St Albans Abbey Railway Station | The Abbey Line

Welcome to the Along The Railway Line series, this time visiting the Abbey Line. In this video I visit St Albans Abbey Railway Station.

00:00 Introduction
00:22 Station Walkthrough
10:28 Class 350 departure
07:43 Statistics
08:12 Final thoughts
12:00 Attempting to walk to Park Street Railway Station

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1980’s photograph (c) Geoffrey Skelsey
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S_Albans_Abbey_6_77479_1.jpg

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hello and welcome to rain and rail Enthusiast and the start of a series which I think is going to be very nice indeed I’m here today starting my trip on the Abbey line which runs from St Auburn’s Abbey station all the way down to Watford Junction and today I’ll start my journey at St alin’s Abbey station the first station to be built in St Orbin opened in 1858 as St Orbin it has always been a Terminus various extensions to l and dunable were planned but none were ever executed although a branch line to Hatfield also terminated here this was closed to passengers in 1951 with good Services taking it over but the branch line was eventually lifted in the 1980s and is now a cycle path the station was renamed St Auburn’s Abbey station in 1924 to avoid confusion with the other station in the city even though that had opened in 1868 it had an impressive station building with a canopy which not only covered the platform but also the passenger track the canopy was impressive as can be seen from this 1947 photo and to the right are the extensive good facilities the full extensive layout of the siding can be seen in this map this provided coal to the Gas Works immediately opposite the station as well other Freight duties it was controlled by a signal box to the southeast of the station going back to the building it had a booking Hall as well as a waiting room and toilet facilities like many small lines it faced closure under the beaching cuts of the 1960s but local protests helped save the line however the station buildings were gone by the late 1960s and when the gasworks closed in 1971 the sidings were gradually removed these pictures the first from the 1970s and the second from the 1980s show how much have been removed a solitary waiting shelter on a single platform hardly inviting however over the last 20 years the formation of the ABY Line Community rail partnership has enabled this single platform station to get back some of its charm as we shall see now right in the uh tour of the station at orb’s Abbey station Starts Here on a quite a busy Main Road and to get into the station car box a bit of a bind if you have to start from here as you turn around though you get greeted by these lovely iron gates there’s a couple of uh information posters there and uh St aubin’s Abbey information board telling you all the stations which this single line track goes to and on the wall here another plaque doesn’t sharp too well see if I can get on that y detailing about the art panels uh that were made by pupils from Mar Science Academy in St [Applause] Orbin these are those lovely iron gates detailing 1858 to 2015 and across the top there’s a gateway to stop larger Vehicles entering the car park and there is the rather nice uh St orb Abby station Sage British Rail Station signage which I do like actually uh it’s quite clean and quite quite visible just going to cross the road see if there’s anything a little bit more to this side but I don’t think there is platform just over there so let’s let’s carry on and uh we’ll see what we can see as we move into the station car park look uh this is a p display car park and there it is so let’s just walk up and see what else we can see and almost immediately as you start walking up here you will find these lovely mosaics placed on the side on the railings and again next to that there is a plaque detailing that these were designed by the children’s of St Peters school and funded by the ABY Line Community rail partnership doesn’t come out too well on camera that but uh I show you it is there just a quick glance at the modest car park and then one of a couple of entrances onto the station and the first thing you’ll notice is this buffer indicating this is indeed the end of the line trains here run over an O and they’re class 350s there’s a bike rack and quite a wide platform actually for a single platform take a little Excursion down something very nice here there’s a little station here to look after your bike seems to be bike uh brake cables and there’s also a pump here to pump up your tires that’s a nice little touch actually and as I’ve seen in a lot of these Community rail networks um they always seem to add these Planters but but here at orb’s Abbey station they seem to have gone really over the top uh these are quite large Planters there’s a bench there’s a bin and then you’ve got your information board with the Li Tre onward travel information board which of course here is very handy to take you up to uh the Aban Cathedral F to that is very modern but very large waiting shelter and we carry on down and after that first waiting shelter you get these signs telling you how to get to the city station as well there’s another station here at orb and also up to the city center to the other entrance which has some more information about London Northwest Railway another bin and this which I’ll will talk about a little bit more later which is the Abby Line Trail try and get this online if you want to have a look at that properly just pause walking away from that map you’ll look up and you’ll see a fairly new LED departure board and there’s also a bus map here and small timetable I talked about large Planters this is uh this is quite impressive I mean look at the size of that that planter and it’s very well looked after and it’s got the ABY line Community rail partnership logo on it there’s another bike rack obviously cyclists a very popular thing to do here as we follow down here another bin but also some more murals which really makes the uh station look very bright and colorful and again there’s a plaque here saying it was commissioned by the ABY Line Community rail partnership and designed by pups from Watford St John’s Church of England primary school and Park Street Church of England schools and Auburn