Friday 25 September 2015

West Byfleet 1986










(West Byfleet 10.9.1986 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)


It used to be so easy in the 80s - you could plonk yourself down at a main line railway station and just take photos all day! You still can of course, and today's pics will be historic soon enough.

One of my lines of choice was the SW main line out of Waterloo - really busy and with plenty of variety and, back then, still a good few loco hauled trains, mainly heading towards Salisbury and Exeter.

So here we go, just a selection of photos taken on an afternoon in September, 1986. Mainly electric units in blue and grey (there was one in the new Network SE colours but far too overexposed to put on here) and some 33s and 50s. I took a lot more pics than this but the ones looking west all ended up overexposed thanks to the angle of the sun.

More info (from Wikipedia)

West Byfleet railway station is a relatively minor stop on the South Western Main Line opened 49 years after the line reached the following station west,Woking which is the district of the station.

Service overview

It is served by all Alton and Woking (stopping) services by settled convention dating to the mid-to-late 20th century.[when?]
It adjoins West Byfleet and Woodham which are suburban settlements in the boroughs of Woking and Runnymede, to the south and north of the line, respectively. As to other towns it is the closest station to parts of the town/suburb of Byfleet and parts of the semi-rural suburb of Pyrford.
The station has three platforms, one of which (platform 2) is rarely used in line with nearby other South West Main Line stations. The station competes in the broadest sense, not of train company, with faster services at the next nearest station on the line, Woking station. Both are served by bus routes outside of the Transport for London fare-capped scheme.
The station was upgraded to increase disabled access, with lifts to both platform islands and a new bridge, work accomplished 2008-2009.

Services

As of April 2015 at off-peak times the station has 4 trains per hour in each direction, alternating between Woking and Alton as to the end or start destination to the south-west and both having London (Waterloo) as their north-east terminus. The Alton services calling at fewer intermediate stations (being semi-fast).
The station frontage appeared in the 1977 movie Adventures of a Private Eye starring Christopher Neil.
Preceding stationNational Rail National RailFollowing station
Surbiton or Weybridge South West Trains
Alton Line
 Woking
Byfleet & New Haw South West Trains
Waterloo to Woking
 Woking

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