Train shed

For other uses, see Motive power depot and Goods shed.

Inside Isambard Kingdom Brunel's wooden train shed at Bristol Temple Meads

A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train cars not in use, The first train shed was built in 1830 at Liverpool's Crown Street Station.

The biggest train sheds were often built as an arch of glass and iron, while the smaller were built as normal pitched roofs.

The train shed with the biggest single span ever built was that at the second Philadelphia Broad Street Station, built in 1891.

Types of train shed

Early wooden train sheds

Ashburton, Devon, England, United Kingdom (now closed)

The earliest train sheds were wooden structures, often with unglazed openings to allow smoke and steam to escape. The oldest part of Bristol Temple Meads is a particularly fine – and large – example, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel with mock-hammerbeam roof.

Surviving examples include:

• Ashburton, Devon, England (station closed)
• Bo'ness, Falkirk, Scotland
• Frome, Somerset, England
• Kingswear, Devon, England
• Thurso, Highland, Scotland
• Wick, Highland, Scotland

Classic metal and glass

Frankfurt, Germany

The middle of the nineteenth century saw many large stations covered by iron, steel and glass train sheds, inspired by The Crystal Palace at The Great Exhibition in 1851. The best have been described as "like cathedrals" and feature curved roofs; other structures have pitched roofs.

Surviving examples of curved roof train sheds include:

• Amsterdam Centraal, Netherlands
• Antwerpen-Centraal, Belgium
• Bath Green Park railway station, England (converted to covered market and car park)

  

  Bangkok, Thailand

• Bangkok, Thailand
• Barcelona Estació de França, Catalonia, Spain
• Brighton, England
• Bristol Temple Meads, England
• Copenhagen Central Station, Denmark
• Darlington Bank Top, England
• Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, Germany
• Glasgow Queen Street, Scotland
• Hull Paragon, England

Newcastle Central, Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom

• Gare de Lille Flandres, France
• Köln Hauptbahnhof, Germany
• Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, Germany
• Liverpool Lime Street, England
• London Kings Cross, England
• London Paddington, England
• London St Pancras, England

Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

• Madrid Atocha, Spain (converted to station atrium)
• Manchester Central, England (converted to conference centre)
• Manchester Piccadilly, England
• Milano Centrale, Italy
• Newcastle Central, England
• Prague Main Station, Czech Republic
• Reading Terminal, Philadelphia, United States (converted to convention center)
• Tanjung Priok, Jakarta, Indonesia
• York, North Yorkshire, England
• Vitebsky railway station, Saint Petersburg, Russia
• Lviv Railway station, Ukraine

Surviving examples of pitched roof train sheds include:

• Ballarat, Geelong (and No 2 Goods Shed Melbourne), Australia

Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

• Beverley, England
• Bournemouth, England
• Budapest Nyugati, Hungary
• Budapest Keleti, Hungary
• Carlisle Citadel, England
• Chester, England
• Crewe, England
• Edinburgh Waverley, Scotland
• Frome, England
• Filey, England

Glasgow Central, Scotland, United Kingdom

• Glasgow Central station, Scotland
• Harrisburg Transportation Center, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• London Liverpool Street, England

Stoke-on-Trent, England, United Kingdom

• Paris Gare du Nord, France
• Paris Gare de Lyon, France
• Preston, England
• Stoke-on-Trent, England
• Wemyss Bay, Scotland

Wemyss Bay, Scotland, United Kingdom

Surviving examples of Bush-type, developed by American civil engineer Lincoln Bush, and related train sheds include:

• Hoboken Terminal, Hoboken, New Jersey, United States
• Union Station, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Toronto Union Station, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - designed by A.R. Ketterson
• Communipaw Terminal, Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
• Mount Royal Station used by Maryland Institute College of Art for its Sculpture program Baltimore, Maryland

Surviving examples of other train sheds include:

• Pennsylvania Station (Newark), Newark, New Jersey, United States
• The SEPTA platform area of 30th Street Station, Philadelphia, United States

Concrete

München Hauptbahnhof train shed, dating to the 1960s

The middle of the twentieth century saw concrete used as a structural material.

Surviving examples include:

• Cockfosters tube station, London, England
• Uxbridge tube station, London, England
• Volksdorf U-Bahn station, Hamburg, Germany

Modern steel and glass

Waterloo International (across the foreground) with the older Waterloo station beyond (June 2004)

After many years with few, if any, significant new train sheds, recent years have seen some major stations given graceful train sheds by using modern technology.

Examples include:

• Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin, Germany
• Longyang Road station on the Shanghai Maglev Train line
• Gwangmyeong Station, Seoul, South Korea
• Jefferson Station, Philadelphia, United States (while station is located underground, it has above-ground structures for the purpose of sheltering the platforms and trains)
• Stillwell Avenue subway station, New York City, United States
• Waterloo International, London, England
• Southern Cross station, Melbourne, Australia
• Liège-Guillemins, Liège, Belgium
• Manchester Victoria station, Manchester, England

In the United States, the Walt Disney World Monorail System has some trainsheds along its route, including the entrance-gate station and the main hall (or Grand Canyon Concourse) of the Contemporary Resort.

Niigata Station Train shed (2024 Japan)

Open-air canopy

View through the open-air roof that encircles the platform area at Denver Union Station (May 2014)

• The Union Station (Denver, Colorado), Denver, Colorado, US, features an open-air canopy structure covered with Teflon.

Car barn

See also: Bus garage

In North America tram cars, there called streetcars or trolleys, are sometimes stored in structures called car barns or car houses. These buildings are usually enclosed and provide cover for trams from the elements.

List of car barns:

Former Georgetown Car Barn, Washington, D.C. (between 1980 and 2006)

• Roncesvalles Carhouse - Toronto
• Leslie Barns - Toronto
• Russell Carhouse (Connaught Barns) - Toronto
• Wychwood Barns (former St. Clair Carhouse) - now a community centre in Toronto
• Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility (Black Creek Carhouse) - Toronto
• Watertown Yard - Watertown, Massachusetts
• North Cambridge Carhouse - Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Plaistow Carhouse - Plaistow, New Hampshire
• Ashby Street Car Barn - Atlanta, Georgia
• Luzerne Carhouse - Philadelphia
• East Capitol Street Car Barn - Washington, DC
• Georgetown Car Barn - Washington, DC

See also

• Bus station

Bibliography

• Biddle, Gordon (1973). Victorian stations; railway stations in England & Wales, 1830-1923;. Newton Abbot [England]: David & Charles. p. 20. ISBN 0-7153-5949-5. OCLC 812317.