Littleport station Ely to Kings Lynn

Watlington station in 2004

WAGN class 365506 in the down platform at Watlington in 2004.

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Watlington station railway station is on the Great Eastern main line from Cambridge to Kings Lynn This line is now called the Fen Line. Overhead wires electrified at 25 kV AC were put in when the line from Cambridge to Ely was electrified.

 Watlington station. This station was called Magdalen Road, be for it closed in 1968 to passengers. There was a line to Wisbech and March now closed on the Ely end of this station. The station was reopened in 1975 as Magdalen Road. Then in 1989 it was renamed back to its original title of Watlington. This was what it was called when it opened. The up platform was sold together with the main station building when the station closed. A new up platform had to be built on the other side of the level crossing and signal box. The old platform can be seen below the fence in the photo of 365506 above

The up platform at Watlington had to be built on the other side of the road and Magdalen Road signal box. WAGN class 365534 is in this platform in 2004.

Magdalen Road signal box in 2004

Magdalen Road signal box in 2020 from the rear from the road.

There is a ticket machine at the rear of the box

Great Northern class 387 118 in the down platform at Watlington in May 2020.

When the name of the station was changed from Magdalen Road to Watlington the signal box name was not changed. There was a ticket machine behind the box on the day I was there. The station being unstaffed. This signal box is to close in 2021, when the Ely to Kings Lynn line will be controlled from Anglia Regional Operations Centre at Romford. 

There are now three stations open along the line between Kings Lynn and Ely ,they are:-

Watlington station. On this page a village

Downham Market. This is the biggest small town alongt the line

Littleport. This is small town

The Ely to Kings railway in Cambridgeshire line starts at Ely North Junction at the small hamlet of Queen Adelaide were the line heads out into the fens alongside the river Ouse. The the line has overhead wires that is electrified at 25 kV AC.

The first station along this line from Ely is Littleport which is a large village. Downham Market is next then Watlington station then Kings Lynn.  Class 365 EMUs are used on most of the trains from Kings Lynn to Ely Cambridge and on to London Kings Cross, most trains stop at Watlington station .