Romford (RMF)

Romford is a station on the Great Eastern Main Line in what was historically Essex but is now part of Greater London.

Information
Type: National Rail
(Great Eastern Main Line)
Station code: RMF
Opened: 1839
Platforms: 5
The station was first opened in 1839 by the Eastern Counties Railway as the Eastern terminus of their line from Mile End. However the line was extended East to Brentwood the following year. Another station was opened in Romford by the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway in 1893. The two stations were combined in 1934. The LTS line is now London Overground's line from Romford to Upminster.

London services through Romford are the Shenfield Metro operated by TfL Rail (which will become the Elizabeth Line of Crossrail in due course) and Greater Anglia. The platforms of Romford station will be extended for the longer Crossrail trains with improvements to be made to the ticket hall and passenger information systems.
Greater Anglia 321 408 with a Colchester bound service

View across the platforms

Main entrance on the right under the bridge

Greater Anglia Class 360 heads through

Shottle

Shottle is an intermediate station on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. It serves the settlements Cowers Lane (which is nearest), Turngate and Shottlegate. The station was opened as Cowers Lane but was changed by request of the owner of Shottle Hall.

Information
Type: Preserved Railway
(Ecclesbourne Valley Railway)
Opened: 1867 (Closed 1947)
Re-Opened: 2014
Platforms: 1
Shottle was on the branch line from Duffield to Wirksworth and was opened by the Midland Railway in 1867. The station was closed for passenger use in 1947 as a fuel saving measure though remained open for freight until 1967 when full closure occurred.

The station was re-opened as a stop on the preserved Ecclesbourne Valley Railway in 2014. Like with Idridgehay further up the line the former station buildings are now privately owned (by an oil company in Shottle's case) so only the platform is officially part of the EVR station. The building's owners however agreed to have the building repainted in Midland Railway colours. The station building was designed by the Midland Railway's John Crossley [1] who designed all of the stations on the line.


Shottle hosts a passing loop on the EVR though only has a platform on the down line, trains from Wirksworth can stop for passengers to embark or alight but not from Duffield. A second platform is under construction and due to open in 2018. A couple of sidings are next to the station used by the railway for stock storage and engineering trains.
General view of Shottle, the former station building is not part of the EVR station

View of the former station building

A Duffield bound Class 33 hauled train passes a train waiting in the loop

One of Shottle's sidings

[1] Tom Tait & Neil Ferguson-Lee, The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway: the First 150 Years (Ecclesbourne Valley Railway Media, 2017) p. 10

Dollis Hill (ZDO)

Dollis Hill is a station on the Jubilee Line in North West London though has had a varied history being part of three separate lines on the underground.

Information
Type: Transport for London
(Jubilee Line)
Station code: ZDO
Opened: 1909
Platforms: 2
The station was opened by the Metropolitan Railway in 1909, in the early 1930s it was renamed Dollis Hill & Gladstone Park for a short period before reverting back. In 1939 the station was transferred to the Bakerloo Line as part of the Stanmore branch [1].

Metropolitan Line trains no longer stopped at the station after 1940 though continued (and to this day continue) to pass by on the fast lines. To facilitate the transfer of the station between tube lines the platform had to be moved so the Metropolitan Lines could be located either side of the Bakerloo [2].

Change of platform location, based on Horne p. 20
In 1979 the Jubilee Line was formed from the Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo. The station has a single island platform with access via a subway.
96ts 96108 on a Southbound service

View down the platform

Platform building

A Metropolitan Line S8 passes the station

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 114
[2] Mike Horne, The Jubilee Line (Capital Transport, 2000) p. 21

Bermuda Park (BEP)

Bermuda Park is one of two new stations (the other being Coventry Arena) which opened at the start of 2016 on the Coventry-Nuneaton Line.

Information
Type: National Rail
(Coventry-Nuneaton Line)
Station code: BEP
Opened: 2016
Platforms: 2
The station serves the business park of the same name in the South of Nuneaton. It is the first station on the site though is near Chilvers Coton which closed in 1965. Bermuda Park was opened in January 2016 a few months later than originally planned.

The station is a basic modern unmanned one with bus shelters and a ticket machine and little else. The station is not that busy yet, having just 2,384 passengers in its first year of operation though this is not helped by the station only having at most an hourly service between Coventry and Nuneaton. All of these services are operated by London Midland.
A London Midland service heading to Coventry

View down the platform looking towards Nuneaton

Station entrance

Platform shelter

Station sign

Smethwick Rolfe Street (SMR)

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)

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