The Beauty of Transport

Latest stations added to site Small Heath (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Spring Road (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) St Denys (updated) St Michaels Stirling (updated) Stoneleigh Stow Thank you very much to the contributor mentio…

5 stations added to the Mainline Station Heritage Artefacts Collection and 2 updated thanks to a regular contributor; including swags at St Denys. Inspired to submit something yourself? Info on how to is in the link.
stationheritageartefacts.org.uk/2026/03/10/l...

Latest stations added to site Falkirk Grahamston (submitted by Anne Sayer) Loughborough (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Market Harborough (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Sleaford Southampton Airport Parkway Stirling (updated) (su…

5 stations added to the Mainline Station Heritage Artefacts Collection and 1 updated thanks to 2 contributors; including Loughborough ticket office and seating (© Hazel Nicholson). Inspired to submit something yourself? Info on how to is in the link.
stationheritageartefacts.org.uk/2026/03/09/l...

A colour photograph of the cover of Trackside Transformation

Great to get a copy of Trackside Transformation, a guide to the evolution of British Mainline station from 1923-47 by Philip Butler and Daniel Wright, this week. Really looking forward to digging in. You can preorder a copy here artdecomagpie.bigcartel.com/product/pre-...

Great to see it’s reached you - we hope you enjoy it! cc @artdecomagpie.bsky.social

Latest stations added to site Bolton (updated) (submitted by Railway Heritage Trust) Crowhurst (submitted by Paul Wright) Sholing Shoreditch High Street St Leonards Warrior Square (updated) (submitted by Paul Wright) Wareham (submitted by Railway Heritage Trust) Thank you very much to the contributors mentioned above! If you're inspired to take part yourself, check out the "Join In" page. To keep up to date with new stations and artefacts added to the website, subscribe below:

4 new stations added to the Mainline Station Heritage Artefacts Collection and 2 updated thanks to 2 contributors. No contest for the featured image; I love a Pooley weighing machine (©
@railwayheritage.bsky.social
). Inspired to submit a station artefact(s) yourself? Info on how to is in the link.

This was lovely feedback to get! Trackside Transformation is still available to order direct at www.kickstarter.com/projects/art... or artdecomagpie.bigcartel.com/product/pre-...

Thank you very much! I am so glad you like it. That is all I could ask for. It became a project far bigger than Philip and I had initially expected but we loved doing it and are very proud of it.

Yes agree with all that. What is the long term plan here? RA3 on trains, RA2 on signs? Some muddle of both? Replace RA2 signs with RA3 at some point? Wish they had just braved out RA2 (which was of course itself lengthily tested for accessibility) or done the RA3 hooks etc in the first place.

But to your wider point, yes it does look very good when done properly.

Feels like I can read the word "Toilets" just fine without needing the GBR-revised 'l' with curled foot (sorry, don't know technical term for it). I really don't understand the need for the latest adjustments to RA2. People just can't leave things alone I suppose?

Loads of good stuff this time. Also including...
Hoses for refilling steam-heated carriages at Nottingham (© @watfordgap.bsky.social)
Some RCTS history at Cheltenham Spa (© @jdk653.bsky.social)
This smashing surviving 1908 door at Hall Green (© Hazel Nicholson)
Drinking fountain at Lancaster (me!)

Latest stations added to site Acocks Green (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Bournville (updated) (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Cheltenham Spa (submitted by Jack Kirby) Five Ways (updated) (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Hall Green (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Huyton (submitted by Paul Webster) Lancaster (submitted by Railway Heritage Trust) Llanelli (submitted by Railway Heritage Trust) Manchester Oxford Road (updated) (submitted by Paul Webster) March (submitted by Railway Heritage Trust)

11 new stations added to the Mainline Station Heritage Artefacts Collection and 5 updated thanks to 4 contributors. Highlights include some splendid floor tiling at Lancaster (© @railwayheritage.bsky.social). Inspired to submit a station artefact(s) yourself? Info on how to is in the link.

All change: The future of British trains arrives as government reforms broken railways With fares frozen, a bold new look and fundamental reforms becoming law, government is building a railway Britain can rely on and be proud of.

I don't think it actually will be one brand all over the country (which will disappoint people who wish it was). It's just that the DfT keeps suggesting it will be. "...bringing the railway together under one brand" is a recent example of such a promise, from www.gov.uk/government/n...

