70014IronDuke
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Taken out of this thread
As I only later realised this was for CONSTRUCTION of Oxford - Bletchley, (and a jolly good thread too, if I may say so), and I was helping it go off topic.
The old route had no direct, simple 'chord' with the Midland - the two routes cross at different heights south of Bedford. There was a connection from the former St Johns station to Midland Rd station through a goods yard. It was freight only.
Where the Bedford - Cambridge line crossed the ECML at Sandy, there was a west to north chord, I think installed during WW2, but it was freight only. I think it was out of use by 1960. I suppose there was some connection with the ECML south of the station at Sandy, but when it was last used is anybody's guess.
The two lines, though adjacent, were effectively run as two totally separate railways. There was next to no interchange of passengers between the branch and the ECML. The branch service was roughly 1TP2H, and the 'main line' service at Sandy was even worse.
BTW, a pedantic point, but the branch did not close because of Beeching: in fact, it was planned to be developed as a freight route avoiding London. But it never happened - except for the flyover at Bletchley.
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East-West Rail (EWR): Oxford-Bletchley construction progress
Indeed there was (post #450). I really must pay closer attention! I think given the large number of other “3 arch overbridges” they will have just removed the north side embankment through it to make room for the third track that you mentioned in post #535. As far as the “before” drawings have...
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As I only later realised this was for CONSTRUCTION of Oxford - Bletchley, (and a jolly good thread too, if I may say so), and I was helping it go off topic.
The Bletchley-Oxford line was fairly straight, so may look good for high speed running, but it was only a branch. When closed to passengers in 1967, I believe the line speed was probably 70 mph, though I'm not sure many DMUs which worked the line managed to reach that speed very often.Also I have a map from a rail magazine ( and an actual track atlas from years prior to the beeching cuts), both show this line originally was not a mainline , yet seems to be built to allow for To my untrained eye , at least the standard of the East coast mainline ( for example - I'm not too clued up on the real technical side of railways , just learning , in addition to the 00 gauge model rail, my interest is more toward this sort of thing , reversing the beeching cuts and types of trains used ).
I do not know for 100% certain, but I'd bet it was never directly linked to the Witney branch. Up until the late 1950s or so the line ran into a separate, former LNWR station at Oxford, though this was adjacent to the GWR station.So is this being built as a mainline to run for example at 110-125mph line speeds ? , I ask also because on the atlas from before closeure it appears to link to fairford near Cirencester, and Witney , Oxford is shown ( south of the line ) .
i think the new route from Bedford eastwards is still being worked out. Some in here will be up to date with what's going on, but if you read back in the thread you will find out a lot.Does this line have chords where it crosses the Ecml and MML?.
The old route had no direct, simple 'chord' with the Midland - the two routes cross at different heights south of Bedford. There was a connection from the former St Johns station to Midland Rd station through a goods yard. It was freight only.
Where the Bedford - Cambridge line crossed the ECML at Sandy, there was a west to north chord, I think installed during WW2, but it was freight only. I think it was out of use by 1960. I suppose there was some connection with the ECML south of the station at Sandy, but when it was last used is anybody's guess.
The two lines, though adjacent, were effectively run as two totally separate railways. There was next to no interchange of passengers between the branch and the ECML. The branch service was roughly 1TP2H, and the 'main line' service at Sandy was even worse.
BTW, a pedantic point, but the branch did not close because of Beeching: in fact, it was planned to be developed as a freight route avoiding London. But it never happened - except for the flyover at Bletchley.
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D6130
Established Member
In a copy of 'Modern Railways' which I have seen, there is a photo of an Oxford-Cambridge train crossing the ECML at Sandy shortly before closure in 1967 hauled by a class 24 diesel-electric loco.The Bletchley-Oxford line was fairly straight, so may look good for high speed running, but it was only a branch. When closed to passengers in 1967, I believe the line speed was probably 70 mph, though I'm not sure many DMUs which worked the line managed to reach that speed very often.
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