Wood Street railway station

Wood Street railway station is in Walthamstow, now part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest in north east London. It is in Travelcard Zone 4, and the station and all trains are operated by Greater Anglia. It is also occasionally known as Walthamstow Wood Street.

History
The station was opened in 1873 by the Great Eastern Railway.

On 13 February 1919 there was an accident at Wood Street when a passenger train ran into an empty stock train. Five people were injured - none seriously. The cause was a signal failure.

In 1923 the Great Eastern Railway became part of the London and North Eastern Railway.

In 1948 British Railways Eastern Region took over operation of the line following nationalisation.

There was an engine shed located just north of Wood Street which was a sub-shed of Stratford TMD and was built in 1878. The engine shed was a two road affair with space for 6 tank locomotives - there was also a short siding for coal wagons. An additional siding was added c1934. By the 1950s the staff complement was 36 drivers, 36 Firemen and 6 Passed Cleaners although recruitment for what was a hard dirty job became more difficult during that decade. The main allocation of the shed was tank engines for working suburban services to and from London Liverpool Street. From the 1920s the allocation was exclusively the LNE N7 0-6-2T locomotives.

The shed was closed in 1960 when the line was electrified.

To the north of these there were a number of carriage sidings located either side of the tracks.

Until a last minute decision was made in 1961, it had been intended to build the Victoria Line past Walthamstow Central station to Wood Street, where the line would surface to terminate next to the British Railways station, on land previously used as a coal depot. The goods depot closed on 6 May 1968.

In April 1994 Railtrack took over responsibility for the operation of the infrastructure. Train services have been operated since then by First Great Eastern, National Express East Anglia and currently in 2013 by Greater Anglia.

Typical journey times are according to the December 2012 public timetable 7 minutes to Chingford and 19 minutes to London Liverpool Street.

There were previously bike racks but they were removed at some point. David Beckham is known to have used used the station in his youth, he is reported to have visited the nearby Hollow Ponds often to play football.

Transport links
London bus route 230 and W16. Nearest tube stations are Snaresbrook and Walthamstow Central. Walthamstow Queen's Road rail station is also nearby, providing links to Barking and North London.

Service
The typical off-peak service is:
 * 4 trains per hour to Chingford
 * 4 trains per hour to Liverpool Street via Hackney