The station was opened as Droitwich in 1852 by the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway. It was later taken over by the Great Western Railway. The station was renamed Droitwich Spa following a rebuilding in 1899. The station was linked to the Midland Railway's line between Birmingham and Gloucester via a branch line.
While Birmingham Snow Hill was closed between 1967 and 1995 services via Kidderminster went to Birmingham New Street instead. The station has a staffed ticket office. Access between the platforms is via a footbridge. Droitwich Spa is managed by West Midlands Railway, who operate all services to the station.
Station sign
Main station building
Semaphores at the end of a platform, the signal box can just be seen in the background
London Bridge is a railway terminus in Southwark, South East London. It is the fourth busiest station on the network with sixty one million passengers using the station in 2018-19.
Southern 171 202 arrives with a service from Uckfield
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Thameslink, Southern & South Eastern Services)
Station code:
LBG
Opened:
1836
Platforms:
15
The station was opened in 1836 by the London & Croydon Railway, it is the oldest London terminus still in use (and third oldest overall). The original station was much smaller than the huge site the station occupies now with just four lines and no roof (a canvas roof was added in 1840). By now under the control of the South Eastern Railway, the station was rebuilt in the late 1840s. Another rebuild came in 1864. Others have followed over the decades.
The Southern Railway electrified (third rail) the suburban lines out of London Bridge in the late 1920s (though the line to London Victoria and later Crystal Palace was electrified (overhead) in 1909). The station became highly busy due to commuter traffic to and from the South East. The station was rebuilt by British Rail in the early 1970s to cope with the huge passenger volumes. A further redevelopment has taken place in the 2000s and reopened in 2018.
Although London Bridge is a terminus it also has a large number of through services too, in fact nine of the fifteen platforms serve through lines with services West to London Blackfriars, London Cannon Street and Waterloo East. It is served by Southern, South Eastern and Thameslink. Below the station is the also large and busy London Bridge tube station.
Southern 455 834 and 377 158 at the buffers
Inside the redeveloped concourse
Southern 171 202 and friend prepare to depart
Southern 455 802 stands on one of the terminus platforms
Manchester Liverpool Road was one of the earliest railway stations to open. Although it was only open for passenger services for a short time, parts of the station still exist and are thought to be the oldest railway station buildings still in existence.
View of part of the preserved station
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Liverpool & Manchester Railway)
Opened:
1830
Closed:
1844
Platforms:
2
The pioneering Liverpool & Manchester Railway was the first inter-city railway with steam hauled services. The line began operations on the September 15th 1830 between Manchester Liverpool Road and Liverpool Crown Street. The opening day however was marred by the death of the Liverpool MP William Huskisson, who was run over by the Rocket locomotive during the running of a demonstration train for VIPs! The first actual passenger service ran the next day from Liverpool to Manchester, a trip with no mishaps [1].
The station was quite unlike what we would expect for a passenger station now. There were no platforms as such, ladders were used for passengers to get in and out of the carriages. There were waiting rooms and booking offices, a separate one of each for first and second class passengers.
The station was closed to passenger traffic in 1844 being quickly over taken by demand, the station was replaced for passenger services by Manchester Victoria. The station remained in use as a goods yard until 1975. The station site is now part of the Museum of Science & Industry.
Sign explaining the site's significance
Another view of the surviving station buildings
A mix of modern and traditional
Under the canopy
Preserved wagons in the goods yard
[1] Anthony Dawson, "The First Train on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway", Backtrack (Vol. 34 No. 7) July 2020, p. 380
The station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1867. It was called Rowley Regis & Blackheath up until 1968. The station had a goods yard though this closed in 1963. The station is in a cutting with a ticket office at road level and ramps down to the platforms.
The station is managed by West Midlands Railway, who provide up six trains an hour in each direction. Chiltern Railways also stop at Rowley Regis in peak hours with a number of their services to and from London Marylebone.
View down the line, both platforms have modern canopies and bus shelters
Station sign
Ramp down to the platform
The main station building can be seen atop the bridge in the background
Kew Gardens in the West of London serves the district of Kew, the station is between Richmond and Gunnersbury and is served by the London Underground's District Line and London Overground.
LO 378 226 at Kew Gardens
Information
Type:
Transport for London (District Line & London Overground)
Station code:
KWG
Opened:
1869
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the London & South Western Railway in 1869 on a new branch line to Richmond. The North London and Great Western Railways also ran services from the station in it's early days. Finally the District Railway arrived in 1877 and has remained ever since, now part of the London Underground.
The station has two platforms and surviving Victorian station buildings. Access to the platforms is via a subway. Over the station is a Grade II listed footbridge dating from 1912 to allow residents to safely cross the tracks. It is a rare example of Hennebique Ferro-Concrete construction and retains it's smoke deflectors which protected passengers using the bridge from the soot and smoke of passing steam trains [1].
Kew is home to the botanical gardens of the same name and the nearby National Archives. The station is managed by Transport for London.
