Railway Stations - Why do many rooms?

[bitchstewie]

Bit of an odd question but something that I've often wondered when waiting on train platforms.

What on earth were all the rooms at many older railway stations used for?

If I go through Crewe or Nuneaton or any of the older stations there are locked doors into what seems like dozens of rooms and there are ground floors and first floors.

I suspect I'm completely underestimating what the average railway station does or did to warrant them.

[Flying Phil]

There used to be Ladies Waiting rooms, Gentleman's waiting room, buffet room, ticket office, Station masters room, porters room,parcels office, goods office, Gents and Ladies toilets - it soon adds up!

[silverfoxcc]

Not an expert on railway infrastructure but in no particular order rooms were/may have been supplied for
Ticket office
Station master
Parcels
Toilets
waiting rooms both 1st poss 2nd and 3rd class
Sep waiting rooms fpr ladies
Non smoking ( not sure if anti socall back in the 1800's)
Telegraph office
Porters room
Restaurants
Snack bar
Enquiries
Police ( in the bigger stations)
Lamp Room
Stores

There may be others but if they worked on the rqilway there was a room for them!!

[Wacky Racer]

In the early days, even small stations might have has many as four or five porters, there was a lot more parcel traffic back then, and even at some stations livestock was stored, sheep etc.

Also, there was a lot of competition amongst rival companies, there were loads in the pre nationalisation days, all competing for business, so they were all trying to outdo each other, it was not unusual for engine drivers to come in early before their shift to polish their engines.

Stations were often works of art, Huddersfield being a good example.

[rs1952]

All of the above.

To widen the topic a little, this also explains what some see as the mass vandalism of knocking so many station buildings down in the 60s and 70s and replacing them with glorified bus shelters.

Buildings, especially old ones, can cost a lot to maintain. The question began to be asked why keep spending large amount of money on buildings 100+ years old that aren't being used anyway? It was far cheaper to pull the things down before the local council came along and slapped listed building status on them.

[P5BNij]

rs1952 said:

All of the above.

To widen the topic a little, this also explains what some see as the mass vandalism of knocking so many station buildings down in the 60s and 70s and replacing them with glorified bus shelters.

Buildings, especially old ones, can cost a lot to maintain. The question began to be asked why keep spending large amount of money on buildings 100+ years old that aren't being used anyway? It was far cheaper to pull the things down before the local council came along and slapped listed building status on them.

This was the reason that Rugby's vast LNWR overall roof was torn down just over ten years ago and replaced with modern gubbins, it had been left to deteriorate for several years with the odd lick of paint added before the decision was made to pull it down. It was similar to the structure still in existence at Crewe. The central brick building at Rugby is still intact but most of the upstairs rooms are now abandoned, and the small upper tier has been condemned and is out of bounds. When I started there on the railway back in 1982 every room was occupied, the old telegraph office upstairs still had all the relay gear on the back wall at the time. About twelve years ago I liberated all of the large old route learning maps from one of the offices when Virgin were throwing everything in the skip, some of them go back to the 1930s.

Edited by P5BNij on Saturday 31st March 13:38