Railway 200
2025 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway. Britain and the world changed forever. Railway 200 celebrates the past, present and future of rail.
Join us as we mark this special occasion with a range of events and activities throughout the year.
and watch our short film celebrating the Abbey Line!
Check back here for our latest Railway 200 events and activities
Please join us at the following events!
Community Rail Week (19th-25th May 2025)
Video-short screening and stand at Odyssey Cinema, St Albans. Date(s) to be confirmed
Information stand with free Railway 200 goodies at Watford Junction ticket hall. Monday 19th May, 1-5pm
Local Festivals
Information stand and FREE miniature steam locomotive rides at
- Armed Forces Day, Parish Centre, Bricket Wood, AL2 3PJ. Sunday 29th June, 2-6pm
- The Cottonmill Gathering, Cottonmill Centre, St Albans, AL1 2EF. Sunday 13th July, 12-4pm
Share your Abbey Line Tales
Click here to submit:
- your tale as text (maximum 3000 characters) or
- a video recording telling your tale and
- any images to add to your tale
(For images/videos, please ensure you have been respectful of other’s privacy and that the content has been taken in your own private setting or a public setting.)
We aim to share your tales here on our website, on social media, at our events and at our stations.
If you wish to submit a video with a file size larger than 100Mb please email us for a file transfer link.
If you are having difficulties submitting via the online form, please email us for assisstance.
Scroll down to see our collection of Abbey Line Tales.
1. Roger Taylor
30th October 2024 | Online submission
I lived in St.Albans from 1947 to 1972 and travelled on the line from St Albans Abbey to Watford Junction on many occasions. In the 1960’s the line became very run down and was a suitable case for closure. Thank goodness it didn’t happen.
For some strange reason I and my friends always preferred to travel to Watford by train rather than use bus route 321. We travelled to see Watford F.C. In the early 1960s, a long walk to the Abbey station and the same to Vicarage Road (Watford F. C. Ground). Then back again! Must have been fit.
I travelled the line for the first time for many years in summer 2024, what a pleasure it was. The stations are clean, as are the trains, and the many information boards etc. are extremely helpful and interesting. So much better than the old days.
St. Albans Abbey station is much improved, I miss the lovely station building and canopy but not the Gas Works, the smell was awful. Now it seems to be set in a sylvan setting, almost a country station. As for Bricket Wood station – an absolute gem, nice coffee as well!
Well done to all concerned, your work is much appreciated.
2. Rodney Salter
9th January 2025 | Locomotive Club of Great Britain, St Albans Branch – club night
In the early-to-mid 1950s, British Railways started to use diesel railcars, initially as an experiment, on the St. Albans Abbey branch line. As this was something new and different, my parents decided on a family outing to St. Albans on the new trains—I was seven or eight years old at the time.
At Watford Junction, my father managed to blag a ride in the driver’s cab in order to film the journey on his 9.5 mm cine camera. When the film was returned from processing, we were very disappointed with the results! Vibration from the diesel engine combined with jolting and jarring from the not-very-good permanent way, had produced so much camera-shake that the movie was unwatchable!!
Prior to this, we had lived in Windsor Road, not far from Watford North Halt and I would frequently stand behind the pedestrian gate, in perfect safety, but with some apprehension, only five or six feet away from the steam locomotive as it puffed away from the halt and over the level crossing in Bushey Mill Lane.
3. Howard Green
9th January 2025 | Locomotive Club of Great Britain, St Albans Branch – club night
In the early 60’s I travelled to Watford Technical College on the ‘Abbey Flyer’ for evening classes. In those days there were actual human beings running the show and they would actually speak to you. It was probably the best branch line I ever travelled on.
It was in the days of steam locomotives and two steam-heated comfy wooden carriages. It all started going downhill when the 4-wheel diesel railcars started bouncing up and down on the uneven track.
The branch was worked on the ‘Pull and Push’ principle where the locomotive pulled the two carriages from Watford to St Albans; a nd then pushed the coaches back to Watford with the driver driving from a special compartment at the (now) front of the train, whilst the fireman stayed on the footplate to look after the fire and water level in the boiler. The driver picked up and dropped off the signal keys as he passed St Albans Abbey, Bricket Wood, Watford North and Watford No. 3 signal boxes. The ‘Pull and Push’ system meant the locomotive did not have to be uncoupled from the carriages, run round the coaches, and coupled up again at the other end.
A 1953-built 2-6-2 tank locomotive 84004 at St Albans Abbey ready to return to Watford; also the goods sidings and the gas company wall. Photo courtesy of and copyright Howard Green.
4. Dave Horton
17th January 2025 | Online submission
Abbey Line running through my veins!
In the mid-1980s, as a child, the ‘Abbey Flyer’ must have been one of the first trains I ever experienced. Running at the bottom of the garden at my Great Aunt and Uncle’s terraced house in Bradshaw Road, North Watford, the rattling of their ancient windows signalled the approach of a train. I would rush to the window or into the back yard to wave it past. The trains seemed enormous up there on the embankment. Around the same time, my Nan and Grandad would take me and my sister on day trips to Verulamium Park in St Albans; the biggest treat for me was the train ride, of course!
