Vauxhall (VXH)

Information
Type:	National Rail (South Western Main Line)
Station code:	VXH
Opened:	1848
Platforms:	8

Vauxhall is a station in Central London on the approach to London Waterloo in the Vauxhall district of South West London. The station was opened as Vauxhall Bridge by the London & South West Railway in 1848. Although a through station Vauxhall is ticketed as a London terminus.

It is a busy station (over 20 million passengers a year) with services along the South Western Main Line passing through to and from Waterloo. A tube station was built next to it on the Victoria Line in 1971.

The station is a major interchange station also with buses, the adjacent Vauxhall bus station is the second busiest in London.

SWT 455 712 heads off to conclude its journey at Waterloo

View across the platforms

A SWT 458 on the far platform

Platform  6 canopy

Yardley Wood (YRD)

Information
Type:	National Rail (Shakespeare Line)
Station code:	YRD
Opened:	1908
Platforms:	2

Yardley Wood is one of the stops on the Shakespeare (or North Warwickshire) Line out of Snow Hill. It was opened by the GWR in 1908 as Yardley Wood Platform. By the First World War the Platform part of the name had been dropped [1]. Unlike some of the other stations on this line Yardley Wood never had goods facilities and is remarkably unchanged from its earliest days.

When built Yardley Wood was built in a very rural area with few houses nearby though now is a suburb in the South East of Birmingham (though is not to be confused with Yardley in the East of the city).



Despite still having the original (and decent sized) main station building still being in place on the up platform the ticket office is on another building at road level.

A LM Class 172 pauses on a service to Whitlocks End

Main station building

Shelter on the down platform

Looking down towards Stratford

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham Moor St (Middleton Press, 2006) p. 79

Leicester Square (ZLS)

Information
Type:	Transport for London (Northern & Piccadilly Lines)
Station code:	ZLS
Opened:	1906
Platforms:	4

Leicester Square was opened in 1906 by the Great Northern, Brompton & Piccadily Line followed the next year by platforms for the Charing Cross, Hamstead & Euston Railway. Originally Leicester Square was to be called Cranbourn Street which is where one of the entrances is [1].

The two lines were renamed the Piccadilly and Northern Lines as time went on and got busier especially as the Northern Line was extended. The station was rebuilt in the 1930s to cope with greatly increased numbers. A sub-surface ticket hall was added and escalators were installed to replace the lifts. The escalators were claimed at the time to be some of the longest in the world [2].

Film sprockets have been painted on the walls along each platform (see photo below) as Leicester Square (the place above) has a number of cinemas and often hosts film premieres. Leicester Square is a typical very busy Zone 1 tube station with nearly 45 million entries and exits a year.

One of the Northern Line platforms 

Cranbourn Street entrance

[1] Desmond F. Coombe, The Piccadilly Line (Capital Transport, 1998) p. 15
[2] Ibid p. 49

London Cannon Street (CST)

Information
Type:	National Rail (South Eastern Main Line)
Station code:	CST
Opened:	1866
Platforms:	7

London Cannon Street is a terminus in the City of London serving destinations in South East London and Kent on the South Eastern Main Line. Cannon Street is on the North bank of the Thames, trains enter the station by the Cannon Street Railway Bridge which crosses the river. The station is one point in a triangular configuration with London Waterloo and London Bridge.

The station was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1866 though most of the current structure dates from port-war rebuilding, the original train shed being demolished in the late 1950s. The two Thames facing towers which once flanked the shed remain and are along the few remnants of the original structure.

Closure of the station was mooted in the 1980s with the station having a reduced service for many years including no Sunday or evening services. Though in 2015 Cannon Street became a 7-days a week station again. All services from the station are operated by Southeastern though the station itself is managed by Network Rail. Next to the station is Cannon Street London Underground station.

Southeastern 376 003 stands at Cannon St

Main concourse on a Saturday mid-morning, not the busiest of the London termini!

Southeastern 376 017 and 012

Ravenstor

Information
Type:	Preserved Railway (Ecclesbourne Valley Railway)
Opened:	2005
Platforms:	1

Ravenstor is the Northernmost point of the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, being the terminus of a half mile long branch line from Wirksworth. The line originally served local quarries and was not used for passenger services until Ravenstor was opened in 2005 by the EVR.

The line is rather steep, being a 1 in 27 incline! Ravenstor was built at the base of another incline which linked up to the now closed Cromford & High Peak Railway but is now the home of the National Stone Centre.


Ravenstor is a very basic station, just being a platform and a few signs. The line to Ravenstor is operated on weekends and special events and often has steam haulage.

Steam hauled brake van ride at Ravenstor

End of the line

Class 101 at Ravenstor

Brake vans at the Southern terminus of the Cromford & High Peak Railway near Cromford