi, the modern financial nerve center of the new Tokyo (at lower left of photo).  Eventually, a bridge was installed over the old outer palace moat and tracks, but nothing as dramatic as the impressive front facade.

 

 

No doubt out of cost and industry limitations, the station never had a great glass and steel shed roof as is typical of stations of the Victorian era.  Instead, a vast concourse below the elevated tracks connects to the station halls to the platforms.  The fire bombings of Tokyo during World War II completely gutted the huge and easily targetted station.  The roof and interiors with their wooden decorations were wiped out, leaving only the exterior shell.  In the post-war reconstruction, cost and expediency led to the station being rebuilt without its upper story, bulbous domes, and cupola turrets.  Trim and tile from the rear was used to replace that lost on the front facade. 

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tokyoekioct1945.gif align=baseline>

 

Below is a aerial shot from the 1960's showing how the station has changed.  The domes, canopies, and turrets are gone, replaced with simplified and less costly pyramidal roofs.  Much of upper story on the flanking galleries was removed, leaving the building and its three pavilion sections noticeably out of proportion.  On the opposite side of the platform yard, the outer moat was filled in (most of city's many old canals and moats were filled in with the rubble cleared after the 1923 earthquake and later the 1945 bombings) and a new station entrance was finally constructed within the International style bulding of the Daimaru department store, at last connecting the old Nihonbashi with the banking center of Marunouchi.  Note the large office Marunouchi blocks in the upper part of the photo--these housed the Tokyo headquarters of many of Japan's major banking, insurance, and financial companies.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tokyoekiaerial1960.jpg align=baseline>

 

Unfortunately, dilapidation in 1960's and 1970's was setting in, and the JR line hoped to demolish the old and ungainly red brick structure for a more profitable commercial oriented building.  Indeed, though once decried as a massive behemoth when first built, it was now comparatively tiny and decrepit.  However, public plans in the 1980s for demolition brought about a unusual public outcry (or what can be called outcry among Japanese of the time)  for historic preservation, one of the few remaining great public landmarks of Meiji Japan and pre-war Tokyo.   Public funds were found and the station renovated in the 1990's, though grandiose and costly plans to fully restore the original roofline with its charming domes continue to remain unfulfilled.  Sadly, the original interiors are likely gone forever, however, they were never really considered quite as impressive as the decorous exterior.  Restoration and improvement work will remain ongoing for both sides of the station for the next six years.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tokyoekinight.jpg align=baseline>

 

One of Japan's leading lighting designers, Motoko Ishii, was commisioned to redesign the exterior lighting scheme, and so successful was her design that the awkward pyramidal domes actually look good at night.

 

 

How things change, especially in this city.  Remember the postcard with the rickshaws and motor buggies before the new modern station.  Now it is the red brick station that remains the timecapsule within the sleek bustle of modern futurist Tokyo, complete with Shinkansen bullet trains and their bizarrely aerodynamic nose cones waiting at the platforms.  Amidst the modern high-rises, it is this funky building that was once criticized by its Meiji and Taisho contemporaries as too monstrously monumental that now has the inviting human scale.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tokyoekitaxi.jpg align=baseline>

 

However, the irony is that this eclectic front facing the palace and corporate headquarters district is no longer the side primarily used by travellers.  The bustle of old Tokyo remains on the Yaesu side, the historic back of the station, where a new main entrance within an International style black monolith building was finally constructed.  Moreoever, the station's below track concourse is so interconnected with unimaginably vast underground station facilities, subway networks, and office tower tunnels, that it is possible to never emerge above ground to see the station proper.  Don't be fooled by the historic serenity of the old entrance side, afterall, this is the madhouse city of Tokyo and the building still remains one of the busiest train stations in Japan, with a cacophony of commuters everywhere.  However, if you get the chance within the claustrophobic ant maze below to explore the older station above, be sure to visit it's art galleries and hotels, and see the old red brick exterior, and the picture all the domes and the world gone by.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tokyoekiyaesu.jpg align=baseline>

 

Yikes, this was not a post, it was an article!  To see more of red-brick Tokyo, be sure to visit the site of Old Tokyo:  Postcard Images of the Japanese Capital From Around the Turn of the 20th Century at  http://www.oldtokyo.com/  where can find other great nostalgic images, including the old earthquake flattened Shimbashi and Manseibashi Stations below.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//shimbashieki.jpg align=baseline>

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//manseibashieki.jpg align=baseline>

[quito 0]

Another lost landmark was San Francisco's Southern Pacific Station at Third and Townsend. Built in 1914 for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition (to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal), it was originally supposed to be only a temporary structure, although it managed to survive and serve long-distance and commuter rail for over sixty years. It was a beautiful Mission-style building thatserved as a landmark to people entering and leaving San Francisco by train, as shown in this postcard:



Here is a photo from the other side of the station:



The tower in the above picture was aligned with Fourth Street, hence its name the Fourth Street Tower. Unfortunately, when Amtrak arrived it no longer ran direct service to San Francisco, and in 1973 the Southern Pacific Station was demolished and the block it occupied between Third and Fourth Street was redeveloped into an RV park. A new station, which now serves the commuter rail system CalTrain, was built on the site of the Fourth Street Tower, and is known today as the Fourth and Townsend Street Station:



It's a perfectly decent commuter rail station, but compared to what was there before it's kind of pathetic.

