Wallingford railway station (England)

Last updated

Wallingford
Station on heritage railway
Cholsey and Wallingford Railway 2.jpg
Location Wallingford, South Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire
England
Coordinates 51°35′52″N1°08′07″W / 51.5978°N 1.1352°W / 51.5978; -1.1352 Coordinates: 51°35′52″N1°08′07″W / 51.5978°N 1.1352°W / 51.5978; -1.1352
Grid reference SU600891
Platforms1
History
Original companyWallingford & Watlington Railway
Pre-grouping Great Western Railway
Post-groupingGWR
Western Region of British Railways
Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
Key dates
1866Opened
1959Passenger services ceased
1965Goods services ceased
1969demolished
1985Reopened as heritage railway station 500m south of original location
Auto-train and (detached) 0-4-2T in 1959 Wallingford Station, with auto-train and (detached) 0-4-2T geograph-2591518-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg
Auto-train and (detached) 0-4-2T in 1959

Wallingford railway station is a railway station serving the town of Wallingford. It is now part of a preserved railway.

Contents

History

On 2 July 1866, the Wallingford railway branch line was opened by the Wallingford and Watlington Railway from a junction with the Great Western Railway (GWR) main line at Moulsford (known as Wallingford Road until that date) to Wallingford, where a station was constructed on the south side of Wantage Road (now Station Road), at grid reference SU602895 ( 51°36′06″N1°07′55″W / 51.6017°N 1.1320°W / 51.6017; -1.1320 (Wallingford railway station (original)) ). The line never proceeded beyond, so did not reach the second-named town in its title. [1]

For such a short line and a small station, the location was well patronised by commercial freight customers. The original Wallingford creamery was taken over by the Co-op Wholesale Society, [2] and had its own private siding access from the goods yard to allow access for milk trains, which then took product to London until the late 1950s. There was also a Malting plant with rail access.

Passenger services were withdrawn in 1959 and general freight services finished in 1965. In 1969 the line was shortened by 500 metres (1,600 ft), back to the location of the malting plant on Hithercroft Road, which was the only remaining goods customer. When traffic from the maltings stopped in 1981 the line was closed and British Rail removed the junction at Cholsey.

A new Wallingford station was built on the south side of St. Johns Road, at grid reference SU600891 , when the line reopened as a heritage railway. [3]

Services

Preceding station HR icon.svg   Heritage railways Following station
Terminus  Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
Occasional service
  Cholsey
Disused railways
Terminus  British Rail
Western Region

Wallingford Branch Line
  Cholsey
Line and station open

Notes

  1. MacDermot vol. II, pp.42-43
  2. Antony Ewart Smith (1960). "The CWS Creamery on Borough Road circa 1960". geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  3. Cholsey and Wallingford Railway History

Related Research Articles

Great Western Main Line English railway line linking London and Bristol

The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads. It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the original route of the first Great Western Railway which was merged into the Western Region of British Railways in 1948. It is now a part of the national rail system managed by Network Rail with the majority of passenger services provided by the current Great Western Railway franchise.

Uxbridge High Street railway station

Uxbridge High Street railway station in Uxbridge, England, was on what is now Oxford Road near its junction with Sanderson Road. It was the southern terminus and only station on the Great Western Railway (GWR) branch line from the GWR/GCR joint line, which is now the Chiltern Main Line.

Cholsey and Wallingford Railway

The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway is a 2+12-mile (4 km) long standard gauge heritage railway in the English county of Oxfordshire. It operates along most of the length of the former Wallingford branch of the Great Western Railway (GWR), from Cholsey station, 12 miles (19 km) north of Reading on the Great Western Main Line, to a station on the outskirts of the nearby town of Wallingford.

Goring & Streatley railway station Railway station serving the villages of Goring-on-Thames and Streatley in England

Goring & Streatley railway station is on the Great Western Main Line serving the twin villages of Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and Streatley, Berkshire in England. The station is in Goring-on-Thames, adjacent to the village centre and some five minutes walk from Goring and Streatley Bridge, which connects the village with Streatley, across the River Thames. It is 44 miles 60 chains (72.0 km) down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Pangbourne to the east and Cholsey to the west. It is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway (GWR).

Cholsey railway station Railway station in the village of Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England

Cholsey railway station serves the village of Cholsey in south Oxfordshire, England, and the nearby town of Wallingford. It is 48 miles 37 chains (78.0 km) down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Goring & Streatley to the east and Didcot Parkway to the west.

