In early 2019, I came up with the idea of visiting all 76 railway stations in the East Midlands Ranger area, as defined by this map on the National Rail Enquiries website.

The Idea

The idea came to me when I visited Cromford for the first time in February 2019. I had decided that I needed a new hobby, and I had been inspired by the 2017 project All the Stations, in which a couple from London (Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe) spent the summer of that year visiting each and every one of the then 2,563 railway stations in Great Britain (more stations have opened since then). Visiting every station in the country would be out of the question for me, but I figured that I could realistically visit 76 stations in the East Midlands.

The Rules

Unlike All the Stations, where they had to only be on a train which called at a station, my rule is that I must arrive at or depart from a station by train. I can alight at one station and walk to another to catch a train. That’s really the only rule; there is no time limit or anything else. However, the rules have had to be broken for stations which don’t have a regular service, such as Polesworth in Warwickshire.

Progress

At the time of writing (March 2023), I have completed 73 of the 76 stations. You can see which ones I have done on the map below. The project has been halted twice in 2020-21 due to that virus; from March to July 2020 and again from October 2020 to April 2021.

• Station 1 – Derby
• Station 3 – Tamworth
• Station 6 – Cromford
• Stations 7 & 8 – Tutbury & Hatton and Uttoxeter
• Stations 9 & 10 – Matlock Bath and Matlock
• Stations 11, 12 & 13 – Loughborough, Sileby and Beeston
• Stations 14 & 15 – Ambergate and Whatstandwell
• Stations 16, 17 & 18 – Nuneaton, Narborough & Leicester
• Stations 19 & 20 – Sutton Parkway and Kirkby-in-Ashfield
• Stations 21 & 22 – Bingham and Aslockton
• Stations 23 & 24 – East Midlands Parkway and Barrow-upon-Soar
• Station 25 – Spondon
• Station 26 – Newark Castle
• Station 27 – Bulwell
• Station 28 – Blythe Bridge
• Station 29 – Long Eaton
• Station 30 – Ilkeston
• Station 31 – Oakham
• Station 32 – Hucknall
• Station 33 – Bleasby
• Station 34 – Newstead
• Stations 35 & 36 – Duffield and Belper
• Stations 37 & 38 – Longton and Stoke-on-Trent
• Station 39 – Peartree
• Stations 40 & 41 – Burton Joyce and Lowdham
• Stations 42 & 43 – Netherfield and Carlton
• Station 44 – Longport
• Station 45 – Thurgarton
• Station 46 – Attenborough
• Station 47 – Syston
• Stations 48 & 49 – Kidsgrove and Alsager
• Station 50 – Alfreton
• Station 51 – Radcliffe
• Station 52 – Hinckley
• Stations 53 & 54 – Rolleston and Fiskerton
• Stations 55 & 56 – Whitwell and Creswell
• Station 57 – Polesworth
• Station 58 – Langley Mill
• Station 59 – Bottesford
• Station 60 – Collingham
• Station 61 – Atherstone
• Stations 62 & 63 – Mansfield Woodhouse and Mansfield
• Station 64 – Grantham
• Station 65 – Melton Mowbray
• Station 66 – Langwith-Whaley Thorns
• Station 67 – Worksop
• Station 68 – South Wigston
• Stations 69 & 70 – Swinderby and North Hykeham
• Station 71 – Crewe
• Station 72 – Shirebrook
• Station 73 – Lincoln
• Station 74 – Elton and Orston

You can follow the progress of the East Midlands Ranger Area challenge on social media, at Facebook and Instagram.