Wilmcote (WMC)

Wilmcote is six and a half kilometres North of Stratford-upon-Avon and serves the historic village of the same name which is the site of Mary Arden's Farm (this is advertised on the station name signs).

WMR 172 340 arrives with a North bound service

The original Wilmcote station dates from 1860 and was on the Hatton-Stratford Line with just a single platform. The current station dates from 1908 when the line from Birmingham to Stratford (and through to Cheltenham Spa) was upgraded and doubled by the Great Western Railway [1].

Information
Type:	National Rail (Shakespeare Line)
Station code:	WMC
Opened:	1860
Platforms:	2

Wilmcote station is just South of Bearley Junction where the Shakespeare Line (as the line is now known) is joined by a line from Leamington Spa. Wilmcote is managed and served by West Midlands Railway and also served by Chiltern Railways, some of whose services go through to London Marylebone.

Wilmcote is an unmanned station these days though retains its original GWR built station buildings however neither are open to the public. Access between the platforms is via a GWR footbridge.

View down the platform looking North

New signage

GWR footbridge

View South

Station sign

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2006) p. 37

Loughborough (LBO)

Loughborough is a stop in Leicestershire on the Midland Main Line between Barrow-upon-Soar and East Midlands Parkway.

43 050 heads through Loughborough on the last day of East Midlands Trains operation

Information
Type:	National Rail (Midland Main Line)
Station code:	LBO
Opened:	1872
Platforms:	3

The station was opened in 1872 by the Midland Railway though was not Loughborough's first station (this was opened in 1840 to the South). The station retains much of it's Midlands Railway architecture (and is Grade II listed) though the canopies have been reduced. The station was known as Loughborough Midland while the town had two other stations (the others being Loughborough Derby Road and Loughborough Central).

The station had two platforms on the two fast lines but in 1993 a third platform was added on one of the slow lines to serve Ivanhoe Line services. Platforms to serve an extension of the Great Central preserved railway (which now uses Loughborough Central) are planned.

The station is managed by East Midlands Railway who took over from East Midlands Railway in August 2019.

Main station building

EMT 222 001 arrives

Platforms 3 and 2

Station forecourt

An EMT HST passes through

Addlestone (ASN)

Addlestone is a stop on the Chertsey branch of the London Waterloo to Reading line. The Surrey station is situated between Weybridge and Chertsey.

SWR 458 520 arrives at Addlestone

Information
Type:	National Rail (London Waterloo - Reading Line)
Station code:	ASN
Opened:	1848
Platforms:	2

Addlestone was opened by the London & South Western Railway in 1848 at the same time as the rest of the Chertsey branch. Later on, when the station was owned by the Southern Railway, the line through Addlestone was electrified in 1937 [1].

Both platforms have brick buildings and canopies. There is a level crossing at the Southern end of the two platforms as well as a footbridge.

SWR 450 100 passes through

View from the footbridge

Station entrance

SWR 707 025 departs heading for Weybridge

Another SWR 707 arrives heading towards Virginia Water

[1] David Brown, Southern Electric Vol 2 (Capital Transport, 2010) p. 36

Wavertree Technology Park (WAV)

Wavertree Technology Park is a stop on the Liverpool-Manchester Line in the Liverpool suburbs. Although the station is fairly new it is flanked by two of the oldest railway stations in the world Edge Hill and Broad Green.

Northern 323 223 departs Eastbound

The station was opened in 2000 to serve the Wavertree area of Liverpool and the technology park of the same name. The line through the station was electrified in 2015.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Liverpool - Manchester Line)
Station code:	WAV
Opened:	2000
Platforms:	2

The station is served by Northern with four trains in each direction to/from Liverpool Lime Street to Wigan North Western, Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly, Warrington Bank Quay and some other destinations at peak times.

The station is in a cutting (it is on the Western end of the Olive Mount cutting which was driven through in 1830) and has a staffed ticket office and the usual collection of platform bus shelters.

View down the platform towards Lime Street

Northern 323 223 arrives

Northern 319 361 arrives

Platform shelter

Northern 319 372 departs

Denham (DNM)

Denham is a stop on the Chiltern Main Line in Buckinghamshire between West Ruislip and Denham Golf Club.

Chiltern 165 030 departs bound for London Marylebone

Denham was opened in 1906 as a joint venture between the Great Western and Great Central Railways. Initially the station was known as Denham - Junction for Uxbridge and was a stop on the shuttle line between Uxbridge High Street and Gerrards Cross.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Chiltern Main Line)
Station code:	DNM
Opened:	1906
Platforms:	2

The station buildings were built to the standard design as other stations on the line though as the station was built on an embankment it had wooden platforms to save weight [1]. Four tracks were ran through Denham until 1965 when the central through lines were removed. The goods yard was closed the year before [2].


