Talk:St James railway station, Sydney

Untitled
if you want to see pictures, type in "st james tunnel" into google image search. unfortunately none of the images can be viewed in their original size due to the fact that the sydney cave clan have since moved these pictures, or have denied access to them, but they can be viewed in thumbnail mode — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.101.21.108 (talk) 15:52, 28 April 2005 (UTC)

tunnels
Couldn't all the tunnel info actually go in another article or be merged into an article devoted to sydney tunnels alone? currently 80% of the article is based on these old construction tunnels and not much on the history of the station itself. Nomadtales 00:59, 8 February 2006 (UTC)


 * There is actually an article on Sydney underground railways which has a brief write up of the disused tunnels. Perhaps most of the info in this article could be merged across? Nomadtales 01:05, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

(JROBBO 12:01, 20 February 2006 (UTC))
 * No - the history of the tunnels is so linked up with the original plans for St James that it would be wrong to leave out all that information without reference to the original plans for St James, which would have made it one of the biggest stations in the CBD area due to all the interconnecting lines. I will get around to writing more about the station itself when I have time - there is a lot more that can be said on its present day function.

Alexander101010 03:59, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree, the tunnel info should remain.

Just reading this article a was curious to who wrote it. Then i saw the mention of the CC. How much more of the CC will be mentioned? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.167.0.163 (talk) 01:43, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

The info about the underground tunnels is fascinating, but do we really need a vivid tour guide to flooded, inaccessable areas? 'Accessing them via the used tunnels is rather dangerous, although so long as one understands the meaning of the tunnel safety lights one is in far greater risk of being arrested than of being run over by a train'- Last i checked, Wiki isn't a amateur thrill-seeker guide, not should it be encouraging illegal activities. Sorry to sound like a narc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.10.249.225 (talk) 07:03, 22 October 2006 (UTC)


 * It's not encouraging illegal activities. That's utterly stupid. JROBBO 04:13, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Really? Listing entry points for restricted areas and mentioning the possibility of arrest sure seem to me to be encouraging illegal acts. I just don't wanna read that some idiot got squished while searching for these lost tunnels. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.10.249.225 (talk) 05:26, 29 October 2006 (UTC) Oh, and paragraphs like the following do not belong in an encyclopedia: When you are at the start of the tunnel, note the narrow rail tracks running into the water. They go all the way to the end. It would be worthwhile diving to the bottom of this tunnel at the end and investigating whether the end of this tunnel does indeed end abruptly, as there are some interesting sections vaguely discernible from the water surface. I don't know about the water quality or the eels, but it looks pretty clear. Speculation, POV and substance-less. In fact i don't think the phrase 'i don't know' should begin ANY sentence in ANY article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.10.249.225 (talk) 05:36, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Platforms
I think the statement that the inner disused platforms never held rails is incorrect- I thought that prior to the opening of the Circular Quay extension, St James was a four track terminal station. The Fulch 01:12, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Copyright Violation?
It looks like this article is a cut and paste from. I've begun to edit it, but I thought I should make a note here before proceeding too far. Nuujinn (talk) 23:41, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
 * It looks as though this website has copied information directly from other websites and they are using photos from Urban twilight. Also you are allowed to reword the article to your hearts content as long as it is done in an appropriate manner I guess. Cheers ***Adam*** 00:05, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Highly likely that the website has copied the article as archive.org has come up with no results (Page would date back to 2009 as other sites have an archive up until August 2008). Bidgee (talk) 10:14, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * That makes sense. But given the tone and quality of the original prose, if there's no objection, I'll continue with the rewrite--I did some deletions since working around the original text was getting difficult, now I'm beefing up sections.

