Good Photography Locations in the London Area

[168lover]

I am planning a trip to London in a few weeks and am wanting to use my camera to get photos of trains and was wandering what stations are good locations in terms of view, staff, train frequency, types of trains etc. Thank you in advance!

 

[Bevan Price]

Stratford, Clapham Junction are quite busy. Provided you act safely / sensibly and have a valid travel ticket, you should not have problems with rail staff. Tripods are a bad idea on busy stations, and keep any flash guns switched off. Something like a one day Travelcard is a useful idea to access and move between stations.

If travelling alone, for personal safety it may be wise to avoid quieter stations serving some "run-down" suburbs. Some (but not all) stations may prefer you to notify the station supervisor if you are staying for more than a few minutes.

 

[telstarbox]

There have been several threads on this before which should give you some ideas - do a Google search including "site:railforums.co.uk" in the search bar.

 

[DasLunatic]

Camp down at the tail end of Blackfriars. Thameslink trains emerging from a tunnel look brilliant IMO.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

If you're feeling adventurous in terms of angles and locations, the Thameslink between Blackfriars and East Croydon is being diverted long term via Tulse Hill and at several locations the trains tend to pass other services in a manner that makes them photographable at unusual angles and locations.

Here are four examples from today ( 11th May ).

Now, obviously taking through glass you need to be aware of reflections and dirt on the window, plus the pictures will sometimes be a bit washed out looking but it does offer angles that there are no other legal ways of using. You may need quick reactions at times, though!

 

[Alistair G.]

I have a few places i like to head to each time im in London.

Bethnal Green (Be warned, the tube station is a short walk from the mainline station) is a great place to capture trains that are going in or out of Liverpool Street Station. if you stand at the London end of the station you can also get a good picture of trains coming round the corner off Hackney Downs

Royal Oak is a stones through away from paddington (You can actually see paddington station at the London end of Royal Oak) its all in the open for the best pictures (So take a brolley), but this is great as the HST's crawl in and out and you dont have to walk up and down the platforms. Also, it is not a manned station, so you dont get hassled by the "Badge brigade" hassling you over what you are doing

East Croydon, its a bit of trek out of London, but its a very busy station which is aminly served by soutern units. However, right out the front of the station is the croydon tramlink, and about 20 yards down the hill is a traffic light junction which allows for some nice shots of trams entering into the east croydon tram stop

one final thought (As im not sure if you want light rail tuff as well). Poplar on the DLR is a nice place for pictures. it has a depot (Which is usually empty during the day but you might lucky and see the shunter they have on site) but a lot of the lines converge here and if you have a good enough camera even the ones that divert for canary wharf can be photographed (Quite nice as they disappear into the buildings!)

either way, have a great time and if you find any new places on your travels be sure to tell us all !

 

[168lover]

Thank you for everyone's suggestions so far