Warwick was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1852 on it's line between Oxford and Birmingham. The station was expanded in 1890 with the platforms lengthened. Warwick once had a bay siding for a bank engine to assist heavy goods trains up Hatton bank towards Birmingham.
Warwick had two goods yards, one for the gas works and the other for the Royal Agricultural Society which held shows nearby [1]. The goods yards and bay siding have now gone following rationalisation in the mid-1960s, as have the station buildings on the Up (London) line. The station building on the Down line still survives. The station has a small cafe and waiting room. Access between the platforms is via a subway.
The station is managed by Chiltern Railways who supply most services to the station on the Birmingham-London Marylebone route and services to Leamington Spa either from Stratford-upon-Avon or Birmingham Moor Street. West Midlands Railway also stop at the station at peak times.
Since the opening of Warwick Parkway in 2000 the original Warwick has become overshadowed to an extent by the new station as it has a better intercity service and much better parking.
Main station building
A Stoneblower passes through the station
Station frontage
Station sign
Two Chiltern services at the station
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Banbury to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2004) Map XIV
Wigan Wallgate is one of two stations in Wigan's town centre (the other being Wigan North Westernwhich 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.
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.
Wigan North Western is one of Wigan's two stations and is situated on the West Coast Main Line.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
WGN
Opened:
1838
Platforms:
6
The station was opened as Wigan in 1838 by the North Union Railway, this station replaced an earlier station located elsewhere in the town which has opened in 1832. The station was renamed Wigan North Western in 1924 due to the London & North Western Railway once operating it (although by then the LNWR no longer existed!) Another station in the town is Wigan Westgate which is about a hundred metres away and opened later.
The station was completely rebuilt in the early 1970s along with the electrification of this stretch of the WCML (electric services through the station began in 1973).
The station has six platforms, two are bays which are only used for peak time services to Manchester. The other four platforms are located either side of two islands, two platforms are used for WCML services and the other two for mainly local services. Access between the two islands and the booking office/exit is via a subway. The station is served by Virgin Trains (who manage the station), Northern and Trans Pennine Express.
Northern 142 094 on one of the bay platforms
Looking up the line
Northern 319 386 pauses on a local service on the Liverpool-Preston line
Warwick Parkway is a park and ride station between Hatton and Warwick near to the village of Budbrooke.
Information
Type:
Independently owned
(Chiltern Main Line)
Station code:
WRP
Opened:
2000
Platforms:
2
Unlike most stations on the network Warwick Parkway is not owned by Network Rail. It is owned by Chiltern Railways who opened it in 2000. The station was opened with seven hundred and thirty seven car park spaces but has been expanded since opening to now have near a thousand spaces.
The station has opened due to the problem with providing more car parking at the tightly constrained Warwick and Leamington Spa stations. The station is well situated for motorway (M40) access [1].
The station was upgraded in 2012 (when more car parking spaces were added) and has also had a refurbishment in 2019. It is mainly served by Chiltern Railways on services between Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone though there are also some peak time West Midlands Railway services too.
Chiltern 168 326 arrives with a Birmingham bound service
Platform shelter
Look down the platforms
...and the other direction
There are lifts for step-free access between platform and ground level
A Chiltern service prepares to depart
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Banbury to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2004) Fig. 48
Worcester Shrub Hill is one of Worcester's two railway stations though is not in the city centre like Worcester Foregate Street.
Information
Type:
National Rail (Cotswold &
Snow Hill Lines)
Station code:
WOS
Opened:
1850
Platforms:
2
Shrub Hill is a much larger station than Foregate Street. It was opened in 1850 and was a joint project of the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton and Midland Railways. The current station building dates from 1865.
The station has two platforms connected by a footbridge though people who can't use the stairs have to cross the track (under supervision). The former platform three was a bay platform that is no longer in use but used to host services to Cheltenham Spa. Shrub Hill is adjacent to Worcester TMD with a number of stabling sidings behind the station. The station is host to a number of fine semaphore signals.
As well as West Midlands Trains services to/from Birmingham and Malvern the station has regular GWR services to London Paddington, Hereford and other destinations like Evesham and Westbury.
Walsall is a stop on the Chase Line in the West Midlands between Bloxwich and Bescot Stadium.
