Wylde Green is a stop on the Northern half of the Birmingham Cross-City Line. It is located between Chester Road (which is actually closer to Wylde Green itself) and Sutton Coldfield.
WMR 323 202 arrives at Wylde Green
Information
Type:
National Rail (Cross-City Line)
Station code:
WYL
Opened:
1862
Platforms:
2
The station was opened in 1862 by the London & North Western Railway on it's line from Birmingham New Street to Sutton Coldfield. The station was built to the standard layout as then used by the LNWR with wooden platform buildings, including a booking office and waiting rooms.
The station had no goods facilities though did have a signal box [1], this has now gone. A brick booking office has been retained though platform shelters are now of the corrugated iron type.
The station became a park & ride station in the 1970s with the addition of an adjacent car park with space for forty-five cars (now fifty-one). The line through Wylde Green was electrified in 1993. The station is served by West Midlands Trains.
View up the line towards Sutton
Platform shelter
A train approaches
A WMR 323 waits at the station
[1] Vic Mitchell, North of Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2014) Fig. 96
Kidsgrove is a junction station in Staffordshire between Longport and Alsager or Congleton.
Northern 323 230 arrives at Kidsgrove
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line & Crewe-Derby Line)
Station code:
KDG
Opened:
1848
Platforms:
4
The station was opened are Harecastle & Kidsgrove [1] in 1848 by the North Staffordshire Railway, it had a number of name changes in the 1850s including being called Harecastle Junction and Kidsgrove Junction at various times! It was renamed Harecastle in 1885 before becoming Kidsgrove Central in 1944. After the closure of the other two stations in Kidsgrove the station became just Kidsgrove in 1966.
Kidsgrove is at the junction of two lines, the Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line (the branch splits at Kidsgrove for services to Crewe or Manchester Piccadilly) and the Crewe-Derby Line. The station is triangular shaped with each line having a pair of platforms. The platforms are connected via a lengthy footbridge.
The station has changed a little since the early twentieth century. The station used to have a north facing bay platform but this has now been lifted. A signalbox at the junction was closed in 2002 [2]. The station will receive lifts and a new footbridge to allow for step free access to all platforms.
The station is managed by East Midlands Railway and also served by London North Western Railway and Northern. There are at least six trains an hour.
EMR 158 889 departs heading South
An EMR 153 travels under the footbridge
Central platforms
LNWR 350 241 arrives with a South bound service
Looking South
[1] Adrian Hartless, Lines North of Stoke (Middleton Press, 2019) Map. XVII [2] Ibid. Fig. 63
Hartford is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in Cheshire between Winsford and Acton Bridge.
LNWR 350 247 departs heading for Liverpool
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
HTF
Opened:
1837
Platforms:
2
Hartford was opened by the Grand Junction Railway in 1837. In 1846 it became part of the London & North Western Railway and eventually a station on British Railway's West Coast Main Line. The station was rebuilt and rationalised during the electrification of the line through Hartford in the early 1960s.
The current concrete main station building dates from the rebuild and included a staffed ticket office. Other station buildings are of the bus shelter type. A footbridge allows transfer between platforms. The station is in a cutting with ramps up to the road level.
Birmingham Moor Street is Birmingham's second busiest railway station, situated on the Snow Hill lines between Bordesley and Birmingham Snow Hill.
Chiltern 68 015 and 168 110 at the two bay platforms
Information
Type:
National Rail (Snow Hill Lines)
Station code:
BMO
Opened:
1908
Platforms:
4
Birmingham Moor Street was built by the Great Western Railway to relieve pressure on Birmingham Snow Hill. Local GWR services from the South terminated at Moor Street instead, the other side of the Snow Hill tunnels. Moor Street became a terminus in 1968 with the closure of Snow Hill and the tunnels.
Moor Street itself became run down and depreciated during the 1970s and was under threat of closure itself, being the poor relation compared to Birmingham New Streetwhich is a short walk away. There is no direct rail connection between the two stations though Moor Street was built on top of the LNWR lines running into New Street. The large goods yard at Moor Street was closed in 1972. [1]
Birmingham Snow Hill (and the tunnels) reopened in the mid-1980s. Two new through platforms were built at Moor Street for these lines (and the three original terminating platforms closed). A new entrance built and canopies of the at-the-time common style of corrugated metal (as still used at stations like University). [2]
With Network South East running through services from London Marylebone to Moor Street in the early 1990s the station began to thrive again. To cope with demand, two of the terminus bay platforms were restored to service and the whole station was renovated in the early 2000s by Chiltern Railways (who manage the station) and the Birmingham Alliance. Moor Street could be further expanded in the 2020s under plans to improve West Midlands rail, with two extra bay platforms being built and services to Kings Norton and Tamworth added to the station. Moor Street will be next to the new HS2 terminus Birmingham Curzon Street.
