Great Western Coffee Shop

Lisa has asked me if any of you folks will be able to help place this photograph ... from an old postcard, but we don't have anything else to go on.   As there are some signals ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/onefromthewife.jpg)

OK I'll bite.  For starters it doesn't look GWR.  Bit difficult to see the signalbox type.  The signal looks 'Great Eastern' or 'Great Central' in appearance.  Thinking......

Does the reverse of the postcard offer any clues?

Lisa has been passed the picture with very little data ... see what more I can find.   She will probably have to ask back ...

Grahame, more inclined towards the 'Great Central' angle so anywhere rural on that line. I would guess North of Rugby....

The gauge looks a little large. That and the length of the signal arm makes me think Ireland - that and the building too.

Hmmm.  The signalpost bracket is very typical of the GCR, and the arm is probably a 5ft one which was fairly standard at the time of the photograph.  The track gauge looks standard to me.

Looks standard to me too ... but I don't have much more.  I tried reverse image searches and got nothing ...

Doesn't look like an island platform of the sort typical on the GC

What makes you think it is an island platform?  The fence both sides of the building with a gate suggests it is not.

Er, Oberon said it doesn't look like an island platform.

If it were a non-island platform GC London Extension station then that would narrow it down to either Nottingham Arkwright Street or Carrington, and although i might be wrong, i don't think it is either of those.

My initial thought was perhaps somewhere on the Fairford branch line, but again, I can't get a station to match your photo.

Gentlemen, Thank You.   I am learning / have learned from Lisa that historic postcard people suffer their protocols and politics, with one of the hot topics being "do we scan and supply the back of the card". Sadly (and frustratingly) the rear is not available in this case and I suspect the answer I should feed back is a simple "no consensus of opinion / could be lots of places; we might be helped if we knew more, such as what cards it was alongside (was it one of a set) and what was on the back of it").    But - thank you for your thoughts / help.

Over on Twitter Robert Humm and Co run a what station is this competition, which asks people to do just what you are looking for, might be an idea to give it a try .

I see those on Facebook too ... I might well pass on the links to Lisa and introduce her to the various groups, letting her judge just how deeply she wishes to get into this particular image. I'm sure someone, somewhere will know!

I wonder if the platform bench is characteristic of any of the railways in particular.

I have just posted it to Robert Humm via Twitter. They run a ‘whatstation’ every so often to get identification of their photographs from unknown locations. So far their followers have successfully identified 100% of the 134 images posted!

There’s a Disused Stations group on Facebleurgh that would probably be able to locate it if the esteemed Mr Humm’s followers can’t!

I would be interested to know if she does find out.

My wife posted this to the Disused Stations Facebook page, and they have called it as Pittington station in Durham - http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/p/pittington/

The clincher for me that they are right is this 1969 post-closure shot from the Disused Stations website that shows the same houses in the background as grahame's photo:

(http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/p/pittington/pittington3.jpg)

And it*'s still there - the view from here (54°48'00.54" N   1°29'46.54" W) is a bit more distant, but a similar angle. What was the smithy is now a house, and the Blacksmiths' Arms at the other end of the terrace is ... or was, when it closed not long ago, called the Blacksmiths.

(* I meant the house, not the station, of course.)

Likewise from ‘whatstation’ and Robert Humm

http://www.hettonlocalhistory.org.uk/documents/TheRailwaysofHettonPittingtonandRainton_001.pdf (Page 13)

That looks like a mighty fine chocolate pudding!

(you'll have to be a member of the Disused Stations group to see what I mean...)

Ah yes...My wife and I had a side disagreement about whether the station would turn out to be open or closed today. She said open, I said closed and now I'm saying yum!

"A huge thank you" from Lisa and "please pass that on to everyone who helped"

Lisa's thanks have now been posted to the Disused Stations Facebook page.

This was posted by one of the relies on Twitter