Who remembers the old Cardiff Queen Street railway station?

[editor]

It's great that the station is finally getting some care and attention, but can anyone remember how the place was before it was demolished in the 70s?

It used to be a lovely Victorian affair, with overall canopies, a restaurant room and bay platform for Bute Rd/Cardiff general.

Demolition in 1973
http://www.flickr.com/photos/taffytank/6189500691/in/photostream/

 

[1927]

I must have seen it as a kid, bud sadly dont recall. What a travesty that such a beautiful building could be demolished in an age when architecture was being recognised!

 

[davesgcr]

Interesting - it looks like the Brunel House building in the background is up (planned to be the HQ for Western Region (Wales) under the doomed "field" re-organisation of the mid 1960's , I suppose to the futurists of the time , the old Victorian station was an anathema , so down it had to come. I suppose it was suffering from deferred maintenance etc , and at the time , traffic was falling , pressure on BR to reduce costs /overheads etc. Usual story.

Today of course , massive increase in passenger numbers will lead to more capacity through Queen Street , 16 trains per hour , but an utilitarian passenger station.

 

[editor]

I remember one of the porters handed me an old GWR staff handbook and an old GWR route map he found in one of the rooms under the platforms.

I've still got the map too.

 

[editor]

Here's how it looks now, with work started on putting back the old platform 1.



I can just about remember that there was a restaurant on the platform too but haven't been able to source any photos.

Here's how the old station looked like near the end in the 1970s (looking north);



http://www.flickr.com/photos/10163027@N05/4182035395/

 

[davesgcr]

Regret cannot find the thread on the "Baycar" - or the ATW single unit 1960's railcar , but the old girl has done her last trip from Queen Street to Cardiff Bay.

Withdrawn and sold (for spares) to Chiltern Railways - due to frequent technical problems and so on. Went to Cardiff Bay on the 6th Feb , and the old girl was running up and down like a good one.

 

[ddraig]

boo!

the work at queen st station is getting there with a fair few platform edges already in place yesterday

 

[Yr Ellyll Goch.]

i remember the old station when it first closed (1972/3) and the "new" station opened, i used to go to the golliwog cafe "Dots" dead opposite.

 

[Yr Ellyll Goch.]

oops, thought i'd posted that on another site..

 

[editor]

It was a mighty fine station back in its day:

 

[shygirl]

I can't remember how it looked inside, but we used it regularly to go to Barry Island. Do you remember the Guilford Baths nearby, I loved that pool. When did it close?

 

[editor]

Blimey, the Guilford Baths. I'd forgotten about them.

Here's another pic of the station.

https://www.facebook.com/RememberOldCardiff?filter=1

 

[shygirl]

Blimey, the Guilford Baths. I'd forgotten about them.

Here's another pic of the station.

https://www.facebook.com/RememberOldCardiff?filter=1

Thanks for posting the pic of Guilford Baths, love the changing cubicles. We didn't go swimming as much after its closure, cos the Empire Pool was, well, less inviting.

 

[shygirl]

Those kids could have been from St Peter's, my junior school!

 

[editor]

Two more photos. It's criminal that such a lovely building should have been flattened.

 

[ddraig]

re numbering of platforms on 1 July
http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/ImprovingTheRailwayAroundCardiff/

Renumbering of platforms at Cardiff Queen Street station 1st July 2013

Arriva Trains Wales is advising passengers that there will be changes to platform numbers at Cardiff Queen St station from 1st July 2013. This is in preparation for the 2 new platforms currently under construction at Cardiff Queen Street station.
The renumbering will be as follows:
From the 1st July :

• Current Platform 1 will become platform 4 (for services towards Pontypridd, Caerphilly, Treherbert, Merthyr, Aberdare)
• Current platform 2 will become Platform 3 (Services towards Barry, Penarth, Radyr (via the City Line) and Vale of Glamorgan)
• Current platform 3 will become Platform 2 (Services to Cardiff Bay)

 

[editor]

About time too - and at least they're not doing that utterly ridiculous 'Platform 0' nonsense that you can see at Cardiff Central/General.

