Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str394c

Close up of image 'lnwrbns_str394' showing Platform 2 on the left with Platform 3 together with the building accommodating the refreshment room on the right. Platform 2 was very narrow as was Platform 1 prior to the three road bays being redesigned with two roads. This anomaly resulted from the original intention in 1851 to build a station with a symmetrical layout of just two platforms, each with a three-road bay to the West and East of the passenger footbridge. In between these two platforms were to be just four lines with the two centre lines being used to store carriages as seen in image 'lnwrbns_str394b'. It was soon realised that this configuration would not be sufficient to handle all of the through traffic so the bays on the south side of the station were converted to be through roads. In addition, what later became Platform 3, was increased in width by reducing the original three roads of the planned bays to two roads. On the opposite side of the station, Platform 1 retained the original proposed layout of the two bays either side of the footbridge, which became known as the Stour Valley and South Staffordshire bays.

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