Eynsham railway station

Eynsham
Eynsham Station in 1972 after closure
Location
Place	Eynsham
Area	West Oxfordshire
Coordinates	51°46′35″N 1°22′43″W / 51.77644°N 1.37874°W / 51.77644; -1.37874Coordinates: 51°46′35″N 1°22′43″W / 51.77644°N 1.37874°W / 51.77644; -1.37874
Grid reference	SP430088
Operations
Original company	Witney Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Platforms	2
History
14 November 1861 (1861-11-14)	Opened
May 1944	Passing loop and second platform built
18 June 1962	Closed to passengers
26 April 1965	Closed to goods
2 November 1970	Line closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

[ ] Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway
OW&W (Worcester • Oxford ) Yarnton A40 road Cassington Halt River Evenlode Cassington Canal Eynsham South Leigh River Windrush Witney Goods Junction River Windrush Witney goods Witney A4095 road Brize Norton and Bampton Carterton Alvescot Kelmscott and Langford Little Faringdon crossing River Leach Lechlade A361 road A417 road Fairford

Eynsham railway station served the Oxfordshire village of Eynsham and the Eynsham Sugar Beet Factory on the Oxford, Witney and Fairford Railway between Oxford and Witney.

The Witney Railway, including Eynsham station, opened on 14 November 1861. It was originally a single platform station, but was the Witney Railway's principal intermediate station. The contractor who built the line, Malachi Bartlett, erected single-storey wooden station building in the same style as that at the line's other stations at South Leigh and Witney. It was weather-boarded and had a Welsh slate hip roof with a shallow pitch and broad eaves. In 1892 the Great Western Railway added a signal box next to the station building, very similar to that at Fairford. A large Cotswold stone goods shed stood at the Fairford end of the platform, a few yards from the signal box.

The station had a goods yard that handled significant goods traffic. It had two sidings (later three) and a 1 ¹⁄₂-ton crane. The largest traffic was coal, for which the third siding was added in 1878 north of the goods shed. In its heyday in the 1920s, Eynsham station was handling up to 12,000 tons of freight a year, while passenger bookings averaged 14,000 annually over the same period. There was a large sugar beet factory 40 chains (800 m) east of the station that had three sidings. It opened in 1927 but was not successful and closed in 1931. In the Second World War the factory became a Royal Army Service Corps depot. Afterwards it became a storage depot for the Colonial Development Corporation, then the premises of J. Harding (Eynsham) and finally a depot for British Leyland.