In Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, there are three stations that Marlow visits on his trip through the Congo.

The second station is called the Central Station. It is at this location that Marlow is supposed to get his ship which will carry him to the third station (known as the Inner Station) to pick up Mr. Kurtz who has been in the interior of the jungle for an extremely long time. Rumor has it that he is ill, but no one has heard from him; the only way the Company still knows that he is alive is from the shipments of ivory that he continues to send back.

When Marlow reaches the Central Station, he meets the manager, the brickmaker, the manager's uncle and a mechanic whom he befriends; he also finds that his ship in under water. Another (junior) skipper had ripped the bottom of the ship open on the rocky bottom of the river and it sank. In order to continue his journey, Marlow will have to repair it, which he expects will take several months. He finds some difficulty getting parts to complete his task: he continues to order rivets, but the orders are, mysteriously, never filled. Eventually Marlow enlists the help of one of the mechanics (formerly a boiler-maker, a widow with six children), and although the rivets take their time arriving, they eventually show up.

Marlow is able to complete the repairs to his ship and resume his journey to find and retrieve Mr. Kurtz.

In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, what is the second station, and who is the the main character?

In Joseph Conrad's story, Heart of Darkness, when Marlow leaves England, and traveling in a French ship, down the coast of Africa, he enters the "mouth" of the Congo; from there he travels to the Lower Station.

Marlow must wait at the Lower Station for ten days before setting out two hundred miles overland in a caravan to where his steamer is waiting up the river at the Central Station.

Marlow's job is to travel into the heart of the Congo to find and bring back Kurtz, an employee of the company who does amazing work in shipping back enormous amounts of ivory—no one has heard from him in nine months: they only sense the company has that Kurtz is still alive is based on the fact that the ivory continues to arrive.

When Marlow lands at the Central Station (his second stop), he finds the ship that he is supposed to command is under water. So begins the extensive task of repairing it so that Marlow can continue his journey to fulfill the task at hand.

The third and last stop on Marlow's trip is the Inner Station, where Marlow eventually finds Kurtz. When he finally is able to get Kurtz on board, he turns the ship around with the intention of returning to England.