Bicester Military Railway
Thomas Hill ‘Vanguard’ 4-wheel diesel-hydraulic Army 276 Conductor (W/No.V319 of 1988) coupled to an ex-LSWR 1927-built coach used on the Bicester Military Railway as an officer's saloon and now at the National Railway Museum. The scene is at the platform serving the headquarters of Command Ordnance Depot, Bicester prior to a tour of the system as part of an Industrial Railway Society visit on 15 May 1990. This loco was subsequently transferred to 79 Railway (KFOR) for use in Kosovo, then repatriated to the UK and refurbished by the L.H. Group before being returned to Defence Storage & Distribution Centre Bicester, where it now carries the running number 01-512. The Bicester Military Railway was installed in 1942 and, in its heyday, boasted almost 40 miles of standard gauge track. It was connected to the former L.M.S. line on the Oxford side of London Road station and this same connection is used to this day, although now on a very limited scale. Wartime saw tremendous activity, moving stores round the Depot and many passenger trains carried soldiers and civilian workers, in addition to the weekend leave trains. There was even a timetabled through working from London Euston into the Depot. During the months and weeks leading up to D Day in 1944 thousands of tons of stores were in transit, the record being held by an 'Austerity' 0-6-0 saddle tank which arrived at the L.M.S. exchange sidings propelling over 100 loaded wagons. The locos were initially operated by the Royal Engineers who, in post war years, handed over the responsibility to the Royal Corps of Transport. The 'Austerity' saddle tank engines and their diesel successors were adorned with names like Sapper, Greensleeves, Storeman, Royal Pioneer, all Army trades associated with the Depot itself. For many years the Depot lovingly maintained the very last of the ‘Austerity’ locos, Sapper often being steamed for visiting V.I.Ps. Large Andrew Barclay 0-8-0 diesel-hydraulics eventually replaced steam traction and they in turn were replaced in the 1980s by these Thomas Hill 'Vanguard' 4-wheel diesel hydraulic locomotives built for the Army Railway Organisation.
© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
Bicester Military Railway
Thomas Hill ‘Vanguard’ 4-wheel diesel-hydraulic Army 276 Conductor (W/No.V319 of 1988) coupled to an ex-LSWR 1927-built coach used on the Bicester Military Railway as an officer's saloon and now at the National Railway Museum. The scene is at the platform serving the headquarters of Command Ordnance Depot, Bicester prior to a tour of the system as part of an Industrial Railway Society visit on 15 May 1990. This loco was subsequently transferred to 79 Railway (KFOR) for use in Kosovo, then repatriated to the UK and refurbished by the L.H. Group before being returned to Defence Storage & Distribution Centre Bicester, where it now carries the running number 01-512. The Bicester Military Railway was installed in 1942 and, in its heyday, boasted almost 40 miles of standard gauge track. It was connected to the former L.M.S. line on the Oxford side of London Road station and this same connection is used to this day, although now on a very limited scale. Wartime saw tremendous activity, moving stores round the Depot and many passenger trains carried soldiers and civilian workers, in addition to the weekend leave trains. There was even a timetabled through working from London Euston into the Depot. During the months and weeks leading up to D Day in 1944 thousands of tons of stores were in transit, the record being held by an 'Austerity' 0-6-0 saddle tank which arrived at the L.M.S. exchange sidings propelling over 100 loaded wagons. The locos were initially operated by the Royal Engineers who, in post war years, handed over the responsibility to the Royal Corps of Transport. The 'Austerity' saddle tank engines and their diesel successors were adorned with names like Sapper, Greensleeves, Storeman, Royal Pioneer, all Army trades associated with the Depot itself. For many years the Depot lovingly maintained the very last of the ‘Austerity’ locos, Sapper often being steamed for visiting V.I.Ps. Large Andrew Barclay 0-8-0 diesel-hydraulics eventually replaced steam traction and they in turn were replaced in the 1980s by these Thomas Hill 'Vanguard' 4-wheel diesel hydraulic locomotives built for the Army Railway Organisation.
© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission