Olney railway station
Encyclopedia
Olney was a railway station on the former Bedford to Northampton Line
Bedford to Northampton Line
The Bedford to Northampton Line was a branch of the Midland Railway which served stations in three counties: Northampton and Horton in Northamptonshire, Olney in Buckinghamshire and Turvey and Bedford in Bedfordshire, England...

 and Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway
Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway
The Stratford Upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway was a small independent railway company which ran a line across the empty, untouched centre of England. It visited the counties of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and a little of Buckinghamshire, only existing as the SMJR from 1909 to...

 which served the town of Olney in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was situated on a busy section of line between Towcester
Towcester
Towcester , the Roman town of Lactodorum, is a small town in south Northamptonshire, England.-Etymology:Towcester comes from the Old English Tófe-ceaster. Tófe refers to the River Tove; Bosworth and Toller compare it to the "Scandinavian proper names" Tófi and Tófa...

 and Ravenstone Wood junction which saw heavy use by freight services running between Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 and north-east England. The station closed in 1964, the various connecting routes to the line having closed one by one from the 1950s onwards.

History

Olney station was opened by the Bedford & Northampton Railway on 10 June 1872 as part of its Bedford to Northampton Line
Bedford to Northampton Line
The Bedford to Northampton Line was a branch of the Midland Railway which served stations in three counties: Northampton and Horton in Northamptonshire, Olney in Buckinghamshire and Turvey and Bedford in Bedfordshire, England...

. This company was absorbed by the Midland Railway
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....

 (MR) on 16 June 1885. An imposing station building was constructed at Olney, together with a large engine shed
Engine shed
Engine shed may refer to:* Engine shed, also called a motive power depot or roundhouse, a structure used for the maintenance of railway locomotives.* Engine Shed , a music and entertainment venue on the University of Lincoln's campus....

 equipped with a water tank
Water tank
A Water tank is a container for storing water. The need for a water tank is as old as civilized man, providing storage of water for drinking water, irrigation agriculture, fire suppression, agricultural farming, both for plants and livestock, chemical manufacturing, food preparation as well as many...

 supplied with water from the nearby River Great Ouse
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...

.

By an agreement concluded on 18 April 1889 with the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway
Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway
The Stratford Upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway was a small independent railway company which ran a line across the empty, untouched centre of England. It visited the counties of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and a little of Buckinghamshire, only existing as the SMJR from 1909 to...

 (SMJR), the MR granted the SMJR running powers over its line from Ravenstone Junction to Olney, including the right to use Olney station and its facilities. A joint committee was subsequently set up to allow the MR and SMJR to run their respective lines as one single line, creating a 55.5 miles (89.3 km) route from St Pancras
St Pancras railway station
St Pancras railway station, also known as London St Pancras and since 2007 as St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus celebrated for its Victorian architecture. The Grade I listed building stands on Euston Road in St Pancras, London Borough of Camden, between the...

 to Bristol
Avonmouth Docks
The Avonmouth Docks are part of the Port of Bristol, in England. They are situated on the northern side of the mouth of the River Avon, opposite the Royal Portbury Dock on the southern side, where the river joins the Severn estuary, within Avonmouth....

. The first joint service, a goods train, ran on 13 April 1891. Olney became important as the terminus of SMJR freight operations from Broom
Broom Junction railway station
Broom Junction was a railway station and interchange between the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway and the Barnt Green to Ashchurch line. Although initially only an exchange station, it was opened to the public from 1880 and remained in service until 1963...

 and the west. Extra sidings
Rail siding
A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch line or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end...

 were laid to accommodate the traffic generated. As the SMJR only had running powers over the MR as far as Olney, its locomotives had to be turned here on a turntable.

A passenger service consisting of four daily services was operated between Olney and Towcester
Towcester railway station
Towcester was a railway station on the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway which served the Northamptonshire town of Towcester between 1866 and 1964. It was one of the most important stations on the line, and once served as an interchange for services to Stratford, Banbury and Olney....

 from December 1892 to March 1893, being withdrawn as patronage was low. Services ran from a bay platform
Bay platform
Bay platform is a railway-related term commonly used in the UK and Australia to describe a dead-end platform at a railway station that has through lines...

 at Olney. Following the grouping of 1923
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...

, the SMJR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...

 which, in 1927, reintroduced passenger services between Olney and Towcester in the form of excursion train
Excursion train
An excursion train is a chartered train run for a special event or purpose.Examples of excursion trains:* A train to a major sporting event* A train run for railfans or tourism...

s on Towcester race days. Following nationalisation
Transport Act 1947
The Transport Act 1947 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under it the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a new British Transport Commission for operation...

, the various routes from Olney began to close, beginning with Banbury
Banbury Merton Street railway station
Banbury Merton Street was the first railway station to serve the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury in England. It opened in 1850 as the northern terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway providing connections to Bletchley and Oxford and closing for passengers in 1961 and goods in 1966.- Context...

 to Towcester on 30 June 1951, followed by Blisworth
Blisworth railway station
Blisworth railway station was opened by the London and Birmingham Railway in Blisworth, Northamptonshire in 1838.-History:The station was opened on 17 September 1838. In 1845 the L&BR opened their Northampton and Peterborough Railway a line which connected Peterborough and Northampton from a...

 to Stratford
Stratford-upon-Avon railway station
Stratford-upon-Avon railway station is a railway station that serves the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. It was once a through station on the Great Western Railway route from Birmingham to Cheltenham, but has been the terminus of the line since 1976.There are plans for a new...

 on 7 April 1952. The line between Towcester and Ravenstone Wood junction, still heavily used by steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 and ironstone
Ironstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...

 traffic from South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

 and north-east England, closed in June 1958 because of the construction of the M1 motorway
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...

. The very weekend of its closure an embankment
Embankment (transportation)
To keep a road or railway line straight or flat, and where the comparative cost or practicality of alternate solutions is prohibitive, the land over which the road or rail line will travel is built up to form an embankment. An embankment is therefore in some sense the opposite of a cutting, and...

 at Quinton Green was breached by the roadbuilders, leaving the rest of the line as two long sidings. Olney station lasted six more years, passenger services being withdrawn in 1962 and the goods yard closing two years later.

Routes

Present day

Nothing remains today of Olney station, the trackbed through the site having been obliterated by residential development and a new road named "Midland Road".

External links

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