History
The first plans for the Cholsey to Wallingford line date from 1861, and envisaged an independently owned route from Moulsford to Princes Risborough via Wallingford, Benson, Watlington and Chinnor. This line was a through route, with junctions with the Great Western Railway at both Moulsford and Princes Risborough. By 1863 the plans had been amended to run from a junction nearer Cholsey than Moulsford, and to run only as far as Watlington.
The Wallingford and Watlington Railway opened as far as Wallingford in 1866, but poor traffic receipts meant that the planned extension to Watlington was given up in 1868 and the line never reached further than Wallingford. The railway was sold to the GWR in 1872 and, for reasons now forgotten, the line became popularly known as the Wallingford Bunk. The line closed to passengers in 1959, and the last goods traffic into the old Wallingford Station ran in 1965.
However most of the line was retained to serve a maltings adjacent to the railway on the outskirts of Wallingford. Rail service to this plant ceased in 1981, at which point the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway Preservation Society was formed to revive the line for tourist services. It first ran train rides for the public in 1985, with regular advertised services over the full available length of the line beginning in 1997. Steam traction has also been reintroduced.
Read more about this topic: Cholsey And Wallingford Railway
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of literature—take the net result of Tiraboshi, Warton, or Schlegel,—is a sum of a very few ideas, and of very few original tales,—all the rest being variation of these.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)