Penkridge (PKG)

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Penkridge is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in Staffordshire between Wolverhampton and Stafford.

Information
Type:	National Rail (West Coast Main Line)
Station code:	PKG
Opened:	1837
Platforms:	2

The station was opened in 1837 by the Grand Junction Railway later taken over by the London and North Western Railway.

The railway needed to pass through the lands of Baron Hatherton. The Baron was an enthusiastic early user of the railways and granted access in return for the railway company building stopping two trains a day at Penkridge (and money too of course!)

The station is now unstaffed though retains station buildings, though they are shuttered up and not available to the public. Passenger facilities consist of ticket machines and the usual bus shelters.

The station is served by London Northwestern Railway on services from London Euston via Birmingham New Street to Crewe and Liverpool Lime Street.

LNWR 350 124 arrives with a South bound service

Station building and steps up to the platform

View down the platform

Platform shelter

Permit to travel machine

A Cross-Country train passes through

Birmingham Snow Hill (BSW)

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Birmingham Snow Hill, one of Birmingham's three large central railway stations, has had a long history though the current station is very different to the original Great Western Railway station.

Chiltern 68 012 at the rear of a London bound train

Information
Type:	National Rail (Snow Hill Lines)
Station code:	BSW
Opened:	1852 (Closed 1972)
Re-Opened:	1987
Platforms:	3

This station opened in 1852 on the London Paddington to Wolverhampton line with major rebuilding and enlarging in the early 1910s to compete with Birmingham New Street. The station had a huge roof and an ornate facade like many major rail stations of the time [1].

Snow Hill was a victim of the Beeching railway cuts of the 1960s with a gradual rundown including unstaffing in 1969 and final closure in 1972 [2]. The facade was demolished in the 1970s, the station area itself surviving as a car park for a time. It featured in the 1970s BBC TV series Gangsters which had a fight scene take place in its crumbling ruins.

The original station clock was bought by a commuter for £125 when the station was closed as he had met his future wife under the clock years before. He said he intended to put the clock up on his farm in Uttoxeter [3]. Some items from the original Snow Hill including the Booking Hall sign were later reused in the refurbishment of the nearby Birmingham Moor Street.

Snow Hill was reborn in the late 1980s as a very different station with modern architecture and a car park on top (though reusing the old lines) with services to London Marylebone, Stratford-upon-Avon and Worcester the main destinations. The new station is on a smaller scale than the original with two island platforms (the original had ten platforms!) The Midlands Metro, when built in the 1990s, had its Birmingham terminus located at Snow Hill though that has now moved to outside Birmingham New Street.

Birmingham Snow Hill is managed by West Midlands Railway, Snow Hill was used to launch the new branding and livery [4].

Current plans are for more trains at Snow Hill as part of the Midlands Rail Hub plans with the former Metro terminus platform being reused for heavy rail. Chiltern hopes to extend all of its London services to Snow Hill (presently many services terminate at Birmingham Moor Street [5]). The original Snow Hill may have died a long time ago but the current station seems to have a pretty bright future.

Main entrance

WMR 172 220, the carpark can be seen in the background

On the platforms under the carpark

Alternative entrance on Livery Street

Inside the Livery Street entrance

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Banbury to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2015) map. XXXII
[2] The Guardian, 01 July 1966 p. 12
[3] Daily Mirror, Tue 1 Jul 1969 p. 2-3
[4] "West Midlands Trains launches", Modern Railways (January 2018) p. 12 
[5] James Abbott, "West Midlands Railway", Modern Railways (December 2016) p. 51

Barnt Green (BTG)

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Barnt Green is a junction station at the summit of the Lickey Incline in Worcestershire between Longbridge and Alvechurch or Bromsgrove. It is on the Cross-City Line and Birmingham-Hereford Line (the former splits off from the latter at Barnt Green).

Information
Type:	National Rail (Birmingham-Hereford & Cross-City Lines)
Station code:	BTG
Opened:	1844
Platforms:	4

The station was opened by the Birmingham & Gloucester Railway in 1844 and later became part of the Midland Railway. In 1859 the Midland Railway added a branch at Barnt Green through to Redditch.

The station originally had staggered platforms with the Northbound platform North of the junction and the other two platforms. The Redditch branch was initially single line throughout but the section at Barnt Green was doubled in 1894 and a fourth platform added. The station achieved it's current layout in 1928 when the Northbound platform was moved to be opposite the Southbound one.

Barnt Green and the Redditch branch were considered for closure under Beeching in the early 1960s. Both survived but with a heavily cut back timetable which lasted until the 1980s with just a handful of trains a day. Barnt Green received a much better service after the launch of the Cross-City Line and it's extension through to Redditch. The Cross-City line was electrified in 1992 though the electrification on the Birmingham-Hereford Line not completed until 2018 with much more regular services to and from Bromsgrove.

Two Cross-City Line 323s cross just North of the station

Station footbridge

A WMR 323 approaches from Redditch

Looking towards Birmingham

WMR 323 204 arrives from Bromsgrove

A Cross-Country HST passes through

North Camp (NCM)

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North Camp is a stop on the North Downs Line in Surrey between Farnborough North and Ash. 

A GWR DMU prepares to depart for Redhill

Information
Type:	National Rail (North Downs Line)
Station code:	NCM
Opened:	1858
Platforms:	2

The station was opened as North Camp, Aldershot named after the nearby North Camp area of Farnborough. The station has changed name a number of times over the years. It was renamed Aldershot Camp in 1863, then to Aldershot (North Camp) in 1879. In 1910 the name was changed to Aldershot (North Camp) & South Farnborough, in 1923 this shortened to Aldershot (North). However, the following year the name was changed again to North Camp and it has remained unchanged ever since!

The station goods yard was removed in 1969 but the station building, which was reputedly designed by Lord Kitchener [1], remains in place though nowadays is used by a dental practice. The station is managed by GWR who provide up to two services an hour in each direction between Reading and Redhill.

Level crossing at the end of the platforms

View down the platform

Very faded station sign still showing traces of Network South East

Main station building

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Reading to Guildford (Middleton Press, 1988) Fig. 73

Bicester North (BCS)

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Bicester North in Oxfordshire is a stop on the Chiltern Main Line between Kings Sutton and Haddenham & Thame Parkway. Nearby (though not on the same line) is Bicester Village on the line to Oxford.

Chiltern 168 004 arrives at Bicester North

Information
Type:	National Rail (Chiltern Main Line)
Station code:	BCS
Opened:	1910
Platforms:	2

The station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1910. The station as built was far more elaborate than the station which exists now. Bicester North had a goods yard and a couple of through roads for non-stopping services. The Chiltern line drastically cut back in the late 1960s, being singled for a lot of it's stretch though a loop was retained at Bicester North [1]. The track was redoubled in the early 2000s and remodelled through the station to allow for higher speeds. The space formally occupied by the through road became the new Up (London) bound track through the station. The platform was widened as a result (which is why the waiting rooms and other buildings on that platform are so far back!)

The main station building is little changed since the opening of the station with the original canopy. The footbridge is largely as it was since the station was built, though lifts have been added. Originally the bridge had to span four tracks hence its width! The station is managed and served by Chiltern Railways.

Chiltern 165 002 arrives with a South bound service

Under the GWR canopy

Footbridge

Main station building

Just arrived

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Princes Risborough to Banbury (Middleton Press, 2001) plate 63