Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊

[Brighton] Brighton Station memories







BrightonCottager

Well-known member
Sep 30, 2013
3,086
Brighton
Wasn‘t there a pub, where M&S is now called Bonepartes or something?

I miss pubs inside stations, even if most were absolute dives…
There are some epic real ale bars in stations, especially up North (proper North, not Haywards Heath). I recently went to the one in Sheffield station - about 10 real ales on the bar and a beautiful room, to boot.
 


A1X

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 1, 2017
22,020
Deepest, darkest Sussex
There are some epic real ale bars in stations, especially up North (proper North, not Haywards Heath). I recently went to the one in Sheffield station - about 10 real ales on the bar and a beautiful room, to boot.
 


Madafwo

I'm probably being facetious.
Nov 11, 2013
1,851
There was also the barbers down there

Up until a few years, well, 10 years ago, the barbers chairs were still down there. I think they may have gone now.
Wasn‘t there a pub, where M&S is now called Bonepartes or something?

I miss pubs inside stations, even if most were absolute dives…

Yup, after that we had The Cyclist on the opposite side where the BTP office used to be, but that didn't last long.

York Station has an absolute belter of a pub on the platforms.
 


Couldn't Be Hyypia

We've come a long long way together
NSC Patron
Nov 12, 2006
17,167
Near Bridport, Dorset








thedonkeycentrehalf

Moved back to wear the gloves (again)
Jul 7, 2003
9,667
I thought that, too, but according to a post on 'My Brighton and Hove' site, it appears not:

"The arrivals and departures board featured in the picture is now in fact owned by Sir William McAlpine who lives in Buckinghamshire and has it in his railway museum. He is also the Chairman of the Hythe, Winchealsea and Romney Railway. On his land in Bucks he has a full sized 1.5 mile long railway line, yes 4’8.5″ gauge, on which he runs a steam train and tender. He has a signal box that was also for the chop, and a railway station with waiting room which he had moved lock stock and barrel and re-erected at his home, and a platform ticket machine. He opens his station and runs the trains with the support of many amateur helpers for charity events during the year. We go there regularly and have many rides on the train, which are free once you are in."
This was where they filmed the great model railway competition that was on TV a few years ago.

 




Theatre of Trees

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
7,852
TQ2905
Wasn‘t there a pub, where M&S is now called Bonepartes or something?

I miss pubs inside stations, even if most were absolute dives…

Yes, I worked there in 1986, our licence only extended to 9.45pm caused many an argument including the time TV presenter David Jacobs waltzed in at 9.50 with a Tory MP having done a local politics show in town. He did do the 'do you know who I am?' for which I replied yes, but you are still not gettng served, go to talk to British Rail who dictate the terms of our licence if you do not like it.
 








rebel51

Well-known member
Jan 4, 2021
857
West sussex
The stinking toilets down the stairs. :sick:
Used to have my haircut opposite in the barbers opposite.the blokes hand used to shake as he was doing your haircut. 2 of them worked there and I used to always draw the 1st straw. I ve come out of there with slash marks across my neck, when the door opened the woft of lovely piss air came thru.The plus point it was well cheap.oh happy days
 


Perfidious Albion

Well-known member
Oct 25, 2011
6,565
At the end of my tether
I well remember these things . My father worked there on the ticket barriers for a time.
The toilets down the stairs were something, I recall gleaming copper pipes and marble floors. Wasn’t it a ladies hairdresser that made the smell?
It was great to get out quickly to Trafalgar Street if you wanted London Road , I always missed that entrance coming back . Happy days when we were younger…..
 


Cheshire Cat

The most curious thing..
I may have "borrowed" several books from the remaindered table in front of the old WH Smith in the late 1970s. I need to remember to take them back sometime.
 




Hovegull

Well-known member
Nov 27, 2022
671
Does anyone know how they operated the departure indicator boards?
IMG_8433.jpeg
 


birthofanorange

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Aug 31, 2011
6,799
David Gilmour's armpit
Does anyone know how they operated the departure indicator boards?
View attachment 198518
I read this:

"
I think I’m able to explain how the board worked in the 1950’s, but it’s mechanisms may have been altered since then. I too have seen the board at the Museum site near Henley (see Mr. Ross detail on previous answers) and the indicator displays are still changeable by hand, so not sure whether any supporting mechanisms still exist.

As a schoolboy train-spotter in the 1950’s I spent many hours at Brighton Station and watched the platform staff operate the board. It showed the departure time and platform number of trains due to leave within the next half hour or so. In addition, if there were sufficient “empty” display columns these would be used to show further later departures from the same platforms numbers already in use.

Each column contained 20 windows to show up to 20 rotatable “tumblers” . A tumbler was a solid hardwood piece with 3 separate faces, best described as being akin to a giant but solid
‘Toblerone’ chocolate bar !
Face 1 bore an attached name plate of a station name served by that particular service, with a single station name being (in the 1950’s and previous) an enamel plate, later replaced by it’s current Formica style material plate .

Face 2 was completely plain, painted with the same colour as the surrounding bulk structure and this would be on display in the window if the train service did not call at that station.

Face 3 was the operational part of the tumbler. It had appropriately positioned slots to allow operating rods to .’tumble’ the plate to display the station name in the window. In addition there was also a lead weight balancing strip inset to aid the tumbling process.

The operation of the tumble process was controlled at the base of each column ( refer to the main picture and note the cupboards at the base of the columns ) by a very stout hard card which contained pre-set holes to operate the various rods up to the tumblers. A different card for each type of service, e.g. Semi-fast to Victoria would cause 7
plates (Preston Park, Haywards Heath, Three Bridges, Redhill, East Croydon, Clapham Junction, Victoria) to display cascaded intermittently down
the 20 slot column, with the remaking 13 slots showing the ‘blank’ face of the remaining tumblers.

All the tumblers were loose fitted into the frame columns by small projecting metal spindles so that they could rotate sufficiently to display names or blanks.

Exactly how the station staff operated the control cards is a bit hazy now. I think thay opened the base cupboard, selected a required route card and then inserted it into a slot and pulled/pressed a lever to operate the tumblers, with a similar operation to clear a column back to empty.

Hope that helps explain it all – and that you haven’t all fallen asleep by now!"
 










The Clamp

Well-known member
Jan 11, 2016
26,871
West is BEST
Brilliant thread. Thank you .

I spent a few nights doing some work at a few Sussex stations. Got taken back of house at Brighton and Worthing and shown around all the back rooms and underground stuff .

Fascinating. So much of it, even the areas still operational, look like they are still in the early 1980’s. The offices and staff toilets etc.

I enjoyed it.
 


Albion and Premier League latest from Sky Sports


Top
Link Here