History Newbury railway station

1 history

1.1 line opening
1.2 station expansion
1.3 line closures
1.4 service history

history
line opening

newbury station opened on 21 december 1847 part of berks , hants railway reading, berkshire hungerford. newbury important junction on didcot, newbury , southampton railway (dn&sr), first section of opened between didcot , newbury in 1881. route winchester opened in 1885 not until 1891 route southampton completed. however, route did not include planned independent southampton terminus , instead used terminus owned london , south western railway.

in 1898 lambourn valley railway (lvr) opened ran west of station lambourn, north-west of newbury. trains lambourn started bay on north platform @ western end.

station expansion

newbury in nineteenth century

by 1890 newbury important station , junction. there 2 lines through station covered overall roof, plus footbridge, turntable, goods yard , 2 bay platforms. however, expansion of dn&sr , later opening of lvr created bottleneck in newbury, express trains on reading plymouth line.

between 1908 , 1910 station rebuilt extend platforms , create 2 loops ensure trains stopping @ station did not block line express , freight trains. red brick used new station buildings still in use today. new footbridge built across station.

the expansion included building of 2 signal boxes, 1 @ each end of station. possible hear bells in these boxes ringing point mid-way along main platforms. access yard became possible down , through lines , main (north) platform.

line closures

the 1960s saw closure of both dn&sr , lvr due declining passenger , freight traffic on both lines. regular local services southwards winchester ended in march 1960 , northwards didcot in september 1962. last passenger train use dn&sr ran in may 1964, rerouted express train resulting derailment @ reading west. tracks lifted in 1967.

british railways (br) withdrew lvr passenger services on 4 january 1960 freight services continued serve raf welford 1970s. when united states air force decided no longer needed use rail link handed control br in 1973. 1 last passenger special operated on line in november of year before line totally closed , track later lifted.

as result of closure of lvr bay platform on north side @ western end of station no longer needed , track removed. bay on south side remained in use 1970s recessing local trains bedwyn until down express had passed. south bay later removed when station resignalled , track layout altered allow down expresses serve north side platform. both west end bays car parks. sole east end bay on north side of line maintained use eastbound passenger services starting @ newbury. locally still called compton bay because of original purpose on dn&sr.

service history

the station part of great western railway until britain s railways nationalised in 1948. after sectorisation of british rail in 1982 station became part of network southeast , stop on intercity network. 1996 services provided thames trains until 2004 first great western link when took on , since 2006 first great western.