Moor Street was restored as a GWR station using the style common in the interwar period. The original station building has been the base around which everything else has been rebuilt with the 1980s entrance demolished and new canopies and signage matching the period. Moor Street was used to represent an early 1970s London Marylebone in the BBC spy drama "The Game", the station needing little redressing.
One feature of the old station not restored were the locomotive traversers used on the original terminus lines. These allowed locomotives to be switched to an adjacent track taking up less space than a traditional cross-over [3].
Shifnal is a stop on the Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury Line in Shropshire. It is located between Cosford and Telford Central.
WMR 170 517 departs heading for Shrewsbury
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury Line)
Station code:
SFN
Opened:
1849
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1849 on it's line from London Paddington to Birkenhead. The station was built on a high viaduct that cuts through the town with a street level building. Nowadays this building is no longer part of the station except it's entrance. Access to the platform is via steps and a fairly long ramp.
The station is unstaffed and has the usual collection of bus shelters, information screens and ticket machines that denote the usual modern station. Access between the platforms is via a footbridge. The original platform building still exists but is no longer in use. The station is managed by West Midlands Railway who maintain a half-hourly service most days. Transport for Wales also serve the station a couple of times a day.
Footbridge
TfW 158 837 passes through the station
Ramp down to street level
A good view of Shifnal and the surrounding area can be gained from the footbridge!
Loughborough Central was a former station on the Great Central Railway. Now it is the Northern terminus and headquarters of the preserved line that has taken the same name.
Repton lets off steam at Loughborough Central
Information
Type:
Preserved Railway (Great Central Railway)
Opened:
1899 (Closed 1969)
Re-Opened:
1974
Platforms:
2
The Great Central Railway was the last of the great Victorian main lines to open with Loughborough Central opening in 1899. The station later became part of the LNER and British Railways who closed it in 1969 along with most of the GCR. The Great Central Railway from Loughborough Central down to Leicester North is now a preserved line which opened in 1974.
Loughborough Central was built in the standard GCR manner with a single island platform. The line is in a cutting with access from a ticket office at street level. The station building along with the signalbox and other features are Grade II listed. The station has been preserved as it would have been when a British Railways station in the 1950s.
Next to the station is the GCR's main engine shed. This however will be demolished and replaced by a larger shed when the GCR is extended up to (though not connecting to) the main line Loughborough station a few hundred metres away and the Great Central Railway (North) preserved line.
On the platform
Newsagent concession on the platform
Station entrance
Preserved diesel locomotives stored at Loughborough Central
A look down the well preserved platform, this is the longest canopy on a preserved station
Rugby is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in Warwickshire between Coventry and Long Buckby.
Chiltern Railways 68 015 heads light engine through Rugby
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
RUG
Opened:
1838
Platforms:
6
The current Rugby station is the third station on the line. The first was opened in 1838 by the London & Birmingham Railway a few hundred metres to the West of the current station [1]. This was a temporary wooden structure which was replaced by the second station, a little more to the East in 1840. This station was made a more permanent structure over the following decades.
However when a new line from Rugby to Northampton was opened in the early 1880s the need was felt by the then owners London & North Western Railway to replace the existing station with a new one. This was opened in 1882 (part of the second station continued to be used by the Midland Railway until 1930). The station was renamed Rugby Midland in 1948 [2] to differentiate the station from the one the Great Central Railway opened in 1899, Rugby Central. After the former GCR station was closed in 1969 Rugby Midland reverted back to just Rugby. The station had a number of bay platforms but most of these were closed in the 1960s. Through trains used the island platform, this was one of the longest platforms in the country and, thanks to a scissors crossover half way along, could accomodate two trains at a time.
The station receives a major upgrade between 2006 and 2008 which included a remodelling to allow passing trains to travel faster through Rugby. The number of platforms was also increased to six with three new through platforms, the old island platform was reduced in length. A new road level booking office and main entrance were also built. Before this the booking office had been in the building on the original island platform.
Rugby is managed by Avanti West Coast.
DRS 57 309, one of the WCML's "Thunderbird" rescue locos
Look down the platforms
New Avanti West Coast signage
LNWR 350 373 arrives at Rugby
LNWR 350 113 departs London bound
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Rugby to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2008) Fig. 52 [2] Ibid. Fig. 55
