How would you put Abingdon on the rail map?

[ChewChewTrain]

If you could rewrite history so that Victorian landowners weren’t so reactionary and thus Abingdon had a mainline presence, what would the best configuration be? Deviate Didcot to Oxford to the west? Deviate Didcot to Swindon to the north? Or do both, making Abingdon a junction somewhat like Didcot Parkway actually is today?

No “rules” for this thread. It’s the Speculative Discussion forum, so please: go wild, and there are no wrong answers!

 

[JonathanH]

Does the 'lie of the land' and the position of nearby towns make sense for Abingdon to be on the rail network as a through route?

Clearly Brunel made use of the gap at Goring to push though his line from London to Bristol and Didcot is broadly where it then goes west, to the north of the Berkshire Downs. Swindon was a convenient place to put the works, and there was a fairly obvious line to where the Severn could reasonably be tunnelled. Abingdon is too far north to be a sensible place for that junction.

Didcot then seems to be due south of Oxford, and therefore keeps the route to London from there shorter than having the junction further west.

Abingdon has the misfortune of being too far west. Putting Didcot where Harwell is might have been the answer for a line through Abingdon to Oxford, but it would have represented a time penalty.

There was once a link from Radley, which could potentially justify travel to Oxford these days but couldn't in the 1960s.

With the Cotswolds to the west, and therefore a lack of destinations for the railway to the north west, to my mind there isn't really anywhere obvious a line through Abingdon could go.

 

[Gloster]

I have a habit of looking at old 1” maps and building imaginary lines: I think the only reasonable possibility would be a cut-off between Oxford and Swindon. This would use the branch that was built as far as Abingdon and then the route of the Wilts & Berks Canal to near Wantage Road.

 

[JonathanH]

It is interesting that the Wikipedia page for Didcot does suggest a route via Abingdon as being cheaper to build.

Although longer, a cheaper-to-build line to Bristol would have been through Abingdon farther north but the landowner, the first Lord Wantage, is reputed to have prevented that alignment. The railway and its junction to Oxford assisted the growth of Didcot. The station's name helped to standardise the spelling "Didcot".

I think the only reasonable possibility would be a cut-off between Oxford and Swindon.

What would have justified such a cut-off?

The eastern edge of Abingdon is less than a mile from Radley Station nowadays, and the centre only 2.5 miles away, putting it on a par with places like Tring and Tewkesbury relative to the national network.

At a very simple level, 'Radley for Abingdon' would get it 'on the map', although I imagine that Oxford, Culham and Didcot all currently play a role as 'Abingdon Parkway' stations in practice.

 

[Gloster]

What would have justified such a cut-off?

The eastern edge of Abingdon is less than a mile from Radley Station nowadays, and the centre only 2.5 miles away, putting it on a par with places like Tring and Tewkesbury relative to the national network.

At a very simple level, 'Radley for Abingdon' would get it 'on the map'.

Nothing would have justified it, which was why it was never built. I was answering the question by giving the only option (as far as I can see) that, even in the Victorian-era, had some minimal plausibility, rather than being down-right pointless.

 

[JonathanH]

Nothing would have justified it, which was why it was never built.

I guess that an Oxford - Abingdon - Grove - Wantage line would be the speculative consideration today, with a junction at Grove. Not sure how well it would go down.

 

[didcotdean]

Maximising locally generated income favoured a Wallingford - Abingdon - Wantage route but this was rendered impossible by land and business interests in Abingdon. A more southerly route was roughly parallel to the existing Wallingford - (Dudcote) -Wantage turnpike and over easier terrain and hence a bit cheaper making the loss of local businesses less of an issue in the short term.

The opposition in Abingdon was still strong in the 1840s meaning even a branch was out of the question from a Steventon/Didcot - Oxford line, itself difficult enough from a series of Oxford colleges' objections.

So you could easily have had the mainline through Abingdon & a branch to Oxford if the objectors had been absent.

 

[30907]

Arguably a line from Steventon (on the historic N-S route aka A34) via Abingdon (west of the town centre) to Oxford would have made some sense, but it would have added 3 miles to the Oxford route.

 

[Ken H]

So we are nack at the recycled old joke
Why is abingdon station so far from the town?
Maybe they wanted it near the railway line.
Coat

 

[didcotdean]

Before the branch to Oxford was built the connecting stagecoaches took 1.5 hours to do the ten miles from Steventon which shows how bad the road was - especially considering the rail journey from London took 2 hours in comparison.

Didcot was also closer to the turnpike for local E-W road access; this turnpike is the present day Broadway through the town & the GWR built what is now Station Road to it.

 

[TheWalrus]

I think Abingdon is practically joined with Radley now which has a station so that puts it on the map?

 

[Falcon1200]

Deviate Didcot to Oxford to the west?

Looking at it now, the most obvious thing would seem to have been to divert the Didcot/Oxford line slightly west, serving what was then the east side of Abingdon.