In my adolescence, the railway brought me freedom of mobility. I lived close to Watford North, and I often took my bike on the train. Quickly and cheaply, I was able to get to the pub with friends in St Albans, come home from school in the summer via Garston, and later visit my girlfriend (now my wife of 16 years!) in Chiswell Green, via How Wood. When I went to university in London, often I would come home via Watford Junction and Watford North, if a connection was convenient. Truly, the Abbey Line is a gem for local journeys.
In the early 2000s I became involved with the Abbey Flyer User Group (ABFLY), taking several roles and helping to lobby for improvements to the line, some of which happened, such as restoration of later evening services, cleaner trains and improvements to stations. I remember with great fondness and admiration the founders of ABFLY, the late David and Audrey Ogilvy, John Cadisch, John Webster, and others who initially fought so passionately to prevent the relocation of St Albans Abbey station and reverse damaging cuts to service quality which had been implemented by BR.
In 2005, through ABFLY, I was involved with the setting up of the Community Rail Partnership (CRP), which brought new hope for the line, and placed into abeyance those fears of closure or further service reduction which had hung over it for so many years. Initially the CRP created a welcome increase in ridership and their excellent work continues to this day. I was involved with many fun events organised by the CRP, including the 150th Anniversary celebrations in 2008, various Community Rail days, Easter, Halloween and Santa Specials.
I have witnessed big plans coming and then going again, not least of which was the plan suddenly announced in 2009 to convert the line to Light Rail operation, in other words to make it part of a local tram network. I thought that this was a wonderful idea, trams would be eminently suitable because their high acceleration means they could skip nimbly between the many stops on the line, and then travel onwards into Watford and St Albans town centres with route extensions in the future. Sadly, the great vision was diluted by various authorities and bureaucracy, so it didn’t happen. A lost opportunity. I have and always will be vehemently opposed to the idea of converting the line into a ‘Guided Busway’, a singularly bad idea which still lurks beneath the surface. If you are fortunate enough to have an electrified railway, as we do, the most efficient form of land transportation, the last thing you want to do is rip it up and replace it with thousands of tonnes of concrete and inefficient rubber-tyred buses. What this actually amounts to is converting the railway into a road, and nobody should be in favour of that, especially in these times of climate crisis.
More positively, in 2017 I helped to found the Bricket Wood Station Heritage Trust. The old station building at Bricket Wood had always been a source of enchantment. Bricked up and forlorn for many years, its survival was the only reminder of the line’s heyday, before British Rail’s rationalisation swept away most of the line’s old charm and character in the 1960s. The Trust’s success in bringing new life back to the station, completed in 2022, and winning awards for the quality of the restoration, has been one of my proudest achievements in life, and its great popularity as a Tea Room and Community Hub is testament to the vision that we had for it.
Long live the Abbey Line (as an electrified railway!), it has been such an important part of my life.
A selection of photos courtesy of Dave Horton.
5. Annie
11th March 2025 | Leeanna’s Wish Coffee Morning, St Albans
My uncle Eldon used to be a conductor on the Abbey Line in the 60s and 70s.
Once he caught his daughter trying to get to Watford without a ticket! But he decided to teach her a lesson and fine her which was very funny.
He also met Muhammad Ali at Watford Junction. He proudly exhibits the picture on his living room wall of him in his uniform.
6. Kaylee
11th March 2025 | Leeanna’s Wish Coffee Morning, St Albans
I remember the Santa Train.
One year we won the raffle, so we got off at Watford Junction and spent the book token prize in the shopping centre there.
7. Roger England
18th March 2025 | Online submission
My father’s family – the Englands – can be traced in Bricket Wood through the 18 and 19th centuries, where the men typically were farm workers, and the women made Brazilian hats from straw.
My father worked as a fireman on engines that plied the Abbey Line in the early/mid 1920s. He spoke of the special long trains that brought people from miles around to Bricket Wood for the fair that was based there. It is why Bricket Wood had very long platforms – to accommodate the long special trains.
One particular incident that occurred involved the local hunt. As the train approached in a cutting, the fox led the hounds down one side and up the other side of the cutting, then, darted back down across the line. The result was many of the hounds were hit by the engine and some killed. Apparently, the hunt blamed the driver and fireman of the engine and sought disciplinary action from the railway company. Fortunately, the railway company didn’t agree!
Present Day Images - Spring 2025
8. Mark Clark
1st April 2025 | Leeanna’s Wish Coffee Morning, St Albans
Here’s Mark Clark, from Cottonmill, St Albans, remembering the Abbey Line in the age of steam.
9. Michelle Mackenzie
4th April 2025 | Sopwell Residents Association | Online submission
As teens, if we wanted to go to Watford, we would always catch the Abbey Flyer.
