When your girlfriend wants to go round her clothes shop at a large Sheffield suburban shopping centre, what do you do? You tell her you are going to do your own thing for half an hour, and slink off to Meadowhall Interchange railway station.

You can get to the station by train, tram, bus or park at the Meadowhall Shopping Centre. Facilites inside the shopping centre include toilets, WH Smith, plenty of places to eat and even a bit of shopping if that is your thing.

There are four platforms, and they are very, very busy. Look at the monitors, and treat the four platforms as two pairs of platforms. Great photos of the trains are available, with the added attraction of Sheffield Supertrams, if you fancy something a bit different. Buses can also be photographed at the bus station.

Stopping services are in the hands of Classes 142, 144, 150, 153 and 158, while 220s, 221s and various other units zoom through. It's not a good place for freights, though.

In a 30 minute period, I photographed ten units and four trams.

So if units are your thing, you can almost see as much here as you would at either Sheffield or Doncaster, and the parking is free.

*****UPDATE - 11TH APRIL 2008*****
You can now add Class 185s to the list of likely DMUs, some of which stop at the station.

Please note you now require a permit to photograph on this station. I had a very unsavoury experience with members of staff here for not knowing this. Report to the Customer Services Manager in the bus station before you start photographing. Let's just say the staff are "keen" to voice their opinion about railway enthusiasts in general, if you attempt to photograph without one of their permits. Still a good place to watch trains though.