Talk:Banbury railway station

List of former services through Banbury

Some of these are still in service now. These include:

• Birmingham - London - there are regular Chiltern Railways services from Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone
• Newcastle - Bournemouth - regular services from Edinburgh - Bournemouth and there is one CrossCountry service weekdays from Newcastle - Bournemouth.
• Edinburgh via Newcastle - Southampton - regular services from Edinburgh - Bournemouth. There is one CrossCountry service weekdays from Edinburgh via Newcastle - Southhampton.
• Birmingham - Oxford - one Chiltern Railways service from Birmingham to Oxford very late at night.

Manm hk (talk) 21:08, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

220 fire

Re Banbury_railway_station#Events - different sources give different information see Talk:British_Rail_Class_220#Banbury_fire and British_Rail_Class_220#Technical problems and incidents

If anyone can clarify this can they either change the articles or leave a notice on the British Rail Class 220 talk page.

Thanks.FengRail (talk) 19:22, 13 February 2009 (UTC) [[1]]--86.25.52.246 (talk) 16:14, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Layout

I'm a little puzzled by some things in this section. Firstly, the phrase "terminating services [or trains] to..." is confusing - if a service is terminating it has come FROM somewhere and is not going TO anywhere. I can understand what is meant but it could have been better worded. Secondly, "platform 4 is for terminating Chiltern services to and from London". I am happy to be corrected by those who know better but I have never seen a service FROM London run into this platform, to do so would require a reversing movement over the crossover from down to up main. Similarly "An unnumbered bay platform.... is used by terminating Chiltern services to and from Birmingham and Stratford." Again a terminating service from the North would have to reverse over a crossover to run into here. Finally, "Freight loops serve as main through lines for non-stopping freight trains". In my experience non-stopping freights run through on the main and, as we are told in the next paragraph, a train routed via one of the loops will normally come to a stand.

Comments appreciated from those more familiar with the operation of the station. Bruern Crossing (talk) 07:28, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, I've been observing train movements at Banbury since 1979, and can state that I have never seen a train terminate in platform 4. Indeed, a study of the relevant Quail/Trackmaps plan shows that the leading crossover which would be necessary for such a move does not exist. 3 Western (Map) (4th ed.). Railway Track Diagrams. Cartography by John Yonge. Trackmaps. November 2005. p. 13. C inset. ISBN 978-0-9549866-1-X. {{cite map}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

Terminating services from the south (whether from Marylebone or Oxford) usually arrive in platform 1, then draw forward into the down goods loop beyond Banbury North signal box. The train reverses, and crosses over to the up main, runs through the station via platform 3 (without stopping) to a point near the south signal box. A second reversal allows the train to gain platform 4. If there is a long gap between through services on the down line, or if platform 1 is already occupied by a previous terminating train, a train might terminate in platform 2 instead of platform 1, and the down main might be used instead of the down goods loop, but otherwise the movements are the same: arrive on a down through platform, cross over via up main, finally to platform 4.

If two up trains commence their journeys at Banbury within a short period, the practice seems to be that the train going out second uses platform 4 as described above, but the one going out first - having crossed from down to up - uses Platform 3 to pick up passengers and commence its journey.

The un-numbered bay platform is rarely used. Way back in the 1970s there was an early morning all-stations service to Birmingham Moor Street, which was shown on timetable posters as running from platform "2 Bay". There was just one such train per day - don't know when it finished, poss in the 1980s. I think that it was the return working of a late-night train from Birmingham, which I never saw arrive; and I never saw a train actually running into that bay. Since the 1980s the bay has mainly been used for stabling - I have seen dead locos removed from down trains placed in that bay; track machines; and "Thunderbird" rescue locos. A few years ago, during the doubling of the Bicester North-Aynho Junction line, it was possible to see several Chiltern Railways DMUs parked all around Banbury station at weekends - basically, any available siding or loop with enough length would be pressed into service for stabling purposes. I'm pretty sure that the down bay platform was so used. Maybe the editor concerned saw one of these stabled trains, and mistook it for an actual service? --Redrose64 (talk) 09:33, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I have asked platform staff, and the bay between platforms 1 & 2 is not used for scheduled services, except in emergency; it does not meet current safety regulations. It is to be upgraded later in 2009 in order that it may be used for scheduled services. Presently, its main use is occasional rolling stock stabling: it will hold four coaches. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:05, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Line diagram

I think the line diagram deserves some amendment as well, but I don't know how to get into it to work on it. In its title "Railway lines which entered into Banbury" the word "into" is superfluous. If the triangular junction at the top is meant to be the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway, I'm not aware of it being a triangle at all. The 1953 OS one-inch map (Sheet 145, Banbury) shows a north-facing junction next to the Oxford Canal with no space for a south-facing chord.

