Attenborough (ATB)

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Attenborough is a stop on the Midland Main Line in Nottinghamshire between Long Eaton and Beeston.

Two EMT Class 158s at the station

The first station to be opened was Attenborough Gate by the Midland Counties Railway on it's line between Nottingham and Derby in 1856. This station only lasted a couple of years however and was replaced in 1864 by a station called Attenborough on the current site.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Midland Main Line)
Station code:	ATB
Opened:	1856
Platforms:	2

The station was renamed Chilwell in 1937 but the LMS (who owned the station by then) reverted back to the original name after a couple of months following a petition by local residents.

Attenborough is an unstaffed station with a level crossing at the Derby end of the two platforms. Little of the original station now remains following rebuilding of the station in recent decades, nowadays the station has the usual collection of bus shelters and signage. Interchange between the platforms is via the level crossing or a footbridge. The station is managed by East Midlands Railway.

Two EMT Class 153s pass each other at Attenborough

View from the road crossing

EMT 153 382 at Attenborough, the footbridge can be seen in the background

Barriers down

Nottingham bound EMT Class 158 arrives

Alton (AON)

Alton is the terminus of the Alton Line in Hampshire but also one of the termini of the preserved Mid-Hants Railway (also known as the Watercress Line). The station is shared between National Rail and the preserved railway with platforms 1 and 2 being used by NR and platform 3 for the preserved line.

In South West Trains days, 450 031 and friend wait at Alton

Information
Type:	National Rail (Alton Line) & Preserved Railway (Mid Hants Railway)
Station code:	AON
Opened:	1852
Platforms:	3

The station was opened by the London & South West Railway in 1852 though moved to its current site (immediately adjacent to the old site which now forms the car park) in 1865. Under the guise of the Southern Railway the line from Woking was electrified down to Alton in 1937. The station is nowadays managed by South Western Railway.

The Mid-Hants Railway was a separate line built by the Mid-Hants Railway Company from Winchester in the 1860s, it opened in 1865 and shared the same Alton station as the line from Woking. The line was closed by British Rail in 1973 after a long period of decline (the lack of electrification meaning that through-trains were not possible) but re-opened as a preserved line in 1977 as far as Alresford. However, services were not restored through to Alton until 1985.

BR 9F 92212 arrives at Alton on the Mid-Hants Line

View down the National Rail platform

View across from the heritage line platform

Heritage line platform

SWT 450 001 and friend at Alton, the footbridge in the background offers interchange between the platforms

Attercliffe Supertram

Attercliffe is a stop on the Sheffield Supertram between Woodburn Road and Arena/Olympic Legacy Park.

Supertram 117 arrives at Attercliffe

Information
Type:	Sheffield Supertram
Opened:	1994
Platforms:	2

Attercliffe was part of the first section of the Sheffield Supertram opened in 1994, it serves a suburb in the north east of the city. It is on the Yellow and Tram-train routes. It is unconnected to the former Attercliffe railway station which was on the Great Central Railway and closed in 1927.

Attercliffe has the usual basic facilities of a Supertram stop

View down the platform

Tram train 399 203 departs for the city centre

Ashchurch for Tewkesbury (ASC)

Ashchurch for Tewkesbury is a stop on the Birmingham to Bristol Line in Gloucestershire between Worcester Shrub Hill and Cheltenham Spa.

GWR 158 750 stops at the station

Information
Type:	National Rail (Birmingham-Bristol Line)
Station code:	ASC
Opened:	1840 (Closed 1971)
Re-opened:	1997
Platforms:	2

The station was opened as Ashchurch in 1840 by the Birmingham & Gloucester Railway later becoming part of the Midland Railway. The station was closed in 1971 though the line remained open. The station was re-opened on the same site in 1997. The station was completely rebuilt with very little from the old station now surviving though the water tank does [1]. Next to the station was a large goods yard which closed in 1964. A short line continues to be used by a nearby army base.

