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General - - Bicester Military Railway | Military Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

General - Bicester Military Railway

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rogerfarnworth

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I have seen pictures on the internet, with notes about the railway, which say that it was last used in 2014. Recently Railway Magazine carried a report which suggested a further use for what remains of the railways on site. ....

I only came across the railway by accident as I explain in my blog:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/08/01/bicester-military-railway

I have been aware of the Longmoor Military Railway for some time now. I knew nothing of the Bicester Military Railway until my wife and I had part of a weekend in the area. We were travelling along the M40 and using Satnav and we noticed an interesting area off to the East of the motorway which was just visible on the Satnav. Our initial thought was that there might have been some opencast workings in the area.

Much of the site has been sold off. The northern half of Graven Hill Depot is now an estate of plots for self build homes! (https://www.gravenhill.co.uk)
 

mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
A lot of MOD Bicester has been earmarked for redevelopment but a lot of it is still active and MOD owned, the railway network snakes around both sides of the base through the active as well as more empty areas. Trouble is a lot of the empty stuff is nestled inside the active stuff....
 

rogerfarnworth

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Care to post some pics, that's so far 2 threads started today with nothing more than a link to yer own blog site..

Prob best to have a read of this and get an idea how things work around here > https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/28-days-later-survival-guide-for-newbies.116319/

My apologies if I have offended. I understood that you might monitor my posts in the short term, so was expecting that you might feel that my posts are not suitable for the forum.

If that is the case, I understand and if it is OK I will keep a watching brief for a while at least.
 

HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
My apologies if I have offended. I understood that you might monitor my posts in the short term, so was expecting that you might feel that my posts are not suitable for the forum.

If that is the case, I understand and if it is OK I will keep a watching brief for a while at least.

Had a look at your wordpress link and you've done some really informative research and it's really good stuff. Just doesn't quite fit with the format required for the forum.
 

westernsultan

Banned
Banned
Well that brought back memories as I was on a railtour around the Bicester site many years ago. We were told we could photograph engines but not buildings etc. There was a smart green 03 shunter there and our train was pulled by 2 x MOD shunters. The railtour ran very late as we slowly made our way around the system. It was dark by the time we got back to the exchange sidings. It has to have been between 1993 and 2007 because class 50 - 50026 Indomitable was there for private restoration.

50026โ€™s survival is somewhat remarkable as the locomotive is the only one of the Class 50s surviving today that managed to escape from the scrapyard. It languished in the yard of C F Booth in Rotherham, one of several locomotives sent there in 1992. These locomotives were part of an ultimately unsuccessful project by 'Operation Collingwood'.
Initially, 50026 was moved by rail from Rotherham to the Mid Hants Railway (1993), before the owner sought a new home where much of the restoration was carried out undercover at the MoD base at Bicester in Oxfordshire (1993). A thorough restoration project spanning two decades transformed the loco into ex-works, large logo condition. After Bicester, further work was carried out at Old Oak common (2007), the workshops of RVEL in Derby and Eastleigh Works. A return to traffic came at the Swanage Railway on May 11, 2012.
 
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rogerfarnworth

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Had a look at your wordpress link and you've done some really informative research and it's really good stuff. Just doesn't quite fit with the format required for the forum.

Thank you. I understand. I will hang around if that is OK and may post occasionally if it fits with things others are posting. I trust this is OK.
 

Ordnance

Stay Safe
Staff member
Moderator
I grow up in Ambrosdon and used to watch the shutters at work. Later I was posted to COD Bicester and again saw the Railway network. Have visited Bicester in recent and it is a ghost of its former self.

Was also later posted to Bordon in Hampshire and lived in MQ's in Longmoor before the Army Museum of Transport moved to Beverley.
 

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