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My Top 10 stations so far...
Stuart Boyd • 1 January 2020
Over the course of the challenge I've been asked what my favourite station has been so far. So for an end of year treat to everyone I have decided to give you my official top 10 stations I've visited so far...
This has not been an easy task, having now visited over 1000 stations it is tough. All the stations in the list are memorable to me for a variety of reasons. With this been the case, I doubt everyone will agree with me, but then again the world would be a very boring place if everyone agreed about everything!
So without further a do, lets crack on.....
No. 10 - Wemyss Bay(Scotrail)
Visit date: Saturday 1st December 2018
The simple answer is after reading many books that talk about Wemyss Bay and watching many videos including All the Stations I was expecting to walk in and be blown away. The truth is I simply wasn't. I fully appreciated the beauty of the station, hence why it's in my top 10, but when I compare it to other stations on in the countdown it simply doesn't compare with the WOW factor.
No. 9 - Wye(Southeastern)
Now Wye station in Kent sold it self to me the second i alighted and spotted the manual level crossing. I love a good old manual level crossing, and this was no exception. After watching the manual level crossing be reopened, which you can watch the video I recorded here, I headed down the platform and got another treat. A beautiful looking signal box. Unfortunately like many others, now abandoned and in need of some serious TLC.
A beautiful waiting shelter, a delightful station building added to the level crossing and abandoned signal box its clear to see why this station makes my top 10. The only thing missing would be an old school footbridge, something like the one at the next station in the countdown...
No. 8 - Corfe Castle(South Western Railway)
Corfe Castle... A relatively new addition to the National Rail Network, although an old station with much history.
Closing in January 1972 (After much opposition). The Station remained closed until August 1995 as part of the Swanage Railway. From May 2018 South Western Railway started operating services on Summer Saturdays only from Wareham to Corfe Castle.
I strongly recommend making a day of visiting this beautiful village, take a trip on the heritage line to Swanage, oh and don't forget to visit the castle.
I have a blog lined up for all the seasonal services which i will be publishing early next year.
No. 7 - Pont-y-Pant(Transport For Wales)
Situated on the Conwy Valley Line in North Wales this little hidden beauty exists. Deep in a valley covered in woodland and near to the River Lledr lives this very tranquil Pont-y-Pant.
I remember visiting here well, I got the bus from Betws-y-Coed to the end of the lane that joins the station to the main road. The walk over the river bridge then continued along the lane which was beautiful. I remember thinking how can there possibly be a station down this lane. Then there it was, this tiny little single platform hidden away among the trees.
Stations like this always get my heart, When i visit the Heart of Wales in 2020 I am sure there will be many more like this.
No. 6 - Kildale(Northern)
Kildale was a lovely surprise. On the Esk Valley hidden away against the backdrop of woodland is the lovely tiny platform of Kildale.
I alighted here in order to take the walk over Easby Moor back to Great Ayton. I ended up having to rush my walk a bit as i ended up spending too much time at the station enjoying its remoteness and beauty.
Thankfully I still have two stations on the Esk Valley Line to visit next year, I might have to sneak a revisit to Kildale in, maybe a walk to Battersby as I only had 1 min there last time.
No. 5 - Dent(Northern)
England's highest station marks the halfway point in my countdown.
Dent is a station I visit a few times a year when I take the walk between Dent and Ribblehead, a beautiful walk which you can see my video of here.
If you visit Dent i recommend you don't do what i did on my first visit and visit in the evening. It got very cold very quickly, thankfully there is 2 very warm waiting rooms at Dent which kept me warm for the 75 min wait I had.
The station is mainly used by walkers, as the village of Dent is a good 90 min walk away.
No. 4 - Chapelton(GWR)
Chapelton, on the Tarka Line, is Devon's least used station, and with only one house anywhere near you can see why. But in my opinion that just means thousands of people are missing out on the beautiful platform.
