Disused Stations: Cambridge Station

[Source: Darren Kitson]

Key

A: Original Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) station building. The north and south wings, later additions, are also visible.
B: Former Great Northern Railway (GNR) station building. Between that and the ECR station building a double-decker bus can be seen. This was the station's bus terminus for a great many years and the bus is probably on service 101 to Chesterton.
C: Carriage sidings. There appears to be a mix of main line and suburban stock present. Of the three vehicles below left of the letter C, one appears to be a Derby Lightweight DMU car but unfortunately the image is too indistinct to confirm any vehicle identities.
D: The down goods yard.
E: The hump yard. The up goods yard is partly visible on the far left.
F: The tract of land disappearing eastwards is possibly the trackbed of the original cattle pen roads which terminated adjacent to the pre 1896 Newmarket line. See Cambridge Part 2. Despite the rural appearance, beyond the top left of the image the urban sprawl recommenced and spread east as far as the quarries of the Norman cement works, Cherry Hinton Hall and Cherry Hinton itself. The land seen in the image is now itself extensively built on and the railway sidings, seen disappearing off the left of the image, once fanned out as far east as Rustat Road. In the 1970s this was the site of the Cambridge Instrument Co. factory; itself now gone and replaced by housing.
G: Former Great Eastern Railway (GER) engine shed, 31A from 1950. The lighter buildings on the shed's west side were offices and staff facilities, left, and the shed stores, right.
H: A rare view of the back yards of the houses on Devonshire Road. Just behind the hoardings opposite the corner the footbridge to the engine shed can be seen.
I: Tenison Field goods sidings. This was the location of the makeshift sleeping train for staff in connection with the 1922 Royal Show. The buildings at the bottom of the image were used by various timber and building merchants, most notably Messrs. Travis & Arnold.
J: Coaling tower. Like that at March, this tower was known locally as 'The Wedge'. Loaded wagons were lifted bodily up the face of the tower nearest the camera and the contents tippled into a hopper. Locomotives then shunted beneath the hopper to replenish their stock of coal. The tower was demolished with explosives in 1967.
K: This building was a locomotive lifting shop, fitted with a hydraulic lift.. Another, smaller, shop once existed to the north of the engine shed and off the image.
L: Locomotive turntable. This was the 70ft turntable and the siting of both it and the coaling tower was not particularly convenient for locomotives going on-shed. The original, post 1847, turntable serving this shed was located to the north of the shed and is thought to have been a 45ft affair.
M: Tenison Road. This runs from Mill Road to Station Road and junctions with Devonshire Road just off the bottom of the image. At the junction with Station Road Great Eastern House, the BR regional headquarters once stood.
N: Station Road. Originally this was a railway-owned road known as The Avenue. For 'road' read 'dirt track'. It was later taken over by the corporation, metalled and named Station Road.
O: The Station Hotel. This building stood for a century and a half and was the first building people saw as they left the station. It was demolished in the early 21st century as part of the CB1 development engulfing the area.
P: The mill, best known as Foster's or Spillers. The building was to have been retained for inclusion in CB1 but following fire damage only part of it now remains and is not instantly recognisable.
Q: Part of the former GNR goods yard. The building with two chimney stacks just below the yard and facing onto Station Road is now the only original building remaining at this end of Station Road, the rest having been swept away by CB1.
R: These single-storey buildings were part of the mill complex. It was here where a siding, connected to the GNR goods yard via a wagon turntable, ran through the mill and connected, via another wagon turntable, to the siding along the front of the mill. There were originally two such sidings running through the premises but one was single-ended.
S: The yard behind platform 3 known as Coalfield Sidings. The name came about through the sidings' original use by, largely, coal merchants. Coalfield Sidings remained in use until the early 21st century, by then mainly for stabling of engineering vehicles having previously seen use by parcels trains. The sidings were removed for construction of the guided busway and the CB1 development.
T: Cambridge South signal box. This, it should be remembered, was the 1926 box; the original having been further west and directly in line with the end of platforms 1 and 2.
U: The former GER goods shed.
V: The former GNR goods shed. The GNR engine shed is out of view, off the top of the image.

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