Hey, I had my stage 2 at the coorporate technical centre last monday, I stayed over night as it was too far for me to travel. the closest train station is swanwick, i think its about £6 to the ctc from there, but there is a free shuttle bus back to the station afterwards, just ask the receptionist, she was really helpful.
also, there is a post on page 131 of this forum of links of examples for stage 1. I wish i had seen it before mine, but make sure you get to grips with cubes as they are also in stage 2 aswell! Hope this helps!
Good luck!!