Wallingford railway station

Wallingford
Location
Place	Wallingford
Area	South Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire
Grid reference	SU600891
Operations
Original company	Wallingford & Watlington Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	GWR Western Region of British Railways Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
Platforms	1
History
1866	Opened
1959	Passenger services ceased
1965	Goods services ceased
1969	demolished
1985	Reopened as heritage railway station 500m south of original location
Stations on heritage railways in the United Kingdom
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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.

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″N 1°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Passenger services were withdrawn in 1959 and general freight services finished in 1965.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	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

References

• "Cholsey and Wallingford Railway History". Retrieved 5 February 2009. 
• MacDermot, E.T. (1931). History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. II (1st ed.). Paddington: Great Western Railway. 

Coordinates: 51°35′52″N 1°08′07″W / 51.5978°N 1.1352°W / 51.5978; -1.1352