185143
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I spent a week doing most of the stations North of Inverness.
Had done a handful previously, did the majority based out of Inverness on a week long trip.
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I’m going to be the youngest person to visit all railway stations in Great Britain
- Thread starter Will HS
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Had done a handful previously, did the majority based out of Inverness on a week long trip.
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I could do other stations while I wait
185143
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Fair.
I can't relate to the latter point as I'm an only child. But I am a massive advocate of solo travel and doing what I want, when I want.
I'm currently in 'Spoons in Glasgow about to start an Interrail Trip which will get me home in about 3 weeks. All solo and I've very little accommodation booked yet, nor my travel home.
Trainguy34
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You say that, there aren't exactly any other stations nearby (Within ~90 mins drive) for most of it, I did a schedule for my own similar personal project and it involved about 2 days worth of work including to and from INV, and I think a sleeping bag at a rural station!
I also have a question on how to prove this as at the moment IVe got pictures in albums with each station name but i have no ticket or picture of me in them only the sign itselfFair.
I can't relate to the latter point as I'm an only child. But I am a massive advocate of solo travel and doing what I want, when I want.
I'm currently in 'Spoons in Glasgow about to start an Interrail Trip which will get me home in about 3 weeks. All solo and I've very little accommodation booked yet, nor my travel home.
Haywain
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Do a selfie standing by a station sign.
Bevan Price
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On many lines, rather than do stations in directional order (e.g. A>B>C>D, etc., you can often get more stations per day by going backwards & forwards, e.g. A>C>B>D, etc.
Have done that in several local areas, but never attempted to do the whole country (would have been too expensive plus insufficient holiday allocation when working. )
Have done that in several local areas, but never attempted to do the whole country (would have been too expensive plus insufficient holiday allocation when working. )
It should go without saying obviously, but being only 14, just be aware of you're surroundings when it comes to ticking off stations in urban areas such South London, some of the South Eastern Metro stations for example, aren't in the best of areas.
Haywain
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The same can be said of many areas a long way outside of London.
And in a similar vein, make sure that on all trips you have a “plan B” (and if necessary “C” and “D” as well) to get you back “home” when things go wrong (as they certainly will) - and don’t “take the risk”. I would also suggest that with the aid of a map, timetable and a bit of general research you work out which stations are basically impossible for an unaccompanied 14 year old (thinking here about those miles away from where anyone you know and can stay with lives and which have one train at 6.30am and another at 22.00 - invented example) so will have to wait till you’re older or can have someone with you and leave several others in the area to make it worthwhile then. Sorry if I sound like a boring teacher or a parent - I can’t help it - I used to be one though not the other. Given the fact that there are other things in life, some of which will be quite important in the next few years, you’ll still have plenty of stations to be going on with.
I’d also suggest carrying a signed letter from a parent explaining what you’re doing. Railway staff and the Police are on the look out for both vulnerable young runaways and kids being used for various criminal purposes - you may have seen posters up at stations urging the public to keep an eye out. You know you’re neither of those things , but explaining that to someone concerned about your welfare may be quicker if you can provide “evidence”.
185143
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That is very true, and I'm certainly not diminishing the suggestion. But I suspect the OP will quickly become known to staff as an enthusiast-I certainly did!
Less so if you’re station bashing as by its nature it entails turning up at places you’ve never been before and hanging around where you’re not known (unlike plonking yourself every Saturday on the platform end at Crewe or travelling endlessly to and fro behind your favourite traction.
Agreed, I was just using the SE Metro statiosn as an example.
Good luck! You will be amazed at the sheer variety of landscapes in the UK. For me, seeing the Highlands, Pembrokeshire and Stratford (East London) station for the first time was fascinating. Granted I visited many for the first time by car, I have revisited them all again by train. The buzz never leaves you.
I turn my attention to Interrailing moreso nowadays. Just make sure you have a back up plan if trains are cancelled and you are marooned somewhere unusual like Goxhill or Bridge of Orchy.
I turn my attention to Interrailing moreso nowadays. Just make sure you have a back up plan if trains are cancelled and you are marooned somewhere unusual like Goxhill or Bridge of Orchy.
Corrour is well worth a visit!
Sounds perfectly reasonable as you need to have other things in your life as well. Based where you are, you do have the advantage of having 4 of the bigger urban networks within relatively easy reach. You’re also close to a few of the awkward ones with minimal service. If your attempt to get Ince & Elton gets cancelled at the last minute, at least you haven’t had to travel 4-5 hours to get there (you’ll have other “pains” to pick up, of course- my advice is to work out itineraries involving them early on, so you don’t end up having to make a massive effort to pick up a “rare bird” with nothing else around it that you still need)
To go back to your question - I departed from my first Merseyrail station in a class 503 unit and from my last new one in a 777 - so I wouldn’t worry about taking a month!
