The Wantage Tramway Company was a two-mile tramway that carried passengers and freight between the

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

town of Wantage and Wantage Road Station on the

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the or ...

in England. Formed in 1873 to link Wantage Road station with its terminus at Mill Street, Wantage the line was cheaply built parallel to what was then the ''Besselsleigh Turnpike'', and now the A338. The tramway closed to passengers in 1925 and to goods traffic in 1945.

Opening

The line was opened for goods on 1 October 1875, and to passengers on 11 October. The tramway junction was to the east of Wantage Road station; interchange passengers walked under the bridge to reach the tramway yard, where the westernmost siding (parallel to the road) was reserved for passenger tramcars.

Rolling stock

Built as a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

line, and first run using horse drawn rolling stock, the line became the first to adopt mechanical traction when a steam-powered tramcar, designed by John Grantham, was tried out in the summer of 1875, entering regular service from 1 August 1876. In November that year the first steam locomotive arrived for trials, and the line was converted to steam traction in the late 1870s. ;Locomotives Two Mekarski system compressed air trams were tried out in 1880 but were not a success as the fuel consumption was much higher than for steam locomotives. Several other steam locomotives were used for short periods, including GWR no. 1329 ''Raven'' ( Avonside Engine Company 0-4-0ST 1052/1874), GWR no. 1359 ''Wye'' ( Fletcher, Jennings & Co. 0-4-0T 153/1876) and ex- Royal Arsenal Railway ''Driver'' ( Manning Wardle 0-4-0ST 515/1875).

Operation

For most of its operation the line was well used and profitable but the advent of popular road transport saw a steady decline in passengers and freight. The tramway closed to passengers on 1 August 1925, and to goods on 22 December 1945.Wantage Museum
/ref> The line remained independent throughout its existence, and its range of unusual and often outdated equipment attracted attention from railway historians. It ultimately closed after the track was damaged by heavy lorries during the Second World War, by which time repair would have been unaffordable.

Preservation

WTC Locomotive No 5 known on the tramway as 'Jane' but more recently named 'Shannon' and formerly of the Sandy and Potton Railway in Bedfordshire, survives and can be found at the Great Western Society's Railway Centre at Didcot in Oxfordshire.

Notes

{{Authority control Rail transport in Oxfordshire Tram transport in England Closed railway lines in South East England Railway companies established in 1873 Railway lines opened in 1875 Railway lines closed in 1945