Main-line departure platforms should be of ample width to allow of the free movement of the passengers, ticket examiners, officials, and men wheeling passengers’ luggage. The accommodation should not only be sufficient for the normal traffic, but allowance should be made for the large crowds which may assemble for excursion trains during the holiday season or other occasions of national gathering. Additional or local platforms, frequently termed dock platforms, may be required for suburban trains, and may be made narrower in width, and without cab ranks, as the passengers using them only travel short distances and rarely have more luggage than they carry in their hands. These dock platforms are generally made available for
outgoing as well as incoming trains. The lengths of the main-line or local platforms will be regulated by the number of carriages forming a train.
[Fig. 373] is a diagram sketch of a large terminal passenger station, with main and local platforms as above described. It is merely typical to illustrate the principle, and may be multiplied and varied to any extent in the way of lines and platforms. In the sketch the main groups of offices, waiting-rooms, etc., are shown at the end of the station; but they may be equally well placed at the side, as their actual location is principally a question of proximity or convenience of access to some main street or thoroughfare. The lower or platform-level rooms of such a building are mainly devoted to the public for booking-offices, waiting-rooms, refreshment-rooms, lavatories, offices for parcels, telegraph and inquiry, suitable rooms being set apart for lamps, foot-warmers, guards, and porters. Above this lower story a range of offices can be built for the use of the principal officers and staff of the different departments of the company.
[Fig. 374] is a plan of a small terminal station on a single line of railway, where the passenger traffic is small, and one platform is made to serve alternately both for arrival and departure trains. The booking-hall, waiting-rooms, offices, etc., are laid down parallel to the line of rails, and the approach road and footpath are parallel to the building. The platform roof extends to the outer wall, and provides shelter for the passengers on the platform, and forms a shed for the carriages at night.
[Fig. 375] is a sketch of an intermediate or roadside station on a single line of railway. All the offices, waiting-rooms, etc., are on one platform, which serves for trains travelling in either direction. The dotted lines show the additions which would be necessary to make the station a stopping-place for trains working in opposite directions.
[Fig. 376] shows an ordinary intermediate or roadside station on a double line of railway, with two passenger platforms, and a connection between them either by subway or over-line footbridge. The principal offices and waiting-rooms are shown on the one side, and only small waiting-rooms, etc., on the other.