I too would be grateful for constructive and helpful comments from a Wikipedian who knows Banbury's former railways better than I do. Motacilla (talk) 00:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm sure you are correct here. I only have the same OS map as you, but as there was no through running there would be no need for a triangle and there doesn't seem to be space on the ground to build one without constructing another canal bridge. I've certainly never heard of a west to south chord here. I would further quesion the need for an info box relating to the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway in the Banbury Station article since no trains ran between the two, but this is a more debatable point. Bruern Crossing (talk) 06:35, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I thought the box about the Ironstone Railway looked wrong, but I wasn't sure so instead of deleting it I simply tidied it up to fit in with the other boxes. If you can confirm that its workmen's trains didn't run into Banbury station, I'll delete it. I've already deleted as superfluous the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway box that was added by the same contributor. I wish I could be more positive and welcoming! :o( Motacilla (talk) 00:33, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I can now be quite definite and point to a reference source that there was no west to south chord. It is not shown on the detailed diagram in Tonks's book and he describes the interchange thus: "The junction with the GWR down goods line was at 'Ironstone Mines Signal Box' (renamed Ironstone Branch Signal Box' in 1958) where the wagon storage sidings consisted of four parallel lines that converged near the junction and then swept away westwards in a set of marshalling sidings". The Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway was owned by the ironstone company so there was no through running, Tonks also confirms that the workman's trains only ran between Pin Hill and Wroxton.

You have done a good job removing the many incorrect statements recently added by the anonymous user across a range of Oxfordshire railway articles. Like you I am reluctant to zap what someone has just added but in this case a lot of them, sad to say, made no sense.Bruern Crossing (talk) 06:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Thankyou: you're very encouraging. I've now deleted the superfluous box for the Ironstone Railway. I've also found the template for the track diagram, amended the Ironstone Railway junction and added a caption for it. Motacilla (talk) 22:58, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Train fire

I have tidied this item up up (see edit history) and renamed it to reflect its subject. I've also removed some confusing non-encyclopedic and unverified information.

I am also dubious about the photo's inclusion: it shows a VT 220 whereas the incident involved a CC train and it is, frankly, not a very good quality photo. Be that as it may, I have repositioned it to ensure consistency, to avoid 'islanding' the text between graphic elements, and in accordance with Wikipedia:Images#Forced_left_justification which states In most cases, images should be right justified on pages, which is the default placement. Andy F (talk) 08:22, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

I've removed the mention of Bournemouth, because the source does not mention Bournemouth. Further, the source states that the train was going to Derby, and also gives the time as "at 4.25pm". If the train was on time, then according to the Dec 2007-May 2008 timetable, this would have been the 15:40 from Reading to Derby (arr. 18:34), which would have called Banbury 16:25. Of course it could have been the 13:45 from Bournemouth running late, which should have called Banbury 15:53, but that is an Edinburgh service (arr 22:24). --Redrose64 (talk) 22:11, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Yup, I agree with you Redrose. Andy F (talk) 08:13, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Images

I am putting them in better positions.--Wipsenade (talk) 11:22, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Plan to reopen Oxford - Bletchley line via Banbury – which Banbury?

Does anybody know which Banbury station will be used for the East West Rail Link? --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 20:35, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Neither. Banbury is way off course. Where did you see that it would pass through Banbury? If any new route were to serve Banbury, it would be Bridge Street, a.k.a. General, for the simple reason that Merton Street no longer exists. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:42, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

I confused my Bs! I meant Bicester! --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 20:53, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Platform 4

There is a new Platform 4, replacing the bay (at the southern end of platform 3) that was taken out of use by August 2016. The track for the new platform 4 is the former up goods loop around the back of platform 3, and the platform itself has been created by filling in the space where the track for the former platform 5 (a bay at the northern end of platform 3) had been. The new platform 4 was brought into use after 21 June 2017, certainly on or before 28 June 2017. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:51, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

Services

Should the services listed under ‘The Station’ be moved into the ‘Services and operators’ category? I was considering just doing it, but I thought such a large change should be consulted upon first Class444SWRail (talk) 18:43, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

The arrangement at Oxford would be a good one to follow, it is the model used by most station articles. --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 19:56, 7 December 2023 (UTC)