RailPictures.Net Photo: 62712 Morayshire London and North Eastern Railway Ex-LNER D49/1 class 4-4-0 at Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway, Falkirk, Scotland, United Kingdom by Steve Armitage
There was a time when Britain had thousands of stations like this. Many featured overall roof train sheds to protect the traveling public from the elements. Often, lattice post signals with elegant finials adorned our stations, each with regional varieties in style. There were convenient boarded foot crossings at the ends of platforms where helpful porters would assist those with heavy luggage to cross. Grand, stone-built goods sheds were designed to be functional, yet also to complement the scene with thoughtful architectural style. Signal boxes too were varied and individual with myriad designs in keeping with their surroundings. Even the humble telegraph poles seemed to have a style that fitted into the landscape. The days of the pick-up goods train were still a reality even into the 1960s, every station yard was visited periodically by a cared-for locomotive going about its daily business in a ritual that had lasted for more than a century and would surely last another. By stealth, that was all to change and when we all awoke from our dreams there was a brave new world that had swept aside the old forever. But was it for better? At Bo'ness all this has been lovingly recreated for us to savour and dwell upon what we have allowed to pass.
