Ravenscourt Park (ZRA)

Ravenscourt Park is a stop on the District Line in West London between Hammersmith and Stamford Brook.

Information
Type: Transport for London
(District Line)
Station code: ZRA
Opened: 1873
Platforms: 4 (2 inactive)
The station pre-dates the Underground. Ravenscourt Park was opened (as Shaftesbury Road) by the London & South West Railway in 1873 on it's branch line to Richmond. In 1877 the District Railway and later the Metropolitan Railway also reached the station. The station was renamed Ravenscourt Park in 1888 [1] following the opening of a park nearby. By the 1880s the Great Western Railway were also serving the station. The Midland Railway also stopped at the station for a couple of years in the 1880s.

The District Railway electrified the line through Ravenscourt Park in 1905. The other operators to the station gradually dropped out so by 1916 only the District Railway was serving it. The Piccadilly Line was extended through Ravenscourt Park in 1932 but to this day does not stop at the station except on rare occasions such as during engineering works.

Ravenscourt Park consists of two island platforms with the two outer lines used by the District Line and the two inner line by through Piccadilly Line trains.
A West bound District S7 prepares to depart

A Picadilly Line 73ts passes through

A signal relay cabin is on the end of the platform

Another Piccadilly Line train passes through

The through lines

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 151

Leighton Buzzard (LBZ)

Leighton Buzzard is a stop on the West Coast Main Line between Bletchley and Cheddington.

Information
Type: National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code: LBZ
Opened: 1838
Platforms: 4
The station was opened in 1838 as Leighton by the London & Birmingham Railway as part of the first section of the line from London Euston. The station was renamed Leighton Buzzard in 1911.

A branch line to Dunstable was added in 1848 from Leighton (this branch line was closed in 1967). The London & North Western Railway replaced the original station with a new one one hundred and sixty metres to the South in 1859 [1]. The station buildings were rebuilt in 1957. Further rebuilding took place in 1989. Leighton Buzzard used to be home to a goods yard and an engine shed but the latter closed in 1962 [2].

Although Leighton Buzzard now has four platforms the platforms on the West Coast Main Line fast lines are not always in use (as common with other stations on this stretch of the WCML). Leighton Buzzard is served by London Northwestern and Southern (West London Route). Virgin Trains services frequently pass through the station though none stop.
LNWR 350 106 with a Euston bound service

The fast lines are in the background

View down the platform

A Virgin Trains 221 passes through on the fast line

Euston bound 350 236 enters the station

Ready to depart


[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Watford to Leighton Buzzard (Middleton Press, 2004) Fig. 107
[2] Ibid. Fig. 102

Peckham Rye (PMR)

Peckham Rye is an interchange station in South London. It is on the London Overground South London line and also has Thameslink and services out of London Victoria and London Bridge.

Information
Type: National Rail
(Thameslink &
London Overground)
Station code: PMR
Opened: 1865
Platforms: 4
The station was opened in the Peckham district of South London in 1865 by the London, Chatham & Dover Railway. A year later the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway also reached the station. The station consists of two separate pairs of platforms connected by walkways. Platforms 1 and 2 (London Overground and Southern) are on an island platform.

Nowadays it is served by Southeastern (London Victoria to Dartford Line), Southern (London Bridge to West Croydon), Thameslink and London Overground.

The station was given a refurbishment in 2010 with a former waiting room restored to use.
Station sign, with a Southern 455 behind

Southern 455 806 arrives on Platform 1

Southeastern 375 706 departs on the London Victoria Line

Southern 455 810 on Platform 2

EWS 92 011 hauls freight in third-rail mode through Platform 3

Southeastern 465 023 on the London Victoria Line

Covent Garden (ZCV)

Covent Garden is a Piccadilly Line station in central London between Leicester Square (just 250 metres or 0.16 miles away) and Holborn in the always busy West End.
Information
Type: Transport for London
(Piccadilly Line)
Station code: ZCV
Opened: 1906
Platforms: 2

The station was opened by the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway in 1907 (a few months after the rest of the line opened) [1] with a standard ground level Leslie Green designed station building.

Unlike most stations in the central section of the London Underground Covent Garden does not have escalators. The platforms are reached via lifts or stairs (for the fit/foolhardy - there are 193 steps![2]) Because of this the station is often overcrowded and on Saturday afternoons becomes exit only.

