National Rail Stations: London Victoria - Shanklin

Travel By Train: London Victoria - Shanklin

Now I didn't plan on doing any more challenges after riding every London bus route in London and walking the London Loop and Capital Ring, except for this long term one that will probably end up taking my entire life. I have previously visited every single London Underground station, as well as exiting and entering every single one, and my intention is to do a similar thing with all of the main National Rail stations in Great Britain, but only by being on a train that stops at every single one, not actually exiting or entering the station. When I decided to count up how many stations I had been to so far, it was quite difficult to get an accurate number as there's a lot to get through. Nearly all of the London Overground stations I had been to already as a kid, and a lot of other stations in London I had been to as part of the bus challenge, like the Thameslink Sutton loop, a very quiet stretch of railway, and down to Belmont for Route 80, doing different journeys out to Bromley, Bexleyheath and Orpington, the Tattenham Corner branch after Route 166, and the Chessington branch after Route 71, with the terminus of the branch line featuring an abandoned platform. I also noticed how Bromley North Station, the end of another tiny branch line from Grove Park, has 'Southern Railways' written on the station building, although Southeastern services serve the station, which is a nice touch from the past. Angel Road after Route 341, which was the least used station in London at the time, and travelling over to Lea Bridge, which was London's newest station at the time, as well as travelling into London terminuses I hadn't been before like Charing Cross and Cannon Street were other stations I collected on the challenge. Collecting these stations naturally already gave me a pretty good percentage rate on stations in London. However, the very first station I apparently ever used was London Victoria, when I was only a few months old, as we went on a family trip to the seaside at Margate. One time, upon returning from Margate, I did use Southeastern High-speed, which runs into St Pancras International, but it was dark, so I never got to really see the train travelling fast. I've used London Victoria countless times since then, and another London terminus I was very familiar with was London King's Cross, as I have family who live at both Spalding and Boston Stations in Lincolnshire, so I also became very familiar with changing trains at Peterborough, and rarely I got a train which stopped at all station between Stevenage and Peterborough too. London King's Cross is definitely one of my favourite London terminuses, along with London Bridge and Paddington. Other stations I collected naturally because of family trips were Southend Central, Chalkwell, Leigh-on-Sea and Clacton-on-Sea, all for beaches, and one time on a fast train to Newcastle, catching the Metro to Sunderland, and because the metro uses the same tracks and platforms as national rail trains, that counts for this station. Broxbourne Station is another one for family in the area, but one time strangely, the doors didn't open whilst the train stood at the platform, so I was forced to carry on to Roydon Station to return back. As a child, I loved to read, and I spent a lot of time reading books from Roald Dahl, so when my family figured out he used to live in Great Missenden, one stop beyond the limit of the tube network at Amersham, and there was a museum dedicated to his life works there, I knew I had to go. One last trip to Hampton Court when I was young, and the total of all the stations I visited so far was about 400 or so. Two railway lines in London I always find a little interesting is the Thameslink Core and the Moorgate branch. The Thameslink Core is uniquely the only national rail line to travel right through Central London, rather than terminating on the outskirts of it, and at Blackfriars, the platforms sit above the River Thames on a bridge, which provides great views, although can be cold, and you pass right by a rather complete look of the old abandoned platforms at Kings Cross. Meanwhile, the Moorgate branch, running from Finsbury Park, used to be part of the London Underground, so does indeed run underground from Drayton Park, and with the old trains, always felt a little creepy, especially as the line had old signage up from when Network South East was a train operating company, which ended over 20 years ago. Unfortunately, a lot of these signs are now gone, but luckily, Essex Road has kept up a marvellous old NSE (Network South East) diagram of the entire line, probably the best remaining remnant of NSE's former life.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to going to all the national rail stations in the country, but any given opportunity to any place I want to go to, I will try to tick off as many stations as I could. My first trip out to purposefully tick off a new station first took me to Littleport Station, noticing how outside of the station, there was an NSE logo on the entrance sign, proving really just how many remnants still remain on the network today. The reason I came here was for a 5 mile walk, straight up a road with no pavements in the middle of the countryside the entire time. This was before I had any intention to do the London Loop and doing long walks, so I was actually not sure if I'd be able to do the entire thing, but I did. The reason for this walk was to visit Shippea Hill Station, which was the least used station in the entire country for that year, where only 12 people used it in the entirety of the year. The station only got one service a day at about 7AM to Norwich, and only one a week on a Saturday at about 7PM back to Ely, so I knew it would be a curious little station to visit, and it was. There was absolutely nothing there but one house, no ticketing facilities, an abandoned signal box, and no shelter on the platform that has the one service a week to Ely, which is the train I was waiting for. Shippea Hill is also a request stop, which means that you have to stick your hand