[Compromise 1]

Nice pictures, keep them coming...

[p2h5 3]

Look at this station (well back of) in Delhi:

 

 

Varanasi Station

 

In contrast, the clean and modern, yet simple and almost brutalist lines of Stansted Airport Station (London, UK):

 

 

[Shpigglewog 0]

Well, for a not-lost landmark, here's San Diego's train station, the Santa Fe Depot. It first opened in 1915, and (much like LA's Union Station) is an excellent example of the heavily Spanish-influenced architecture from that peroid, complete with it's own pair of bell towers & pretty looking tile mosaics. It's been kept in pretty good shape over the years (dire condition of its bathrooms aside ), showing up on lots of postcards and such, and has been a thankfully protected historic site for sometime.

This picture is a sketch of Santa Fe Depot from when it was first built. The plaza-thing infront no longer exists. Today there's an LRT track in place of it, though I don't know whether the plaza was specifically demolished to make room for the tracks or if it was already gone by the time they were laid out.




An old photo of the now nonexistant plaza-thing infront. The streetcar line is now Broadway, downtown's main avenue.




Flash forward to present day... The streetcar's no more, but the building is still the same, untouched by Evil Commercial Goons However, just to show how fast times are changing, that golf course whose netting can be seen in the background is gone, replaced last year by a pair of R$$$ high rise condos. 'Bout time anyway, I dunno what a golf course was doing in a dense commercial center in the first place.




Here you can see the track layout. There are three platforms, the outer two for Amtrak and commuter trains, and the innermost one (not visible in the shot) for the local LRT line (the San Diego Trolley) Oh, and thanks to cgstock.com for the picture. I have no idea what cgstock is, but they took a good shot. Yay.




The front facade; love the fountain. There's also a colorful, tile adorned bench loop on the opposite side, behind the camera man's position.




The trolley loops around the front of the building (not very convenient if you're a pedestrian, but whatever), stopping in an adjascent light rail station that's sort of visible in this shot. (follow the photoshopped arrow) I think it also stops at the actual Santa Fe Depot building, but I'm not sure.



The above mentioned LRV station, called America Plaza Transfer Center (the attached skyscraper is named One America Plaza) It's a very cold, metallic, modern thing, a sharp contrast to the cozy vintageness nextdoor. Nothing that special, I just figured I might as well show it while I'm at it, considering it's basically part of the same complex (though not officially.)




More of America Plaza...



And back to the train station, here's the interior of the Santa Fe Depot. Compared to the exquisite outside, it's pretty blah, and in need for a substantial renovation. (though considering the city is in debt $1.6 Billion or somesuch and just got half it's legistature arrested for corruption, that sadly won't happen anytime soon)



So, that's all. It's certainly not the world's biggest & greatest train station, but is nevertheless a quaint little Spanish-Mission-Wannabe worthy of this thread.

[Compromise 1]

That Delhi station reminds me of the one in Mombasa. Should post that some time.

[GingerBlokey 30]

Norwich Station is one of my favorites ever. Just such functional elegance


The front with the car park

The Lobby

One of 10 platforms

[wallasey 8]

Date: 7/22/2005 2:59:26 PM Author: frogface

Some Abandoned stations UK

Liverpool Exchange

the good old days when trains wernt made out of plastic

Liverpool Central high level

I quite like the pattern on the end of the train shed

Manchester Central

How to restore an old train station, this is now a convention centre

Nottingham Victoria

how not to restore a station. this was all demolished for a shopping centre of 60's blandness

Bradford Exchange

now replaced by new crown courts

there are many many more stations but unfortunately pictures are hard to find

at the height of our railways the UK had 21,000 miles of track! not bad for a small island thanks to good ol dr beeching it has been reduced, today it is about 12,000 miles and with it we lost some good stations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_Axe

quote>

I wonder what Doctor Beeching would be thinking if he saw us all going on a preserved steam railway (a line which he chopped in the first place!)

 

Liverpool central is still used but in a different form as the underground station there serves the main shopping precincts well. Not sure about Exchange station, I think it was used to transport passengers from the main line to the ferry landing stage. This would have cut down on traffic travelling thru the city centre I suppose. However, seeing as there are no ships going off to the 4 corners of the globe anymore, Exchange closed and Central (which served Manchester and Yorkshire) closed because Liverpool Lime Street had a higher capacity. So now if you come to Liverpool by train from anywhere, you will arrive in Lime Street.

 

it isn't all bad on Merseyside though, seeing as John Lennon Airport (thats right, we named our airport after a beatle) is taking off, The Liverpool South Parkway is being built so that passengers can get to the mainline railway from the airport in comfort. This new station will also accomodate Merseytram and a bus interchange.

 

This is a news article from Merseytravel

 

There are limited pics at the moment but by the end of the year this project will be complete

[jonoboo 6]

Nottingham Victoria is a car park now, (i think) with the vic centre (shopping centre) on top.

