Eydon Road Halt railway station

Infobox UK disused station
name = Eydon Road Halt
gridref = SP537472


caption =
manager = Great Central Railway
owner = London and North Eastern Railway
London Midland Region of British Railways
locale = Eydon
borough = South Northamptonshire
platforms = 2
years = 1 October 1913
events = Opened
years1 = 2 April 1956
events1 = Closed [Butt, R.V.J. (1995). "The Directory of Railway Stations", Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN 1-85260-508-1, p. 93.]

Eydon Road Halt was a railway station on the link line between the Great Central Railway and the Great Western Railway's Birmingham - London line, leaving the Great Central at Culworth Junction to connect with Banbury Junction. The station opened in 1913 and closed in 1956.

History

In 1893, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) obtained Parliamentary approval for the extension of its line from Annesley in Nottingham to London. The final section of the extension saw the line connect with Metropolitan Railway's line at Quainton Road before returning to MS&LR metals at Finchley Road and continuing to Marylebone. Negotiations with the Metropolitan regarding running rights over its line came to deadlock prompting Sir William Pollitt, the MS&LR's general manager, to reach agreement with the Great Western Railway in March 1896 for a route to London via Banbury which would avoid the Metropolitan. [Cite book | author=Dow, George | authorlink=George Dow | coauthors= | title=Great Central: Volume 2 Dominion of Watkin 1864-1899 | year=1962 | publisher=Ian Allen Limited | location=Shepperton, Surrey | isbn= | pages=p. 288-289]

The link line, which ran for a distance of 8.25 miles, was opened without formality on 1 June 1900. The route had no intermediate stations but soon became an important freight route with 60,796 wagons exchanged between the MS&LR (now known as the Great Central) and the Great Western within the first six months of operation; by 1904 this figure had risen by 50%. Two passenger services each way were initially provided by the Great Western, with the Great Central later supplementing this service with three additional trains in each direction. [Cite book | author=Dow, George | authorlink=George Dow | coauthors= | title=Great Central: Volume 3 Fay sets the pace 1900-1922 | year=1965 | publisher=Ian Allen Limited | location=London | isbn=711002630 | pages=p. 17-18] The link was subsequently used for cross-country services, including Aberdeen to Penzance, Oxford to Leicester and Newcastle to Bournemouth. [ [http://www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com/media/adobepdf/9%20CrossCountryE.pdf Virgin Trains Media, "Virgin Trains offers Aberdeen to Penzance from just 4p a mile", 12 August 2003.] ]

In 1913, a halt was opened on the line at Eydon Road near Culworth and was in fact closer to the village than the Culworth station on the Great Central's main line, which was nearer Moreton Pinkney. [Cite book | author=Davies, R.; Grant, M.D. | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=Forgotten Railways: Chilterns and Cotswolds | year=1984 | publisher=David St John Thomas | location=Newton Abbot, Devon | isbn=0-946537-07-0 | pages=p. 195] Serving a rural area, the halt closed in 1956, and the last services to use the line ran in September 1966.

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References