Great Western Coffee Shop

Odd one out, and why - from each of these groups:

1.
Black Dog Halt
Blackdyke Halt
Blackhall Colliery
Black Horse Road
Blackpool Central
Blackpool North
Blackrod
Blackwell

2.
Liss
Brandon
Weyborne
Oakworth
Ulverston
Kings Cross
Goathland

3.
Mallaig
Kyle of Lochalsh
Thurso
Wick
Dornoch
Hopeman

4.
Okehampton
Melksham
Skewen
Taunton
Falmouth Town
Llanshamlet

As ever, there are probably multiple answers in each case and I may not even be right in some of the others.

1.  I am going to guess Black Dog Halt because it was a private station

3 Hopeman - no station

There isn't any longer - but then there is no station at Dornoch any longer


You may have a different odd one out to the odd one out I had.   It probably is the only station that was private in the list.

Ah, should have checked with Prof Google.

Try Mallaig.  It was North British/LNER, rest were Highland/LMS.

4. have closed and reopened years later, apart from Taunton and Llanshamlet - but that's just a typo; Llansamlet station did have a period of eclipse.

Yes, correct ...


Also correct

4  Okehampton is the only former Southern main line station and the only one that, in hindsight fortunately, left the National Rail network  (in about 1994 with the sale of Meldon Quarry and about 15 miles of line) then very luckily rejoined it (in 2021).

1 Blackrod is a Parliamentary official.

Its also a station in Lancashire

And until recently had a working signalbox as did Blackpool North.

2 Ulverston is the only one not to have featured in a TV series or a film.

Liss - Great St Trinians Train Robbery
Brandon and Weyborne - both Dad's Army (TV)
Oakworth - Railway Children (TV and film)
Kings Cross and Goathland - both Harry Potter

Yes, that is exactly what I had as the odd one out.

Series 2, episode 4 of Michael Portillo's Great Coastal Railway Journeys featured him at Ulverston station. :P

There are various odd ones out here ... I had Blackpool Central, but why?

Perhaps I should have inserted the word fictional somewhere.

All the others aren't a tatty car/coach park and a general carbuncle on the town that it hosts.

One must remember that this was a self inflicted wound as Central was not on Beeching's list for closure.

54 trains per day to zero overnight. Blackpool Central must count as the most precipitous railway station decline and closure.

Mark

I did think of Blackpool Central, but it wasn't the only one closed and the railway removed. 


Did Blackpool North initially take all those 54 trains a day or was there some rationalisation?

Blackpool North (the town's main station today) was the one slated to close but the Corporation cast their greedy eye on the railway estate of Central that lay just behind the promenade and came to a cheap deal with BR to swap the two stations around.  Those 54 services terminated short at Blackpool South for nigh on 7 years which was clearly unsustainable with only two working platforms. I think the last London Euston express moved to the North station in 1972. Today, the line to Blackpool South is just a withered single track siding with a train service to match.

Blackpool Central IS the odd one out I had identified, and some of you are quite close to identifying why that is/was.

Part of the original station - the excursion platforms toilet block - still exists and is in use. Don't know if North has any toilets!

That toilet block was demolished in 2009. Replaced with more modern facilities.

StreetView comparison. May 2009 - July 2021
(https://i.ibb.co/2hR5WnX/IMG-20231218-142951.jpg)

A piece of seaside history - destroyed  :'(

3 days ... and whilst some of you have guessed that Blackpool Central is the odd one out ... I haven't quite read that it's the only one of those stations that was NOT proposed for closure in the Beeching report.