Best Train spotting stations (updated)

[Class15]

I’m one of the people who doesn’t regularly go beyond my local area as all I need to see basically passes my line at least occasionally. My top few are:

Upper Holloway (really nice atmosphere there, freights can sometimes be found crossing!)
South Hampstead (WCML fast services and quite a lot of freight, though anything via Gospel Oak will avoid it)
Camden Hawley Wharf (okay not a station, but this is quite well known now as a trainspotting location on the third floor of this market building). If stations only just go with Camden Road, which is a really nice one too.
Hampstead Heath (good amount of freight and frequently going very slowly which I like). Footbridge east of the station in the heath is a great location too for Eastbound freights which have to stop there to wait for a path onto the GOBLIN.

I’m not a fan of terminus stations due to lack of freight, although I find myself at Euston a bit for the sleeper.

 

[dave87016]

Didcot? Always lots going on, and possibility of Steam on the GWS demo line.

The pub across road does both a great pint and delicious food , only been once since HST’s no longer pass there

Didcot Parkway just doesn’t have the same appeal without HST’s but I would happily spend a few hours in that pub across from station Prince Of Wales I think it’s called

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Don’t think this has been mentioned:
Berkhamsted is good if you want full 390 tilt, and also doesn’t have gates between the slow and fast sections of the island platform, just a ramp and a gap in the fence, which was very useful when I visited in January

 

[Woolos 22]

Newport is good. Freight and passenger

 

[notspy]

Ardwick is great if you want all the traffic of Piccadilly in a quieter location, the old footbridge used to have some good views however I haven't been there since the new bridge has gone up.
Heaton Chapel is also very busy and quiet (with less of the isolation of Ardwick!) and has a great coffee shop at the ramp to platform 2.

 

[55002]

Reading West, very busy and lots of freight.

Reading also, if you want facilities…not a patch on the 80s/early 90s though!

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Bethnal Green used to be great in the rush hour.

 

[Class15]

Bethnal Green used to be great in the rush hour.

Agreed - but now the vast majority of trains are Aventras and the others are Flirts - so it’s certainly lost variety. Plus the Shenfield services mostly go from the Low Level station now, so don’t pass Bethnal Green, apart from 2tph in the peak which go from the high level.

 

[1D54]

Bethnal Green used to be great in the rush hour.

Bethnal Green is fantastic anytime of the day but Lizz Line has put paid to the 345s.

 

[6Gman]

It depends what you want to see.

This is the key point.

For a full notebook Stratford takes some beating!