out, as if you were hailing a bus, if you wish to board the train, or talk to the guard to let you off when you first get on. My rule for these were if no one requested to stop at these stations, but the train was scheduled to stop, it would count. It was a bizarre experience to visit this station, and the guard on the train even told me when he came along to check my ticket that that was the first time he had ever seen anybody use the station. I had a lot of fun taking the walk to Britain's Least Used Station, so a couple of months later, I thought I'd give another one a go. I took a Greater Anglia train to Braintree, the end of a branch line, where I thought I'd start a 7 mile walk passing every station on the branch that I had just stopped at on the way up here, calling at Braintree Freeport, Cressing and White Notley, which was the least used station in the county of Essex. All these stations were rather peaceful, and the country road in Cressing with a building that looked suspiciously like an old mill, as well as the village of White Notley were great to walk through. Cressing and White Notley Stations also both featured an old permit to travel machine, which wasn't working, which would dispense a small ticket for travel for a small price, needing to be transferred for a proper ticket by a guard before the end of your journey. Both having NSE logos on them as they are rather old, they're not really used today as most stations now have proper ticket machines, of which these stations did. White Notley also had an old sign with a First Great Eastern logo covered up, as that was the train company that owned this line before Greater Anglia came along, and weirdly, the platforms were extraordinary long, even though the trains were only 4 carriages. I enjoyed making these journeys to new stations and travelling to new places by train, so I was looking forward to finally getting around to doing more of these trips. 

I wasn't familiar with Great Western Railway hardly at all, never actually leaving London on it at all, so I decided one day to check out one of their branch lines in West London that runs between West Ealing and Greenford. West Ealing had an almost abandoned looking permit to travel machine, and although the Greenford branch starts from a side platform that's quite a walk down the main London bound one, did have a brilliant national rail symbol built into the brickwork. The three stations between the destinations, Drayton Green, Castle Bar Park and South Greenford, are all rather under used, so are definitely some of the quieter stations in London, and weirdly, South Greenford platform signs have West Perivale written on it too, which at first made me think that might have been the original name of the station, but I don't think that's the case. They also have the First Great Western logo on, the name of the company before Great Western Railway. I made my way up to West Ruislip afterwards on the Central Line to ride a Chiltern train into London Marylebone, noticing how South Ruislip platform signs still had the NSE logo on, as well as Marylebone's ticket hall area. I finished up the day by making my way up towards Croxley to check out an abandoned railway that used to run here, and at one time was planned to be reinstated as part of a Metropolitan line extension, but that idea went bust. I'm kind of glad it did though as this is quite possibly the best example of an abandoned railway nearby to London and the surrounding counties. Croxley Green, the end of the branch line, is brilliant if you get the opportunity to walk up the old stairs from the roadside to where the platform used to be, seeing old rest lampposts (NSE colouring) and the actual tracks still there hidden in the overgrowth and rusting away. This carries on to a bridge over the Grand Union Canal, which is amazing, and when you follow the alignment to the other stations on the branch, you can see the old platforms of Watford West and Watford Stadium from on top a road bridge with the tracks running by, which I can't explain how cool it is to see. There was even a sign saying this is London Underground property and that they were at work to clear the overgrowth, but of course, now the plan to redevelop this is abandoned, it's all slowly getting overgrown again. There's also a park right next to the abandoned tracks running behind that features two zip lines right next to each, so you can race your friend, which I've never seen before. It really is probably the best abandoned railway line to explore and it was great to see it in person. I really enjoyed my trip around London on railway lines I hadn't been on before, so I went out to do another a couple weeks later, starting off with the Epsom Downs branch line. I jumped out at a random station on the Sutton loop beforehand though, Sutton Common, because I knew that they were quite quiet, and I noticed that even these stations have old permit to travel machines with NSE branding on too. From Epsom Downs, of course I walked down to the racecourse, and then went back on the Tattenham Corner line again, deciding to randomly jump out at another stop, and I'm glad I chose Kingswood. You won't believe me when I say that the entrance sign also had an NSE logo, but I randomly came across an abandoned bunker hidden in the trees on the opposite side of the road from the station, which I checked out, and definitely made the right decision to come here. Afterwards, I thought I'd give the Caterham branch a quick try, getting out at Whyteleafe on the return to take a small walk to the nearby Upper Warlingham Station on a different line to return home. I did this one more time, more so just randomly travelling around London rather than going to new stations, by going out to West Drayton and back on GWR, unfortunately noticing that they had replaced the NSE sign, and then on the Bakerloo Line, which may have the best trains on the London Underground network because of how old they are, and then randomly picking a Southeastern train out of Charing Cross to ride on to the oyster zone limit, which just so happened to be Knockholt, which felt like the middle of nowhere.

