Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Leicester West Bridge railway station


Leicester's first station was West Bridge on the Leicester & Swannington line, which opened in 1832. It closed to passengers in 1928, but remained open for good traffic until 1966.

You can catch a glimpse of the station in its last days in a video I once posted and there are some photographs of it from the same era by Arthur Beyless.

Today the remains of West Bridge station form part of a little urban park called The Rally. Study photos from a few years ago and you will see the restored platform, track and signal were in good condition and looked ready to cope with any train that might arrive. When I saw them last summer the buddleias and scrub were taking over.

There is a surprising amount of derelict land near the old station site, and I found what looked like an old water column from the good yard here.


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