Tiffield | |
---|---|
General information | |
Location | Tiffield, West Northamptonshire England |
Platforms | 1 |
Other information | |
Status | Disused |
History | |
Original company | Northampton and Banbury Junction Railway |
Key dates | |
October 1869 [1] | Opened |
February 1871 [2] | Closed |
1908 [3] | Last racecourse special calls |
Tiffield was a short-lived experimental railway station situated at the highest point of the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway which opened in 1869 to serve the Northamptonshire village of Tiffield, only to close two years later.
The Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway, a forerunner of the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway, opened a line in 1866 which linked its Towcester station with the London and North Western Railway's station at Blisworth on their London to Birmingham line. An experimental passenger station was opened at Tiffield Summit, the highest point of the line, in October 1869. [4] It consisted of little more than a timber landing stage and saw regular passenger services only until February 1871, although special services on Towcester racedays may have called at the station up to around 1908. The location of the station did not make it popular with the locomotive crew as up trains would have had a great deal of difficulty in making a standing start on such a steep uphill gradient. [3]
Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Towcester | SMJR Northampton and Banbury Junction Railway | Blisworth |
The station site, which used to team with rabbits hunted by at least one locomotive driver, [5] now forms part of the Tiffield Pocket Park, a 1 km section of the trackbed which was purchased by local businessman John Mawby as a wildlife refuge after the line's closure and leased to Tiffield Parish Council in 2001 for 25 years. [6]
The Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway (SMJR) was a railway company in the southern Midlands of England, formed at the beginning of 1909 by the merger of three earlier companies:
Farthinghoe was a railway station which served the Northamptonshire village of Farthinghoe in England. It opened in 1851 as part of the Buckinghamshire Railway's branch line to Verney Junction which provided connections to Bletchley and Oxford and closed in 1963.
Brackley Town was a railway station which served the Northamptonshire town of Brackley in England. It opened in 1850 as part of the Buckinghamshire Railway's branch line to Verney Junction which provided connections to Banbury, Bletchley and Oxford and closed in 1963.
Piddington was a railway station on the former Bedford to Northampton Line. Despite its name, the station was located close to the village of Horton in Northamptonshire, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) from the village of Piddington.
The Bedford–Northampton line was a branch of the Midland Railway which served stations in three counties: Northampton and Horton in Northamptonshire, Olney in Buckinghamshire and Turvey and Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. Opened in 1872, the intermediate stations closed to passengers in 1962, leaving a small section between Northampton and Piddington station to remain open until 1981 for the purposes of the Ministry of Defence establishment. The track remains down on another small section of the line between Northampton and Brackmills. The reopening of the line has been proposed by the Bedfordshire Railway & Transport Association.
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Salcey Forest railway station was a short-lived railway station in England, on the Stratford-upon-Avon, Towcester and Midland Junction Railway which opened on 1 December 1892 near the Northamptonshire forest of the same name. The station was not situated near any settlement and only saw passenger services for four months. It is most likely an error of judgement by the railway company which had provided substantial station facilities in expectation of traffic which never came. Salcey Forest station eventually closed on 31 March 1893 and has an arguable claim, along with Stoke Bruerne, of having had the shortest passenger service ever provided at any British railway station. Goods facilities were withdrawn in 1952.
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Laverton Halt railway station was a halt on the Honeybourne Line from Honeybourne to Cheltenham which served the hamlet of Laverton in Gloucestershire between 1905 and 1960.
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