A place I had an interest in visiting outside of London was Windsor, so I caught the train out of Paddington to Slough, the western edge of the London bus network, and then on the small branch line down to Windsor & Eton Central, noticing that there was a steam locomotive near the entrance of the station, and yes, there was a broken permit to travel machine with an NSE logo on. Obviously the main attraction I'd come to see in Windsor was the castle, which was amazing to see, and really is just right there as soon as you get on to the main Street through the town. I found a place called 'The Long Walk', which really was an unbelievable straight and long pathway that leads from the castle for miles, right underneath the Heathrow flight path, and I did decide to walk down it for a while, before turning back up and around, over the River Thames and by a farm to Datchet Station, on the other line into Windsor, and rather than walk it back, I did jump on the train one stop into the other station, Windsor & Eton Riverside. I then spent my remaining time in Windsor to check out the River Thames nearby as well as walking down to the racecourse, because if there is one nearby, of course I have to go and check it out. I really enjoyed my visit to Windsor, and as I got back on the train to Slough, I made sure to look out the window as we crossed over the River Thames, noticing where I stood earlier watching the train go over the bridge. I did another trip a little while later as I was really starting to enjoy visiting new places by train, so I made my way out of London Liverpool Street on a Class 90 train for the first time, which I really liked as the seats were really comfortable, there were tables, plug sockets, and there's the great experience of pulling down the door window to get a nice breeze ruffling your hair. I made my way to Colchester on that train, noticing how this station has an extraordinary long platform, and then I carried on around to Colchester Town, realising that the sign at the entrance to the station suggests that the station was previously called St Botolph's after the ruins of the church nearby. I also believe Colchester used to be the Capital of Britain, and was apparently the oldest recorded town in the country. After my quick explore of Colchester, I decided to do the Sudbury branch, reminding me very much of my trip on the Braintree branch, but rather than walking down the entire line, I would just jump out at each stop on the line. I didn't spend too much time in Sudbury, as I just went right back out on the same train immediately, but the line used to continue further, very much like the line at Braintree too. Bures Station was a request stop, but I didn't have to let the guard know I wanted to get off as someone had already done that, and I enjoyed my hour wait for the train there as the little waiting hut on the platform had some brilliant old railway posters, with one of them being to do with the London Underground. Chappel & Wakes Colne was the other stop on the line that I jumped out at, and that was an amazing surprise as there was a railway museum there, so there was old trains, old posters on the footbridge, a heritage sign on the platform, and brilliantly, you can get inside one of the old carriages, which has an old map up, which was great to see the old names for some existing stations. There was also a locomotive at the entrance to the station, noticing that there's also a NSE logo on the sign, and you can even enter the decommissioned signal box, as well as moving the levers, so this station was an amazing experience to visit, and is definitely one of my favourites. It was so much fun travelling on the Sudbury branch, and I would definitely recommend to visit the stations on this line to have a look around.

