Challow railway station is a former railway station about south of

Stanford in the Vale Stanford in the Vale is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse about southeast of Faringdon and northwest of Wantage. It is part of the historic county of Berkshire, however since 1974, it has been administered as a part of Oxfo ...

on the A417 road between

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...

and

Faringdon Faringdon is a historic market town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England, south-west of Oxford, north-west of Wantage and east-north-east of Swindon. It extends to the River Thames in the north; the highest ground is on the Ridg ...

. It is named after the villages of West Challow and East Challow, which are and southeast of the former station.

History

When the Great Western Railway extended its main line from through the

Vale of White Horse The Vale of White Horse is a local government district of Oxfordshire in England. It was historically a north-west projection of Berkshire. The area is commonly referred to as the 'Vale of ''the'' White Horse'. It is crossed by the Ridgeway N ...

in 1840 it opened the station as Faringdon Road station. After the

Faringdon Railway The Faringdon branch was a -mile-long branch line from Uffington Station to Faringdon in the Vale of White Horse, in Oxfordshire. History Opening The line was opened in 1864, between Faringdon and the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Uffington, ...

between and opened in 1864, the GWR renamed Faringdon Road "Challow" to avoid confusion. The main station buildings and goods yard were on the up side of the line. A loading dock was provided. The line was originally double track. In 1932, the line was quadrupled between Challow and . The 1840-built timber station building on the up side was demolished, replaced by a new brick building. The 1873-built signal box on the down side of the line was also demolished and replaced by a new building. The down side platform was demolished and rebuilt to allow four tracks to run through the station, two fast straddled by two slow, designated Main and Relief. The station's platforms were on the slow lines, with the down platform having a "Pagoda" building, apparently for use as a waiting room. A loading dock was provided at the end of the down platform. In the goods yard, a grounded coach body served as a Methodist Church from the 1930s. On 7 December 1964 British Railways withdrew passenger services from Challow and all other intermediate stations between

Didcot Didcot ( ) is a railway town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Oxfordshire and the Historic counties of England, historic county of Berkshire. Didcot is south of Oxford, eas ...

and . The last passenger train ran on 5 December. The station closed to freight traffic on 29 March 1965. The signal box closed on 30 May 1965. The goods shed was demolished the next month.

Accidents and incidents

*On 25 October 1840, a train overran the end of the line, due to the driver being asleep at controls. *On 4 September 1876, a postal train struck a log which was being loaded onto a wagon and was foul of the running line. The locomotive of the postal train was severely damaged, its smokebox door ending up in the goods yard. *On 1 November 1962, a freight train was derailed whilst being shunted, blocking all four lines through the station. *In late November 1962, A Hall Class locomotive and a wagon were derailed in a shunting accident. *On 21 October 2021, a passenger train operated by Class 800

diesel-electric multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are als ...

800301 struck a platelayer's trolley that had been left on the line near the site of Challow Station.

The station today

Few parts of the station survive. The northern platform has almost disappeared completely and the southern platform is used by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

, although no buildings remain and the buildings used by Network Rail are only small portable cabins, including a relay room. New buildings have been built around the site. The most noticeable is the builders' merchants on the site of the northern platform. One nearby

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

, the Prince of Wales, was burnt down in 1999 and the site has been levelled.

Freight trains Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...

now use the relief lines from between Challow and Wantage Road to wait for High Speed Trains to overtake them.

References

Sources

* * * {{Closed stations Oxfordshire Disused railway stations in Oxfordshire Former Great Western Railway stations Great Western Main Line Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Beeching closures in England