LO 378 226 arrives
Going back a few years LO 378 meets District Line D78 Stock
378 255 under the Hennebique Ferro-Concrete bridge
A LO 378 prepares to depart
Another view from back in the days of D Stock!
[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 136
Wootton was a station on the Isle of Wight Central Railway between Havenstreet and Whippingham. Now it is one of the termini of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.
Ivatt Class 2 41298 runs around it's train at Wootton
Information
Type:
Preserved Railway (Isle of Wight Steam Railway)
Opened:
1875 (Closed 1953)
Re-Opened:
1986
Platforms:
1
The station was opened by the Ryde & Newport Railway in 1875 on it's line between Newport and Ryde. The station had a siding for use by a coal merchant [1]. The station was closed in 1953 though the line through Wootton remained open until 1966. Part of the line was re-opened in 1971 as the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.
However, Wootton station was not re-opened, the site of the original station is now a walking trail. A new Wootton station was built nearly two hundred metres away and opened in 1986 [2]. This is now one of the termini of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway (the other being Smallbrook Junction). The station now has a recreation of an Edwardian station building on the single platform and a run-round loop.
Buffer stop at Wootton
View down the line, 41298 approaches
41928 prepares to couple up
Running around
[1] R.J. Maycock & R. Silbury, The Isle of Wight Railways from 1923 Onwards (Oakwood Press, 2006) p. 155 [2] Ibid. p. 263
Uppingham was the terminus of the short branch line from Seaton in Rutland.
BR 2MT 41214 arrives (KD Collection)
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Seaton-Uppingham Line)
Opened:
1894
Closed:
1960
Platforms:
1
The station was opened by the London & North Western Railway in 1894. The branch line from Seaton had no intermediate stations. Uppingham is known for it's school and the school was able to run three special trains on the branch a few days before it officially opened [1]. School specials were also run for four years after the station closed in 1960.
The station had a single platform but also had a goods yard with a number of cattle pens. The goods yard remained open until 1964 [2].
Postcard view of Uppingham (Public domain)
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Lines around Stamford (Middleton Press, 2016) Fig. 13 [2] Ibid. Fig. 16
The station was opened by the Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway in 1849. It later became part of the Great Western Railway. The station had a goods yard, which lasted up until 1967. During the late 1930s the station had a staff of twelve [1] though is nowadays an unstaffed station.
Apart from the loss of the goods yard the station is pretty much unchanged from it's GWR days though the main station building was sold following refurbishment in the mid-1990s [2], it became a pub (though is currently closed and for sale). Access between the two platforms is via a standard GWR footbridge. The station is on an embankment with a ramp up from road level to the station. The West end of the platforms are on a bridge over the road adjacent to the station.
The station is managed and served by West Midlands Railway, who maintain an hourly service (with some peak time additions) in each direction.
Former waiting rooms on the right, modern bus shelter on the right
WMR 170 517 departs heading for Shrewsbury
Main station building
View West from the footbridge
On the footbridge
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury (Middleton Press, 2009) Fig. 66 [2] Ibid. Fig. 69
Finsbury Park is a major interchange station on the Great Northern routes out of Moorgate and London Kings Cross, as well as being a stop on the London Underground's Piccadilly and Victoria Lines.
Great Northern 717 009 arrives
Information
Type:
National Rail (Great Northern & Northern City Lines) &
Transport for London (Piccadilly & Victoria Lines)
Station codes:
FPK/ZPF
Opened:
1861
Platforms:
12
The station was first opened as Seven Sisters Road (Holloway) by the Great Northern Railway in 1861 on the East Coast Main Line out of London Kings Cross. The station was renamed Finsbury Park in 1869 after the Edgware, Highgate & London Railway built a line from the station to Edgware.
In 1904 what became the Northern City Line was built linking from Moorgate through Finsbury Park. The Piccadilly Line arrived in 1906 [1] though the current route dates from 1932 and the line's extension through to Cockfosters.
Also in the 1930s London Underground planned to take over the line to Edgware and make it part of the Northern Line as part of the Northern Heights project, the Second World War and a lack of finance killed off these grand plans, the existing line through to Edgware was closed in 1970. However the Northern City Line did become part of the Northern Line until it was passed to British Rail in the 1970s. Originally the Northern City Line was underground at Finsbury Park but these platforms were take over by the Victoria Line which opened at Finsbury Park, part of the first section of the line, in 1968. Since the 1970s the Northern City Line at Finsbury Park has used surface platforms.
Finsbury Park has, can be seen, a complicated history and resulting interchange of different lines and services (including two bus stations). The National Rail and London Underground stations are fully integrated though have separate ticket offices.
A Class 317 peers out between platform buildings
Platform view
Crossed duelling pistols mosaic on a Victoria Line platform
Station sign
Victoria Line
[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 124 [2] Mike Horne, The Victoria Line (Capital Transport, 2004) p. 61