The Platform houses a magnificent waiting shelter, the beautiful flower beds, the amazing ruralness.
I walked from Umberleigh, via the picture postcard village of Atherington. I was glad to of allowed an hour extra for the walk in case I got lost, as it was, I didn't get lost so I had an hour to admire Chapelton. I honestly could have sat on the platform all day with a picnic and a good book... In fact, I think I will be doing that one day in the future!
No. 3 - Coombe Junction Halt(GWR)
Coombe Junction Halt... This is a station that most certainly needs no introduction! Now if I am completely honest with you, I had to force myself to not put every station on the Looe Valley Line into my top 5. After much deliberation I decided that Coombe Junction was in fact the only station on the line that would make the cut for my Top 10.
Coombe Junction holds the unfortunate record of currently been the least used station in Cornwall. With the same amount of services at Chapelton it's easy to see why. Although with the changes to the St Ives line it looks like in the future Lelant Saltings might take the title of least used station in Cornwall. Coombe Junction deserves to be more served simply because of the quirkiness of the station.
The first time I visited Coombe Junction was an amazing experience, even if it was an absolute nightmare of a trip. As you can probably see from the photos, I decided to visit Cornwall the one time they get snow, it genuinely only happens once in a decade! I had made it all the way from Ulverston to Liskeard only to discover that all Cornish branch lines were closed due to the snow. The result was that in the trip only two stations in Cornwall officially got ticked off. Liskeard & Bodmin Parkway.
I didn't waste my time in Cornwall in the snow. I took a magnificent walk via the lanes from Liskeard to St Keyne Wishing Well Halt and then took the lanes to Coombe Junction Halt. I was pleased I did this as some of the photos I got from that day are amazing.
No. 2 - Llanaber(Transport for Wales)
So, we are at the final two... Wow, I have literally spent the last half hour going back and forth in my mind trying to work out which gets the edge...
In at second place is Llanaber. It's Just perfection. It really is perfection, there is possibly only one thing I would change about the station, and that is I'd move it further from the main road. When you think of places to go where you cannot be disturbed for hours on end you really need to add Llanaber to the very top of the list.
Crashing waves, birds singing, wind howling, trains few and far between. It is simply heaven on earth.
The day I visited Llanaber was on the back of a break away with the other half. The previous day we had visited Harlech Castle and I had been given a taste of what the Cambrian Coast had to offer. So, after a huge amount of persuading the night before I was allowed to head back to Cambrian Coast while she headed home.
After visiting Tygwyn I took the short walk down the lane and caught a bus which was destined for Barmouth. I wouldn't be going all the way to Barmouth, or I wasn't meant to I should say. Despite me ringing the bell for the nearest bus stop to Llanaber station the driver decided to have a death moment and drove straight past. Despite me getting up and going to the front of the bus the driver would not stop until the next stop, on the outskirts of Barmouth. Meaning a hefty walk back up the hill.
Having done very little research on this line I was not prepared for the beauty that was to meet me at the end of the footpath to the station. At this point I was cursing the bus driver as my hour fester her had now been cut to only 25 minutes. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every minute of it. I will be back again, just try and stop me!
No. 1 - Nethertown(Northern)
There you have it, my favourite station so far is NETHERTOWN on the Cumbria Coastline.
Nethertown ended up getting the nod ahead Llanaber for literally one little thing. Nethertown has no main road nearby. No sound of busses or lorries.
I often head to Nethertown to escape from everyday stresses. Something I tend to keep under my cap is I suffer from a mild form of Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome. Over the years I have learnt how to cope with it ultimately, not letting it get in the way of my life and stop me doing a job I love doing. One of the ways I deal with my Asperger’s Syndrome is by every now and then going and having some escape time, some time to work everything out in my head. Nethertown ticks every box in achieving this.
