Eaton Hall Railway

The Eaton Hall Railway was a 381mm minimum gauge railway built for the Duke of Westminster at his Eaton Hall estate in Cheshire. 

Belgrave engine shed, all images [1]

Information
Type:	Private Railway (Eaton Hall Railway)
Opened:	1896
Closed:	1946

The railway was built by Sir Arthur Heywood, who had previously built his own minimum gauge railway at Duffield Bank. The railway was mainly used to transport fuel to Eaton Hall though there was also other goods carried and sometimes passengers too. The railway included a branch to the estate's brickworks and the estate workshop.

The railway operated three steam locomotives. Most of the rolling stock consisted of freight wagons though there were also a couple of passenger carriages and a parcel van for carrying game after a shoot. The line was closed in 1946. In 1994 a garden railway also to 381mm gauge was opened at Eaton Hall and is operated when the estate is open to the public.

Balderton Junction, the main yard

One of the goods trains, notice the ER on the front of the locomotive

Eaton terminus and carriage shed

Estate works sidings

The first locomotive, Katie

[1] Sir Arthur Heywood, Minimum Gauge Railways (1894)

Farringdon (ZFD)

Farringdon is a railway station in Central London with Thameslink services (between London St Pancras International and City Thameslink) and London Underground Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Line services (between Kings Cross St Pancras and Barbican). The station will also be a stop on the Elizabeth Line from 2022. 

LU on the right, National Rail on the left

Information
Type:	National Rail (Thameslink)  Transport for London (Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Elizabeth Lines)
Station code:	ZFD
Opened:	1863
Platforms:	6

The station was opened by the Metropolitan Railway in 1863 as Farringdon Street and was the first Eastern terminus of the line, the world's first underground metro railway. The station was moved a short distance to it's current location in 1865 when the line was continued Eastwards to Moorgate. 

The station was renamed Farringdon & High Holborn [1] in 1922 when the current station building was built. The station was renamed to it's current name in 1936 (though still carries the previous name on the station building front (see below).

When the much delayed Elizabeth Line is opened in 2022, Farringdon will be one of the busiest stations in the country with up to two hundred trains per hour!

Station frontage

Thameslink 377 518 at Farringdon

View down the platform

Two Thameslink Class 700s at the station

Opposite the main entrance shown above is this alternative

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 123

New Brighton (NBN)

New Brighton is the terminus of a short branch of the Merseyrail Wirral Line from Birkenhead North. 

Merseyrail 508 130 at New Brighton

Information
Type:	National Rail (Merseyrail Wirral Line)
Station code:	NBN
Opened:	1888
Platforms:	2

The railway reached New Brighton in 1888, by then already a popular seaside resort on the Wirral, which until the First World War had a tower taller than Blackpool's [1]. The station was opened by the Wirral Railway and later passed to the London, Midland & Scottish Railway who electrified the route in 1938.

Once the station had a goods yard but now this is an industrial estate. The original Wirral Railway station building with its spacious booking hall remains.

New Brighton has services towards Liverpool Central at up to every 15 minute intervals.

507 005 at New Brighton

Station frontage

The station has a couple of stabling sidings

Under the concrete canopy

507 021 at New Brighton

[1] Jonathan Cadwallader & Martin Jenkins, Merseyside Electrics (Ian Allan, 2010) p. 66

Coseley (CSY)

Coseley is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in the West Midlands between Tipton and Wolverhampton. 

LNWR 350 242 departs bound for Wolverhampton

Information
Type:	National Rail (West Coast Main Line)
Station code:	CSY
Opened:	1902
Platforms:	2

The station was opened as Coseley (Deepfields) by the London North Western Railway in 1902, it kept this name until 1966 [1]. The station replaced an earlier station a few hundred metres along the track called Deepfields & Coseley. The new station had buildings with canopies on both platforms but one has now been replaced by a new build shelter. 

There is a ticket office at the road level which crosses the tracks with ramps down to platform level. The station is managed by West Midlands Railway with typically two trains an hour in each direction.

Ramp down to platform level

Modern waiting room

Original waiting room and canopy

Station view from the road bridge

Waiting to depart

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Birmingham to Wolverhampton via Tipton (Middleton Press, 2008) Fig. 95

Oswestry

Oswestry, in Shropshire, was a station on the Cambrian Railway line. A heritage railway has now opened on the station site though not using the original platforms.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Cambrian Railways)
Opened:	1860
Closed:	1966 (Cambrian Heritage Railways re-opened 2014)
Platforms:	6 (now 1)

The station was opened by the Cambrian Railway in 1860, being closer to the town centre than the GWR's station which opened in 1849. The town served as the railway's headquarters. The line completed the LNWR's mainline from Whitchurch to Welshpool. Later the Cambrian Railway built it's locomotive works opposite the station.

The station was closed in 1966 as part of the Beeching cuts, freight continued to use the line until 1971. Most of the station was demolished apart from the main building which has survived to this day and is now owned by the local authority.

The Cambrian Heritage Railway has begun operations using the surviving railway from Oswestry to Weston Wharf, with the eventual aim of reaching Gobowen. The heritage railway uses Oswestry station's former goods depot as it's station.

Main station building [1]

[1] C. P. Gasquoine, The Story of the Cambrian (Woodall, Minshall, Thomas, 1922)

Winsford (WSF)

Winsford is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in Cheshire between Crewe and Hartford. 

LNWR 350 369 departs, bound for Liverpool

Information
Type:	National Rail (West Coast Main Line)
Station code:	WSF
Opened:	1837
Platforms:	2

The station was opened by the Grand Junction Railway in 1837 as one of it's original stations. Later the station became part of the London North Western Railway. The station has been the scene of a number of accidents, two with major loss of life. Twenty four people died when two trains collided at Winsford in 1948. Eighteen died in an accident at the nearby Coppenhall Junction in 1962 in another collision.

The station is managed by London Northwestern Railway with hourly trains in each direction. The station has a staffed ticket office. Access between the platforms is via the footbridge or the road bridge which crosses the railway at the end of the platforms.

Station frontage

Under the footbridge

TPE 68 023 heads through light engine

Station view from the footbridge

A look down the platform

Golders Green (ZGG)

Golders Green is a station on the Edgware Branch of the Northern Line in North London between Brent Cross and Hampstead. The station is a transport hub with an adjacent bus and coach station. 

51600 at Golders Green

Information
Type:	Transport for London (Northern Line)
Station code:	ZGG
Opened:	1907
Platforms:	5

The station was originally opened in 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway as a terminus.

The line was extended North in 1923. An incompleted station is in between Golders Green and Hampstead, this was North End which was abandoned in 1906, though what was completed still remains and is used for storage [1]. Golders Green is the first station on this branch of the Northern Line to be in the open air after leaving London.

Golders Green was also home to a depot for the Northern Line and is where most overhaul and maintenance work takes place on the line [2]. The station has five platforms (one is unused) and three through roads.

51715 departs the station

Platform view, the platforms retain these fine canopies

Side view of the cab of 51626

A Northern Line train approaches

51721 stands at the station

[1] Ben Pedroche, Do Not Alight Here (Capital History, 2011) p. 134
[2] John Glover, ABC London Underground (Ian Allan, 1997) p. 41