Stations, Junctions and Halts?

[Mr Bones]

I know that some of you will know the answer to this, but it seems the more I try and google it the more confusing the results get.

What are the main differences that define why a stop or platform would be called a Station, a Junction or a Halt.

A Halt seems to be defined as a small or infrequently used un-staffed station/stop with no goods facilities.
A Station seems to be a platform area with the facility to buy tickets.
A Junction seems to be a station with three or more tracks. Doesn't seem right to me though.
Have I missed any others?

Please put me out of my misery

[LC&DR]

The definitions are a trifle loose but as I understand it -

JUNCTION

Somewhere two or more lines meet and / or go off in more than one direction. There doesn't need to be any platforms, and in fact most junctions don't have any, but if there is a station nearby where passengers can get out of a train on one route and join a train on another route the station is often called a junction. Examples include Clapham Junction and Llandudno Junction.

STATION

Somewhere where passengers can get off or join trains that stop there. A station used to be a place where passengers could buy tickets, deposit and collect parcels and wait in comfortable waiting rooms. There would nearly always be lavatories, the station would have staff in attendance, and some would even have a buffet and a newspaper kiosk. Unfortunately nowadays these facilities are becoming increasingly rare.

HALT

Somewhere trains stop and passengers can board and alight. The facilities are much more simple, at some halts there might only be a shelter and no staff or facilities, just a platform. If there is a signalbox close by occasionally the signalman might sell tickets, and sometimes a shop or house in the nearby village might do this. At some halts the passenger will have to hail the train like a 'bus. These are known as request halts. To get off the passenger must tell the guard at the previous stop. Nowadays many stations are much like halts where the railway companies have reduced the facilities to next to nowt.

TERMINUS

A station where the line stops at a dead end. Trains arrive and have to reverse to leave.

GOODS FACILITIES

Very often a station would have a goods yard attached where coal and other goods might be received, and at the larger goods yard there might be cartage to collect and deliver from nearby towns and farms. Since the Beeching cuts in the mid-1960s all station goods yards have now been closed. A few major freight terminals survives until the 1990s where goods were collected and delivered by road and placed on trains. Nowadays all goods moves in block loads between privately owned sidings, or in containers on Liner trains.

When the railways still carried general goods there were goods yards remote from stations as well. In the big cities these were huge places with permanently allocated shunting engines and huge warehouses. Sometimes they had canal or river wharves where ships and barges would load and unload. Small rural sidings were also provided remote from stations to enable local farms to have goods facilities.

[Mr Bones]

Thank you. That all make perfect sense. I knew you'd know.