Nethertown is a perfect station to visit if you love coastal walking. A walk I recommend is walking down on to the beach and following the coast along to St Bees, the same can be done the other direction to Braystones. My personal preference is to walk towards St Bees. There are more trains at St Bees than there is at Braystones. Also, St Bees has a couple of pubs that you can pass time in while waiting for a train to take you home again. I've a series of blogs planned for 2020 giving day trips ideas by Train. Nethertown will feature in the first of these.
One bit of advice I would give you is if you don't want to annoy the driver of the train, don't board at Braystones and alight at Nethertown. I have it on good authority that is a driver’s worst nightmare.
So, with Nethertown we end the most important Top 10 of the year so far ;-). I've always had a rough top 10 in my head that’s changed a few times over the years... But to sit down and have to finally put them into a definitive order was harder than I ever thought. What I can say is, we have some truly beautiful stations within this fine island of ours!
Throughout choosing my definitive top 10 there was several stations that kept coming into my mind, So, here is 10 of the stations that very nearly made it in to my official top 10:
- Tal-y-Cafn - Conwy Valley Line (Transport for Wales)
- Roman Bridge - Conwy Valley Line (Transport for Wales)
- Exton - Avocet Line (GWR)
- Lealholm - Esk Valley Line (Northern)
- Dove Holes - Manchester to Buxton Line (Northern)
- Dawlish - Exeter to Plymouth Mainline (GWR)
- Dolgarrog - Conwy Valley Line (Transport for Wales)
- Chetnole - Heart of Wessex Line (GWR)
- Causeland - Looe Valley Line (GWR)
- Bodorgan - North Wales Coast (Transport for Wales)
I wonder how this list will look at the end of 2020... Got the Far North Line to visit in June, Isle of Wight in July and Heart of Wales in August... I might have to turn into a top 20 or break it into categories.
All that remains for me to say is Happy New Year.
Many Thanks
Stu :-)
Day three of the walk saw me starting nice and early at Llandudno Junction. With one simple aim, to get as far along the Conwy Valley as possible! Betws-y-Coed was the minimum target for the day. On this day I was joined by KD ( @roadsignreporter over on YouTube ). Walking to Glan Conwy was easy enough for us both, I kicked myself that I hadn't pushed myself the day before! Blooming beer! After Glan Conwy it was time for the first of the many hills that Wales was going to throw at me during this walk. We had to head up the steep hills to avoid walking along the very busy footpathless A470. You can see the scale of the diversion on the Strava map at the bottom. Things improved at Tal-y-Cafn when we arrived at the lovely station. Had a good chat with the Network Rail level crossing staff there who refilled our water bottles for us. After this we headed across the fields and along the B5106 which we would follow mostly until Betws-y-Coed. Only really leaving the road to pop to the required stations to walk too. We had a nice surprise at Dalgarrog when we came across the Dolgarrog Railway Society platform where we chatted with one of the members. They told us about the work they are doing with the site. Was a really nice break from walking. Between Dolgarrog and Llanrwst our pace slowed down a fair bit, I think this was down to the heat, and it became clear Betws-y-Coed was going to be the end point for the day! We reached the village and the road kindly dropped us off at the Spar shop and bakery so was able to stock up on some essential cakes and drinks. Shout out to the TfW guard on the train back to Llandudno Junction who kindly wavered the fare for the journey. Was much appreciated!
Day two of the walk saw me walking from Bangor to Llandudno Junction. This day was a lovely walk mostly along the North Wales Coast Path. With getting ahead of schedule the day before I was able to relax a little today. So the target today was Penmaenmawr, anything after that was a bonus. On this day I was joined by friend and boss. Special mention to Ian, honestly without him keeping me on full pay while on these charity walks they simply wouldn't be able to happen! We stopped at the beach café at Penmaenmawr where comically we was counting out pennies to pay for our lunch as the café didn't accept card! While having lunch we looked at how far we would be able to walk. We set our target on Glan Conwy. We was going well following the A55 right until we arrived at Conwy where we went to a pub for a pint... After this we decided that with beer in us we wasn't going to be making it to Glan Conwy. Instead we slowly made our way to Llandudno Junction where we called it a day!
