Introduction

Both Cartertons have had railway stations. Carterton, NZ still has its station and it is well used. Carterton, UK was less fortunate. The station was opened 1944 and closed a mere 18 years later. This article describes the Carterton, UK station and its history.

Railway Station: general

The EGR opened January 14, 1873. The railway ran 23.5 kilometres from Fairford station in the west to Witney passenger station (there was also a Witney goods yard) in the east. West to east was called the up line and east to west the down line.

Table 1 lists the year of opening, the distance from the previous station, and the altitude of the stations on the East Gloucestershire Line. The distances are taken mostly from the "Route" page of the EGR website referenced above. The altitudes are those of the village or town with the same name as the station.

Having seven stations on the line (from 1944) meant the average distance between stations was less than four kilometres. Alvescot was very close to Carterton, just over 1.2 kilometres away. The altitudes show the line was mostly flat.

The railway line continued on another 12 kilometres east from Witney through three stations to Witney Junction at Yarnton. The line from Witney to Yarnton was called the Witney Railway. This railway was opened November 13, 1861.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) worked the East Gloucestershire and Witney lines. The GWR absorbed the EGR July 1, 1890; the Witney Railway sold out to the GWR on the same day. From then on, the Fairford to Yarnton line was a branchline of the GWR.

Railway Station: specific

Figure 1. 1962 photograph of the railway station in Carterton, UK. By Geoffrey Skelsey (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

If we walk along the platform towards Oxford, we next encounter a small corrugated building set back from the platform. The building has an arched roof and what appears to be an entrance on the side facing the tracks. Continuing our walk, we next encounter a lower quadrant stop signal. After this we reach the end of the platform, walk down its sloped end and go past the signal box on wooden planks. In the distance we see an over bridge. This was on an old road between Black Bourton and Carterton.

The track nearest the platform is the mainline. The gauge is the standard four foot eight and one half inches, noticeably larger than the three foot six inch gauge used in New Zealand. There are two short pieces of curved track beyond the far end of the platform. The left curved track was intended to catch trains that went past the signal when the signal went past them. The right curve track connects the main line to the track the train in the photograph is standing on. This latter track was a loop that reconnected with the mainline behind the photographer. There was a platform and a basic, corrugated iron shelter on the south side of the loop. Passengers on the down line boarded from that platform. Passengers could cross between the two platforms using a ground-level wooden boardwalk, the profile of which is visible in the photograph at the far end of the platform.

The station had four stop signals, three on the main line and one on the loop. Trains travelling towards Oxford were controlled by a signal near the turnout for the loop and a signal, described above, at the far end of the platform. Trains travelling towards Fairford were controlled by a signal on the far side of the bridge when viewed from the station, and a signal at the end of the loop behind the photographer.

There were no goods facilitites at Carterton because Alvescot station, 1.2 kilometre away, and Brize Norton and Brampton stations, 2.3 kilometres away, had goods facilities.

Traffic

Current state

More photographs

I have written a short description for each photograph. The information for these descriptions comes from my observations as well as the descriptions for the photographs given on the two webpages referenced in the previous paragraph. To simplify the wording of my descriptions I have assumed the tracks at Carterton station ran east west. In fact, they ran southwest northeast.

Bridge

• April 3, 1983. The bridge is of steel girder design and has a span of twelve foot eight inches (3.86m).

Precinct and trains

• June 2, 1954. A b/w photograph, taken from the up line platform and looking east along the line. The steam locomotive is 7411, a pannier tank 0-6-0, denoted as 0-6-0PT. The semaphore signal for the up line at the eastern end of the platform shows up well, as does the grass between the sleepers on the up line.
• July, 1956. Looking west along the line from near the eastern end of the platform for the down line. The photograph shows part of the shelter on the down line.
• Mid 1950s. A b/w photograph taken from near or on the semaphore signal by the signal box and looking west along the line. The locomotive is 7404, a 0-6-0PT.
• Late May or early June, 1962. Looking west along the line. A high resolution b/w photograph taken from the eastern side of the precinct.
• June 11, 1962. Looking west along the line. A colour photograph taken from beyond the eastern end of the down platform. The reverse side of the semaphore signal near the signal box is clearly visible, as is the southern side of the signal box.
• June 16, 1962. Looking east along the line. A b/w photograph taken from near the western end of the up platform.
• Early 1960s. Looking west along the line, no train present. A colour photograph taken from the road overbridge at the eastern end of the station. Several interesting features are shown: the rods running along the southern side of the tracks that contect with the turnout at the east end turnout, and in the distance the two semaphore signals at the western end of the station.

Future

The article listed two other justifications for re-opening the line. The connections with RAF Brize Norton would be improved, and Witney and Carterton, the two largest towns in West Oxfordshire, would benefit from having a rail connection.

Comments on the suggestion were guarded.

The councillor behind the proposal said, "I would not expect any work on it in the very near future. Oxford Station has got to take priority, and that will no doubt take all the funding for the next 10 years."

The leader of the West Oxfordshire District Council made a similar comment and went on to say, "This was looked at in the late 1990s and a feasibility study was carried out when we were pushing for it. The result was that costs were prohibitive. They were talking in excess of £100m and there were problems highlighted at Eynsham, South Leigh and Witney, where the line had been built on." He went on to say "It is not without problems but there may be an economic business case for something in the distant future. It has got to be a positive move on the county's part."

The chair of the Cotswold Line Promotion Group said: "From time to time people have thought about the possibility of reinstatment, particularly with congestion on the A40 and the extent to which it could reduce that, but I have no idea what previous infrastructure is still available. If anybody were to do a study, we would very much support it both from a connectivity point of view, but also to take traffic off the A40 if you saw it as a Witney to Oxford shuttle."

References used

• The Fairford Branch Line. Martin Loader maintains an extensive website on the Fairford Branch Line. There are individual pages for each station on the line, as well as pages entitled "History", "Railtours", "Plans", "Timetables", "Locomotive", "Ephemera", "Bibliography", "Models", and "Links". The Ephemera page has photographs of ticket stubs, a 1861 letter, a promotional flyer for an excursion from Paddington to Fairford, and a station truck label. The Models page describes a model of the Fairford station built by Stephen Beck and Ian McEwan of Nelson, New Zealand. Much of the content on the website was added by 2005.
• The Witney and East Gloucestershire Railway. This website has pages entitled "Route", "Gallery & Video", "Closure", "Locomotive List", and "Links". The home page contains useful background information.

Acknowledgements

Revision history