The terminus to end them all?

Indeed, what we know as the Picadilly Line started out as three quite separate projects
- the GN&S (nb, Aldwych station was originally called "Strand", but renamed to avoid confusion with its CCE&HR namesake at the other end of that thoroughfare (now renamed Charing Cross)
- the Picadilly & Brompton - from Picadilly Circus to the now-closed Brompton Road station
- the Deep Level District - from Hammersmith to Mansion House

Joining those three up after parliamentary powers were granted resulted in a number of Piccadilly Line oddities - the Aldwych branch is one, but more obviously the arrangements at South Kensington, with the twisty-turny connection connecting Brompton Road (B&P) and the parallel DLD alignment at South Kensington, with the two directions on different levels, the extra platform tunnel on the westbound (never used for trains, now a circulating area) , and the step plate junction on the eastbound leading to a blank wall on the main line where the DLD never went any further. (there is also a never-used stepplate at the west end of the westbound platform)

That's rather poetic! I'd go for Broad Street as well. I found it quite haunting with all the vegetation growing in the disused platforms and the emasculated station canopies. The whole tie in with the North London and DC lines was most interesting as far as I was concerned. In my early years of work I used the line between Willesden and Broad Street as a change from the Central Line from North Acton prior to 313s operating.

I always loved Marylebone before the redevelopment of the 80s and 90s. It felt like half a big station and very quiet too (at a time when stations were a lot quieter generally).



Just to add to this, Yerkes bought up the tube schemes mentioned here after parliamentary approval (not always easy to get) including inheriting the District DD along with the purchase of the District Railway itself. The first amalgamation was the GN&S and the P&B, later merging with the 'District Deep Level' west of South Ken. The rest of this line eastwards to Mansion House, which was an express tube parallel to the district sub-surface, was still planned to be built (though once the District was successfully electrified it went on the back burner) and the scheme was even extended to Stepney Green, underneath the existing railway to join the new extension to Bow. After the failure of he Morgan tubes, there were plans (probably just blocking schemes) to add branches on the Piccadilly east from Piccadilly Circus via Strand to Mansion House and west from Nightsbridge to via Hammasmith to Shepherd's Bush.

Before merger, the Piccadilly & Brompton had proposals for extension from Holborn to Angel and from Brompton Road to Welham Green. Really there could hve been 3 full tube lines instead of the eventual one but I guess the money, ambition and commitment weren't there.

Well next time you are ever up my way, tell me in advance and your first is on me!

Hull Paragon has seen so many chances lately but has weathered them all and still stands to reign supreme!

Stations frequently have names that have fallen into disuse - Nottingham Midland, Leeds City, Sheffield Midland etc all come to mind. King's Cross is the terminus with which I am most familiar, and the recent refurbishment has greatly improved its appearance and amenities, although it is very different to how I remember it. Looking back, how did everyone ever fit onto that tiny 1970s concourse?

(my italics)

Which was revived during the Railtrack era "Leeds 1^st" project, when there was a "Leeds City" and "Leeds Whitehall" with a connecting bus service betwixt the two. It took a few years for the "Leeds City" wording to disappear from the luggage trolleys.

Regarding the OP, the terminus to end them all is (for me) the one that created a turning point in my life. I was 17, it was mid-summer, the air-con had failed on the Transpennine 158 and I remember sweating profusely as I passed through Manchester Picadilly. As the twin plug doors moved out then separated I stepped onto the platform and experienced the cool breeze blowing through the dump of a station that was; Liverpool Lime Street:



Ya gotta love concrete and brutalism.

However the city carried me - the station, like I, has risen like a phoenix and now we are glorious:

Thank you for the various pictures of Hull - I've never had occasion to use that station but the sense of spaciousness -- - seems a shame to spoil it with eventual electrification masts ( if it ever gets that far).

BTW, I discovered, reading the Survey of London volumes relating to Woolwich, that the idea and technology for overall roofs of the sort that we tend to think of as railway specialities, in fact originated in the late 1830s in the provision of a cover for boatbuilding dry docks, to enable work to carry on throughout the winter. At that time, mainline termini (a) were very few and far between, and (b) were open to the elements as at Euston, with a sort of courtyard, in effect.

I suspect that what was new in the 1830s was the use of iron to span much greater distances than had been possible with timber. .

Could be, because Brunel's Temple Meads 1840 station, according to NR's site:

The original Brunel train shed functioned for 125 years until its closure on 12 September 1965. His mock hammer beam roof, built of wood to emulate Westminster Hall in London, can still be seen as part of the car park at today’s station.


And, incidentally, Paddington(1838) was originally a wooden roof too. The 1854 rebuild incorporated iron and glass throughout the roofing. Both were Brunel, although the second station's detailing was mainly the work/inspiration of his assistant, Matthew Digby Wyatt.

So, I wonder if a major switch to iron and glazed roofs coincided with the erection of the original 'Crystal Palace' in Hyde Park in 1851 and the Great Exhibition therein from May-October that year?

However,




Phillip Hardwick seems to've been off to the foundries for Euston a little earlier than that.  His original 1837 roof was wrought-iron. It was planned by Robert Stephenson & designed by Charles Fox, so I bet they tried out a few ale-houses on the way with Phillip!