Leaving the delights of the days of steam behind us (after the gift shop was raided for station totem fridge magnets), Echo and I bundle back into the car and head back to Brading. Having paid for all day parking, we figured we might as well use the station’s car park as a good base of operations for the rest of the day. With a trio stations left, and plenty of remaining trains, we were feeling pretty good about getting all the stations in Ryde before the day was out.

After bouncing down the line (giving a little wave to the steam railway at Smallbrook Junction), we arrived at Ryde Esplanade and hopped out the train. It’s a nice station, if in need of a lick of paint and some dusting in places. We didn’t have much issue finding a nice sign and getting the shots for Twitter and this website. Despite being double-tracked, the station is a lie and the second platform has fallen out of use. This means that all trains came through Platform 1. Which was useful as we needed to double back and the next train was going our way (the joys of missing a station and catching the soon-coming return trip instead of waiting an hour for each train going in 1 direction). We bade farewell to Ryde Esplanade and hopped on the train to our second Ryde station.

Other pups to visit this station: