One of the questions that I have had for a very very long time, is whether or not Milsons Point Railway Station on the north side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge had roundels or not. I have only found today that the answer is "No", it did not. Game over. Thanks for coming.
Fin.
Okay. This story is way more complicated than that.
Before 1926, Sydney Terminal was the end of the line. There were no lines heading north to Museum and St James; they would not be open until 1926. There were no lines heading north to Town Hall and Wynyard; they would not be open until 1932. The Eastern Suburbs Railway was dreamt of but this would never open in the form envisaged by John Bradfield, and what we did get would not be open until 1979.The Sydney Metro? Forget about it.
Wynyard Station is the trigger to this story, and the reason why I was curious. Wynyard was opened in 1932 as a triple opening along with Town Hall and Milsons Point. Wynyard though, was opened with the North Shore line in 1932, and was always meant to accommodate the City Circle which was opened in 1956, and the Inner West line which was never opened, and the Northern Beaches line which was never opened but which came tantalisingly close.
The City Circle would use platforms 5 & 6, which they do. The Inner West line would have used platforms 7 & 8, which were never cut. The North Shore line does use platforms 3 & 4. The Northern Beaches line which was never opened would have used platforms 1 & 2, and in fact was dressed for that purpose but as budget cuts in the Great Depression basically killed that off forever, it sort of nascently existed with two stations (maybe three) completely fit for purpose.
Wynyard had four top level platforms, with platforms 1 & 2 being used for trams until 1955. North Sydney has four platforms. Milsons Point, which sits in between them, also had four platforms from 1932 until 1955, with two of them being used for trams.
Now here is the problem.
North Sydney Station was always a suburban station and maybe at best, it was given those suburban white roundels which every other suburban station had until the 1980s candy stripe sign appeared.
Wynyard had proper full on roundels, to match those at Museum, St James, Circular Quay, and Town Hall.
I was vaguely aware that Milsons Point's platforms were numbered 1 & 2 for trams and 3 & 4 for trains. When the tram service was ripped out by a knavish Cahill Government, to spite the face of the fair and decent people of New South Wales forever, the two remaining platforms acquired new numbers. That did not happen at Wynyard because it was still unknown how the line from Wynyard to Circular Quay would be connected, and the lower level platforms of 5 & 6 were being used as terminating platforms; just like St James was used as a terminating station before the City Circle was put in.
But what of the dress of Milsons Point?
Milsons Point from ground level, looks to be of a similar style to that of both St James and Museum. The entrance houses at street level, have that same kind of shielded motif with the date opening flanked by flourishes, all set in stone work.
However, any and all evidence of what was up above at train platform level, was firstly levelled when the trams were ripped out and roadways put in their place, and Milsons Point in my lifetime has carried suburban white roundels, 1980s candy stripe signs, 1990s City Rail corporate blue signage, and now Sydney Trains/Transport for New South Wales orange signage. This means that if it ever carried any original roundels in the style of the City Circle, which would have been entirely plausible given that Circular Quay was given roundels upon opening in 1956, then it would absolutely be well before my ability to remember.
I came across this photograph of Milsons Point in 1934 quite by accident when looking for something else. This is a funeral procession for someone very very posh indeed, given that the hearse is followed by not one but two cars of flowers and in the Great Depression when most people would be happy to have two shillings to scrape together and wouldn't be spending them on flowers. What do I notice about this photograph? There are no roundels.
Actually, I do not see any station signage of any kind whatsoever. This probably has a few station signs but not all that many. I guess this makes sense as the signs at Milsons Point are standing outside in all kinds of weather and maybe the NSWGR just weren't prepared to spend a quid where they did not have to. While part of me thinks that the use of the roundels at all is treading the line of intellectual property infringement, another part of me feels a little sad that Milsons Point never got any fancy roundels.
I like that the Eastern Suburbs Railway was given a unified design language with tiling, tiled barrel columns, and use of the station name in a nice sans-serif Copperplate style font and in triplicate. It's really pretty. I sort of like that Central Walk has been retrofitted in sandstone to tie it together with the existing station. I like that the Sydney Metro has its own geometrica design language. But Milsons Point, overlooking the most stunning view of all the stations in Sydney bar none, seems to have been underdressed and treated as a suburban backwater.
It's a bit sad that Milsons Point had no roundels. I think it deserves them/
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