Old Street is a stop on the Northern City Line between Moorgate and Essex Road and a stop on the Bank branch of the Northern Line of the London Underground between Angel and Moorgate.
Information
Type:
Transport for London
(Northern Line) &
Network Rail
(Northern City Line)
Station code:
OLD/ZOS
Opened:
1901
Platforms:
4
The station was opened by the first deep-level underground railway in the world, the City & South London Railway, in 1901. The CSLR later became the Northern Line of London Underground.
The Northern City Line platforms were opened in 1904. This line also later became part of the Northern Line though the tunnels built for the Northern City Line were large enough for main-line trains and it was not connected to the rest of the Northern Line.
The Northern City Line passed to British Rail in 1976 with through services to as far as Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire [1].
The station surface building was rebuilt in 1925 with further redevelopments in 1968 and 2014. Northern City Line services are nowadays by Great Northern.
A Great Northern 313 stands at one of the Northern City platforms
Northern Line platform
Access to the Underground part of the station
Northern City platform
[1] Chris Heaps, BR Diary 1968-1977 (Ian Allan, 1988) p. 100
Malvern Link was opened in 1859 as part of the joint scheme between the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway and the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway to build a line between Hereford and Worcester [1]. Though the stretch between Henwick and Malvern Link opened in 1859 the line was not connected through to Worcester until the following year and Hereford in 1861. The station was soon taken over by the West Midlands Railway and after 1863 the Great Western Railway.
Malvern Link up until the mid-1960s had a goods yard and a bay platform. It also had fine station buildings but these were also lost in the 1960s, the station house still survives however. Wooden buildings were built to replace the lost original structures [2], these have recently been replaced by new stone buildings.
Malvern Link is served by the modern day versions of the West Midlands Railway and Great Western Railway with regular services to destinations such as Birmingham Snow Hill, London Paddington and Hereford.
WMR 170 503 departs bound for Great Malvern
View of the station from the road bridge
Main station building
Access between the platforms is via this footbridge
Platform shelter
Another view of the main station building
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Worcester to Hereford (Middleton Press, 2004) p. 3 [2] Ibid. Fig. 50
Hampton-in-Arden's first station was opened by the London & Birmingham Railway in 1837 but was replaced by this station built by the London & North Western Railway in 1884.
The station had a goods yard which was closed in the 1960s. Until the opening of Birmingham International in the 1970s it fast services from London Euston to Birmingham New Street stopped at the station, it had long platforms able to host twelve coach trains [1]. Nowadays it is only served by shorter semi-fast LNWR services and parts of the platforms are now fenced off.
The station is in a cutting with access to the platforms via the road that crosses the line. The booking office is at surface level, this is a newer building that dates from electrification in the 1960s and a major rebuild of the station. The original wooden waiting rooms on both platforms and the station house were lost, replaced by the usual bus shelters.
Hampton-in-Arden is served by up to two trains an hour along the WCML in both directions.
A Virgin Trains Voyager passes through
Footbridge
Station sign
A LNWR Birmingham bound 350 arrives
Access is via the road bridge, the surface building can be seen in the background
A Virgin Trains Pendolino passes through
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Rugby to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2008) Fig. 90
Long Buckby is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in Northamptonshire between Rugby and Northampton.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
LBK
Opened:
1881
Platforms:
2
Long Buckby, serving the village of the same name, was opened by the London & North Western Railway in 1881. Nowadays it is a station on the Northampton Loop of the West Coast Main Line, the line through Long Buckby was electrified in the 1960s.
Originally the station has wooden station buildings with canopies on both platforms. However nowadays it just has the ubiquitous bus shelters.
The station is on an elevated section of track and has a part-time ticket office in a cabin at the bottom of one of the ramps down to ground level. Long Buckby is served by up to three trains an hour on the WCML between Birmingham New Street and London Euston. On Sundays there are also hourly services to Crewe and Stoke-on-Trent.
LNWR 350 377 heading North
A Euston bound service is approaching
Bridge over the road, the station entrance is visible just beyond
Moreton-in-Marsh is a stop on the Cotswold Line between Honeybourne and Kingham. The terminus of the Stratford & Moreton Tramway, which opened in the 1820s, was also once next to the station.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Cotswold Line)
Station code:
MIM
Opened:
1853
Platforms:
2
The Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway reached Moreton-in-Marsh in 1853. The line later becoming part of the Great Western Railway. The Stratford & Moreton Tramway, a horse drawn tramway from Stratford-upon-Avon, commissioned a horse drawn connecting service which operated from 1853 [1]. This operated until the opening of the line from Honeybourne to Stratford in 1859.
Not long afterwards the GWR (as it then was) bought out and closed down much of the tramway and used it's Southern section as a conventional railway line to Shipton-on-Stour, services from Moreton station served by a bay platform [2], this branch opening in 1889 [3].
The original Moreton station was a rather cheaply made timber built one, the station was rebuilt in 1872-73 with some of the main station buildings still surviving in use [4].
The current Moreton-in-Marsh station is an interesting mixture of old and new. The main station building from the 1870s survives, along with it's GWR canopies but the footbridge is a recent replacement, the London Paddington platform has a modern waiting room. Due to the popularity of Moreton-in-Marsh with tourists some station signage is bilingual in English and Japanese.
A GWR Class 800 arrives at Moreton-in-Marsh
View under the canopy of the main station building
Signal box
Another 800 arrives
View down the platform
A new station building opposite the older one
[1] Charles Hadfield & John Norris, Waterways to Stratford (David & Charles, 1968) p. 144 [2] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Moreton-in-Marsh to Worcester (Middleton Press, 2004) Map. III [3] Hadfield & Norris p. 153 [4] Mitchell & Smith Fig. 6
Birkenhead Central is a stop on the Merseyrail Wirral Line between Hamilton Square and Green Lane.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Merseyrail Wirral Line)
Station code:
BKC
Opened:
1886
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the Mersey Railway in 1886 in a deep cutting and became the company's headquarters [1]. A depot and carriage shed was also built next to the station, these have now been closed. The station was refurbished in 2012 but still retains Mersey Railway branding.
The station retains a manned ticket office in the surface building, the platforms retain wooden canopies though also mixed with modern shelters and facilities. All services to Birkenhead Central are by Merseyrail with regular trains at up to fifteen minute intervals between Liverpool and Chester and Ellesmere Port.
Merseyrail 507 008 arrives with a Liverpool bound service
Platforms retain their canopies
Station building
Mersey Railway branding
508 127 heading South
Waiting to go
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Chester to Birkenhead (Middleton Press, 2012) Fig. 82