interestingly unveiled by the mayor of Watford P Taylor on the 7th of February 2020 and we’ll know what happened about a month after that so quite a poignant piece of artwork really hey another waiting shelter and then there’s two of these another two of these murals I love these I think I think they really do help to brighten up a station and good to see they have not been vandalized excellent to see they haven’t been vandalized another absolutely massive planter I mean yes uh very well done ABY Line Community rail partnership for getting those done and we carry on down this is obviously a a raised part of the platform to enable push chairs to get easy on and off the train there’s another one this one looks like uh do with a little bit of tending to before we get down to the end of the platform and a view down this single line track which winds very prettily down into the distance from looking at the map this looks like to be a remnant of one of the old Bas sidings and uh we’re not using the entire platform here either that’s been truncated at this point but very nice indeed very picturesque it hasn’t got a station building but what they’ve done with it is make it look very presentable very colorful and a very pleasant station to get your train at at time of filming passenger services are provided by Class 350 electric multiple units [Music] [Applause] the statistics for open ABY station are that it opened in 1858 it currently at time of filming has one train per hour with extra trains during the peak times and the entry and exit figures for 2022 2023 were 11,24 St Auburn’s Abbey station is a well-looked after station and a Terminus to The Abbey line the murals up and down all the fences really brighten the station up and the station itself is very well kept and that’s thanks to the Abby Line Community rail partnership and of course the community in which it serves who obviously want their station looking very nice indeed for the Enthusiast it’s a great place to start your adventure of this line however I’m not going to be doing that I’m going to show you what going to do now let’s go back to the ABY Line trailer and as I mentioned this is what I’m going to attempt to do so we’re starting here that’s at aubin’s Abbey I’m going to aim to make my way down here to the next station at Park Street so let’s start the journey now quite a hidden little walkway there but eventually I’ll see this River the river ver and then you got get over follow those blue purple do I think so let’s go up whoops up and over this bridge that’s quite pretty isn’t it okay let’s carry on slowly down these steps carry on along this walkway or this path following this River and you’re going along the Little River here which is a very nice actually nice little little walk especially in a day like today where it’s sunny although I have been told that some parts of this is still underwater so as I say it may not may not be a total walk of this whole walk but I’m give it a go let’s continue it’s very pretty walk yeah cross the road just up there and again in Mark is here telling us to go this way we’re still following the river which is just over there there’s obviously a bit of a wet land here as you can see so this bridge has been put in place to enable you to at least get over this part of the trail without getting your feet wet trees have been filled this is quite a nice um over walkway to be there but if it wasn’t here you certainly getting your feet wet down there oh and watch out for missing boards I’m going to continue and watch where I’m going I think [Music] all it’s at this point we leave the river ver and take a right hand turn along this walk right and from there on your right we take a left down this Cotton Mill Lane which is more residential and after quite a brisk walk down cot Mill Lane over the river again and you’ll come to this Junction here which is telling me I should go to my right I should walk away through this gate there we go and we’re back out again into open Countryside this has opened out into a very nice open space indeed the river can’t really see it it’s down there then you got all this expense of I think Farmland here and a very straight and graveled path after walking past that we get to this point here look at this lovely clear water it’s incredibly clear but I don’t really think it’s supposed to be out that high over the bank but yeah anyway we’ll uh walk up over this bridge another pretty look down there there somebody and down again so that we can turn oh dear so that we can turn to the left and carry on our walk just before we cross this bridge plaque here detailing the river there restoration project [Applause] go well um there you go after 35 minutes of walking uh I’ve been told it was slightly underwater so there you go and that means that realistically I cannot walk this part of the line although I’d imagine once that dries out and you can get across I tried to get across up here but the marsh land there is just so wet it’s ridiculous so I’m going to go back bit of a bit of a pain but I’m going to go back and uh yeah there’s only really one uh one option for me now so uh I’ll see you I’ll see you in a little bit so I’ve gone back by coton Mill Lane and I’ve turned up abits Avenue looks like that’s going to take me over the Railway Bridge there we go it’s quite nice in itself actually walking down here will eventually take me to Park Street a small little wiggle along later and now I’m walking down wling street which should eventually take me to Park Street Station this has been quite an adventure At Last I See the end goal it’s been a rather convolutive way of getting here but there’s Park Street Station unfortunately the abine trail has been a victim of uh it’s 2024 and are sprit up and our spring this year I get the words out I’m a bit tired our spring this year has been so wet and I fear that that is not going to dry out unless we get at least 2 or 3 weeks of very warm weather however I can see how it could be a really nice walk if everything’s dry but uh I’m going to call it a day on the everyine trail today and just concentrate on the station so for me here at Park Street I Look to welcome you next time to another video um and if you like this video please like comment and subscribe and if you can get out there get on the railway and see where it takes you thanks very much for watching