The station is managed by Great Western Railway who provide most of the services though there are some Cross Country services which stop during the peak hours. The station is unstaffed with access between the platforms via a footbridge. At the end of one platform is a small heritage area.

View down the platform, the footbridge has ramp access

Station entrance

Heritage area

Another look down the platform

GWR 158 959 departs

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Bromsgrove to Gloucester (Middleton Press, 2006) Fig. 48

Alyth

Alyth was the terminus of a branch line of the Caledonian Railway in Perthshire. 

A train at Alyth [1]

Information
Type:	National Rail (Caledonian Railway)
Opened:	1861
Closed:	1951
Platforms:	1

The station was opened by the Alyth Railway in 1861, the final stop on a branch line from Alyth Junction (with two intermediate stops). The station later became part of the Caledonian Railway and it's successors. Although traffic on the line was good early on, the population of Alyth declined over time and so did traffic and the need for the railway. Alyth and the branch line were closed for passenger traffic by British Railways in 1951 though the line did remain open until 1965.

[1] "The Perth-Dundee-Montrose Section of the LMSR", The Railway Magazine p. 4

Abergavenny / Y Fenni (AGV)

Abergavenny / Y Fenni is a stop on the Welsh Marches Line in Monmouthshire between Hereford and Pontypool & New Inn.

Transport for Wales 158 832 departs

Information
Type:	National Rail (Welsh Marches Line)
Station code:	AGV
Opened:	1854
Platforms:	2

The station was opened in 1854 by the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway. The station later became part of the GWR. The station building was built of pink semi-ashlar sandstone in the Italianate style and is now Grade II listed. In 1950 the station was renamed Abergavenny Monmouth Road but was changed back to just Abergavenny in 1968.

The station's platforms are accessed via a footbridge. The station is managed by and served by Transport for Wales with the usual frequency of at least a train per hour in each direction on the routes between Cardiff Central and Manchester Piccadilly or the North Welsh coast.

View down the platform

175 106 departs Abergavenny

Signal close-up view from the footbridge

Platform facilities

Preparing to go

Ascot (ACT)

Ascot is a stop on the London Waterloo to Reading Line in Berkshire between Sunningdale and Martins Heron. It is also the terminus of the Ascot-Guildford Line.

SWR 450 547 arrives at Ascot

Information
Type:	National Rail (London Waterloo-Reading Line & Ascot-Guildford Line)
Station code:	ACT
Opened:	1856
Platforms:	3

The station was opened by the Staines, Wokingham & Woking Junction Railway in 1856, for a about a month it was the terminus of the line before construction continued onwards towards Wokingham. The station was renamed Ascot & Sunninghill in 1857 and kept this name until 1921 when it reverted back to just Ascot.

A line to Ash Vale from Ascot was opened in 1870. The station was taken over by the London & South Western Railway and later the Southern Railway who electrified the line to Ascot in 1939. The work involved track layout realignment and station rebuilding [1].

Ascot now has three platforms which are all bi-directional, platform 1 used to have platform faces either side of the single track but one side has been fenced off now. The track layout at Ascot was once much more intricate with four signalboxes but these were closed in the 1960s. The station is managed by South Western Railway.

A SWR train waits at Ascot

View down the platform under the canopy

Platform canopy

Platform 1

View down the platforms

[1] David Brown, Southern Electric Volume 2 (Capital Transport, 2010) p. 36

Abbey Wood (ABW)

Alphabetically the first railway station on the list in Britain [1]! Abbey Wood is a stop on the North Kent Line in east London between Plumstead and Belvedere and also a terminus of the Elizabeth Line.

An Elizabeth Line train rests at Abbey Wood

Information
Type:	National Rail (North Kent Line) & Transport for London (Elizabeth Line)
Station code:	ABW
Opened:	1849
Platforms:	4

The station was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1849. In 1899 it became part of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway. The station, in 1986, became one of the first stations to have an APTIS equipped ticket office, within a few years this became the standard across all stations on the network. The station was also rebuilt in 1987.