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Hi, Welcome. I think this is a great idea and a good personal challenge. There are many challenges ahead so enjoy it and remember its your own rules and your own satisfaction to achieve. A A$ pad of paper will be your friend throughout, I know the modern world is very different but old school is sometimes as good. Check out a member on here called Techniquest his posts will give you an excellent idea of how to go about things. For a test case, using your A4 pad and Real Time Trains, check out for a Saturday, the earliest arrival you can make into London Euston. Allow some time to cross to London Victoria. Then take, as an example the line from London Victoria to Orpington, a standard 30minute service. By using the formula of travelling to one of the stations then back pedalling to a previous stop thereby working your way through the line. It will give you idea of how long a standard line will take. Good Luck, you;ll learn a lot about our great country, landscape people etc. Keep us all informed. Most of all enjoy it.
This project will take you a decade or so at least. It's expensive and you will end up having other priorities as you get older. You will find diminishing returns the longer you stick at it, as ever further reaches of the network become required which necessitate travelling further from home and staying away for several days at a time.
Don’t let that put you off, though. If I were you, I’d concentrate on the completion (and sacrifice speed to actually seeing some of the places your travels take you to) and if it turns out that you end up being the youngest to complete, so much the better. There are no generally recognised “rules” as to what constitutes “ticking off” a station, so there will always be room for debate!
100% agree about seeing some of the places. My most rewarding days have been when I've stopped to explore and not just spent 12 hours pinging back and forwards between indistinguishable semi urban shacks. Enjoy the journey not just the goal!
Having the budget available will become important. A weekend spend on the Far North Line cost me well over £300 for tickets, accommodation, food and that's excluding the flight into Wick from Aberdeen.
Polarbear
Established Member
Lots of great advice being given here. I started a similar challenge myself about 25 years ago. I managed to visit over 1100 stations before other things took priority.
You’ll get to see so much of the country, and although I don’t station hop much these days, rail travel is still a great way of seeing places. Getting on & off at intermediate stations let’s you do that in much more detail.
It’s your challenge to undertake as you see fit. That said, other posters have provided some excellent hints, tips & advice which you may want to consider.
Finally, there’s no right or wrong way to approach this. I started out, not dissimilar to yourself, visiting stations in Merseyside & Cheshire (with 503’s and 1st generation DMU’s too). You gain experience, plan trips further afield & build on that.
Enjoy & best of luck.
You’ll get to see so much of the country, and although I don’t station hop much these days, rail travel is still a great way of seeing places. Getting on & off at intermediate stations let’s you do that in much more detail.
It’s your challenge to undertake as you see fit. That said, other posters have provided some excellent hints, tips & advice which you may want to consider.
Finally, there’s no right or wrong way to approach this. I started out, not dissimilar to yourself, visiting stations in Merseyside & Cheshire (with 503’s and 1st generation DMU’s too). You gain experience, plan trips further afield & build on that.
Enjoy & best of luck.
HamworthyGoods
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The OP should definitely know that there are no rules or official competition so they won't be the youngest to really do anything by any provable mechanism, they should do this for their own satisfaction.
I completed 100% of the passenger network last year, it took me about 15 years of dedicated travel and I did not even alight at every station. If you have a busy life then things will inevitably get in the way and completion is just a side quest.
Want proof I completed it all? I don’t have it and don't need it.
Some concrete suggestions as to how to approach the big task, now you've got your "home patch" sorted.
1. Look at a map and mentally put on the back burner all the far-flung areas that are realistically not going to be able to cover on your own while you're still so young. That basically means anywhere that involves staying overnight - other than where you have convenient placed relations. Then start persuading the family that it would be an excellent idea to go on holiday to Northern Scotland / Pembrokeshire / Cornwall / Kent etc!!
2. Having narrowed yourself down to the practical (which still leaves you a lot of stations) - do some research on what rover and ranger tickets cover what areas (look out particularly for ones with good child discounts - which you're not going to be able to benefit from for ever!).
