First Wembley Stadium station The first station to bear the name
Wembley Stadium, at (), about east-north-east of the present station, was opened by the
LNER on 28 April 1923 as
The Exhibition Station (Wembley). It had one platform, and was situated on a
loop which forked off the
Chiltern Main Line between Neasden Junction and Wembley Hill station (now Wembley Stadium station, see below). It then curved round in a clockwise direction to regain the Chiltern Main Line at a point slightly closer to Neasden Junction. The connections faced London to allow an intensive service with no reversing. The station was renamed several times, becoming Wembley Stadium station in 1928. The station was last used on 18 May 1968 for the
1968 FA Cup final between
Everton v
West Bromwich Albion, and was officially closed on 1 September 1969. Traces of the line can be seen on maps and in aerial photographs. It was normally used only for passenger services for events at the stadium or the
Empire Pool within the estate, built for the 1924-25
British Empire Exhibition. Temporary sidings led into the "Palace of Engineering" exhibition hall where both the
Great Western Railway's locomotive
Caerphilly Castle and the
London and North Eastern Railway's
Flying Scotsman were displayed, with each claimed by its owners to be the most powerful passenger locomotive in Britain.
Present station map of railways in the vicinity of Wembley Stadium (shown here as
Wembley Hill) ,
Wembley Central, Wembley Stadium and
Wembley Park stations, and the
A406 North Circular road (bottom right) On 20 November 1905, the
Great Central Railway opened a new route for freight trains between Neasden Junction and Northolt Junction. Passenger services from
Marylebone began on 1 March 1906, when three new stations were opened:
Wembley Hill, and
South Harrow. On 2 April 1906 these services were extended to
Northolt Junction. Wembley Hill station was renamed
Wembley Complex on 8 May 1978 in order to indicate its proximity to the nearby sports facilities, as well as to a recently opened conference centre, before getting its present name
Wembley Stadium on 11 May 1987. There were originally four tracks with the two platforms on passing loops outside the inner non-stop running lines; the current two-track layout dates from the 1960s. The 4 tracks were closed for a week by a landslide in a cutting near the station from 18 February 1918. ==Services==