[Compromise 1]

Yes the beeching cuts are very sad.

 

I live in a village in Hampshire and we are lucky to have a rail link nearby while two towns nearby (Midhurst and Bordon) don't after loosing theres in the beeching cuts. You can feel the effects of it where ever you go.

[SockoJr53 51]

There were tons of beautiful small stations in the smaller cities and towns of the US back during the golden age of railroads. Unfortunatly they have just about all dissapeared since then. Now we are stuck with these ugly sterile Amtrak platforms that look like lowly bus stops, how degrading.

[tracer1138 1]

One of my favorite stations is Union Station in DC

 

Not only is is architecturally stunning both inside and out...

 

 

But it is also well planned and well used.  It doubles as a destination/shopping center with an extensive food court.

[jbridgman 0]

Kyoto Station in Japan is awesome. You really have to travel there to get an idea of what it is like.

It feels like an airport, the lobby area is very big and open, unusual for Japan....

http://www.fashion-kyoto.or.jp/passport/area/kyoto_st/images/kyoto_st2.jpg align=baseline>

 

 

 

Also the north and south dome entrances on the west side of Tokyo station are impressive, feels like the Capital Building in Washington, D.C.

[cammo2003 20]

Great to see this thread still going. No new pics, I'm afraid (all my own copies were lost when my windows installation got corrupted), but keep posting, folks!

[6underground 11]

Cardiff Railway Station; (Cardiff/Caerdydd,Wales, United Kingdom)











Old pictures from the 1970's;

[hello_SC4 1]

Ljubljana Railway Station (the central one) is going through a thourough modernisation process, the first phase of which is to be completed in 2008. The current station was built in 1849, as part of the Southern Railway (Vienna - Ljubljana - Trieste) in Austria. Here is how the station looks now:

http://up.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~ketsu/plecnik/ljubljana_station_01.JPG align=baseline>

 

http://www.destinacije.com/Slike/Slovenija/GradevineiObjekti/Zelezniska_Postaja.JPG align=baseline>

 

The parking in front of the station is currently the main Bus station in Ljubljana! It doesn't even have a roof! Be aware though that the building of the railway station will remain, just the area around it (and the bus station) will change a lot.

 

This is how it's going to look (view from southeast):

http://www.arhiforum.si/natecaji/lj_PCL_2/images_06931/aks300_15_500.jpg align=baseline>

The yellow building is the current railway station. The whole area on the pic is currently somehow related to railways (mostly just unused warehouses and the like). The complex in the left part of the area will be an office tower, an aparthotel, a mall and a connection to the nearby Ljubljana Fair. The railway station will be in the current building, just with a new hall underneath the rails. The bus station will be on the other side of the hall beneath the platforms. In the plans you can see that the station is planned to accomodate trams (light rail) aswell. The city used to have a tram system (until the 1950s) and should get one again in the not-so-distant future (however some people are pushing for an underground tram system or a metro, even!

 

Southern entrance into the hall, between the railway station and mall/office tower.

http://www.arhiforum.si/natecaji/lj_PCL_2/images_06931/vhod_500.jpg align=baseline>

 

Underground hall with escalators to the platforms.

http://www.arhiforum.si/natecaji/lj_PCL_2/images_06931/podhod_500.jpg align=baseline>

 

View from southeast.

http://www.arhiforum.si/natecaji/lj_PCL_2/images_06931/trg_500.jpg align=baseline>

 

A bird's eye view: You can see the new bus station across the platforms, opposite the current railway station. You can also see the planned tram routes and station (right of the railway station and entrance to the hall).

http://www.arhiforum.si/natecaji/lj_PCL_2/images_06931/maketa_tloris2_500.jpg align=baseline>

 

View from southwest

http://www.arhiforum.si/natecaji/lj_PCL_2/images_06931/sct_500.jpg align=baseline>

 

View from northwest

http://www.arhiforum.si/natecaji/lj_PCL_2/images_06931/delo_500.jpg align=baseline>

[GingerBlokey 30]

This

Could somone possibly PM the answer to what station this is because it's my desktop wallapaper and it's been bugging me for ages. Please.

[frogface 352]

Date: 8/26/2005 5:37:44 AM Author: GingerBlokey This Could somone possibly PM the answer to what station this is because it's my desktop wallapaper and it's been bugging me for ages. Please.

quote>its Paddington

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Waterloo, The UK's largest station with 21 Platforms and covering 24.5 acres.

http://www.fullerphotos.co.uk/images/eyevista2z.jpg align=baseline>

 

http://www.ctvstudy.com.tw/06photo/photo/2001uk/waterloo_station.jpg align=baseline>

 

align=baseline>

 

 

 

 

[Gryphonite 0]

For Compromise I found this

The royal train passing through Midhurst station in 1906.

 

Below is nearby (though on a different line) Steyning station. Now the A283 runs along here, the white house on the right is still there. Looks like they had just started to take the track up....

 

[Wolf_pt 7]

Lisbons stations

 

1-Gare do Oriente

 

 

2-Esta