Bicester Military Railway

[rogerfarnworth]

It seems as though this railway is all but abandoned. It appears that way when travelling through the site. If anyone knows any better, it would be good to hear from you. I have seen pictures on the internet, with notes about the railway, which say that it was last used in 2014.

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

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/20 ... ry-railway" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

CS_25-Img8-Masterplan2.jpg (714.35 KiB) Viewed 2631 times

[george matthews]

During the period of the British Empire, and the posting of British soldiers to the colonial territories, it was important to train some of them in operating railways, as in Africa and India. Thus the various military railways in Britain were training areas for these troops. Their knowledge was also used during the European war (1914-18). The railways in Britain were also used for transporting weapons to storage areas. After the abandonment of the Empire these railways were no longer needed and have been abandoned. The ones I have seen have all been dismantled. In the 1960s I used to be aware of seeing the military railways from the train as I travelled. For several years now I have seen the track beds abandoned.

The modern military uses air and road vehicles for transport, and hardly at all rail.

[rogerfarnworth]

Very recently, I have been reading a book about the Bicester Military Railway which was published in 1992. It was published by the Oxford Publishing Company and is widely available to buy second-hand. It is worth a read. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/10/12/bi ... ook-review

The Bicester Military Railway. ...

This book, written by E.R. Lawton and Major M.W. Sackett in 1992, [1] gives a comprehensive history of the Bicester site which extends from the original concept to the date of publication of the book.

In the 21st century, large areas of the complex have been given over to civilian use.