Ah, the balmy days of my mis-spent youth! All through the 1960's, I visited Melton regularly and took my first railway photos there on my Box Brownie (D5207 on a Peterborough - Leicester passenger was the very first). In those days, it was a pretty little station and, amazingly, it still is! Very little has changed except the most important thing - the trains!

Instead of 25's and 27's on passenger trains, 9F's on iron ore trains and 'Jubilees' on the direct Nottingham expresses, we now get the usual but is still quite busy.

Layout is standard twin platform with a road bridge right off the eastern end, a bit of a problem. Very interesting cantilevered signalbox and still some semaphores, plus laybys at the eastern end, still used.

Traffic can be quite plentiful. There is all the stone traffic to and from Mountsorrel and East Anglia, two steel trains each way to Corby plus car trains and scrap when they run. In addition, at least one of the Bardons from the MML usually runs this way although it isn't booked to. I should think, on a good day, you might see a dozen or more freight trains, not counting repeats. It's one of these place where odd things have a habit of turning up. I have put a number of sighting reports on for Oakham and Melton which would give you some idea of what's likely to be about.

Passenger traffic is (yawn!) exclusively Central units, generally one each way per hour.

The station has pretty basic facilities. There are toilets and a waiting room but that's about it. There is an excellent chip shop about 250 yards into the town from the station though. Parking is available at the station.

Sort of place I visit when I fancy a change of scenery without going too far but want a fairly reliable level of traffic. Worth a look.