It was Summer 2018, and if it's a nice, hot day, then the beach is surely an option to go to, so I decided to try out Brighton for the first time. For some reason, my phone didn't charge overnight even though I had my charger plugged in, so I was left with small percentage on my phone the entire day. Also, my Thameslink train was cancelled, and the one behind was too packed to get on, so it took a lot longer than it should have to get down there. It seems everyone likes to go down to Brighton for a day by the sea, so it was really busy, but it was good to be on a beach. Of course I spent some time exploring around, going to stand on the pier, and then walk down towards the infamous i60 tower as well as seeing the ruins of an old pier that's out at sea. Although it's probably the busiest seaside town near to London as everyone goes down there and is relatively cheap, as well as Southend, it was quite fun to be exploring around a new seaside town for the first time. Another trip I decided to do around the same time was the North Downs Line, starting off from Redhill, a southern extremity of the London bus network. I went one stop to Reigate first for an explore around, noticing the old signal box next to the level crossing, with a great Reigate sign attached to it. I made my way down towards the site of the old castle here, where I noticed that there's tours of mines and caves probably underneath this site that occurs some times, which would be great to do, and maybe I should come back another time for it, as I find them interesting places to explore. I also checked out Priory Park to the south of town, before walking back to the station and continuing along the line. The journey up towards Guildford was really pretty as you travel right through the heart of the North Downs, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as you can see the Surrey Hills. The train tooted its whistle several times along the line, so there must have been a lot of foot crossings over the tracks as trains usually sound the horn to alert people about to cross. However pretty the line is though, it's not the best timetabled and there doesn't seem to be any trains which stop at all stations, so I missed out Gomshall and Chilworth, but it was fine as I wasn't trying back then to tick off as many stations as I can, otherwise I would have made sure to do these two as well. When I made it to Guildford though, I did take a quick look around the town, making sure to peek a glimpse of the castle, before heading back towards Redhill for home. It was really nice to travel on this line, and to explore new towns like Reigate and Guildford. 

It was now time for probably the biggest trip on the railways I had ever done, as I made my way to London Euston at about 11PM at night. This was because I was about to catch the Caledonian Sleeper, a train which runs overnight across the country, dispatching you in Scotland in the early hours of the morning, and because it runs all night, there are actually beds on the train for you to sleep in. However, this is a considerable amount of money more than just purchasing a seat ticket, which I did, which means it would be a lot tricker to try and fall asleep, which it was, and I don't think I slept at all for the entire 7+ hour journey. The leg room wasn't the greatest, nor was the fact that I had the space between two windows next to my seat so I couldn't rest my head against the window, nor get a good view, and to top it all off, the seating section had no plug points so I couldn't charge my phone overnight, which feels a little unfair. So it wasn't the greatest experience travelling on the sleeper train in the seating section but in the morning when you get some of the mountains of lower Scotland, and you can pull down the door window to see them properly during sunrise, it was really nice. Finally, the train pulled into Glasgow Central at about 7:20AM, which was a really nice looking station, and it felt so bizarre to be in Scotland, somewhere I had never been before at a really early time in the morning, but luckily, I wasn't actually feeling tired. Now the main intention for this trip was to travel to Corrour Station on the West Highland Line, quite possibly one of the most scenic railways in the world. The trains on this line was rather infrequent however, so I could have got the 8:21AM train from Glasgow Queen Street, which didn't feel as glamorous as the Central Station, but I thought I'd spend some time actually exploring this great city and get the 12:21AM instead. In that time, I went to try out the Glasgow Subway, a circular underground railway with 16 stops, crossing the River Clyde twice beneath the streets of the city. The trains were weirdly small in comparison to the underground trains I was familiar with in London, and some of the platforms were really narrow too, but was great to experience, and I did get off some of the stations to have a look at what's around, making sure to use my name sake 'St George's Cross.' Trying McDonald's pancakes for breakfast for the first time, and doing some window shopping in some shops to pass the time for my train, it was finally time to experience the West Highland Line. Glasgow Queen Street felt really busy, and my train filled up also immediately, but luckily, we had reserved seats. I believe Corrour is actually a request stop, but because we had reserved seats, I would assume that I wouldn't have tell the guard I'm getting off there as it should stop anyways, and it did, as well as loads of other people using the station too. I can not express how amazing the journey out here was though. At first, it just cut through the