Windsor & Eton Central railway station

]] Windsor Station opened on 8 October 1849 on the completion of the branch line from Slough but only after considerable opposition from the leadership at Eton College, which was convinced that the proximity of a railway would lead the Eton boys astray. An extension of the branch was planned in 1871–72 to connect to the south via Dedworth and Ascot. It was planned to diverge west from the viaduct, just to the south of the river bridge. Despite reaching an advanced stage of design and with some property purchased plus the construction of a possible station building, the plans were never completed and were abandoned completely by 1914.

When, in 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened the world's first underground railway, between London Paddington and Farringdon Street in the City of London, the Great Western Railway ran regular through services to Windsor from Farringdon. Initially these were broad gauge trains, as the original Metropolitan was laid for mixed standard and broad gauges and, for some months, the engines and coaches were hired from the GWR. By 1865, there were ten trains daily on the route.

Being not far from Pinewood Studios, Central station was extensively used in Carry On Loving, one of the Carry On films. The film was released in 1970, at which time much of the original station was still intact. In the opening sequence, the station doubles as 'Much-Snogging-On-The-Green', where Terry Scott's character boards a British Rail DMU. Later in the film, the taxi rank and approaches to the station are used as Sidney Bliss (Sid James) boards a taxi after being followed into the toilets by Charles Hawtrey in disguise. The station has been used as a location in several other films, including Lease of Life (1954), Two Way Stretch (1960), Doctor in Distress (1963) and The Lovers!…