Great Missenden (GMN)

Great Missenden is a stop on the London Marylebone-Aylesbury Line in Buckinghamshire between Wendover and Amersham. 

Main station building

Information
Type:	National Rail (London Marylebone-Aylesbury Line)
Station code:	GMN
Opened:	1892
Platforms:	2

Great Missenden was opened by the Metropolitan Railway in 1892, later also served by the Great Central Railway. The London Underground Metropolitan Line (as the Metropolitan Railway became) was electrified as far as Amersham in the late 1950s. The London Underground decided to not run trains any further than Amersham, Great Missenden was transferred to British Railways in 1961. 

The station's good yard was closed in 1966 [1]. A signalbox at the South end of the platforms was closed in 1984 and later preserved elsewhere. The original station building survives on the London side of the station though the matching buildings on the other side were demolished in 1964. A footbridge grants access between the platforms. The station is managed by Chiltern Railways with up to four trains an hour in each direction during peaks.

Another platform view, showing the footbridge

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Rickmansworth to Aylesbury (Middleton Press, 2005) Fig. 77

Bearley (BER)

Bearley is a stop on the Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon Line bnetween Claverdon and Wilmcote in Warwickshire. Bearley was once a much larger junction station but is now a simple single platform unstaffed halt.

WMR 172 342 departs for Stratford

Information
Type:	National Rail (Leamington Spa - Stratford-upon-Avon Line)
Station code:	BER
Opened:	1860
Platforms:	1

The station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1860 on a single track branch. A line to Alcester was added in 1876 [1], with Bearley being the junction of the two lines, some services along the Alcester branch starting and terminating at Bearley. Unusually for a GWR station a bay platform was not added for the branch [2]. The Alcester branch was closed in 1951.

The station also had a cattle pen and siding behind the station building and a signalbox, both were gone by the end of the 1960s [3]. Bearley now has just a bus shelter but prior to 1965 had quite a substantial stone station building.

The Leamington Spa-Stratford-upon-Avon Line was doubled in 1939 (it was doubled South of Bearley in 1907 as far as Wilmcote). and a second platform added with a footbridge between the platforms. However, the line was singled again in 1969.

The station is now an unstaffed halt managed by West Midlands Railway though most services to the station are by Chiltern Railways, WMR services are by request.

Down the platform with just a bus shelter for company

Station sign

Look up the line towards Claverdon

Chiltern 168 326 arrives a Leamington bound service

Station entrance

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham (Moor Street) (Middleton Press, 2006) Map. IV
[2] Colin G. Maggs, The Branch Lines of Warwickshire (Amberley, 2011) p.156
[3] Mitchell & Smith. Fig. 11

London Charing Cross (CHX)

London Charing Cross is a terminus of the South Eastern Main Line in London. 

Southeastern 376 002 stands at London Charing Cross

Information
Type:	National Rail (South Eastern Main Line)
Station code:	CHX
Opened:	1864
Platforms:	6

The station was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1864. The station was built on the site of the Hungerford market [1] next to the Strand. The station was built with a single span iron roof. Trains approach the station via the Hungerford Bridge over the Thames. The roof was replaced in 1906 after a collapse the previous year.

Charing Cross became one of the main departure stations for boat trains to the Continent, however after the First World War London Victoria took much of this traffic and Charing Cross went into decline. There were plans in the 1920s and 1930s to close the station or relocate it on the South bank of the Thames though the plans were all eventually dropped.

The station was rebuilt in the 1980s with most of the roof removed over the platforms and replaced by a new development, a nine storey office block [2]. The station is adjacent to Charing Cross and Embankment underground stations. The station is served by Southeastern with trains to Dover and other destinations in the South East.

View back at the 1980s development

Two Southeastern 465s under the roof

Station concourse

View down platform 3 and 4

Platform clock with NSE branding

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Charing Cross to Orpington (Middleton Press, 1991) Fig. 1

[2] Ibid. Fig. 7

Sibleys for Chickney and Broxted

Sibleys was a stop on the Elsenham & Thaxted Light Railway in Essex between Henham Halt and Cutlers Green Halt.

Sibleys station on opening [2]

Information
Type:	National Rail (Elsenham & Thaxted Light Railway)
Opened:	1913
Closed:	1952
Platforms:	1

Sibleys, in full known as Sibleys for Chickney and Broxted, was opened in 1913 by the Great Eastern Railway. As with other stations on the line it had a single low platform. The station had a booking office and an ex-GER coach body used as a parcels office [1]. This was later replaced by a former van body. The station had a siding with a loading gauge.

Sibleys was the name of a local farm, Chickney and Broxted being two nearby villages. The station was closed in 1952 along with the rest of the line.