Latest stations added to site Dorridge (updated) (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Olton (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Widney Manor (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Selly Oak Sheffield (submitted by Railway Heritage Trust) Shenstone Thank you very much to the contributors mentioned above! If you're inspired to take part yourself, check out the "Join In" page. To keep up to date with new stations and artefacts added to the website, subscribe below:

5 new stations added to the Mainline Station Heritage Artefacts Collection and 1 updated thanks to 2 contributors. Highlights include a memorial to Sheffield's flood in 1991 (© @railwayheritage.bsky.social). Inspired to submit a station artefact(s) yourself? Info on how to is in the link.

ikr

Work under way to deliver step‑free access at Luton station Network Rail has started work on a project delivering step-free access to all platforms at Luton station.

Anyway, just to source those images,
Luton: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/work-un...
Frame/Ribbon: www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/NR-GN-CIV-200-07-Footbridges-Subways.pdf
Beacon: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/resources/ak...
AVA: www.greateranglia.co.uk/about-us/new...

Someone always says "no-one cares what it looks like if we get lifts that work" but... what if you got lifts that worked AND it looked nicer? How mad that we have such trouble conceiving of things that look good AND work well.

The Frame / The Beacon (Abergavenny) / The Ribbon (uncovered version built at Reston) / AVA (Stowmarket) - all easily adapted to a three-platform configuration. All better looking than the current A4A proposal for Luton. All from Network Rail's *existing* suite of standard footbridge models.

And now this dark grey monster of a footbridge!
Yet Network Rail already has a suite of better footbridge designs which could be used. Clearly no-one cares about the appearance of the station, so we're not trying to blend in with any existing features here. Here come some much better designs...

Look it at now. Ghastly metal staircase and glass boxes plonked on the front, ridiculous Victorian-style clocks, Crittall windows boarded over or rusting away. The plaza in front is one of the most soul-sapping contexts for any railway station in the country...

Once upon a time (1939 to be exact) it was rebuilt by the LMS with sort of Scandi-Modernist buildings. And it was really quite stylish. 1939 was also, apparently, the last time anyone gave any proper care to it...

The strange case of Luton station. It's getting an Access for All footbridge (yay!) but, in a crowded and hotly contested field, it is one of the ugliest I've ever seen. There is something about Luton that causes those responsible for it to treat it dreadfully. It wasn't always like that...
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I think about this a lot in relation to the Tyne and Wear Metro. It seems impossible to imagine Newcastle being able to build the Metro’s tunnels and great bridges today. Nor indeed any northern city.

A metro station of brutal concrete blocks and jagged black obelisks.

“You finished those DC metro stations?”
“Sure thing boss, beautiful, moodily lit and oddly unsettling, just like you asked.”
“What?”

Yes that did look like a particularly unfortunate experience.

Oh! Thanks. Well panic over then. Was just that it was the first time I’d seen a picture of them. And not being exactly local I thought they were new. I shall return to hibernation in the island…

Well, it didn't take long for your forecasting powers to be proved spot on (bsky.app/profile/theb...) btw any thoughts on this weekend's lottery numbers?

Bee Network-(sub)branded signage at Manchester Oxford Road. I don't think I've seen this before. Firstly - inevitable given the politics. Secondly - another blow to the idea that Great British Railways is bringing back any kind of 'national' branding to the network.

Just to scare @doublearrow64.bsky.social - this West Midlands Local Rail plaque from 1985 at Adderley Park has a symbol so bad it's not even wrong any more... (photo © Hazel Nicholson, full record of station artefacts at: stationheritageartefacts.org.uk/artefacts-re...

Latest stations added to site Adderley Park (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Birmingham Moor Street (updated) (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Queen's Park (London) Redhill Retford Rugby (updated) Romsey (updated) Saltash Solihill (updated) (submitted by Hazel Nicholson) Thank you very much to the contributors mentioned above! If you're inspired to take part yourself, check out the "Join In" page. To keep up to date with new stations and artefacts added to the website, subscribe below:

5 new stations added to the Mainline Station Heritage Artefacts Collection and 4 updated with thanks to a regular contributor. Highlights include Retford's extraordinary tiling in the former dining/refreshment rooms. Inspired to submit a station artefact(s) yourself? Info on how to is in the link.