A brilliant evening rush hour session spent at Banbury on the Chiltern Mainline where we see plenty of services from Chiltern Railways, Great Western Railway, Cross Country and freight from GBRF, Freightliner, DB Cargo UK and Colas Rail.
Banbury station was first known as Banbury Bridge Street and was built in September 1850 by the London and Northwestern Railway. This was only achieve because the local land was sold to several investors who then granted the railway company the rights to build the station. This station had been planned to be apart of the Oxford to Rugby line, however that never took place due to the gauging issues that would've been faced when the trains reached rugby.
However the line from Banbury to Oxford still remained and now is part of the branch line that links the Chiltern Mainline to the Great Western Mainline. The line had started out as a single track but was doubled only 2 years later, this was due to the increasing popularity of the line, at that time it also meant that Banbury was getting an upgrade. It had received a new platform suited towards up and down running and an additional goods loop on the eastern side of the station, located where the train shed used to stand. The station used to have 2 bay platforms facing north and south but was cut into a through platform in 1903 for greater ease of running. The various goods loops were installed to deal with the traffic that would come off at the Banbury north junction from the Great Central Mainline, this is now a duel track heritage line in the Midlands. Banbury station was at one point to be considered the most vital station on the British network, and this was because nearly every single express passenger service running from the north of the country to the South would go through this section of the line including the: Aberdeen to Penzance express, South Wales, Ports to Ports Express as well as sleeper trains running for, Newcastle to Southampton via Manchester Piccadilly, during the early 1900's near all of the cross country services would pass through and stop at Banbury.
My next rush hour film will be Welwyn North on the East Coast Mainline.
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