outer suburbs of Glasgow, but once you get into the actual Highlands, the views were outstanding with mountains, massive lochs, and at some point, there was a huge mansion overlooking one of these lochs in the middle of nowhere, which must be so amazing to live at. Even the stations along the line looked interesting too, and at some point, nearly 4 hours into the journey, I went for a quick walk through the train, noticing that where the 2 coach trains meet to form a 4 car train, the door to one of the cabs was open, so I just walked in, pulled down the window, and stared out at the amazing landscape. It really is amazing that they engineered the railway line through this landscape high up in Scotland, and when I got off at Corrour, that feeling remained. Corrour is renowned for being quite possibly the most isolated station in the country, with no public roads for miles, as well as also being the highest station above sea level. The only property nearby is the Corrour Station House, where the owners actually live on site, and is a cafe for walkers and the people who sleep there overnight. Yes, you can do that, as the signal box on the platform has been turned into a hotel, which must make it one of the most isolated places anywhere to sleep overnight, and you can walk up the stairs to where the control room used to be and get an even more amazing view of the mountains. I did take a small walk up towards a loch nearby, but it would have been good to have time to go up a mountain too. I had 3 hours in Corrour but I really wish I had more time, and I would love at some point to come up here again for longer than a day, and explore more places beyond Corrour on the West Highland Line like Fort William, Glenfinnan and Mallaig. The people working in the station house were very friendly too, and let me charge my phone as I went for a walk, as I couldn't on the trains, and I would recommend at some point if you have the opportunity to travel on this amazingly scenic line. The Caledonian Sleeper also runs here, providing a direct service to London, which is fantastic to think about, as these services can also run to Fort William, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness too, as well as Glasgow, but I was to make my way back down to Glasgow to catch the Sleeper back to London. However, my ScotRail train back got considerably delayed due to a faulty signal, and I was held at Dumbarton Central for over an hour, coming into Glasgow a whopping 77 minutes late, one of my biggest delays ever. Luckily, I still made my train back to London, and I was actually able to sleep this time, even though we came into London about half an hour early. Despite the Sleeper not being the most comfortable journey, and the huge delay, the whole experience of going to Scotland for the first time was something I will never forget.

It felt rather strange that my next trip out of London was relatively normal in comparison to the last one up to Scotland. Heading out west, I first made my way to Reading, which I was thinking of first going to when Crossrail opened, but I was interested in going somewhere else beyond this city, so I decided to go now. I didn't get much of a chance to explore Reading, so I'd like to go back and see more of it at a later date, probably not when Crossrail opens, because I've been out there now so there's no point going out there again just because of a new train service. The place I wasn't interested in travelling to was Newbury, making sure to get an all stations stopping train down there to tick of the line from Reading. At Newbury, I had a quick explore of the town, before heading down onto the river, walking back towards the station before where I got off. This is because I knew that Newbury had a racecourse, and as you may know, I have a fascination of going to explore a racecourse so I knew I had to come down here to check out Newbury's, and I'm glad that I did. I was happy to find you could go right into the middle of the course, and strangely, I found an old orange double decker bus, which was completely empty and you could even go in to have a look around. It definitely made exploring Newbury Racecourse worth it as it was such a bizarre find and there was nobody around. I made my way home after that, using the racecourse station nearby, probably the only station to have racecourse in its name, and a couple of months later, I found myself back down here again. That's because I found that the North Wessex Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was nearby, so I made my way down to Hungerford Station, two stops past Newbury to take a walk along the River Kennet back to Kintbury Station, which was a very pleasant walk as it follows the same direction as the railway line, and has some nice views whilst passing some locks too. Of course, I had to make my way back to the racecourse if I was down this way to check out the obscure location where the bus is, making sure to relax on the comfy chairs on the top deck. On the way home, changing at Reading, I caught my very first GWR Intercity 125 train, where I spent the majority of the journey back into Paddington watching the scenery rush past by the pulled down door window. Recently, I had been out for a rather short local walk, in that time, I found what looked to be an abandoned warehouse, as well as a bunker in the overgrowth. Luckily, I had found only one window that wasn't blocked off, so I could open and climb up into the building to check it out, so I thought I'd go back to have a look again before heading home after Newbury. I especially love Newbury Racecourse, and these two trips out here were a lot of fun.

