Mid Evening Trains at: Stratford, GEML, 16/05/19

A very enjoyable evening spent at Stratford station on the Great Eastern Mainline where we see countless services from Greater Anglia, TFL Rail, London Overground, London Underground and C2C and freight from Freightliner and GBRF including a rare sight of 66711.

Theres so much to tell about this station but I won't go through it all.

Stratford station was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1839. A year later a large engine shed was constructed along with a large works which is now the sight of the impressive shopping centre.

When the line was opened it was used running track which was 5ft, this was done on the basis that the wear and tear on the trains wouldn't be as high, although because of this it meant that other railway companies had to adopt the same size if they wanted to share the line. It wasn't until 1844 that standard gauge was seen as the more easier and common gauge to go with. Which is 4ft 8 1/2

From when the station was opened to when the Great Eastern Railway made an appearance in 1862 - 1923 the station went through hundreds of changes. Lines were being added from all over the capital to give better ease of access to commuters trying to get in and out of the city. Platforms were built and more trains were coming throuh on a daily basis.

In 1877 several changes took place and include: a fourth line going from Bow Junction to Stratford, Western Junction was moved further south, New goods lines were added to ease on congestion with passenger traffic and a new signal box was built.

And in 1891 to 1893 the following took place: two more lines were added taking the total to so because of the growing number in traffic and the signal boxes at Western, Central and Eastern Junctions were all replaced with more modern structures.

There really is so much to try and tell about this station but I simply haven't got the time to go through absolutely everything. I could probably do a 10 part documentary about the station!!!

I'm gonna skip right up until the modern era. A full history can be found on Wikipedia about the station and how it helped the local area.

All of the station facilities are actually located underneath the station with ticket barriers just outside the shopping centre. The station is multi level with the upper serving the Great Eastern Mainline and the lower serving High Speed 1.

The station had to be redesigned when the central line was added to go through the station. Along with trains having to serve the North London Line.

Last year the station saw over 40 million passengers on its platforms last year. That's a loss of 2 million passengers from the year previous

My next station is going to be Watford Junction on the West Coast Mainline.

You can now find me on Facebook through the group Tornado922, there you will find regular updates, videos and photos from all of my goings on throughout 2019.

You can also find me on Instagram through the name tornado922.