The changing face of railway stations

It is not all that long ago that most of the Royal Mail was carried round the country by train.  Travelling Post Office (TPO) trains would have some mail sorted en route and mail would be collected and unloaded whilst on the move, using line-side apparatus  designed for the purpose.

Some passenger trains would have a van the size of a carriage on which sorted mail was loaded and it was common for mail bags to be carried in the guard's compartment of passenger trains. Mail was loaded and off-loaded at railway stations.  At Derby and Birmingham New Street there were subways between platforms used only for moving mail.  At Redhill and Tonbridge there were platforms used only for the Royal Mail.

Many passenger trains carried parcels in the guards van.  I recall many years ago catching a slow train from Sheffield Victoria to Chesterfield Central.  At the first stop, Darnall, we dwelt in the platform for fifteen minutes whilst a trolley was filled with punnets of strawberries, off-loaded two at a time by the guard.

All this traffic has disappeared from the railways, as have porters who, apart from moving passengers' luggage, would load and unload parcels.  These days stations are for passengers.

Some stations are important, not simply for the use of passengers living in their vicinity, but as places where passengers change trains: Carlisle, Crewe, Doncaster, Clapham Junction, East Croydon. There are  stations with  no public access and which exist solely for the purpose of passengers changing trains.  Bala Junction  (closed) and Dovey Junction in Wales are two examples.

Passengers do not like changing trains, particularly when transporting a lot of luggage.  For this reason the railway companies provided what were known as 'through carriages' which would be attached and detached to possibly two or even three trains  en route.  Some trains would have many 'sections' which would be detached over the course of the journey.  A train such as the Atlantic Coast Express had numerous sections which delivered passenger to the end of branch lines to holiday resorts in Devon and Cornwall.  A few trains had 'slip-carriages' which would be detached as the train was moving and then glide into the station.  Slip-carriages disappeared years ago as did the practice of attaching and detaching through carriages. There are examples still of trains dividing en route: trains from Charing Cross divide at Ashford International, one portion going forward to Canterbury, the other to Dover.

Nowadays, apart from electric units in the South, long distance trains are manufactured to retain a fixed formation throughout a journey.  In many instances it is necessary to change trains as no through train is provided.  Birmingham New Street is a 'hub' for trains from the South, South-West, North-West and North-East.  Many passengers prefer to travel on a though train even though it is quicker to change at New Street.  The reasons for this are simple: fear of a missed connection and the possibility of not securing a seat on the train boarded at New Street.  New Street is a very busy station because of the timetabling decision taken to make it a hub.  Previously many through trains did not travel via Birmingham.  Whilst concentrating on  Birmingham as a passenger changing centre was not a problem twenty years ago, the railways are now so busy thought will have to be given to reducing the reliance on New Street as an interchange.