Day one of the walk would see me walk from Holyhead to Bangor. This was not the original plan. The original plan was to only walk to Bodorgan. But upon reaching Bodorgan and just missing a train I decided to push on and just see how far I could get! Sadly on day one I was on my own that day. But that was probably a good thing, I don't think many would of approved of walking 32 miles!
Kildale station is located on the very scenic Esk Valley Line that runs from Middlesborough to Whitby. From the June 2024 timetable change the station will see 8 trains per day, 4 in each direction! Although this is a limited service it does give you the opportunity to do some exploring of the area.
I set of on a walk with my sisters dog and headed for the disused canal from Kendal. I followed along disused canal to the village of Natland. I then swapped the disused canal for the river. After following the riverside path, I came across a footbridge that I had planned to use, annoyingly it was closed! Annoyingly I was planning to use this footbridge, due to this there was a lenghty diversion. Thankfully the diversion wasn't a total waste of time, I was able to walk through the beautiful Sizergh Castle and then head back up to my original route plan and headed to Helsington church and view point. After spending a little time chatting with my Dad (who's ashs was scattered there) me and Bailey then headed up to Scout Scar before setting of back down towards Kendal. Upon reaching the River Kent I decided that my feet was still feeling good and I headed back along the river to Hawes Bridge. I then headed up into the village of Natland and then up to Oxenholme where my walk came to an end!
A blog about the new Northumberland Line that is scheduled to start opening in the Summer of 2024.
This walk was a tail of two halves! The day started with walking through Reading suburbs and then through the city centre. Things mid morning took a positive turn as we headed to the The Kennet and Avon Canal which I then followed for the remaineder of the day. Only hopping away from the canal to go on to station platforms. A very enjoyable walk, even in the scorching heat! Stations visted today was: Reading, Reading West, Theale, Aldermaston & ended the day at Midgham. By walking between Aldermaston and Midgham I actually have managed to get a station ahead on my plan which can only be a good thing as I head down to the more difficult reagions of Somerset & Devon next week. Until tomorrow :)
Todays walk was a little bit of a tough one, mainly due to the excessive heat which is only going to get worse as the week goes on. Thinking there will be some early starts coming up to try and miss the worst of the heat! Today was a mixture of roads and walks across fields. Discovered there is some beautiful countryside between Maidenhead and Twyford. I strongly encourage you to take this walk! Stations visited today: Burnham, Taplow, Maidenhead and ended at Twyford. Was great to have Nick Badley along with me today. Make sure to check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@NickBadley . After the walk myself and Nick headed to Windsor where we met up with Coastway Will and had a Nandos dinner where the unlimited refils was very much used again and again! Until tomorrow :)
Todays walk saw me starting at Southall and heading straight to The Grand Union Canal. We followed this for most of the walk today. Stations called at today was: Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Iver, Langley before finishing the walk at Slough. Was great to have pals Jack and Dave with me today. Laughed for the most part, especially when we got the wrong place for the London/Buckinghamshire borders. That video on twitter got filmed twice lol. Massive thank you to everyone supporting the event via donations to either/both: Donate to Samaritans: https://justgiving.com/page/greatwesternwalk Support me with the challenge: https://www.gofundme.com/f/GreatWesternWalk My photos from today are below. Daves photos from today can be found here on his Flickr photostream: https://flic.kr/ps/3ppCTV Until tomorrow :)
The first day of the walk from London Paddington to Southall saw me call at Acton Mainline, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing & Hanwell. On the way we saw unexpected viaducts, fancy McDonalds, pretty gardens & nice market squares. Today I was joined by a couple of friends who can be found online at the following places, Please do check their accounts out. Jack All Station: twitter.com/JackAllStations Midland London: youtube.com/@MidlandLondon Below is a selection of photos from today.