Pontyclun railway station Railway station in Rhonda Cynon Taff, Wales

Pontyclun railway station is an unstaffed, minor railway station in Pontyclun, in the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales. The station is at street level, on Station Approach, Pontyclun. It is a stop on the South Wales Main Line, served by trains on the Maesteg Line, and occasionally by the Swanline Cardiff to Swansea regional services, as well as one early-morning daily service to Manchester and a late-night daily service to Carmarthen. The station and all trains are operated by Transport for Wales Rail.

Princes Risborough railway station Railway station in Buckinghamshire, England

Princes Risborough station is a railway station on the Chiltern Main Line that serves the town of Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire, England. It is operated by Chiltern Railways.

Kingham railway station Railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Kingham railway station in Oxfordshire, England, is between the Oxfordshire village of Kingham and the Gloucestershire village of Bledington, to which it is closer. It is also the closest station to the town of Chipping Norton.

Sharpness branch line

The Sharpness branch line is a railway in Gloucestershire, England, built by the Midland Railway (MR) to connect the port of Sharpness to the main Bristol and Gloucester Railway. The line opened for goods traffic in 1875 and to passenger traffic a year later. Passenger services were withdrawn in November 1964, but the line remains open for freight traffic to and from Sharpness Docks.

Birkenhead Railway

The Birkenhead Railway was a railway company in England. It was incorporated as the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway (BL&CJR) in 1846 to build a line connecting Chester and the manufacturing districts of Lancashire by making a junction near Warrington with the Grand Junction Railway. The BL&CJR took over the Chester and Birkenhead Railway in 1847, keeping its own name for the combined company until it shortened its name to The Birkenhead Railway in 1859. It was taken over jointly, on 1 January 1860, by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and the Great Western Railway (GWR). It remained a Joint Railway until Nationalisation of the railways in 1948.

Barnstaple Victoria Road railway station Former railway station in Devon, England

Barnstaple railway station was the western terminus of the Devon and Somerset Railway. It was situated on the western side of Barnstaple in Devon, England. It was served by passenger trains from 1871 until 1960, and by freight trains until 1970.

The Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway was a single track railway branch line, 22 miles (35 km) long, in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. It was opened in succession by two companies, the first in 1861 to connect the important woollen town of Witney to the main line network, and the second in 1873 as the rump of an ambitious scheme to connect to Cheltenham, but which ran only between Witney and Fairford. The junction with the main line was at Yarnton, north of Oxford.

Moulsford railway station

Moulsford railway station was on the original route of the Great Western Railway, being one of three intermediate stations provided when the line was extended from Reading to Steventon in 1840.

Wootton Bassett Junction railway station

Wootton Bassett Junction railway station, formerly Wootton Bassett railway station, was a junction station in Wootton Bassett where the Great Western and South Wales Main Lines diverge. Opened in 1841, it closed in 1965.

The Brentford branch line, also known as the Brentford Dock Line, is a freight-only branch railway line in west London, England. The route, which opened in 1859, was backed by the Great Western Railway and built by the Great Western & Brentford Railway Company. It ran 4 mi (6.4 km) from Southall to Brentford Dock. In 1964, the line to the wharves was closed. The branch now runs from the Great Western Main Line to a goods yard and waste transfer station in Brentford.

Cheltenham Spa St. James railway station

Cheltenham Spa St. James railway station was a station in the town of Cheltenham.

Tetbury Road railway station was built by the Cheltenham & Great Western Union Railway to serve the Gloucestershire villages of Kemble and Coates, and the town of Tetbury.

Tarka Valley Railway proposed heritage railway in Devon, England

The Tarka Valley Railway in Devon, England, is a proposed heritage railway based on plans to rebuild the Barnstaple to Halwill Junction railway line. So far only a short demonstration line has been set up, and planning permission was granted for 300 ft of track in the direction of Bideford. The railway has been fenced off from the Tarka Trail ensuring the safety of all involved. Restoration of various items of railway stock is currently under way.

Wallingford railway branch line

The Wallingford railway branch line was a 2.5 mi (4.0 km) branch line between the market town of Wallingford and the Great Western Railway main line at Wallingford Road in Oxfordshire. The railway, which opened in 1866, was originally planned to go a further 6 mi (9.7 km) to Watlington but this was never completed because of insufficient funds. After the branch line opened, it ran regular passenger shuttle services to the GWR mainline for almost a century. It closed to passengers in 1959; the line escaped the Beeching Axe, remaining open for goods services until 1981.

References