Long Marston railway station

Long Marston
Long Marston
	The site of the station in 2019
General information
Location	Long Marston, Warwickshire, Stratford-on-Avon ; England
Grid reference	SP155478
Platforms	2 (from 1908; previously 1)
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Opened	12 July 1859;163 years ago
Closed	3 January 1966;56 years ago
Original company	Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway ; Western Region of British Railways
Key dates
May 1908;114 years ago	Second platform opened

Last updated October 08, 2022

Long Marston railway station was a station at Long Marston, Warwickshire on the Great Western Railway line between Stratford-upon-Avon and Honeybourne, which became part of the Great Western Railway's new main line between Birmingham and Cheltenham.

History

The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway opened a single track branch line from Honeybourne to Stratford on 12 July 1859. Long Marston station was opened just south of the village. The OW&WR became part of the Great Western Railway, which in 1908 upgraded the route into a double-track main line.

In 1966 British Railways withdrew passenger services from Long Marston station. Freight services through Long Marston continued until 1976, when the track between Long Marston and Stratford was lifted.

Long Marston Depot

The track between Honeybourne and Long Marston remains open for non-passenger trains to and from Long Marston depot, which was built as a Ministry of Defence facility known as Long Marston Central Engineering Park.^[1] Since the privatisation of British Rail in the mid-1990s, rolling stock companies (ROSCOs) have used it to store out-of-lease rolling stock. The site is secure and secluded to minimise the risk of vandalism.

The Stratford on Avon and Broadway Railway Society was based at the former MoD depot, but in 2011 moved its stock elsewhere.

Long Marston Military Railway

In 2014, it was announced that a volunteer-run working military railway would be created on the site of the former Ministry of Defence depot.^[2] The Long Marston Military Railway project sought to keep alive military railway skills, such as re-railing of trains, as well as locomotive driving and track laying, following the disbanding of the British Army's last railway unit, the Royal Logistic Corps 275 Railway Squadron, in March 2014 as a result of Government defence cuts.^{[ citation needed ]} The 79 Railway Squadron had been disbanded in 2012.^{[ citation needed ]}

A "Military Railfest" was planned for 6–10 May 2015 and was expected to include about 20 former army locomotives. Barclay 0-4-0DM Mulberry^[3] was already at Long Marston and was joined by USATC S160 Class 2-8-0 number 3278 on 22 April 2014.^{[ citation needed ]} The project had been using the shed vacated by the Stratford on Avon and Broadway Railway.^[4]

In March 2015, it was reported that the project had collapsed and that the majority of the site would be redeveloped for housing, with sidings retained for the storage of London Underground District line stock for Vivarail's conversion into diesel multiple units.^[2]

Stock list for Military Railfest 2015
Description	War Department Number	Owner or keeper
Taff Vale Railway O1 class 0-6-2T no. 28	205	Gwili Railway
GWR 4300 Class 2-6-0 no. 5322	5322	Didcot Railway Centre
TCDD 45151 Class 2-8-0 no. 45160	348	Churchill Locomotive Co.
Austerity 0-6-0ST no. 2183	71529	Andrew Goodman
DRG Class 64 2-6-2T no. 64.305	?	Nene Valley Railway
Barclay 0-4-0DM "Mulberry"	70047	Long Marston
British Rail Class 20 no. 20901	none	Harry Needle Railroad Company
Wickham railcar	?	Longmoor Military Railway
USATC S160 Class 2-8-0	3278	Richard Stone
USATC S160 Class 2-8-0	6046	Churnet Valley Railway
VR Class Tr1 2-8-2 no. 1060	?	Epping Ongar Railway
LMS 0-6-0DE no. 7069	18	Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway

Preceding station		Disused railways	Following station
Milcote Line and station closed		Great Western Railway Honeybourne Line	Honeybourne Line closed, station open
	Proposed Heritage railways
Milcote Line and station closed		Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway	Honeybourne Line closed, station open

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References

↑ "Long Marston Central Engineer Park (Depot)". www.warwickshirerailways.com. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
1 2 Johnston, Howard (4–17 March 2015). "Regional News". Rail (769): 25.
↑ "Preserved Railways". R Dicken, SW Redfern. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
↑ "'". Steam Railway. Bauer Media Group (429): 6–7. June–July 2014. ISSN 0143-7232.

External links

"Long Marston Station". Warwickshire Railways.

Coordinates: 52°07′44″N1°46′30″W / 52.1288°N 1.7751°W / 52.1288; -1.7751

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[1] "Long Marston Central Engineer Park (Depot)". www.warwickshirerailways.com. Retrieved 19 July 2021.

[Rail-769-2] 1 2 Johnston, Howard (4–17 March 2015). "Regional News". Rail (769): 25.

[3] "Preserved Railways". R Dicken, SW Redfern. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2014.

[4] "'". Steam Railway. Bauer Media Group (429): 6–7. June–July 2014. ISSN 0143-7232.

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