The Elizabeth Line opened in 2022 with Abbey Wood as one of it's eastern termini, though the station was completely rebuilt again for the new service and opened in 2016!

Station entrance

Elizabeth Line purple roundel

On the platform

[1] The last station in the alphabet is Ystrad Rhondda in south-east Wales. There are a few closed railway stations which would come before Abbey Wood in the alphabet. Abbey, later called Abbey and West Dereham, is possibly the station which would come first of all. The Norfolk station closed in 1930. It was close to Stoke Ferry which we have covered.

Archway (ZAR)

Archway is a stop on the London Underground Northern Line's High Barnet Branch between Highgate and Tufnell Park.

Northern Line 51686 departs North

Information
Type:	Transport for London (London Underground Northern Line High Barnet Branch)
Station code:	ZAR
Opened:	1907
Platforms:	2

The station was opened in 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway as Highgate, then the terminus of the line [1]. The station was renamed Archway (Highgate) in 1939 though also used Highgate (Archway) for a few years before the name became just Archway (after the nearby Archway Tavern pub) in 1947. The line was also extended Northwards in 1939 with a new station called Highgate opening in 1941.

The station was built with lifts and stairs for access between surface and platform levels but escalators were installed in 1930. The original Charles Holden designed station building was replaced in the 1970s. As the station was original a terminus it had a cross-over just to the South of the platforms. One of the original storage sidings to the North of the station was retained for reversing purposes. The crossover was removed in 1967 though the reversing siding still exists though is seldom used.

Ready to depart

And it's gone!

Up the stairs

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 99

Arsenal (ZAS)

Arsenal is a stop on the London Underground Piccadilly Line in North London between Finsbury Park and Holloway Road. 

1973 Tube Stock arrives at Arsenal

Information
Type:	Transport for London (London Underground Piccadilly Line)
Station code:	ZAS
Opened:	1906
Platforms:	2

The station was opened as Gillespie Road in 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway. In 1913 Arsenal Football Club moved from Woolwich to nearby Highbury. A campaign to rename the tube station after the club began, the station was renamed Arsenal (Highbury Hill) in 1932 though still carries the original station name on some platform tiles (see below). The final name change to just Arsenal was in about 1960. This is the only tube station named after a football club (no West Ham doesn't count!)

The station was rebuilt and expanded in the 1930s, the original station building replaced by a larger more modern design. Arsenal station has no lifts or escalators instead, unusually for a deep level tube station, access between the surface and platform level is via a long sloped ramp [1]. An extra access tunnel was built during the 1930s rebuilding to handle the greater flow of passengers on match days. A unique tidal flow system is fitted to the ramps to allow people to still get down to the platform when loads of football supporters are coming up the other way (and vice versa of course!)

View down one of the platforms

View down the other platform

Current and original name

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 100

Alsager (ASG)

Alsager is a stop on the North Staffordshire Line in Cheshire between Crewe and Kidsgrove. 

LNWR 350 106 departs heading North

Information
Type:	National Rail (North Staffordshire Line)
Station code:	ASG
Opened:	1848
Platforms:	2

The station was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway in 1848. It was renamed Alsager Rode Heath in 1889 but changed back to Alsager in 1923. The station retains it's station building though it is no longer in railway use. A signalbox was located next to the station building though was closed in 1985 and demolished [1]. The line through Alsager was electrified in 2003, the line can be used for diverted West Coast Main Line trains.

The station is now unstaffed with a couple of brick shelters. The station is managed by East Midlands Railway and served by themselves and LNWR. A level crossing is situated at one end of the platforms, access between the platforms is via the road.

View down the platform

LNWR 350 263 arrives with a South bound service

Platform shelter

Former station building

Level crossing

[1] Adrian Hartless, Lines North of Stoke (Middleton Press, 2019) Fig. 69