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Bicester Military Railway

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It seems as though this railway is all but abandoned. It appears that way when travelling through the site. If anyone knows any better, it would be good to hear from you. I have seen pictures on the internet, with notes about the railway, which say that it was last used in 2014.

I only came across the railway by accident as I explain in my blog:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/08/01/bicester-military-railway

I have been aware of the Longmoor Military Railway for some time now. I knew nothing of the Bicester Military Railway until my wife and I had part of a weekend in the area. We were travelling along the M40 and using Satnav and we noticed an interesting area off to the East of the motorway which was just visible on the Satnav. Our initial thought was that there might have been some opencast workings in the area.

Much of the site has been sold off. The northern half of Graven Hill Depot is now an estate of plots for self build homes! (https://www.gravenhill.co.uk)

CS_25-Img8-Masterplan2.jpg
 
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swt_passenger

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The Oxford to Bicester (Evergreen 3) upgrade for Chiltern completely updated and improved the MOD Bicester depot access and run round loops.
I'd assume they are still using a much reduced internal network, or maybe just a couple of sidings, and within the remaining areas of the depot lorries move containers to a railhead.

Seems to have been a service yesterday evening, of course with the nature of such traffic there's always far more paths in the system than ever get used.
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/H46502/2018/07/31/advanced
 
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Very recently, I have been reading a book about the Bicester Military Railway which was published in 1992. It was published by the Oxford Publishing Company and is widely available to buy second-hand. It is worth a read. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/10/12/bicester-military-railway-book-review

The Bicester Military Railway. ...

This book, written by E.R. Lawton and Major M.W. Sackett in 1992, [1] gives a comprehensive history of the Bicester site which extends from the original concept to the date of publication of the book.

In the 21st century, large areas of the complex have been given over to civilian use.
 
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Dr_Paul

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Another very useful article by Roger F -- I do like to read material on the more obscure parts of the railway network.

Do the various parts of the armed forces still use the railways to any degree? Looking at various maps and at aerial photography, some depots still have rail links, and I've noticed paths on Rea Train Times. Is there are any information about military railway traffic available?
 

PeterC

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I'll have to get somebody else to do the driving next time I go up the A41. The glimpses that I get are of lots of containers but can't safely look long enough to see if there is any railway activity going on.
 

O L Leigh

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I'll have to get somebody else to do the driving next time I go up the A41. The glimpses that I get are of lots of containers but can't safely look long enough to see if there is any railway activity going on.

I’ve been using the A41 on a regular basis for the last seven years and have never seen any rail movements whatsoever; not even so much as a hand car. I’ve always assumed that the container traffic arrives and leaves by road, but even the container stacks have now gone.

As has already been mentioned, large parts of the MOD sites are now disappearing under Bicester’s sprawling housing developments. Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire network will eventually disappear altogether.
 

Llanigraham

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When I was at Leeds Signalling School we had a girl from there who was one of their Controllers who was about to be employed at Bristol Panel.
 

jimm

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Traffic is pretty sporadic these days but, as said, that simply reflects that the MoD is making less use of the site generally.

A couple of movements from earlier in the summer were photographed by Martin Loader.

One close to Bicester

http://www.hondawanderer.com/66736_Charlton-on-Otmoor_2019.htm

One on the way to Bicester from Ashchurch

http://www.hondawanderer.com/66776_Standish_Junction_2019.htm

Though it looks as though there will be more train movements (albeit non-military). From Rail magazine's website:

Rail Operations Group has agreed a deal to use MoD Bicester as a storage facility.

Speaking exclusively to RAIL, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Karl Watts said: “Bicester is massive. It has 5,200 metres of storage, and we will put anything there.”

As context, the site could hold 266 23-metre Mk 3 coaches, or 65 four-car electric multiple units (each vehicle being 20 metres).

https://www.railmagazine.com/news/n...erations-group-to-store-stock-at-mod-bicester
 
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