Abingdon Model Railway show hits town again on 28th February at the Tennis and Leisure Centre.
This year you can see a scale model of Abingdon Station – now a supermarket and a home for the elderly.
You can also see a model of Radley station (with a bit of modellers imagination added) so you could perhaps picture a ride on the bunk from Radley to Abingdon. Radley and Abingdon history clubs are there to tell you more.
Thanks to Mike for the poster and Elizabeth for the pictures.
How wonderful to see the picture of the train station from the outside. I must admit I have only seen pictures of the platforms before (and I was born after the Beeching review).
Both of the towns I lived in prior to Abingdon ( Yarm and Marton/ Midlesbrough) reinstated their local rail halts.
It was great to be able to travel locally by train. The Marton line now has a new rail halt installed near to the Main Hospital in Middlesbrough. Good example of local planning I think.
Where did Abingdon station used to be?
Rachel it was where waitrose and old station house are now.
If you go to the Model Railway show and look at the Abingdon layout you will see exactly how it looked – the Statioj building in the middle picture is where Old Station House is now, Waitrose Is pretty much on the platform, the line went out through the car park and the industrial units at the other end of it. The cycle track which goes along from behind the Wellbeing Centre towards Radley is built along the old railway track. The buildings either side of Station Yard as you come up from Stert Street were all there in the station days.
I was on the very last train, Abingdon to Radley. The local Labour (?) party carried a coffin on board. Someone pulled the communication cord halfway and there were fog detonators on the line at Radley.
A chap called Norman Plush was in highland dress and serenaded us with his bagpipes.
It was really quite a sad occasion and the end of an era for the ‘Bunk’ line
Why doesn’t someone suggest proposing a new line from Abingdon back to Oxford? with full busses and blocked roads it almost makes sense.
Many of the old lines stopped during the Beeching cuts are being reinstated
Where would we put a new station? Any one got any proposals?
I suggested somewhere behind Audlett drive…but apparently we are to get “Abinhdon Parkway” at CULHAM! (along with all of the associated traffic problems that occur daily between Abingdon and Clifden Hampden it should be brilliant…..another victory for the men-in-suits behind-the-scenes who make all the decisions that affect the rest of us on a daily basis)!
Julian
If you think expanding Culham Station will expand the traffic into Abingdon, what do you think of the effect on traffic into Abingdon of the proposed bridge over the Thames connecting Didcot to Culham?
Two local politicians are on the front of the local paper saying it will decrease the traffic in Abingdon. Let’s hope not a penny is spent until the real effect (growth of traffic from Didcot to Abingdon) is quantified by professionals, not politicians. I think the Badcocks will be shown to be spectacularly wrong in their predictions.
And with the proposed 1000 houses on the North of Abingdon, just how are substantial fraction of these going to get to work at Culham Science Centre? A challenge to the men in suits as you call them.