One issue I've run into is a discrepancy regarding the bell in the bomb shelter--the original article attributes that to a 1960s ABC broadcast attempting to simulate Big Ben. But steve dow claims it's an art installation from 1992 by Nigel Helyer. I'll post the newest rev in a few minutes, but if any one can shed light on this issue, that would be great. Nuujinn (talk) 11:01, 27 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Main issue of the article is the lack of cited sources. Maybe part of the rewrite-up could be the time to also cite the sources? Bidgee (talk) 11:48, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I'm adding what I can find as references, figure to convert those later.Nuujinn (talk) 23:24, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Regarding the bell, I do know of a video reference that backs this claim, the bell was used as a sound effect for the abc. I could post the video here later. The video also has information about the disused tunnels and how they were used during WWII. ***Adam*** 21:07, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * That would be great if you can point me to that--I figure I can email Nigel about the sculpture, too.Nuujinn (talk) 23:24, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * This is the video that I was talking about . Check it out and let us know what you think. Also with the bell, it probably was an art instillation but was also used for sound effects. Cheers***Adam*** 01:32, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks! That video helps, but unfortunately there's no date or source info as to whence it came. FWIW, I did contact Dr. Helyer and he confirmed that the bell was installed in 1992 as part of An UnRequited Place. But that's personal correspondence and thus original research and by nature not a verified source (ironic to a degree but I understand the logic). I emailed Art Space in Sydney to see if they can provide a verifiable reference, so we'll see what turns up. Nuujinn (talk) 20:56, 31 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't think the copyright issue is present any more as the article has been re-worded pretty thoroughly. Nuujinn and I were in a race to the finish to get this one done, and now the Copy-edit tag has been removed. --Diannaa (talk) 01:35, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, sorry about that, I was just going to make a couple of quick changes so I didn't pop out the GOCE flag, and then failed a series of saving throws.....Nuujinn (talk) 22:03, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

hard to understand
Can some one email me a diagram overview of the old and new platforms at st James station. I find it very hard to understand what the station looks like by just reading this article.

Thanks! from chris — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.44.208.211 (talk) 02:58, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

http://www.anonomi.com/chris


 * There is a diagram at the end of the article. Does that help? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 22:05, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Tunnels
I found this recent virtual tour of the tunnels:

https://bethere.net.au/historical/

I will see if I can rewrite parts of this to clarify where everything is. This tour makes it clear the to the north is a single tunnel to serve the two disused middle platforms, and that south of the station a single tunnel also serves the two platforms before breaking into two seperate single-track tunnels a bit south of the station. The "lake" is at the end of the northern tunnel with the rest of it mostly used for material storage for maintenance on the City Circle. The southern tunnel starts out as two back-to-back sections of a combined total before breaking into individual sections all the way to the ends of the tunnels. This entire section were the air raid shelters. The northern tunnel also has two small interchange/crossover tunnels coming and going in from the neighboring City Inner & Outer lines on either side not too far north of the platforms. I've read and heard this first part of the nothern tunnel was originally used to stable and reverse trains before the City Circle was extended to Circle Quay, so it appears that at least part of this tunnel actually WAS used for trains for time, though the disused platforms were never used. --Criticalthinker (talk) 12:23, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

Heritage listings
I don't know who originally copy-and-pasted the heritage listing on pages of structures on this listing, but it's literally a word-for-word copy-and-paste, which is not allowed. It's also not consistent with how this is done on other pages. It's really just enough to list at the end of a "history" section or "description" section that the structure is on a heritage list. And then MAYBE if you really must to list a sentence or two as to why. But it certainly doesn't need a section, and it's against wiki rules to not have original. --Criticalthinker (talk) 18:09, 17 July 2020 (UTC)


 * The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and the Environment, from which that information was taken, has provided CCBY copyright to its content, meaning users are free to reproduce it in entirety so long as it is attributed. However, I do agree that just because information is freely available doesn't mean it should be reproduced entirely and without critical overview. As the article currently stands, I believe the heritage section is fine - this is clearly a significant aspect of St James railway station. On other NSW railway station articles, almost all the content from DPIE has been included, and they've become too detailed and digressive as a result. Wcp07 (talk) 03:20, 18 July 2020 (UTC)