Interestingly the short journey from Leicester Square to Covent Garden with a Zone 1 fare (at time of writing £4.90) works out at over £30 per mile, one of the most expensive railway journeys in the country!
A Piccadilly Line 73ts train waits to depart

Former signal cabin from Covent Garden, the proximity of Leicester Square is evident (yellow boxes left centre)

Surface building

Platform view

The station name is displayed on the tile wall of the platform

[1] Desmond F. Croome, The Piccadilly Line (Capital Transport, 1998) p. 11
[2] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 113

Stamford (SMD)

Stamford in Southern Lincolnshire is a stop on the Birmingham-Peterborough Line between Oakham and Peterborough.

Information
Type: National Rail
(Birmingham-
Peterborough Line)
Station code: SMD
Opened: 1848
Platforms: 2
The station was opened in 1848 by the Syston & Peterborough Railway, later part of the Midland Railway. The station was later renamed Stamford Town in 1950 to distinguish it from Stamford East. The name reverted to Stamford in 1966 [1] (the other station closed in the late 1950s).

Stamford is referred to as Stamford (Lincs) on tickets and timetables to avoid confusion with stations like Stamford Hill. The station is managed by East Midlands Trains though most services are operated by Cross Country.

Stamford has a fine Grade II listed main building in the Mock Tudor style. The station has just two platforms now but once had a bay platform (for services to Seaton) and a goods yard. Both have now closed, the latter replaced by a car park and housing. A retired signalbox is next to the station, this was moved there in 1988 to act as a store for a bookshop which was located in the main station building. The bookshop moved to the town in 2016 [2], the signalbox is now derelict.
XC 170 102 with a Stansted Airport service

Passenger footbridge

Station frontage

Under the canopy

Signalbox next to the station

View from the footbridge, the former bay platform was on the left

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Lines Around Stamford (Middleton Press, 2016) Fig. 38
[2] Ibid. Fig. 43

Penns

Penns was a station on the Sutton Park Line in Walmley. Now the route is just used for freight.

Information
Type: British Railways
(Sutton Park Line)
Opened: 1879
Closed: 1965
Platforms: 2
Penns was opened by the Midland Railway in 1879 on it's route from Water Orton to Walsall. The station was built to the standard MR design with a booking office on one platform and a waiting room on the other. The station had a goods yard though this was separated from the station by two bridges [1]. The station was renamed Penns for Walmley in 1936 though the name reverted to just Penns in 1955 [2].

The goods yard was closed in February 1965, a few weeks after passenger services ceased in mid-January. Little remains of Penns station now apart from a trace of one of the platforms. A religious building now occupies the site of the station.
All that remains of Penns is a trace of the platform on the right

A Freightliner 66 passes the site of Penns, the goods yard was just beyond the bridge

[1] Vic Mitchell, North of Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2014) Map. XI
[2] Ibid. Fig. 27

Lapworth (LPW)

Lapworth is a small station on the Chiltern main line between Dorridge and Hatton.

Information
Type: National Rail
(Chiltern Main Line)
Station code: LPW
Opened: 1854
Platforms: 2
The station was opened as Kingswood by the GWR (the station is actually in the village of Kingswood, Lapworth is another nearby village) but the name was changed to Lapworth in 1902 [1] to avoid confusion with another Kingswood in Surrey.

As well as being on the GWR's Oxford & Birmingham line Lapworth was originally the terminus of a branch line to Henley-in-Arden which closed in the First World War [2] (though there were plans to re-open it in the Second World War to carry munition trains, some track was relaid [3]). The Birmingham platform was originally an island platform and the now unused platform edge can still be seen through the railings as well as traces of the old trackbed. The footbridge still crosses where the two extra lines used to be. During the 1920s as many as ten or eleven men worked at the station. As with many stations Lapworth used to have a goods yard but these have now gone along with all buildings apart from a couple of "bus shelters".

Nowadays Lapworth is a sleepy unmanned station with trains every two hours stopping between Birmingham and Leamington Spa (some extra services stop in peak times and to Stratford-upon-Avon, and some London Marylebone bound services stop at weekends). Interestingly the station's Permit to Travel machine still carries Network South East branding.
Chiltern 165 019 departs on a Leamington Spa service


Platform shelter

NSE branded Permit to travel machine

Footbridge


Remains of the former bay platform
A Chiltern service prepares to depart
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Banbury to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2004) Map. XVI
[2] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham (Moor Street) (Middleton Press, 2006) p. 3
[3] Colin G Maggs, The Branch Lines of Warwickshire (Amberley, 2011) p. 152