Wood Street railway station is in Upper Walthamstow, in Waltham Forest, north east London. It is in Travelcard Zone 4, and the station and all trains are operated by London Overground. It is also occasionally known as Walthamstow Wood Street. The station is located on the Chingford Branch Line and is part of the Lea Valley Lines network.
The station was opened in 1873 by the Great Eastern Railway.
On 13 February 1919 there was an accident at Wood Street when a passenger train ran into an empty stock train. Five people were injured – none seriously. The cause was a signal failure.
In 1923 the Great Eastern Railway became part of the London and North Eastern Railway.
In 1948 British Railways Eastern Region took over operation of the line following nationalisation.
The engine shed was closed in 1960 when the line was electrified. Electric services commenced on 12 November 1960. Early services were formed of Class 305 EMUs but initial technical problems with these saw replacements by Class 302 and Class 304 EMUs.
To the north of these there were a number of carriage sidings located either side of the tracks.
Until a last-minute decision was made in 1961, it had been intended to build the Victoria line past Walthamstow Central station to Wood Street, where the line would surface to terminate next to the British Railways station, on land previously used as a coal depot. The goods depot closed on 6 May 1968.
In April 1994 Railtrack took over responsibility for the operation of the infrastructure. Train services have been operated since then by West Anglia Great Northern, One railway, National Express East Anglia, Abellio Greater Anglia and currently in 2015 by London Overground.
Typical journey times are according to the December 2012 public timetable 7 minutes to Chingford and 19 minutes to London Liverpool Street.
There was an engine shed located just north of Wood Street which was a sub-shed of Stratford TMD and was built in 1878. The engine shed was a two road affair with space for 6 tank locomotives – there was also a short siding for coal wagons. An additional siding was added c1934. By the 1950s the staff complement was 36 drivers, 36 Firemen and six Passed Cleaners although recruitment for what was a hard dirty job became more difficult during that decade.
On 1 January 1922 the allocation consisted of three GER Class M15 2-4-2Ts (later LNER Class F4), two GER Class C72 (later LNER Class J68) and eleven GER Class S56 (later LNER class J69) 0-6-0T engines.
In later years the main allocation of the shed was tank engines for working suburban services to and from London Liverpool Street and from the 1920s the allocation was exclusively the LNE N7 0-6-2T locomotives.
The shed was closed in 1960 when the line was electrified.
There were previously bike racks but they were removed at some point. David Beckham is known to have used the station in his youth, and is reported to have visited the nearby Hollow Ponds often to play football.
London Buses routes 230 and W16 serve the station.