[1] Vic Mitchell, Broxbourne to Cambridge (Middleton Press, 2012) Fig. 72

[2] "New branch of the Great Eastern", Railway Times (April 5 1913) p. 345

Canning Town (CNT/ZCB)

Canning Town is a major interchange of the Jubilee Line (between North Greenwich and West Ham) and two Docklands Light Railway lines (between East India and Star Lane and Royal Victoria and West Silvertown) and local buses in East London.

A Docklands Light Railway train arrives

Information
Type:	Transport for London (Jubilee Line & Docklands Light Railway)
Station code:	CNT/ZCB
Opened:	1847
Platforms:	6

The station was first opened in 1847 as Barking Road by the Eastern Counties & Thames Junction Railway.

The station was renamed Canning Town in 1873 and moved in 1888, with another move to the current site (the site of the former Thames Iron Works [1]) in 1995 as part of the new Docklands Light Railway (DLR) line to Beckton. The biggest change came with the arrival of the Jubilee Line in 1999, the Jubilee Line Extension emerges into the daylight just before the station. In 2005 more platforms for the DLR's line to London City Airport were added.

Canning Town is a triple decker building with the booking hall below ground and the Jubilee Line platforms above it, the Beckton DLR platforms are on the top level [2][3]. The latest DLR platforms are on ground level next to the Jubilee Line - though passengers need to go down to the booking hall before they can come back up for interchange.

Jubilee Line 96024 prepares to depart

The Jubilee Line platform

The lower level DLR platforms

View down the Jubilee Line platform

Jubilee Line 96015 arrives

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 108
[2] Paul Moss, London Underground (Haynes, 2014) p. 166
[3] Mike Horne, The Jubilee Line (Capital Transport, 2000) p. 73

Wigan Wallgate (WGW)

Wigan Wallgate is one of two stations in Wigan's town centre (the other being Wigan North Western which is about 100m away). Wigan Wallgate is a stop on the Manchester-Southport and Manchester-Kirkby Lines. 

Station frontage

Information
Type:	National Rail (Manchester-Southport & Manchester-Kirkby Lines)
Station code:	WGW
Opened:	1848
Platforms:	3

The station was opened by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1848 to the East of the current location. The station on the current site was opened in 1896. The station was originally known as Wigan but was renamed Wigan Wallgate in 1924. The Victorian platform level buildings were demolished in 1978 though the street-level building has survived.

The station is managed and served by Northern with up to six trains an hour departing from the station. The platforms are in a cutting with two through platforms and a bay for services towards Southport and Kirkby.

New Holland Pier

New Holland Pier was a railway terminus at the village of New Holland in Lincolnshire, the station being on a pier that jutted out over the river Humber.

New Holland Pier in latter years (KD Collection)

Information
Type:	National Rail (Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway)
Opened:	1848
Closed:	1981
Platforms:	2

The station was opened by the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway in 1848 on the seaward end of a pier. The station served Humber ferries which travelled to Hull and other destinations such as Immingham and Cleethorpes. The pier and station was destroyed by a fire in 1895 but both were rebuilt. The station was rebuilt again in the 1920s.

When the Humber Bridge was opened in 1981 the ferry service ceased and New Holland Pier railway station was closed. It and the previous station on the line New Holland Town were replaced by a new New Holland station in 1981.

Tottenham Court Road (ZTC)

Tottenham Court Road is a busy London Underground station on the Central (between Oxford Circus and Holborn) & Northern (between Leicester Square and Goodge Street) Lines in the West End of London. It will also be a stop on the Elizabeth Line between Bond Street and Farringdon.  

A Central Line train departs

Information
Type:	Transport for London (London Underground Central & Northern Lines, Elizabeth Line)
Station code:	ZTC
Opened:	1900
Platforms:	4

The station was opened by the Central London Railway in 1900. The Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway arrived next in 1907 though somewhat confusingly they called the station Oxford Circus (and Goodge Street was originally known as Tottenham Court Road!) The names were changed in 1908 when an interchange between the CLR and CCEHR stations was opened. Tottenham Court Road was rebuilt in the mid-1920s with a new sub-surface ticket hall and escalators replacing the original lifts.

The station was refreshed in 1984 with the original Leslie Green platform tiles replaced by a mosaic designed by Eduardo Paolozzi. These mosaics symbolised electronic goods which the area of London above the station was by then well known for. Some of the mosaics are still at the station in a modified form after a major rebuilding of the station ready for the opening of the Elizabeth Line [1].

Example of the Paolozzi mosaics at Tottenham Court Road

Platform example of a mosaic

View down the platform

A Central Line train stands at the station

On one of the Northern Line platforms

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 160