The original station was opened by the London & North Western Railway in 1850 on it's line between Rugby and Stamford. The Midland Railway reached the station in 1857 on it's new line from Leicester to Bedford. This line was later rebuilt for a higher capacity (nowadays it is the Midland Main Line) in 1885 when the station was rebuilt as a joint effort between the LNWR and MR in it's current position [1]. The LNWR built a branch from Market Harborough to Northampton in 1859, Market Harborough was by now a very busy junction with lines going in five directions! It also had three goods yards.
The current station building dates from this rebuild and is now Grade II listed. In the 1960s Market Harborough began to lose it's lines. The line to Rugby was closed in 1966 and the line to Northampton (by now freight only) in 1981. The station remains a stop on the busy Midland Main Line.
The station is being rebuilt to allow for faster speeds passing through the station (up from ninty seven to one hundred and thirty seven kilometres per hour [2], the new alignment was completed in the Summer of 2019. The platforms are also being extended. A new footbridge and extra car park spaces have also been built. One thing not happening at the moment is electrification. The planned Midland Main Line electrification has only reached as far as Ketting though there are new plans to extend to Market Harborough in the 2020s. The station is managed by East Midlands Railway.
Station building
New footbridge, which has lifts
View down the platform, rebuilding work is still ongoing at time of publishing
The platforms are on an embankment, reached via this covered walkway
An EMR HST prepares to depart
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Lines Around Stamford (Middleton Press, 2016) Fig. 1 [2] "New alignment opens at Market Harborough", Modern Railways (July 2019) p.22
Arley is a stop on the Severn Valley Railway that serves the nearby station of Upper Arley in Worcestershire. The station is located between Highley and Northwood Halt.
The station was originally opened by the West Midland Railway in 1862 and passed into the hands of the Great Western Railway and British Railways who closed it in 1963. The station was re-opened as part of the Severn Valley Railway in 1974.
GWR 4857 arrives with a Bridgnorth bound service
Information
Type:
Preserved Railway (Severn Valley Railway)
Opened:
1862 (Closed 1963)
Re-Opened:
1974
Platforms:
2
Arley has a passing loop that allows two full length trains on the mostly single track Severn Valley Railway to pass. It also has the original station house and a small goods yard. The signalbox is an interloper bought in by the SVR after the original was demolished by British Railways. Access between the platforms is via a road bridge at the end of the platforms.
Arley has been preserved to a very high standard and is one of the most picturesque stations on the line. It has been the setting for a number of TV programmes including Oh, Dr Beeching!
Crowborough is a stop on the Oxted Line in Sussex between Eridge and Buxted.
Southern 171 723 departs Crowborough
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Oxted Line)
Station code:
COH
Opened:
1868
Platforms:
2
The station was opened in 1868 as Rotherfield by the Brighton, Uckfield and Tunbridge Wells Railway. The station was renamed Crowborough in 1880 [1] (Rotherfield was given to a new station which was much closer to the actual village of Rotherfield!)
The station was rebuilt in 1905 by which time the station was known as Crowborough and Jarvis Brook. The station name was changed back to just Crowborough in 1980. The station was close to Crowborough Brickworks with a goods yard next to station which served the works. The works closed in 1980 [2].
The station is served by a train per hour in each direction between London Bridge and Uckfield.
Southern 171 802 arrives with a London Bridge bound service
Main station building
View down the platform towards Buxted
A view towards Eridge, the footbridge can be seen in the background
Southern 171 723 arrives
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Branch Lines to Tunbridge Wells (Middleton Press, 1988) Fig. 53 [2] Ian Dean, Andrew Neale & David Smith, Industrial Railways of the South-East (Middleton Press, 1984) Fig. 13
North Wembley is a stop on the London Overground Watford DC Line and the Bakerloo Line of the London Underground. The station is in North West London between Wembley Central and South Kenton.
A Southbound Bakerloo Line train arrives at the station
Information
Type:
Transport for London
(London Overground Watford DC Line &
London Underground Bakerloo Line)
Station code:
NWB
Opened:
1912
Platforms:
2
The station was opened by the London North Western Railway in 1912 on it's line from London Euston to Watford Junction. The station was originally to have been called East Lane [1] (which is the road the station is on) though was opened as North Wembley. The platform shelters and footbridge down to the platforms were of the standard LNWR type used elsewhere on the line and remain in place. The line was already electrified when North Wembley was opened [2]. Nowadays the line is part of London Overground.
The Bakerloo Line reached North Wembley in 1917 on it's way to Watford Junction. Services ran alongside the LNWR (later LMS and British Railways) DC trains until 1982 when the Bakerloo Line was cut back to Stonebridge Park. However Bakerloo Line trains were restored through North Wembley to Harrow & Wealdstone in 1984 [3].
In common with other joint stations on this line the difference in floor height between standard size London Overground trains and tube profile Bakerloo Line trains means the platform is higher than on a "pure" Underground station resulting in the need to step up out of or step down into a Bakerloo Line train.
London Overground 378 206 arrives with a Watford bound service
View of the footbridge, the station is in a cutting with a surface ticket office
A Bakerloo Line train, notice the step down needed into the 1972 Tube Stock!
View of the LNWR canopy
Bakerloo Line 3564 prepares to depart
[1] Keith Scholey, Euston to Harrow & Wealdstone (Middleton Press, 2002) Map. XVI [2] Mike Horne, The Bakerloo Line (Capital Transport, 2001) p. 35 [3] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 145
Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway is a park-and-ride station in the outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is on the Shakespeare (also known as the North Warwickshire Line) between Stratford and Wilmcote.
WMR 172 335 departs heading for Stratford-upon-Avon
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Shakespeare Line)
Station code:
STY
Opened:
2013
Platforms:
2
The station was opened in 2013 (unusually for a modern railway project several months early!) to avoid passengers having to travel into Stratford (which suffers from traffic congestion) and providing far more parking spaces than the more contrained town centre station. The parkway station has seven hundred and twenty five spaces.
The station is unstaffed and has a ramped footbridge to allow access been the platforms. It is served by two West Midlands Railway trains an hour plus a Chiltern service (some which go through to London Marylebone) every two hours.
