Top 5 stations in the North West

Stuart Boyd • 12 March 2021

When ever I do a Q&A on Twitter one of the questions I always get is "Which is your favourite station so far?" It is very tough to choose a top 10 nationwide... So I have decided to split it up into a collection of Top 5's...

It's time for my final Top 5 countdown in England, the North West region. Regular followers of me on social media will probably already know which station is number 1, but you might find some surprises for 5-2...

5. Ince & Elton

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

Station: Ince & Elton

Line: Ellesmere Port – Helsby

County: Cheshire

Managed By: Northern


Ah Ince & Elton, a station I visited on a whim! I remember waking up on a Saturday morning and thinking 'nothing to do today, lets head out on the trains'. So I did. I decided to have an awkward station day, this included Heysham Port, INCE & ELTON and Stanlow & Thornton.


After visiting Heysham Port I headed south to Helsby. There I caught a bus to the village of Elton where I had loads of time to explore the delightful little Cheshire village! After getting some food I headed to the station where I found a station that felt like it was hidden in another world, it's hard to explain, but I'll try... When I was stood on the platform, sandwich in one hand, drink in the other, I couldn't help but feel like I was in the middle of no where. I wasn't, but that was how it felt. And for that reason, Ince & Elton kicks off my top 5 in the North West.

4. Entwistle

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

Station: Entwistle

Line: Ribble Valley Line

County: Lancashire

Managed By: Northern


Like Ince & Elton, this was another station where I first visited on a whim... I had been at a training course with work in Darwen. This finished earlier than planned. So I headed off to visit some stations. Obviously Darwen was the first of these stations, I then went off to visit Entwistle. I only had about 20 minutes there, so I decided to just take a little walk about out of the station.


I quickly realised that there was much more to visit here, so it's high on the list of places to return to, in fact the first week we come out of lock down I will be heading there to take a much longer walk. A lovely station that is well worth going out of your way to visit.

3. Settle

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

Station: Settle

Line: Settle & Carlisle Railway

County: North Yorkshire

Managed By: Northern


A station I have visited many times. When ever I visit the Settle & Carlisle line I usually alight the Bentham Line at Giggleswick  and take the short walk to Settle.


A magnificent station building, a magnificent footbridge, all set in a magnificent village, that is surrounded by some magnificent scenery. There is nothing to not like about this station. Unfortunately for me the north west is a really tough area to select a top 5 stations for. In any other region, Settle would probably get the number one spot... But this is the North West, the land of beautiful stations!


Should you be lucky enough to visit Settle this summer, you might be lucky enough to catch a HST courtesy of @CharterRail. Check it out, you won't regret it.

2. Dent

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

Station: Dent

Line: Settle & Carlisle Railway

County: Cumbria

Managed By: Northern


Yep, we are back on the Settle & Carlisle Line for the highest station in England. Needless to say it's in a very remote setting. The village of Dent itself being just short of 5 miles away, meaning most of the people who use this station use it for walking, as have I a few times.


A lovely station building with some of the most breathtaking backdrops you will ever see! It makes the perfect starting point for a lovely walk over the moors to Ribblehead. The walk takes in several viaducts, walking over the Blea Moor, before dropping down to the Ribblehead viaduct.


I always advise walking from Dent, the hill the other way is rather challenging!

1. Nethertown

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

Station: Nethertown

Line: Cumbrian Coast Line

County: Cumbria

Managed By: Northern


As my regular followers will already know, I really adore this station!  Nethertown is not only my favourite station in the North West, it's my favourite station in Great Britain... 


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.


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. 

DAY 3 Look back - Walking the scenic railways of Wales

by Stuart • 21 September 2024
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 2 Look back - Walking the scenic railways of Wales

by Stuart • 21 September 2024
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 1 Look back - Walking the scenic railways of Wales

by Stuart • 20 September 2024
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!

Stations to visit: KILDALE

by Stu • 28 April 2024
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.

Afternoon walk with Bailey

by Stuart • 27 January 2024
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!

The Northumberland Line

by Stuart • 21 January 2024
A blog about the new Northumberland Line that is scheduled to start opening in the Summer of 2024.

Walking the Great Western Railway - Day 4

by Stu • 6 September 2023
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 :)

Walking the Great Western Mainline gallery - Day 3

by Stu • 4 September 2023
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 :)

Walking the Great Western Mainline gallery - Day 2

by Stu • 3 September 2023
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 :)

Walking the Great Western Mainline gallery - Day 1

by Stu • 2 September 2023
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.
Show More
Share by: