Challow railway station is a former railway station 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the village of Stanford in the Vale

Stanford in the Vale

Stanford in the Vale is a large village and civil parish about south-east of Faringdon and north-west of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire....

 on the A417 road between Wantage

Wantage

Wantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....

 and Faringdon

Faringdon

Faringdon is a market town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. It is on the edge of the Thames Valley, between the River Thames and the Ridgeway...

. It is named after the villages of West Challow

West Challow

West Challow is a village and civil parish about west of the market town of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. The village is on Childrey Brook, which is a tributary of the River Ock...

 and East Challow

East Challow

East Challow is a village and civil parish about west of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. Historically it was part of the ecclesiastical parish of Letcombe Regis, but since 1852 East and West Challow have formed their own single ecclesiastical parish...

, which are 1.5 miles (2.4 km) and 2.5 miles (4 km) southeast respectively of the former station.

When the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 extended its main line from Reading

Reading railway station

Reading railway station is a major rail transport hub in the English town of Reading. It is situated on the northern edge of the town centre, close to the main retail and commercial areas, and also the River Thames...

 through the Vale of White Horse

Vale of White Horse

The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. The main town is Abingdon, other places include Faringdon and Wantage. There are 68 parishes within the district...

 in 1840 it opened the station as Faringdon Road station. After the Faringdon Railway between Uffington

Uffington railway station

Uffington railway station is a former station on the Great Western Main Line. The station was about northeast of the village of Uffington, a village in what was then part of Berkshire, on the west side of the road between Uffington and Baulking.In 1864 Uffington became a junction as the Faringdon...

 and Faringdon railway station

Faringdon railway station

Faringdon Railway Station is a closed stone and brick built railway station that served the market town of Faringdon, in Oxfordshire, England and was on the Faringdon branch line.-History:...

 opened in 1864, the GWR renamed Faringdon Road "Challow" to avoid confusion.

On 7 December 1964 British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

ways withdrew passenger services from Challow and all other intermediate stations between Didcot

Didcot Parkway railway station

Didcot Parkway is a railway station serving the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire in England. The station was opened as Didcot on 12 June 1844, and renamed Didcot Parkway on 29 July 1985 to reflect its role as a park and ride railhead....

 and Swindon

Swindon railway station

Swindon railway station is in the town of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The station entrance is on Station Road, to the south of the line.It is approximately from the central bus station and the town centre...

.

The station today

Not many parts of the station survive. The northern platform has almost disappeared completely and the southern platform is used by Network Rail

Network Rail

Network Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...

, although no buildings remain and the buildings used by Network Rail are only small portable cabins. New buildings have been built around the site. The most noticeable is the bail depot on the site of the northern platform. The nearby public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

, the Prince of Wales, was burnt down in 1999 and the site has been levelled.

Freight trains now use a passing loop on the site of the station to wait for High Speed Trains

British Rail Class 43 (HST)

The British Rail Class 43 is the TOPS classification used for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train power cars, built by BREL from 1975 to 1982....

to overtake them.