Why are/were some train stations called Halts?

Question

lol damn brits?! Im english you spud!

No its not a joke, its a serious question, I came across a website that mentioned some old train stations that closed a while back called halts. I dont know of any open these days that have that name, if you think the question is dumb you didnt have to answer did you?! moron

Answer 1

A halt usually had some kind of a platform though not always, and because the station was placed in an area of little habitation - sometimes even being there solely for the use of the landowner on whose land the railway passed through, it was described in timetables as a halt rather than a station and tended to be nothing more than an unstaffed request stop with none of the usual facilities provided at 'real' stations - not even any shelter or lighting.

(On a more light hearted note, much of the same could be said of certain present railway stations but that's usually due to vandalism!!!)

Answer 2

The amount of customers did not justify the building of a station or platform. These were usually by country lanes or footpaths where few people lived. The trains that served these Halts had wooden steps on the carriage and people had to climb in, over time some halts gained wooden raised platforms so the trains did not have to be fitted with steps some also gained wooden shelters a bit like bus shelters and some also gained ticket offices and began to look like a station proper but still kept the name halt.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about them.

In rail transport, a halt is a small station, usually unstaffed and with few facilities. In the United Kingdom most, if still in existence, have had the word halt removed from their title in recent years. Where the description is still used (verbally, if not actually on the station signs) it is usually a station served by public services but not available for use by the general public, being accessible only by persons travelling to/from an associated factory (e.g. IBM Halt), military base (e.g. Lympstone Commando) or railway yard.

Answer 3

A halt is diffferant from a station in that the train wouldonly stop there by request, either from a pssenger when they got on the train at a previous station or by signal if a passenger wanted to get on at the halt as there are now no manned holts obviously signalling ahead is no longer possible.

Answer 4

The term on US railroads did not exist. It is sometimes difficult to know where certain rail road slang terms come from, but it seems this is easy to figure out.

Going to the next station was going to the next stop. Halt and stop are interchangeable.

The stop without a station at hand was referred to as a "whistle stop", where the conductor communicated with the locomotive via a "communicating" whistle. In the old movies, this was when the conductor pulled on the cord overhead in the coach. In most movies this is shown as a signal to make an emergency application of the brakes, but in reality was used in different combinations and duration of tugs to send whatever information was necessary.

In as much as the term "halt" is no longer used in the UK, it too has passed into obscurity, along with the whistle stop.

Answer 5

Because it was a place where the train could stop for passengers to get on or off, but there was no station there. They sometimes used a movable set of steps to get on or off the train.

Answer 6

Is this a joke?
Trains usually halt, ie stop at stations

Answer 7

Britt huh?..Australian here..halt means stop. halts..stops.as in the train stops here..duh...lol

Answer 8

dam brits would halt the train

Answer 9

From German Haltestelle