It was time for another large trip out of London as I made my way to Waterloo and headed out on a SWR train to Portsmouth Harbour. Portsmouth was not the destination for me, even though the city looked to be an interesting place to explore, but instead I jumped on a ferry service, which rather uniquely, my train ticket was valid for. This was about a 20 minute ferry ride, and amazingly, I could go and stand on the deck, looking out towards the city of Portsmouth and its infamous tower, which made me want to go and see it, as well as out across the sea, which was incredibly windy. The Isle of Wight was slowly coming into view as the ferry got closer, and this was the ultimate destination of today, as it's one of the weirdest places that you can buy a train ticket to in Britain. That's because the Isle of Wight has its own railway line, owned by SWR, starting at Ryde Pier Head, way out at sea, which reminded me very much of the Southend Pier Railway, a miniature railway line that stretches out to sea on the world's longest pleasure pier, which is always a pleasure experience to do. Ryde Pier Head was unfortunely looking rather run down, as it looked like the station could collapse at any minute, and it really looked like it could do with a renovation. The amazing thing about the railway line on the Isle of Wight is the fact that the trains that they use were 80 years old at the time I went there, the oldest passenger trains in service anywhere in the country, but not only that, they also used to run on the London Underground. This was the unique place that London Underground trains run outside of London on the national rail network, and the fact that they were so unbelievably old made the whole experience so much more enjoyable. These 1938 stock trains, now known as the Class 483, had the red colour of when they were first introduced, had old A stock moquette, the fabric on seats from the trains that used to run on the Metropolitan Line, and even had a no smoking roundel on the windows, adding to the vintage look of the train's history. Where the line diagrams used to be, they have made their own version of them for the line that runs here on the Isle of Wight. Despite the clunkiness of the old trains, it was a really unique experience, and was really fun to travel on, noticing the woodwork around the windows, which I don't think they would ever have on newer London Underground trains. There's three stations at the top of the line, all with Ryde in their name, and at Ryde St John's is where the depot for the Island Line, so you can see some of the other trains stalled in the sidings. Smallbrook Junction is a rather unique affair where the station is only open during the summer, and has no access to the outside world, as it only exists to allow people to change on to the steam railway, which is one of many other railways that used to exist on the Isle of Wight. I did think about potentially going on the steam train, but i instead stayed on the train all the way to the destination of Shanklin. I noticed how all the stations on the line looked to be like old British rail stations with the totem signs and the classic green livery on the platforms. At the end of the line, beyond the buffer, there was a rather nice looking 'Welcome To Shanklin' sign, and I noticed in the ticket hall, there was another NSE sign. I walked down to the amazing beach here at Shanklin, and took a lovely walk along the coast, taking a high set of stairs, providing an overlooking view of the sea, back to Lake Station, the penultimate on the line, and looked to be the most rural. I also jumped off at Ryde Esplanade on the return to explore the town, noticing how there was a stray cat on one of the platforms of the stations. I was contemplating whether or not to walk the pier to the ferry back over to mainland England, but I also wanted to get one last journey on the old tube trains as it's a nice journey across the water to the ferry. I decided on the train, but weirdly, it didn't show up on time, despite the information board still saying it's on time 3 minutes after the departure time. When it eventually arrived though, they luckily held the ferry for the connection, and the train back to London. I really enjoyed my visit to the Isle of Wight, especially the ferry ride and of course, the old tube trains, but I wish I had more time to see more of it, as I would have loved to walk the pier and ride the steam train, as well as maybe go beyond Shanklin on a bus down to Ventnor, of which the railway line used to run further to. I should point out as well that I went to the Isle of Wight on the 22nd of August 2018, 2 years after I started the buses challenge, so it was a special day, and the best place to go to celebrate the anniversary.