LNWR 350 370 departs
Information
Type:
National Rail (Chase Line)
Station code:
WSL
Opened:
1849
Platforms:
3
The first station in Walsall was Bescot Bridge in 1837 built near Bescot Stadium station, but in 1849 a proper city centre station was built in Walsall by the South Staffordshire Railway on a route to Dudley. Further routes and lines were added to Walsall over the following decades.
The current station buildings date from the late 1970s when the old station was demolished as part of a major retail regeneration project. The Saddlers Centre shopping mall has been built atop the station and is where the main entrance and concourse is. Another entrance is via station street.
Nowadays Walsall, which is managed by West Midlands Railway, is host to services on the Chase Line between Birmingham New Street and Rugeley Trent Valley and services between Walsall and Wolverhampton (via New Street).
Freightliner 66 517 heads a freight passing through Water Orton
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Birmingham-Leicester Line)
Station code:
WTO
Opened:
1842
Platforms:
2
The first station at Water Orton was built by the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway in 1842. It was replaced by the current station built by the Midland Railway in 1909 after the junction of the line to Kingsbury was re-sited to allow for higher line speeds. The new station was built further away from the junction [1].
The station was built as a single island platform with the station building on a road bridge which crossed the railway lines. A goods yard used to be located next to the station but it was closed in 1966 [2]. The station building is still intact though the station is now unstaffed with just the most basic facilities.
Although the station is managed by West Midlands Trains only Cross Country services stop there, usually a two-hourly train between Birmingham New Street and Leicester though there is also one train a day to and from Nottingham. There is no Sunday service.
Station building
Cross Country 170 397 passes through bound for Nottingham
Signage and shelter on the platform
Access from road level and the station entrance is via these steps
Another Cross Country service passes through
[1] Vic Mitchell, North of Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2014) fig. 29 [2] Vic Mitchell, Birmingham to Tamworth and Nuneaton (Middleton Press, 2014) fig. 45
Wood End is a stop on the North Warwickshire Line (nowadays better known as the Shakespeare Line) between Danzey and The Lakes. The station serves the Warwickshire village of Wood End near Tanworth-in-Arden and is close to the border with the West Midlands region.
West Midlands Railway 172 220 departs
Information
Type:
National Rail (Shakespeare Line)
Station code:
WDE
Opened:
1908
Platforms:
2
As with some of the other stations on the line Wood End was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1908, it was located in a cutting next to the 161 metre long Wood End tunnel. The station was originally known as Wood End Platform [1] and kept this name until the late 1930s. The station was never a major affair, serving a sparsely populated area (Danzey was considered the better station for Tanworth-in-Arden). The station had no goods yard though did have a ticket office and a staff of two.
Station facilities were basic however, comprising of wooden structures [2]. The ticket office was damaged by fire in 1967. A concrete footbridge was built at Wood End in 1949. This was removed in 2014 when new stairs were built down to the platforms via access ramps from the main road.
The station is now an unmanned station managed by West Midlands Railway. The only facilities being two concrete shelters and public information screens. The station has an hourly service during the week between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon though has no Sunday service.
GWR style station nameboard
Platform shelter
Wood End tunnel
Station entrance
Stairs down to platform level
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham Moor Street (Middleton Press, 2006) Fig. 59 [2] Colin G, Maggs, The Branch Lines of Warwickshire (Amberley, 2011) p. 139
Warrington Bank Quay is a stop on the West Coast Main Line and local lines in Cheshire between Crewe and Wigan North Western.
An Avanti West Coast Pendolino departs north, the large Unilever factory is the station's backdrop
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line)
Station code:
WBQ
Opened:
1868
Platforms:
4
The station was opened by the London North Western Railway in 1868. The station was originally just called Warrington but Bank Quay was added to the name after the opening of Warrington Central in 1873 [1]. The station was originally on two levels, the two existing island platforms on a high-level and three platforms (including a bay) on a low-level for St Helens Railway services. The low-level platforms were closed in 1963 though the lines remain open for freight.
The station has four platforms, two per island. One island has nineteenth century buildings with the other buildings from the 1950s. The station was refurbished in the late 2000s, including a new entrance hall and an extension to the car park. The station is managed by Avanti West Coast and also served by Northern and Transport for Wales.
A Transport for Wales 197 arrives
Island platform and canopies
View down the platform
A TfW 197 prepares to depart
A southbound Pendolino arrives
[1] Adrian Hartness, Crewe to Wigan (Middleton Press, 2017) Map. XIX
