St Michaels serves St Michael's Hamlet in Liverpool. It is between Brunswick and Aigburth.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Merseyrail Northern Line)
Station code:
STM
Opened:
1864 (Closed 1972)
Re-opened:
1978
Platforms:
2
St Michael's (notice the apostrophe) was opened by the Garston & Liverpool Railway in 1864 on it's line between Brunswick and Garston Dock. The station was closed in 1972 though was re-opened just six years later as part of the Merseyrail route from Kirkby to Garston.
Marks & Spencer helped fund the re-opening of the station because of their "St Michaels" brand name. St Michaels is now on the Merseyrail Northern Line between Hunts Cross and Southport. At peak times it is served every fifteen minutes in each direction. St Michaels is in a cutting with the station building at road level. There are stepped ramps down to each platform.
Merseyrail 507 011 arrives with a Southport bound service
View down the platform in the direction of Liverpool
Weybridge is a stop on the South Western Main Line out of London Waterloo in Surrey between Walton-on-Thames and Byfleet & New Haw.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(South Western Main Line)
Station code:
WYB
Opened:
1838
Platforms:
3
Weybridge was opened by the London & Southampton Railway in 1838. The station was built in a deep cutting with the station buildings at road level.
As well as platforms on both slow lines of the South Western Main Line Weybridge also has a bay platform for terminating trains on the Chertsey branch line.
South Western Railway operate all trains which serve Weybridge with up to six trains an hour to London Waterloo. Trains in the other direction are usually headed to Woking or Basingstoke.
A Woking bound SWR 455 arrives
View of the station from the road bridge
Platform view showing footbridge
Station sign
Brooklands Museum
Near to Weybridge station is the former airfield, aircraft manufacturing centre and racetrack (the world's first one to be purpose built) Brooklands. The site is now home to a museum with a number of collections. The aircraft collection includes Concorde and the VC10 while the car collection includes Formula 1 race cars. Brooklands is also host to the London Bus Museum.
Balham tube station is adjacent to Balham National Rail station, sharing an entrance with it.
Information
Type:
Transport for London
(Northern Line)
Station code:
ZBL
Opened:
1926
Platforms:
2
Balham was opened by the City & South London Railway in 1926 [1] on it's Southern extension to Morden. Balham is in between Clapham South and Tooting Bec. In the Second World War Balham was badly damaged during a bombing raid in 1940 when a bomb exploded on the road above the station. This caused a partial tunnel collapse on the platform below. Over sixty people were killed (the station being used as a shelter) [2]. The station was re-opened within a few months.
The station has two surface buildings, designed by Charles Holden and built from Portland Stone as was common on the Underground in that period.
A Northern Line train in the station
Station roundel
View down the platform
[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 100 [2] Mike Horne, The Northern Line (Capital Transport, 2009) p. 55
Honeybourne is a stop on the Cotswold Line in Worcestershire. The station was once a busy junction with services between Cheltenham Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon as well as Worcester to London Paddington though was closed during the 1970s.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Cotswold Line)
Station code:
HYB
Opened:
1853 (Closed 1969)
Re-opened:
1981
Platforms:
2
The station was opened in 1853 by the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway, within a few years becoming part of the Great Western Railway. A line South from Stratford-upon-Avon reached Honeybourne in 1859, the line being extended onto Cheltenham in 1908.
The station went into decline in the 1960s, the freight yard being closed in 1964 and the station closing entirely in 1969. The Stratford-Cheltenham line continued to be used for freight until 1976. The station was re-opened in 1981 after new housing was built nearby and a prison. Traditionally Honeybourne had generated very little traffic itself as the station was in a rural setting until later years, most passengers using the station as a junction.
The station had just a single platform in use until 2011 until the redoubling of the Cotswold Line between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh (the two stations either side of Honeybourne). Part of the line to Stratford is still in place as it is the rail access to Long Marston depot and storage area, there have been proposals to restore the line back to Stratford. There are also plans to extend the heritage Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway to Honeybourne.
The station has recently had it's platforms extended ready for the introduction of GWR Class 800 trains. GWR, who manage Honeybourne, operate all services to the station.
Cosford is a stop on the Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury Line in Shropshire which serves RAF Cosford and air museum.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Wolverhampton-
Shrewsbury Line)
Station code:
COS
Opened:
1937
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the Great Western Railway as Cosford Aerodrome Halt in 1937 to serve the then-new Royal Airforce Base (which actually opened in 1938). The station was renamed Cosford in 1940. The station was originally on the GWR route between London Paddington and Birkenhead via Birmingham Snow Hill. After the closure of the original Snow Hill in the late 1960s trains ran to Cosford via Birmingham New Streetinstead.
The station was rebuilt in 2011-12 with new platforms replacing the original 1930s wooden platforms. The station is managed by West Midlands Railway who provide most services though a small number of Transport for Wales services also stop at the station.
A West Midlands Railway train arrives
Station entrance
View down the platform
A TfW service passes through
Platform shelter
RAF Cosford and Museum
RAF Cosford opened in 1938 and has remained to this day a centre of Royal Air Force flight and engineering training. Since 1979 the site has also housed RAF Museum Cosford. The museum has continued to grow and in 2007 the Cold War exhibit was opened.
Narborough is a stop on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line near to Leicester. Like many stations Narborough was closed in the carnage of the 1960s but had a very quick reprieve.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(B'ham - Peterborough Line)
Station code:
NBR
Opened:
1864 (Closed 1968)
Re-opened:
1970
Platforms:
2
Narborough was opened in 1864 by the South Leicestershire Railway, within a few years it was part of the London & North Western Railway empire. Near to the station were a number of granite quarries, a branch line junction and exchange sidings being next to Narborough station. The quarries and finally the branch were closed by 1980 [1].
Narborough also had a couple of goods sidings but these were closed in 1966, the station closed completely in 1968 [2]. After support, including financial, from the local councils the station was re-opened in 1970. The station was refurbished in the early 2000s, the original station building remains though the ticket office is not always open and when the station is unstaffed the waiting room is locked.
Next to the station is a level crossing. A signal box still stands next to the crossing though is no longer in every day use. Although the station is managed by East Midlands Trains only Cross Country serve Narborough with a service usually every hour usually between Birmingham New Street and Leicester, but some also through to Stansted Airport.
A Freightliner trains heads through the station
A Leicester bound XC service stops at Narborough
Station entrance
XC 170 108 prepares to depart
Station sign
Footbridge, level crossing and signal box
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Coventry to Leicester (Middleton Press, 2017) Map. XXI [2] Ibid. Fig. 60
Cromford is a station on the Derwent Valley Line between Whatstandwell and Matlock Bath. Willersley Tunnel is just ahead of the station.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Derwent Valley Line)
Station code:
CMF
Opened:
1849
Platforms:
1
The station was opened as Cromford Bridge by the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock & Midlands Junction Railway in 1849. The station originally had two platforms but one was taken out of use when the line was singled. The station building on this platform is now a holiday cottage. The station building on the in-use platform is the original station building and is Grade II listed. It is now used as an office.
The cover of Oasis' 1995 single "Some might say" features the station and in particular the holiday cottage.
EMT 156 415 departs for Matlock
Station frontage
Holiday cottage on the disused platform
Willersley Tunnel
Station sign
The footbridge now just gives access to the cottage