Didcot then seems to be due south of Oxford, and therefore keeps the route to London from there shorter than having the junction further west.

A good point, although the present Paddington/Oxford route is IIRC longer than the former line via Thame and Princes Risborough, thanks to Brunel's Great Way Round.

There was once a link from Radley, which could potentially justify travel to Oxford these days but couldn't in the 1960s.

Abingdon nowadays has very frequent buses to Oxford, which of course serve more parts of both Abingdon and Oxford than the train ever could, so doubt the branch could ever come back! And passengers from the Abingdon area for London might well just drive to Didcot for the excellent service (and huge car park) there.

 

[Snow1964]

I have a habit of looking at old 1” maps and building imaginary lines: I think the only reasonable possibility would be a cut-off between Oxford and Swindon. This would use the branch that was built as far as Abingdon and then the route of the Wilts & Berks Canal to near Wantage Road.

Yes in imaginary world, a cut off (with flying junctions) south of Oxford to Swindon line (with sections to Oxford and Swindon quadrupled).

Served by an electric semi-fast service running from Somerset coast (Weston super Mare or Portishead) via Bristol, Bath, Swindon, Oxford, Banbury, Bletchley and possibly onto Cambridge.

But I cannot work out best alignment for station, as Berks and Wilts canal is under (slow) restoration

 

[Graham H]

Doesnt make it a through line but I always thought that when the Bicester to Oxford bit was reopened in 1987, the Abingdon branch was still in situ I think or at least only very recently lifted so a service extended from Oxford to Abingdon might have been a sensible option as it wouldnt have needed any bays/layover issues in Oxford itself.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Surely Oxford had an underused north bay anyway as well as stabling facilities and a train crew depot. It was arguably a ‘no brainer’ (to use that awful-to-me but much-loved Forums phrase).

 

[fandroid]

There were a lot of stray market towns that might have called for the GWR to go through but never got it. Windsor, Wallingford, Abingdon, Wantage, Faringdon. Even Swindon (the Old Town) was effectively bypassed. It was London to Bristol or bust! Reading, Maidenhead and Bath got lucky

 

[Captain Bigwig]

If the line from Didcot to Oxford was built via Abingdon I imagine it might have followed a route something along the lines of the dotted line on the map below. Slightly longer, but would have served a sizable town and avoided two river crossings. Appleford, Culham and Radley stations would never have been built of course.

 

[Falcon1200]

If the line from Didcot to Oxford was built via Abingdon I imagine it might have followed a route something along the lines of the dotted line on the map below. Slightly longer, but would have served a sizable town and avoided two river crossings. Appleford, Culham and Radley stations would never have been built of course.

That does indeed look like an eminently sensible route, and not much longer than the line as actually built. There might have been a station for Sutton Courtenay too!

 

[Gloster]

The problem at Abingdon is that the town was all on the north side of the river: ramming a line through the middle of a packed and ancient town is unlikely to be either cheap or popular. You have either got to take a big swing around the north side of the town or follow along the south side of the river until you cross or meet the route of the real branch about a quarter-mile from the station. Possibly the latter would be better, with a station on the south side of the bridge.

 

[Horizon22]

If you were going to do it again, Id say you’d put the junction to Oxford around Steventon / Milton, run to the western side of Abingdon (would probably be closer to the “centre” of town as it is now 100 years later), then loop back northeast with a stop at Kennington / Radley before going back to where the route is now at the south of Oxford near the Thames.

If the line from Didcot to Oxford was built via Abingdon I imagine it might have followed a route something along the lines of the dotted line on the map below. Slightly longer, but would have served a sizable town and avoided two river crossings. Appleford, Culham and Radley stations would never have been built of course.

I agree although I might have swung it further eastwards after Abingdon. No major loss for Appleford or Culham which have never been sizeable settlements but still the possibility of a Radley stop.

 

[didcotdean]

The Culham station was named Abingdon Road at opening and if there had been a station in Abingdon proper would most likely have not been built or be short lived like the original Appleford station (presuming a similar route).

I think the Oxford branch route via Abingdon was planned out from Stevenson originally but the Abingdon Corporation's continuing objections to any railway through the town quickly dashed that. Twenty years later the same Corporation unsuccessfully lobbyied the GWR to build carriage works in the town ...

 

[swt_passenger]

Putting Abingdon on the modern rail map? Simply rename either Culham or Radley by adding “for Abingdon”. It was done for Alnwick, which is quite a bit further from “Alnmouth for Alnwick”.

 

[Captain Bigwig]

If the line from Didcot to Oxford was built via Abingdon I imagine it might have followed a route something along the lines of the dotted line on the map below. Slightly longer, but would have served a sizable town and avoided two river crossings. Appleford, Culham and Radley stations would never have been built of course.

Apologies for bumping an old thread, but in light of recent events I couldn't help thinking this was quite funny.