The station is nowadays a stop on the Chiltern Main Line and managed by Chiltern Railways. However the station almost became part of the London Underground. The Central Line's Western extension programme in the 1930s was originally planned to reach Denham but due to new Green Belt legislation and financial cuts after the Second World War the extension work only made it as far as West Ruislip [3].

The main station building survives on the up platform though the down platform was replaced in 2008 with new shelters. The footbridge was also replaced at the same time.

Chiltern 165 019 arrives, the footbridge between the platforms can be seen in the background

Chiltern 165 038 arrives with an Aylesbury bound service

Main station building

View from the footbridge

Chiltern 165 032 arrives with a London Marylebone bound service

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Paddington to Princes Risborough (Middleton Press, 2002) Fig. 66
[2] Ibid. Fig. 68
[3] J. Graeme Bruce & Desmond F. Coombe, The Twopenny Tube (Capital Transport, 1996) p. 60

Highbury & Islington (HHY/ZHI)

Highbury & Islington is an interchange station in North London serving National Rail, London Overground and Underground services. It is typical of a number of London stations which has grown in size and complexity over the years as new lines have reached it.

London Overground departure

The original station was called Islington and was opened by the North London Railway [1] in 1850. The station was (somewhat unusually) renamed Highbury or Islington in 1867 before the "or" was replaced by "and" in 1872.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Northern City Line) & Transport for London (London Overground, Victoria Line)
Station codes:	HHY (National Rail) ZHI (TfL)
Opened:	1850
Platforms:	8

In 1904 a new underground station adjacent to it was built by the Great Northern & City Railway. This was operated by the Metropolitan Railway and later part of the Northern Line before being transferred to British Rail in the 1970s. The London Underground Victoria Line reached the Highbury & Islington in 1967 [2],  which was when the current station building was built.

Nowadays the station has eight platforms and is served by the Victoria Line, London Overground and Great Northern's Northern City Line.

The station, which is managed by Transport for London, is a busy one with nearly twenty million passengers a year on the National Rail platforms and not much less than that on the Underground.

London Underground 378 256 arrives

View down an overground platform

Northern City Line platform

Platform view

Victoria Line tile motif

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, North London Line (Middleton Press, 1997) Fig. 37
[2] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 131

Attenborough (ATB)

Attenborough is a stop on the Midland Main Line in Nottinghamshire between Long Eaton and Beeston.

Two EMT Class 158s at the station

The first station to be opened was Attenborough Gate by the Midland Counties Railway on it's line between Nottingham and Derby in 1856. This station only lasted a couple of years however and was replaced in 1864 by a station called Attenborough on the current site.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Midland Main Line)
Station code:	ATB
Opened:	1856
Platforms:	2

The station was renamed Chilwell in 1937 but the LMS (who owned the station by then) reverted back to the original name after a couple of months following a petition by local residents.

Attenborough is an unstaffed station with a level crossing at the Derby end of the two platforms. Little of the original station now remains following rebuilding of the station in recent decades, nowadays the station has the usual collection of bus shelters and signage. Interchange between the platforms is via the level crossing or a footbridge. The station is managed by East Midlands Railway.

Two EMT Class 153s pass each other at Attenborough

View from the road crossing

EMT 153 382 at Attenborough, the footbridge can be seen in the background

Barriers down

Nottingham bound EMT Class 158 arrives

Blackhorse Road (BHO/ZBK)

Blackhorse Road is a stop in North London on the London Overground Gospel Oak to Barking Line and the London Underground Victoria Line.

London Overground 378 232 departs bound for Barking

The station was opened, in a slightly different position to the East, by the Tottenham & Forest Gate Railway in 1894. The London Underground Victoria Line station was opened in 1968 [1]. The British Rail (as it was then) station was moved to it's current position in 1981 to aid interchange.

Information
Type:	Transport for London (London Overground & Victoria Line)
Station codes:	BHO ZBK (TfL)
Opened:	1894
Platforms:	4

The station was taken over by Transport for London in 2007 with the creation of the London Overground. London Overground services through Blackhorse Road were electrified in 2019.

The station has two above ground platforms for the Overground and two underground platforms for the Victoria Line. Like all Victoria Line stations Blackhorse Road has a tile motif on the platforms representing the station and surrounding area, while some Victoria Line station motifs can be rather esoteric Blackhorse Road's is pretty straightforward as it depicts a black horse! [1] There is also a black horse sculpture outside the station.

London Overground 710 269 arrives at the station

A Victoria Line 2009ts train arrives

View down the London Overground platforms towards Gospel Oak

Platform shelter

Victoria Line tile motif

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 105
[2] Mike Horne, The Victoria Line (Capital Transport, 2004) p. 60