Newbury Racecourse railway station

Newbury Racecourse
Location
Place	East Fields, Newbury
Local authority	West Berkshire
Coordinates	51°23′53″N 1°18′29″W / 51.398°N 1.308°W / 51.398; -1.308Coordinates: 51°23′53″N 1°18′29″W / 51.398°N 1.308°W / 51.398; -1.308
Grid reference	SU482668
Operations
Station code	NRC
Managed by	First Great Western
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	56,299
2005/06 *	72,153
2006/07 *	68,636
2007/08 *	63,878
2008/09 *	66,020
History
Opened 26 September 1905 (26 September 1905)
History
Original company	Great Western Railway
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Newbury Racecourse from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Newbury Racecourse railway station is a railway station serving the East Fields area of the town of Newbury in the county of Berkshire in England. It was opened on September 21, 1905. The station is adjacent to Newbury Racecourse and sees heavy traffic and additional trains on race days. Otherwise the station is served by local services operated by First Great Western from Reading to Newbury and Bedwyn.

Services

Newbury Racecourse station is served by local services operated by First Great Western from Reading to Newbury. On the current weekly timetable only two or three local services that call at the station will continue onto Bedwyn.^[1]

These services are summarised in the following table.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Thatcham		First Great Western Reading to Newbury		Newbury

A train from Reading

During race meets or large events at the adjacent Newbury Racecourse additional trains will call at the station. These will include a shuttle service to Reading and an extra stop for services that do not normally call at the station, sometimes including high speed trains. During some race events a special charter, sometimes hauled by a steam locomotive,^{[citation needed]} will call at the station. These special trains and the shuttle service usually use the third platform on the south side of the station.

History

The station was opened on 26 September 1905, well after the rest of the stations on this section of the line. However it was used for race specials only. It did not even appear on timetables until 1912 but then was still only used for race traffic.

It was only in 1990 after the building of new facilities at the racecourse and the building of a new industrial estate on Hambridge Road that a regular stopping service was introduced for the station.^[2]

An old GWR sign, still in use in 2010

The station originally had four platforms. The additional platform ran along the south-facing side of what is now platform two. The platform on the South side also included station buildings and a roof through which passengers passed to access the racecourse. There was also a turntable at the station used mainly for turning steam locomotives that had brought specials at the start of the race day so that they could make the return journey.^[3]

Service History

The station remained as part of the Great Western Railway (GWR) until the nationalisation of the railways in 1948. After the sectorisation of British Rail in 1982 the station became part of Network South East. From 1996 services were provided by Thames Trains and then First Great Western when the franchises merged.

Current Layout

The station now has three platforms, two of which are situated next to the mainline. The third platform is situated on the southern side of the station on a loop. The loop which previously serviced the additional platform has now been lifted.

The main two platforms which are currently used by the stopping services have been reduced in length by fencing off the unused parts of the platform. Since only short DMUs use these platforms maintaining their full length is unnecessary, especially when longer trains can use the third platform.

All of the existing platforms are connected by a footbridge. There is a car park on the north side of the station with access to Hambridge Road. The car park on the south side of the station is on the property of Newbury Racecourse.

Freight trains use the existing loop to allow passenger trains to pass them on the mainline. Steam locomotives on special charters which are not stopping in the station also use the loop as a water stop because nearby road access can allow a water tender to reach the line. It also prevents such trains from blocking the mainline or a platform at Newbury. All continuing trains using the loop at the racecourse must also travel through the loop on the down platform at Newbury to rejoin the mainline.

References

1. ^ First Great Western Timetable D. Created May 2007. Accessed 2 September 2007.
2. ^ Basingstoke Railway History in Maps. Accessed 2 September 2007.
3. ^ Robertson K.(1987)The Last Days of Steam in Berkshire, Alan Sutton Publishing, ISBN 0-86299-395-4