Aldermaston railway station serves the village of

Aldermaston Aldermaston is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. In the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 1015. The village is in the Kennet Valley and bounds Hampshire to the south. It is approximately from Newbury, Basingsto ...

in Berkshire, England. The station is at nearby Aldermaston Wharf and about north of Aldermaston village. It is measured from . It was opened on 21 December 1847.

Description

Aldermaston station is between the

A4 road This is a list of roads designated A4. A4 is the name of several roads: * A004 road (Argentina), a road connecting Buenos Aires-La Plata highway with the Juan María Gutiérrez circle * A4 motorway (Austria), a road connecting Vienna and Nickels ...

and the settlement of Aldermaston Wharf. It has a flanking platform on each side of the double track line. Each platform has its own independent road access and car park, together with a small shelter. The two platforms are also linked by a footbridge. The Newbury-bound platform is flanked on its offside by a siding, formerly used as a

headshunt A headshunt (or escape track in the United States) is a short length of track provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines. Terminal headshunt A 'terminal headshunt' is a short le ...

for access to a nearby freight facility. Since the rebuilding of the A340 bridge over the railway line in 2012, the siding has been defunct.

History

The station was built by the

Berks and Hants Railway The Berks and Hants Railway comprised two railway lines built simultaneously by the Great Western Railway (GWR) south and west from in an attempt to keep the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) out of the area that it considered to be its ...

, part of the Great Western Railway and stayed with that company after the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. The line then became part of the

Western Region of British Railways The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex-Great We ...

upon the subsequent nationalisation of the railways. When Sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the net ...

although trains of the Intercity Sector passed on the

Reading to Taunton Line Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spellin ...

which uses the Berks and Hants to Westbury for some long-distance services. This continued until the

Privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

ways. A

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

connecting

to the

Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DN&SR) was a cross-country railway running north–south between Didcot, Newbury and Winchester. Its promoters intended an independent route to Southampton and envisaged heavy traffic from the Midl ...

(DN&SR) at was proposed. The line was authorised by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

but never built. This is because the railway finances were loaned by the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

, who stipulated that the DN&SR must relinquish their sole rights to run Southampton-bound services on the line and to also abandon its plans for a link at Aldermaston with the Great Western Railway. The proposed route roughly followed the Enborne valley, passing south of Brimpton, before following the Gaily Brook and West Clere Scarp near

Kingsclere Kingsclere is a large village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. Geography Kingsclere is approximately equidistant ) from the towns of Basingstoke and Newbury on the A339 road. History Kingsclere can trace back its history to a p ...

on to Old Burghclere.

Services

The station is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway between and or . Trains run hourly in both directions on Mondays to Saturdays, and on Sundays service is about every 2 hours. Typical journey times are about 15 minutes to Reading and 16 minutes to Newbury. Passengers for must normally change trains at Reading, though there are a small number of weekday peak through trains and a regular service on Sundays.

References

* * *

External links

Station on navigable O.S. map
{{coord, 51, 24, 8, N, 1, 8, 12, W, type:railwaystation_scale:1000_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Berkshire DfT Category F1 stations Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1847 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Aldermaston 1847 establishments in England