We’d go on a Saturday and there would usually be a group of us. We’d all head down to the Abbey Station, which was pretty bleak during the 80’s – just a brick shelter, weeds growing through the platform and a lovely view of the gasworks.
It always seemed as if we had to wait for ages before we’d finally see the rattly old slam-door diesel train heading into the station. We’d all jump on and then keep our fingers crossed that we could get as far as possible before the conductor came along. If we were really lucky we’d get all the way to Watford Junction and only then had to pay for a ticket to get out of the station. And, of course, when asked where we got on we’d all say ‘North Watford’ so we didn’t have to pay the full fare from St. Albans!
Then it was the long walk up Clarendon Road to the town centre for an afternoon wandering around the all shops – The Reject Shop was always a favourite – trying on clothes in C&A’s and checking out the Charter Place fountain to see if anyone had put washing up liquid in it that day.
I remember one Saturday myself, and a whole bunch of my Marlborough schoolmates, catching the Flyer over to Watford specifically to get the ‘must have’ non-uniform PE skirt. Many of them lived in Park Street and Bricket Wood so, as we passed through each station, a few more would join us.
After a day of mooching (and often mischief) we’d trudge back to Watford Junction, all the way through the station tunnel, up the stairs and along the passageway to platform 11 – the furthest away and most desolate – to catch the Flyer home again. We’d undoubtedly just missed it though, so we’d be in for another long wait.
10. Mike Bennett
3rd April 2025 | Online submission
Some time in the 80s I was waiting at the Abbey Station for a train to Bricket Wood. As the train came in to the station it didn’t slow down and went right past me!
I was annoyed at first, like you would be if a bus failed to stop for you. Then I thought – This is the end of the line!!
I realised the driver had left the cab and was running down the train. The train demolished the buffers.
Luckily no-one was hurt, but the line was out of action for some time.
11. Councillor David Yates
5th May 2025 | Abbey Line CRP Steering Group Meeting
There were several reasons that we moved to Park Street on our return from India in 1999, though the convenience of the local train line was something we only fully appreciated later. We had lived in central London for around 20 years before our time in India and had accumulated so much furniture over there that London was out and finding a suitably large and affordable place was a priority. Park Street and Bricket Wood emerged as a logical choice, a familiar area where we’d spent weekends enjoying walks on Bricket Wood Common and ploughman’s lunches at the Old Fox. The primary driver for the move, however, was still easy access to all three of London’s main airports, as I anticipated a continuation of my frequent flying for work.
My life had been one of constant air travel. By the time we moved to Park Street, I’d probably covered more than 1.5 million miles by air (an embarrassing 800 or so tonnes of CO2 emissions). Despite a change in employer, I expected this to continue, especially as I was tasked with setting up a new organization covering Europe, Africa, and Asia for a company headquartered in North Carolina. A return trip to head office would be a significant 8,000 miles. Little did I know that my daily travel habits were about to change dramatically.
My contract with my former employer required a three-month hiatus from work, so after exchanging contracts on our new house in Park Street, we spent twelve weeks visiting family in Ireland. It was there that I learned the company for which I was to build this new division had been sold.
Although its global headquarters was in Omaha, Nebraska, my new employer had a Europe, Middle East, and Africa headquarters much closer. A lot, lot closer. Clarendon Road, Watford, in fact. Suddenly, instead of a 4,000-mile commute to my office, I found myself just an eleven-minute journey away from a station less than 400 yards from my front door.
For the next eight years, except for when I was abroad, my daily life was shaped by the reliable rhythm of the Abbey Line. This unassuming local train became more than just a mode of transport; it offered me a slice of calm in my day and a connection with the local community in a way that airport terminals never could. The shift from a life lived in the air to one grounded by the Abbey Line brought an unexpected sense of peace and connection to my daily routine.
12. Councillor Steve Cavinder
5th May 2025 | Abbey Line CRP Steering Group Meeting
When my sons were young in the late 1990s, we would often take the Abbey Line from Garston to Watford on our way to watch Saracens rugby team.
The link between St Michaels School and the rugby club meant they could get in for free – apart from the cost of the obligatory burger!
13. Diana Ivory
19th May 2025 | Abbey Line CRP Volunteer | Stand at Watford Junction Station in Community Rail Week
Mother used to go to the fair at Bricket Wood. It was always crowded with people, and the platform too – it was a good place to go dating! Bricket Wood café has lots of photos of those days.
She also used the train to go with the children to Westminster Lodge pool and the playground there, in St Albans.
There are lovely walks along the line near How Wood – led us to a lovely pub – Moor Mill.
14. Councillor Ian Stotesbury
19th May 2025 | Stand at Watford Junction Station in Community Rail Week
We got a puppy three years ago. We took him on the Abbey Line – Bricket Wood – to go walking for the first time. It’s been great exploring the walks around there since. We also love the Frogmore Lakes (How Wood).
Now we have a baby to take along as well.
The Abbey Line is great for connecting places that might be hard to get to otherwise.
