Wycombe Railway and Joint Railway Extends Towards Oxford

Peter Brings us up to date with progress being made with version 2 of the route:  

In our last report we told you about reaching Morris Cowley on the High Wycombe to Oxford line. Well, now the line has reached Kennington Junction, where it joins the Didcot to Oxford line. Here are some pictures:

Approaching Littlemore Station on the southern outskirts of Oxford. It was built in the shadow of the Oxfordshire County Lunatic Asylum.

Coal trucks for the Asylum were positioned on a wagon turntable over which locos were forbidden to go.

The original station of Littlemore burned down and the GWR replacement was in the style of the Joint Line.

The track on the left was a very long siding. There was no passing loop here.

The view from the road bridge. My attempt at the asylum was built from WH sheds and AP stations.

Here is an old postcard of the scene

Beyond the bridge the line descends through a cutting which has been quarried.

A spur off the main siding served a National Benzole oil terminal.

The long siding ended at a source of sand where trucks were occasionally positioned so the station staff could fill them.

They were possibly then taken to Oxford loco shed.

Descending to the Thames valley

Crossing the Thames at Kennington

Joining the Didcot to Oxford line at Kennington Junction for the marshalling yard at Hinksey just south of Oxford

Looking north towards Hinksey yard which was built in 1943 to handle wartime traffic.

On the horizon are the dreaming towers of Oxford gas works.

Southern Region train heading for the north via the Great Central

Heading for Thame and Princes Risborough Crossing the River Thames

Looking back towards Kennington Junction and the bridge over the Thames

More Soon. . . . . . . . . .