Unusual National Rail stops

Years ago now I was on a London-bound HST that stopped at West Drayton ("due to a bit of metal making a lot of noise beneath coach C") while they awaited a fitter to arrive from Swindon. Eventually the doors were unlocked and a HST-load of passengers overwhelmed the next two stopping services into Paddington.

Or the Pembroke Dock HST (SO)......

I have been on a Chiltern train to London which called at Moor Park due to problems on the met

That is the normal exit from the southbound District, which is on the opposite face to the "up" NR platform at East Putney. You might have had a problem if the NR train had been going the other way - I'm not sure if there still is access to the s/b NR platform but, if there is, it is likely to be locked.

Was once on a fast, non-stop to Cambridge which 'called' at Welwyn Garden City - for about 2 hours. It took that long to coral the horse, apparently...

And I've been on fast non-stop Cambridge to London Kings Cross services that called at the 'wrong' platform at Royston as well.

No - I misread your original post, and had wrongly assumed your train was from Waterloo to Wimbledon and back (thus disembarking, on the return working, from a train that had come from Wimbledon) mea culpa

How is that done? Do they use the ground frame just south of East Putney?

I thought that Emerson park had that dubious honour, but Angel Road does have fewer people than it. However it isn't the quietest. Sudbury & Harrow Road, South Greenford, and Sudbury Hill Harrow all have lower usage than Angel Road.

Out of interest, after Angel Road in the standings come Birkbeck, Morden South, Emerson Park, Drayton Green, Belmont, and Castle bar park

I can see why the Greenford shuttle is less likely to be electrified... too few people use the line.

I thought that Birkbeck was also served by the Croydon Trams? If so, are then the passenger count really should include tram passengers too  (maybe it does?)

Simon

well certainly the fares charged will vary depending on which transport operator the passenger uses. (prepaid Travelcards excepted)

Simon

In the early 1990s somebody very kindly firebombed the relay room at Kentish Town causing the Midland Mainline to go in to meltdown (for months). On the Sunday when it happened I was out with my dad and we end up on an all stations HST to Sheffield and it was all stations - the only time I ever got off an HST at my local station of Elstree and Borehamwood!

It had knocked the electrics out as well. From memory it had only occurred a couple of hours before we got to St Pancras and it was the first thing to leave from West Hampstead where we had all been shipped off to.

Last year I boarded a London-bound HST that had stopped additionally at Ealing Broadway. Lightning had taken out the signalling somewhere between Reading and Maidenhead, and when services started running through again this train was stopped at Ealing Broadway. I'd happened to travel there from Southall after waiting 50 minutes for a train (one Heathrow Connect cancelled for some reason and single 166 unit from Maidenhead was so wedged the doors needed to be pushed closed). The HST almost fitted in the platform as well, the guard's van was just off the platform which also meant the passenger door on that coach couldn't be opened either. Why it didn't occur to me to take a photo I will never know

HSTs stopping at Ealing Broadway is not unheard of - after the Ladbroke Grove crash, the hourly Swansea-London services terminated there for example (I think either the Pezance-London or Bristol-London trains did too, others terminated at Reading). I think it was one of the forum members (Phil maybe?) here who told me that the HSTs (before they were reengined) could not depart Ealing Broadway at full power after laying over as the clag would set off the fire alarms!