North Filton Platform

North Filton Platform was a stop on the Henbury Loop Line in South Gloucestershire between Charlton Halt and Filton Junction or Winterbourne. 

A DMU at North Filton Platform (KD collection)

Information
Type:	National Rail (Henbury Loop Line)
Opened:	1910
Closed:	1986
Platforms:	2

The station was opened as Filton Halt by the Great Western Railway in 1910, though closed in 1915. The station was reopened as North Filton Platform in 1926. The station was closed for regular passenger services in 1964, however remained open for worker specials until 1986. 

The line remains open though is closed to passenger services. Local campaigners want to reopen the line to passenger services and reopen North Filton station.

Caverswall Road

Caverswall Road is the the terminus and headquarters of the Foxfield Railway. It is close to, though unconnected to, Blythe Bridge main line station in Staffordshire.

W. G. Bagnall 3150 Wolstanton 3 stands at Caverswall Road

Information
Type:	Preserved Railway (Foxfield Railway)
Opened:	1986
Platforms:	1

The Foxfield Railway was an industrial line built to link the North Staffordshire Railway to the Foxfield Colliery in 1892. Until the line was closed in the mid-1960s (along with the colliery) it never carried passenger trains. The Foxfield Railway opened a few years later with new stations being built at Caverswall Road and Dilhorne Park [1].

Caverswall Road is built next to the Foxfield Railway's main locomotive shed. The station has a single island (though the line on one side of the island platform goes into the shed), with the usual preserved railway station facilities next to the shed.

View down the platform

LMS Theatrical Scenery Van M37519 stored at Caverswall Road

The Foxfield Railway has a selection of steam, diesel and electric locomotives

A train awaits it's locomotive

Inside the shed, a rare surviving NSR locomotive on the right

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Derby to Stoke-on-Trent (Middleton Press, 2016) Fig. 114

Birmingham Snow Hill (BSW)

Birmingham Snow Hill, one of Birmingham's three large central railway stations, has had a long history though the current station is very different to the original Great Western Railway station.

Chiltern 68 012 at the rear of a London bound train

Information
Type:	National Rail (Snow Hill Lines)
Station code:	BSW
Opened:	1852 (Closed 1972)
Re-Opened:	1987
Platforms:	3

This station opened in 1852 on the London Paddington to Wolverhampton line with major rebuilding and enlarging in the early 1910s to compete with Birmingham New Street. The station had a huge roof and an ornate facade like many major rail stations of the time [1].

Snow Hill was a victim of the Beeching railway cuts of the 1960s with a gradual rundown including unstaffing in 1969 and final closure in 1972 [2]. The facade was demolished in the 1970s, the station area itself surviving as a car park for a time. It featured in the 1970s BBC TV series Gangsters which had a fight scene take place in its crumbling ruins.

The original station clock was bought by a commuter for £125 when the station was closed as he had met his future wife under the clock years before. He said he intended to put the clock up on his farm in Uttoxeter [3]. Some items from the original Snow Hill including the Booking Hall sign were later reused in the refurbishment of the nearby Birmingham Moor Street.

Snow Hill was reborn in the late 1980s as a very different station with modern architecture and a car park on top (though reusing the old lines) with services to London Marylebone, Stratford-upon-Avon and Worcester the main destinations. The new station is on a smaller scale than the original with two island platforms (the original had ten platforms!) The Midlands Metro, when built in the 1990s, had its Birmingham terminus located at Snow Hill though that has now moved to outside Birmingham New Street.

Birmingham Snow Hill is managed by West Midlands Railway, Snow Hill was used to launch the new branding and livery [4].

Current plans are for more trains at Snow Hill as part of the Midlands Rail Hub plans with the former Metro terminus platform being reused for heavy rail. Chiltern hopes to extend all of its London services to Snow Hill (presently many services terminate at Birmingham Moor Street [5]). The original Snow Hill may have died a long time ago but the current station seems to have a pretty bright future.

Main entrance

WMR 172 220, the carpark can be seen in the background

On the platforms under the carpark

Alternative entrance on Livery Street

Inside the Livery Street entrance

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Banbury to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2015) map. XXXII
[2] The Guardian, 01 July 1966 p. 12
[3] Daily Mirror, Tue 1 Jul 1969 p. 2-3
[4] "West Midlands Trains launches", Modern Railways (January 2018) p. 12 
[5] James Abbott, "West Midlands Railway", Modern Railways (December 2016) p. 51

London Waterloo (WAT)

London Waterloo is the largest and busiest railway station in the UK, serving lines out of London into the South West as far as Portsmouth, Southampton and Exeter as well as busy commuter services.

An SWR 455 stands at London Waterloo

Information
Type:	National Rail (London South Western Lines)
Station code:	WAT
Opened:	1848
Platforms:	24

The station was opened by the London South Western Railway in 1848 as Waterloo Bridge Station. The station was designed as a through station not a terminus and was renamed Waterloo in 1882. The station was continually expanded throughout the latter nineteenth century as it got busier. However, the haphazard nature of the expansion, and the unfulfilled dream to make Waterloo a through station, meant that the station gained a bad name and the butt of many a music hall joke for a lack of facilities and the confused nature of the station layout (pairs of platforms shared a number for example [1]). 

The LSWR eventually gave up their dream of expanding from Waterloo into the city, instead building a separate underground railway in 1898 between Waterloo and Bank station in the city. This remained part of British Rail until being transferred to the London Underground in 1994 as the Waterloo & City Line.

In the early twentieth century the LSWR finally began the badly needed rebuild of Waterloo. The new booking hall opened in 1911 but delays due to the First World War meant the new station was not officially opened until 1922, just a few months before the LSWR became part of the Southern Railway.

Waterloo was the initial terminus of Eurostar services via the Channel Tunnel, new platforms opening in 1994. Eurostar services transferred to London St Pancras in 2007. The former Eurostar platforms were converted for domestic use, the extra capacity desperately needed due to the sheer volume of passengers using the station. Over ninety million passengers use London Waterloo a year. Underneath the station is the large Waterloo underground station which serves four tube lines. Next to London Waterloo is Waterloo East, a through station used by Southeastern services.

SWR 450 028 at London Waterloo

The roof over the platforms

Another view of 450 028

SWR 450 039 viewed from the other side of the gate!

Now an Underground station, 65507 on the Waterloo & City Line

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Waterloo to Windsor (Middleton Press, 1988) Fig. 1

Sutton Coldfield Town

Sutton Coldfield Town was a stop on the Sutton Park Line between Penns and Sutton Park. It is near to Sutton Coldfield railway station though unconnected. 

The station building today

Information
Type:	National Rail (Sutton Park Line)
Opened:	1879
Closed:	1925
Platforms:	2

The station was opened by the Midland Railway as Sutton Coldfield in 1879 (a name already used by the existing LNWR station). The station was on the Midland Railway's new route between Water Orton and Walsall. The station was renamed Sutton Coldfield Town in 1882, though in 1904 lost the Town suffix. The suffix was restored in 1924 but the station closed the following year [1]! The station was reopened temporarily in 1955 after the disaster at the other Sutton station when an express train derailed killing seventeen people [2].

The station building still exists though is used by a private business. Freight still uses the Sutton Park Line, there are plans to restart passenger services on the line and reopen some of the stations on it though not Sutton Coldfield Town.

[1] Vic Mitchell, North of Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2014) Map. X

[2] Ibid. Fig. 23

Aberystwyth Cliff Railway

The Aberystwyth Cliff Railway is a funicular railway linking the town to the top of Constitution Hill, a Victorian pleasure resort which overlooks the sea front.

On the way up

Information
Type:	Private Railway (Aberystwyth Cliff Railway)
Opened:	1896
Stations:	2

Work began on the railway in 1895 and it opened the following year. The railway is 237m long, making it the second longest funicular railway in Britain. The railway, with two cable linked cars, was originally water powered but was electrified in 1921 when a Morley motor was installed [1]. Most of the attractions on Constitution Hill were removed in the early 20th century though the railway remained popular with holiday makers and sight seers. Some attractions including a new camera obscura have been restored in recent decades.

The railway rises a total of 130m and is to 1, 422mm gauge. The railway's two cars are called Lord Geraint and Lord Marks. The journey takes two minutes and twenty seconds [2].

Sea level station

The way up

Approaching the summit station

A view of the sea and Aberystwyth

Approaching the sea level

[1] Martin Easdown, Cliff Railways, Lifts and Funiculars (Amberley, 2018) p. 5

[2] Ibid. p. 6

West Brompton (WBP)

West Brompton is a stop in West London between Fulham Broadway and Earl's Court on the London Underground District Line, and between Kensington (Olympia) and Imperial Wharf on the London Overground and West London Line.

A District Line S7 train departs

Information
Type:	Transport for London (District Line & London Overground, West London Line)
Station code:	WBP
Opened:	1866
Platforms:	4

The station was opened in 1866 by the West London Extension Joint Railway (WLEJR). The District Railway opened a station adjacent to the first one in 1869, a terminus until 1880 and the opening of the branch to Wimbledon. Passenger services on the WLEJR line ceased in 1940 and did not resume on what is now called the West London Line until 1994. The WLEJR station and platforms were demolished.

New Network Rail platforms for West London Line services were opened in 1999, access being via the London Underground station.

Southern 377 701 stands on one of the NLL platforms

Back in the days of D78 Stock, a District Line train arrives

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 165

Petrockstow

Petrockstow was a stop in West Devon between Dunsbear Halt and Meeth Halt. 

Petrockstow station (KD collection)

Information
Type:	National Rail (North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway)
Opened:	1925
Closed:	1965
Platforms:	2

The station was opened in 1925 though the line had existed since the 1880s as a narrow gauge mineral railway (Torrington & Marland Railway) carrying clay from Meeth to Torrington. The narrow gauge line was converted to standard gauge and became the basis of the Northern half of the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway. The railway remained independent until rail nationalisation in 1948.

Petrockstow served the nearby village of Petrockstowe (the station name was without the extra "e"!) The station was closed in 1965 when passenger services ceased on the line. The line continued to be used for freight until 1982. The site of the station is now part of the Tarka Trail network of footpaths but parts of the station including the platforms remain (if overgrown).

Level crossing sign (KD collection)