 

[editor]

From the site:

The project, scheduled to be completed by 2015, will ‘future proof’ the railway by increasing capacity for potential future passenger services. It will also provide a more robust and flexible infrastructure in order to maintain and improve train reliability and punctuality.

If only they hadn't un-future proofed the railway by taking out the tracks in the first place

Here's how it was:

 

[ddraig]

About time too - and at least they're not doing that utterly ridiculous 'Platform 0' nonsense that you can see at Cardiff Central/General.

awww
platform zero cracks me up
and there is a song about it too

 

[editor]

Can someone remember if I've got this right? I seem to recall that for a while only the island platform was in use, with the Bay terminus platform opposite coming back into use later on.

I can remember the big old station box that was between the junction too (and the four track layout), but haven't managed to track down any photos.

 

[davesgcr]

Can someone remember if I've got this right? I seem to recall that for a while only the island platform was in use, with the Bay terminus platform opposite coming back into use later on.

I can remember the big old station box that was between the junction too (and the four track layout), but haven't managed to track down any photos.

The 1966 layout was the bare minimum - remember , the commuting traffic then was a shadow of today - and in the 1970's there were plans to close the Taff Vale line north of Pontypridd and turn it into busway - whilst rockbottom was around 1978 when north of Bargoed was slated for the chop. Thank John Davies - parachuted in as manager who started the turn round in 1980 - and one of the first things was opening Cathays station and putting some modest track changes into Queen Street.

My first ever useful bit of railway work was clipping the points at Queen St North with an old school inspector to get things moving one afternoon. I was a wet behind the years trainee .....I treasure that now 35 years on.

 

[editor]

The 1966 layout was the bare minimum - remember , the commuting traffic then was a shadow of today - and in the 1970's there were plans to close the Taff Vale line north of Pontypridd and turn it into busway - whilst rockbottom was around 1978 when north of Bargoed was slated for the chop. Thank John Davies - parachuted in as manager who started the turn round in 1980 - and one of the first things was opening Cathays station and putting some modest track changes into Queen Street.

My first ever useful bit of railway work was clipping the points at Queen St North with an old school inspector to get things moving one afternoon. I was a wet behind the years trainee .....I treasure that now 35 years on.

I'm currently writing a piece about the station, so if you don't mind , I'll add your observations and appreciate anything else you may have on the station.

 

[davesgcr]

I'm currently writing a piece about the station, so if you don't mind , I'll add your observations and appreciate anything else you may have on the station.

I need to dig out the book "The People's Railway" - and will happily hand it over to you in person ....over a pint !

 

[editor]

The old platform 1 is well underway.

http://www.urban75.org/blog/cardiff...back-as-part-of-220m-rail-improvement-scheme/

 

[ginger_syn]

for anyone interested @ old cardiff pics. on twitter has some great photos of old cardiff, I don't know how to do a link otherwise I would.

 

[ddraig]

just copy their twitter address or for specific tweets, copy the time of it and paste the link which then embeds the tweet on here

 

[ddraig]

this is their account
https://twitter.com/OldCardiffPics
this is an individual tweet from the time link

 

[editor]

I wrote a piece about Queen Street here - and a reader confirmed my memory of the of refreshment rooms!

http://www.urban75.org/blog/cardiff...back-as-part-of-220m-rail-improvement-scheme/

 

[davesgcr]

Do not forget "Brunel House" - the 1960 era tower block opposite which was to house the "Welsh Division" or "Territory Management Plan" - I think BR in my 1979-1980 days as a trainee only had 3 floors of in use (the rest hired out to other non railway functions) - great views on a clear day - and he traincrew always acted properly at Queen Street with 3 floors of "management" watching their every move ...well between 0900 and 1630 anyway...I had a very boring week in the Safety and Accidents section , enlivened only by some of the material and the odd coal train running through with a pair of 37's from say Barry to Cwmbargoed......

 

[ginger_syn]

just copy their twitter address or for specific tweets, copy the time of it and paste the link which then embeds the tweet on here

ta for that will that work on a phone?