'I'm amazed people are helping my ticket project'

Elliott Badger, who has worked at Northampton railway station for 18 years, began collecting the tickets nine years ago

A group of train enthusiasts have banded together to help a railway worker in his quest to collect train tickets from every station in the UK.

Elliott Badger started the All Aboard to Northampton project in 2020 and in September had acquired 2,100 tickets – about 600 short of the total needed.

On Saturday, a group of railway fans helped Mr Badger tick off 18 more stations from his list - taking on replacement bus services, engineering works and starting from lesser-visited stations.

"It's absolutely amazing that so many people would do this just to get tickets for the ticket wall - incredible," he said.

He added he had never heard of most of the stations people travelled from on Saturday, despite nearly two decades working for the railways

"I had no idea how many people would take part or how far apart some of the places would be - hopefully more people will come, look at the board and see what stations are missing."

The tickets are displayed in alphabetical order with spaces left for the missing stops.

Destinations now included on his wall include Crouch Hill, South Tottenham and Gospel Oak in London, as well as Shippea Hill (one of Britain's least-used stations) in Cambridgeshire, and Wedgwood in Staffordshire.

Sarah Ward used to travel to Northampton regularly for work and praised the friendly staff which is part of what inspired her to take part

"I've come from Hopton Heath, but unfortunately it was a bus replacement service," said Sarah Ward.

"It's quite remote, it's a village and at one point it was the least-used station in Shropshire."

She was attracted to the project because it was "so exciting - social history in the making".

Luke Agbaimoni said the idea was exciting and artistic and mirrored his own project in London

"I've come from Wimbledon Chase in London and I'd never even heard of the station, which is funny as I've heard of loads of stations," said Luke Agbaimoni, who added his ticket to the display at Northampton.

The 44-year-old is an author and photographer of a tube map project which aims to capture a moment at every stop on the London Underground.

"I'm very excited about this project - I'm a big advocate for anything artistic, hence my Underground project - and I love collections," he said.

"I'm collecting every Underground station - and this is a collection of every train ticket, so for me it just rings so many bells."

Mags Luckhurst's journeys included a lift from a friend and "nightmare" train connections - but she also added a ticket to the wall

Mags Luckhurst, 27, added tickets from Ancaster and Rauceby stations, both in Lincolnshire.

"They don't have an hourly service and not every train stops there, so we first had to go to Nottingham, that went to Sleaford and then we paid a friend - bought him some McDonalds - to give us a lift to our stations," she said.

"Then the train was delayed by 40 minutes, so we had a bit of a nightmare with our connections but we're here; we made it."

She took part because "I like really niche nerdy stuff like this... the idea of this wall being completed is really exciting".

Eesa Ashraf was inspired by a friend to take part, having loved trains since he was a small boy going on journeys with his grandfather

"My journey began at Drayton Green, in Ealing, London," said Eesa Ashraf, 21, who heard about the project from a friend.

"When he said we were going to complete the Northampton [ticket challenge], I said, 'Fantastic, I'll come along too'.

"I've always been a big train fan since I was small, I've been on some train trips with my grandad especially, so I've got a deep passion for trains."

Mr Badger hoped "more people will come, look at the board and see what stations are missing"