Nice-looking station! Where is it?

[RobbieM]

One correct answer so far. Just a little nudge, 'cos I'm sure there're one or two more anoraks like me out there...

[RobbieM]

Righto, another one for y’all, Station Victor – the one for champions.

• Name Station Victor.
• Bonus: Station shares a binique* feature with just one other station on the National network. What is this feature, and what is the other station?

PMs please!

* If ‘binique’ isn’t a real word, then it should be. It’s like ‘unique’, but applies to two things, rather than just one. At least in my mind that’s what ‘binique’ means….

Station Victor begins with a vowel.

Keep the thousands of guesses coming in. I’ll be off-forum from Monday 18th for a few weeks, so I’d like to answer it before I go, then we’ll have a break.

You can enjoy Christmas without sleepless nights due to spending hours working out where nice-looking stations are. (The Whiskey can wait until dry January…)

[RobbieM]

Righto, who’s won Victor? We’ll find out later. But firstly to reveal that Station Victor is Earlestown. One of the oldest stations on the network, of course.

And the binique feature? Well, Earlestown is a Triangular Station, i.e. it has platforms on three sides of a triangular arrangement of railway lines/junctions. And the other station on the network with this feature is Shipley.

Well done to greatkingrat and trains500 – who biniquely are victors for the submitting the correct answers.

Okay, that’s it till 2024 folks! Have a great Christmas. I’m off to Scotty-land to enjoy some whisky. (Not to be confused with Whiskey, which is the station I will launch sometime around mid-January.)

[RobbieM]

I’m back! More nice-looking stations for you to guess! Let’s start 2024 with Station Whiskey – hopefully not too tricky.

• Name Station Whiskey.
• Once you’ve got it, find a city which is written backwards within the station name.

PMs please!

[RobbieM]

I’m back! More nice-looking stations for you to guess! Let’s start 2024 with Station Whiskey – hopefully not too tricky.

• Name Station Whiskey.
• Once you’ve got it, find a city which is written backwards within the station name.

PMs please!

Just giving this one a bit of a re-boot; I think it's got lost under those decaying New Year's Resolutions...

[trains 500]

I know it’s here but very busy and struggling to decipher this one. It’s looked very south west englandy but have pretty much ruled this out

[RobbieM]

Well, it’s 29th February, so I’d better make a leap forward with this one. It must be harder than I thought. Or else everyone is hibernating until spring arrives (which, from a meteorological perspective, is tomorrow, if not from a true seasonal perspective, for which you have to wait three more weeks…). Here goes then:

Supposing, hypothetically, that you work as a dispatcher for LNER, based at King’s Cross station. There’s a fair chance you might send a train northwards which will stop at Station Whiskey.

Hmmmm… I eagerly await my first submission. And hopefully one or two more…

[RobbieM]

What a coincidence - I have just had the first correct submission, from someone who works as a dispatcher at Kings Cross…

[RobbieM]

Time to close the bar soon on this one, please get your entries in fast!

[RobbieM]

Clang! Time at the bar, gentlemen, ladies, et al! Drink up thee wizgeee...

Now, whiskey is one drink; whisky (without the ‘e’) is another. And you can find at least 40 distilleries of this other whisky within a 40-mile radius of Station Whiskey, which I can now reveal to be Aviemore. Which is also a station on LNER's Highland Chieftain service (about 7½ hours after it's been dispatched from King's Cross at midday). A service that I frequently take all the way to Inverness.

So for the bonus, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the city of Rome written backwards within ‘Aviemore’.

Well done to…. trains500 and michael_churchill for getting the station right, and michael_churchill for also getting the bonus.

So, only two people got this. Will my next one be any clearer to everyone's eyes? Let’s take a Station X-Ray soon and find out.

[RobbieM]

Okay here we go, friends! Put on your Station X-Ray spectacles , and look through the outer layers to see things the others can’t (i.e. those Muggles who don’t play ‘Nice-Looking Stations’). It should be quite easy, really.

• Name Station X-Ray.
• What is the nearest station to Station X-Ray which has already been featured as a Nice-Looking Station in this thread?

Please PM your answers in fast; don’t spend too long on this one. You know too much X-Ray exposure can be damaging to your health…

[michael_churchill]

So, only two people got this. Will my next one be any clearer to everyone's eyes? Let’s take a Station X-Ray soon and find out.

I'm surprised nobody else got it. I came to it just before the deadline, put the image into Google Lens, and it came right back that the board was from Aviemore. However, X-Ray gets me nothing.

[tubeguru]

So, only two people got this. Will my next one be any clearer to everyone's eyes? Let’s take a Station X-Ray soon and find out.

I'm surprised nobody else got it. I came to it just before the deadline, put the image into Google Lens, and it came right back that the board was from Aviemore. However, X-Ray gets me nothing.

I would argue that using Google Lens is cheating.

[RobbieM]

So, only two people got this. Will my next one be any clearer to everyone's eyes? Let’s take a Station X-Ray soon and find out.

I'm surprised nobody else got it. I came to it just before the deadline, put the image into Google Lens, and it came right back that the board was from Aviemore. However, X-Ray gets me nothing.

I would argue that using Google Lens is cheating.

Nonetheless, I have realised that some of my nice-looking stations have been discoverable that way. So I am now trying to make sure they’re reasonably AI-proof before publishing. I realised Whiskey was discoverable, but I checked X-Ray before I published it. Just in case. But I’m sure nobody on this forum would stoop to such behaviour…

Besides, X-Ray should be so easy it shouldn’t be necessary. A correct entry has already been received.

[RobbieM]

Just another reminder that Station X-Ray is still here if anyone wishes to have a go at it. Will give the hint soon anyway.

Once I've done Yankee and Zulu that may be a good time to pause this competition for now. (These things have their time, and this one's been running since Lockdown no.3!)

Okay here we go, friends! Put on your Station X-Ray spectacles , and look through the outer layers to see things the others can’t (i.e. those Muggles who don’t play ‘Nice-Looking Stations’). It should be quite easy, really.

• Name Station X-Ray.
• What is the nearest station to Station X-Ray which has already been featured as a Nice-Looking Station in this thread?

Please PM your answers in fast; don’t spend too long on this one. You know too much X-Ray exposure can be damaging to your health…