3. Once you've settled on a vague area, spend time getting to know the timetables (https://www.networkrail.co.uk/indus...timetable/electronic-national-rail-timetable/) and identify the "problem" stations in that area. [Not something that Merseyrail itself has any of!]. To take an example - the Greater Manchester area (a fairly likely next step!) has, off the top of my head, 4 awkward stations that have a (very) limited service - Clifton, Ardwick, Reddish South and Denton - at least two of which will test your determination to "get off and wait for the next train"! (If you'd been doing this yesterday, you'd have had a 12 hour wait at Clifton or would still be waiting at Ardwick as after the 07.15 arrival on Saturday morning, the next train won't call till 07.15 tomorrow. ) - then plan your day round the awkward bits.
4. Not usually an urban problem, but my most frustrating moments (so far) have been when I've planned a tight turnaround at some minor station, only to realise as the rear lights of the train disappear into the distance that the only way of getting across to the other platform is a level crossing and the barriers are staying down to let the train I want to catch approach. I've learnt to have a look at Streetview to check the risk of being stuck for an hour or two in the middle of nowhere.
In case you haven't got one already - here's a useful list of all the NR stations currently open:
(actually that's the 2025 list - there's presumably a 2026 one somewhere - or soon will be)
Personally, I'm including the London Underground (and DLR by association) , Tyne and Wear Metro, Manchester Metrolink as all of these serve things that are / were quite obviously "real" railway stations (and indeed I ticked off a couple of them when they still were), but that's purely personal preference. I also include stations on heritage railways.
Apologies if any or all of this was obvious....
1. Look at a map and mentally put on the back burner all the far-flung areas that are realistically not going to be able to cover on your own while you're still so young. That basically means anywhere that involves staying overnight - other than where you have convenient placed relations. Then start persuading the family that it would be an excellent idea to go on holiday to Northern Scotland / Pembrokeshire / Cornwall / Kent etc!!
2. Having narrowed yourself down to the practical (which still leaves you a lot of stations) - do some research on what rover and ranger tickets cover what areas (look out particularly for ones with good child discounts - which you're not going to be able to benefit from for ever!).
3. Once you've settled on a vague area, spend time getting to know the timetables (https://www.networkrail.co.uk/indus...timetable/electronic-national-rail-timetable/) and identify the "problem" stations in that area. [Not something that Merseyrail itself has any of!]. To take an example - the Greater Manchester area (a fairly likely next step!) has, off the top of my head, 4 awkward stations that have a (very) limited service - Clifton, Ardwick, Reddish South and Denton - at least two of which will test your determination to "get off and wait for the next train"! (If you'd been doing this yesterday, you'd have had a 12 hour wait at Clifton or would still be waiting at Ardwick as after the 07.15 arrival on Saturday morning, the next train won't call till 07.15 tomorrow. ) - then plan your day round the awkward bits.
4. Not usually an urban problem, but my most frustrating moments (so far) have been when I've planned a tight turnaround at some minor station, only to realise as the rear lights of the train disappear into the distance that the only way of getting across to the other platform is a level crossing and the barriers are staying down to let the train I want to catch approach. I've learnt to have a look at Streetview to check the risk of being stuck for an hour or two in the middle of nowhere.
In case you haven't got one already - here's a useful list of all the NR stations currently open:
(actually that's the 2025 list - there's presumably a 2026 one somewhere - or soon will be)
Personally, I'm including the London Underground (and DLR by association) , Tyne and Wear Metro, Manchester Metrolink as all of these serve things that are / were quite obviously "real" railway stations (and indeed I ticked off a couple of them when they still were), but that's purely personal preference. I also include stations on heritage railways.
Apologies if any or all of this was obvious....
Uk but there’s a good chance there will be a gap between the completion of Britain and the starting of Northern Ireland
There are rules for the 'London Tube Challenge' (doing the Underground in a day), laid down by the Guinness World Records people - I would suggest worth reading for inspiration rather than following (unless you want to include doing the challenge as part of your project!). Then - it's a personal project - develop your own, based on your thoughts as to what you want to do (all the stations, and/or the (passenger) lines between them? What does this mean?), based on what you regard as the right thing to do. Including deciding what you define as 'railway stations' to be included/visited, and deciding what records to keep (so you know how far you've got). Bear in mind that any list you to start off with will change over the years as station come and go. (If you learn that station 'X' will shortly close, should you dash off to do it before it does, or just write it off as 'one that got away'?) What about rebuilt, resited or renamed stations?
There's been a lot of advice posted up thread - read and digest this - and you may want to post your ideas and ask for comments...
And there is an old thread (from 2016: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/the-man-who-went-everywhere.125101/) about T.R.Perkins, 'The Man Who Went Everywhere', completing his 40 odd year odyssey in 1932. It would be interesting if his notebooks turned up!
But good luck to those just setting out on such a project, or part way through; and congratulations to those who've completed it.