St. Albans Abbey station was opened in May 1858 by the LNWR Company, the northern terminus of the branch line from Watford. This was a single track and served five stations with a passing loop at Bricket Wood. The station became a junction in 1866 with the building of the GNR line to Hatfield. Local passenger services to Watford (LNWR) and Hatfield (GNR) were frequent and supplemented at peak times with trains direct to Euston. Apart from regular coal supplied for the adjoining Gas Works, there was also mixed freight with emphasis on agricultural requirements and the local cattle market.

Trains reach the LNWR/GNR junction, then pass a LNWR type 4 signal box with 25 levers (box demolished 1970) into the station on the south side of the city, alongside the gas works at the foot of St. Stephens Hill. The station building was demolished in 1967 and the goods shed in 1956.

This layout is exactly to scale and represents St. Albans Abbey station and its approaches between 1925 and 1929, and is run to a sequence representing the timetable during that period.