Smethwick Rolfe Street (SMR)

An updated version of this station profile can now be found on our dedicated railway station website

Smethwick Rolfe Street is situated on the Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford branch of the West Coast Main Line though all services to the station are on the Walsall-Wolverhampton route via Birmingham New Street.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Birmingham- Wolverhampton Line)
Station code:	SMR
Opened:	1852
Platforms:	2

The station was opened in 1852 by the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Stour Valley Railway later being taken over the London North Western Railway. The current station layout dates from a rebuild in 1890. The station building in good condition with many of its original Victorian features still on place, a former waiting room now retained for heritage displays and events. Access between the two platforms is via the road.

Platform 1 has had a mural since the 1980s. In the Summer of 2017 the mural was replaced by a new one painted by local college students.

All trains which stop at Smethwick Rolfe Street are operated by London Midland. Virgin Trains and Arriva Trains Wales services also head through the station.

London Midland 323 204 stops at the station heading for Birmingham New Street (next stop)

View down the platforms towards Birmingham

Access steps to Platform 1

Platform mural and station name board

Station building

ATW 158 826 heads through

London Fenchurch Street (FST)

London Fenchurch Street in South East London is one of the smaller termini in the capital though an intensively used one with over 18 million passengers flowing through it in 2015-16. It is the terminus for services on the London, Tilbury & Southend Line.

Information
Type:	National Rail (London, Tilbury & Southend Line)
Station code:	FST
Opened:	1841
Platforms:	4

The station was opened in 1841 by the London & Blackwall Railway with a rebuild in 1854 to serve the London, Tilbury & Southend and Eastern Counties Railways. It later came under the control of the LNER, which is why Fenchurch Street is one of the stations on the original Monopoly board! [1] Under LNER control a further rebuild took place in 1935 (the LMS ran trains to the station too). The London, Tilbury & Southend Line was electrified in the early 1960s. It is now managed by c2c who operate all services to the station.

Fenchurch Street takes its name from a street in the City of London where the station frontage is situated. Unlike the other London termini Fenchurch Street has no London Underground station though is just a few hundred metres away from Tower Hill and Aldgate stations and Tower Gateway DLR station. One proposal for the Fleet Line (later Jubilee Line) would have had a station at Fenchurch Street though a different route was chosen for the Jubilee Line's Eastern extension in the end. [2]

c2c 357 021 waiting to depart

Looking down platforms 1 and 2

c2c 357 202 stands at platform 3

[1] John Glover, Eastern Electric (Ian Allan, 2003) p. 36
[2] Mike Horne, The Jubilee Line (Capital Transport, 2000) p. 51

The Lakes (TLK)

An updated version of this station profile can now be found on our dedicated railway station website

The Lakes was opened by the GWR in 1935 on the North Warwickshire Line (nowadays branded the Shakespeare Line) as The Lakes Halt to serve the nearby Earlswood Lakes, the summit and feeder for the Southern section of the Stratford Canal [1] and also a popular destination for day trips.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Shakespeare Line)
Station code:	TLK
Opened:	1935
Platforms:	2

The station did have a manned ticket office once at peak times but nowadays is a quiet unmanned station with just a couple of bus shelters [2].

The platforms are very short (about 40m long) and passengers who want to alight at this station, which is a request stop, must be in the front coach of the DMUs that serve the Shakespeare Line.

London Midland 172 332 departs heading for Stratford-upon-Avon

The road bridge is the means of getting between platforms

Next train indicator

Pretty much the entire platform can be seen in this view!

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Stratford Upon Avon to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2006) fig. 62
[2] Colin G Maggs, The Branch Lines of Warwickshire (Amberley, 2011) p. 139

Ramsline Halt (RLE)

Ramsline Halt was a short-lived station for football specials to Derby County's Baseball Ground. The station was originally called Baseball Ground Halt.

Information
Type:	National Rail
Station code:	RLE
Opened:	1990
Closed:	1997
Platforms:	1

The station was opened in 1990 on a freight loop between Derby station and Peartree. The station was close to the football ground and so away fans specials could avoid Derby city centre and hopefully any potential trouble. The station was only used 4 times during its existence and was closed in 1997 after Derby County moved to Pride Park on the other side of the city.

Despite being closed for 20 years the station is intact with the platform still in reasonably good condition (though in need of weeding). The station will likely be demolished as part of the Derby station remodelling due for 2018. The freight loop will be removed as part of the work [1].

Ramsline Halt, view from a passing train

[1] Jonathan Webb, "Remodelling Derby", Today's Railways UK Issue 189 (September 2017) p. 38

Oxford Circus (ZOC)

Oxford Circus is an interchange of the London Underground's Bakerloo, Central and Victoria Lines in Central London. It is no surprise that Oxford Circus is one of the busiest stations in the UK with near 90 million entries and exits (and nearly 100 million in 2014). The station is named after the busy junction of Oxford Street and Regent Street above.

Information
Type:	Transport for London (Bakerloo, Central & Victoria Lines)
Station code:	ZOC
Opened:	1900
Platforms:	6

Oxford Circus was opened in 1900 as part of the original stretch of the Central London Railway (later the Central Line) from Shepherd's Bush to Cornhill (now Bank station). The Bakerloo was next to Oxford Circus when the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway built its line from Baker Street to Elephant & Castle. The original station did not meet the requirements of the parent company UERL and had to be substantially rebuilt even before it was opened [1]. This finally happened in 1906.

Finally the Victoria Line reached Oxford Circus in the 1960s. A complete reconstruction of the station was required to accommodate the new line including a new ticket hall built underneath the road junction itself. This required a large steel structure, called the Oxford Circus Umbrella, to allow traffic to continue flowing overhead while the new ticket office was built underneath [2]. The Victoria line platforms were built parallel to the Bakerloo platforms to ease interchange.

The station was given a refurbishment and facelift in the 1980s which included murals on the Central and Bakerloo Line platforms [3] though these were mostly removed in 2007 during another refurbishment.

A Northbound Bakerloo Line train arrives at Oxford Circus 

A Northbound Victoria Line train pulls into the station

Passageway at Oxford Circus

Bakerloo Line platform

Victoria Line platform

You have just missed this Central Line train!

[1] Mike Horne, The Bakerloo Line (Capital Transport, 2001) p. 11
[2] Mike Horne, The Victoria Line (Capital Transport, 2004) p. 35
[3] J. Grahem Bruce and Desmond F. Croome, The Twopenny Tube (Capital Transport, 1996) p. 70