Martyn's Blog

It’s been a few weeks since I last went on a train journey, so I decided to tick Bulwell off my list of 76 stations to visit in the East Midlands Ranger area on Saturday 16th November 2019.

There has been a lot of rain and flooding in the Midlands in recent days, and that has affected train travel, especially around the Long Eaton area. My trip started on a cold, dark and wet Burton on Trent station. The road outside the station which was closed for work to create new bus stops re-opened a couple of weeks ago, about six weeks behind schedule. The work is still not complete, though.

I caught the 0719 train to Nottingham. I looked on the National Rail Enquiries app on my phone to see if my journey would be affected. It said that delays of around ten minutes would be expected, which was fine, as my train from Nottingham to Bulwell was due to leave about 20 minutes after I arrived at the station.

Of course, there was a near twenty minute delay around the Spondon/Long Eaton area, so I missed my train to Bulwell. These things happen, I suppose. There was no harm done, I just caught the next available train to Bulwell about half an hour later.

With no disrespect to the good people of Bulwell, I hadn’t planned to stay there for long anyway, but I was only there for about twenty minutes before it was time to go home. I took a couple of pictures of the station and the park near the station, which features a sculpture of a bull, and a well. Hence the name Bulwell.

Bulwell town centre features a market place about two minutes from the station. There are also a number of shops, mostly the usual chains such as Wilko, Boots and Argos. There are also a handful of local businesses. The area was known for brewing, quarrying and coal mining in the past, but none of this industry survives today.

Bulwell railway station was first opened in October 1848, one of at least four stations to have opened which served the area, but it is the only remaining one of those today. It was closed in 1964 and all of the station buildings were demolished, though the line remained open for freight traffic. In 1994, as part of the Robin Hood Line, it was reopened. In 2004, a tram stop was built on the other side of the platform as part of the Nottingham Express Transit tram system. This meant that there was now only one platform for trains, although trains run both ways.

My train back to Nottingham arrived about ten minutes after I came back to the station, and I got on board. It was a single carriage train, and it was standing room only. Luckily it was only one stop to Nottingham, where it terminated, so I wasn’t on there for long. My train back to Burton was already on the platform awaiting departure, so I boarded it and set off on my journey home. Fortunately, there were no delays on the way back, although it made an extra unscheduled stop at Attenborough station.

That was station number 28 on my list of 76 to visit. I will be visiting another one next week, possibly, although I haven’t decided which one yet. Thanks very much for reading.