Mark Mason

The train stations that don’t really exist

A review of Tiny Stations, by Dixe Wills – a travelogue that takes in the 38 remaining request stops on the British railways

Campbell’s Platform, a private unstaffed halt on the Welsh narrow guage Ffestiniog railway [Getty Images/Shutterstock/iStock/Alamy]

In 1964, as part of his railway cuts, Dr Beeching ordered the closure of Duncraig, a small, little-used station in the Scottish Highlands. The train drivers working the line simply ignored him. They continued to stop there, and the station remains open to this day.

A world where nothing ever changes, or indeed happens — this is just the sort of world that appeals to Dixe Wills.

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