Water Orton (WTO)

Water Orton serves an area of North Warwickshire near to Birmingham.
Information
Type: National Rail
(Birmingham-Leicester Line)
Station code: WTO
Opened: 1842
Platforms: 2

The first station at Water Orton was built by the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway in 1842. It was replaced by the current station built by the Midland Railway in 1909 after the junction of the line to Kingsbury was re-sited to allow for higher line speeds. The new station was built further away from the junction [1].

The station was built as a single island platform with the station building on a road bridge which crossed the railway lines. A goods yard used to be located next to the station but it was closed in 1966 [2].

Although the station is managed by West Midlands Trains only Cross Country services stop there, usually a two-hourly train between Birmingham New Street and Leicester though there is also one train a day to and from Derby. There is no Sunday service.
Two Cross Country trains pass just North of the station

Side of the station building, seen better days

Stairway down to the platforms

View down the platforms

Station building

[1] Vic Mitchell, North of Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2014) fig. 29
[2] Vic Mitchell, Birmingham to Tamworth and Nuneaton (Middleton Press, 2014) fig. 45

Tower Gateway (ZTG)

Tower Gateway was the original Western terminus of the Docklands Light Railway though these days it has been to an extent eclipsed by later additions to the network.
Information
Type: Transport for London
(Docklands Light Railway)
Station code: ZTG
Opened: 1987
Platforms: 2

The station was opened in 1987 as the terminus of the City route of the original DLR scheme but was replaced as the main Western terminus in 1991 when the extension to Bank was opened. Tower Gateway is close to London Fenchurch Street and Tower Hill stations. Most services to the station originate from Beckton.

As built the station had two tracks with a cross-over just outside the station [1] but Tower Gateway is nowadays a single line terminus. It has separate platforms for loading and unloading passengers. Transport for London are considering closing Tower Gateway to release more capacity for the much busier Bank (though it still has over 4 million passengers a year!)
Entrance to the station

View down the platform, the lines into Fenchurch Street in the background

DLR #48 arrives, passengers will unload on the far platform

Platform 1 is for unloading only

[1] Stephen Jolly and Boy Bayman, Docklands Light Railway (Capital Transport, 1986) p. 62

Highgate (ZHG)

Highgate mainline station was opened in 1867 by the Great Northern Railway, in the 1930s London Transport was expanding the Northern Line branch through to High Barnet as part of the Northern Heights project and aimed to take over the-then LNER operated lined and connect them to the growing tube network. A new tube station was built below the existing mainline station with a new subterranean ticket office for both stations [1].
Information
Type: Transport for London
(Northern Line)
Station code: ZHG
Opened: 1941
Platforms: 2

World War 2 interfered with London Transport's plans though work on the new station was sufficiently advanced for Highgate tube station to open in 1941 (trains ran though to East Finchley from 1939 but the station could not be opened until escalators had been completed). Passengers could use Highgate before the official opening however, as an air raid shelter though had to board trains at Archway to get to the Highgate platforms.

Post-war the Northern Heights project was largely abandoned and the main line station was closed in 1954. The tube station remained though grandeose plans by Charles Holden for an elaborate new building for both stations were greatly cut back.

One interesting aspect of the tube station is that they were designed for 9-car trains though since opening shorter trains have been used [2]. Unlike most stations therefore which are an exercise in squeezing a train in there is some leeway at Highgate.
95ts 51622 arrives on a service for High Barnet

End of the platform

Look down the platform, the original tiling still in place

Station name on tiles

A train has arrived

[1] Siddy Holloway, Highgate wilderness walkabout (London Transport Museum, 2017) p. 10
[2] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 132

East Acton (ZEA)

East Acton is a station on the London Underground Central Line in West London.
Information
Type: Transport for London
(Central Line)
Station code: ZEA
Opened: 1920
Platforms: 2

The station was opened by the Central London Railway (later the Central Line) in 1920 [1] on its extension West out to Ealing Broadway running on the Ealing & Shepherd's Bush Railway which had been built by the Great Western Railway for freight in the First World War.

The station was built on an embankment with steep steps down to street level [2] with buildings in a Great Western style [3]. Wooden platform shelters of a traditional design were provided for passengers and these have been retained after station refurbishment.
West bound 92ts 91101 arrives at East Acton
Look down the line towards Ealing, notice the narrowness of the platform

A West bound 92ts train arrives

Ready for boarding

Two passing Central Line trains, notice the wooden shelter

[1] J. Graeme Bruce & Desmond F. Croome, The Twopenny Tube (Capital Transport, 1996) p. 27
[2] Robert Griffiths, London Underground past and present: the Central Line (Past & Present, 2007) p. 57 
[3] John Scott Morgan, London Underground in Colour since 1955 (Ian Allan, 2013) p. 45

Aberystwyth (AYW)

Aberystwyth is the terminus of the Cambrian Line and also of the Vale of Rheidol narrow gauge preserved railway (which remained part of British Rail until 1989 when it was privatised [1]).
Information
Type: National Rail (Cambrian Line) &
Preserved Railway (Vale of
Rheidol)
Station code: AYW
Opened: 1864
Platforms: 2

The station was built in 1864 by the Aberystwyth & Welsh Coast Railway but the main station building dates from a major rebuilding by the GWR in 1925. Nowadays much of this has been repurposed as the station has been downsized and parts have become a pub and a restaurant among other uses.

The station once had 5 platforms but only 2 remain now. One platform is used by the Vale of Rheidol Railway. The original terminus of the VoR was further away at Smithfield Road [2] but it moved next to the mainline station in 1925. Finally the VoR took over a platform which had been used by trains to Carmarthen until their withdrawal in the 1960s.

Nowadays there is a regular service from the mainline station to Shrewsbury, with a good number of the trains continuing as far as Birmingham International. The Vale of Rheidol runs services up to Devil's Bridge (in its early days the railway was known as the "Devil's Bridge Railway") through much of the year.
ATW 158 836 arrives

Buffer stops

View down the platform

Ironwork

Vale of Rheidol platform

Mainline station viewed from the Vale of Rheidol one


[1] Peter Johnson, Welsh Narrow Gauge (Ian Allan, 2000) p. 58
[2] Vic Mitchell, Corris and Vale of Rheidol (Middleton Press, 2009) fig. 61