Trains at: Didcot Parkway, GWML, 12/08/23

A short but sweet visit to Didcot Parkway on the Great Western Mainline where we see plenty of services from Great Western Railway, Cross Country and freight from Freightliner.

Didcot Parkway was built and opened by the Great Western Railway in 1844. When First built the station was simpky known as Didcot. It wasn’t until 1985 when British Rail renamed the station due to the then new bus link that was brought in. Thus making it a parkway station.

The town of Didcot owes is growth and success to the coming of the railway, as the same year as the station being opened the line towards Oxford was also opened. This allowed greater ease of access for passengers and freight alike which meant the local economy was able to grow which meant more people could move out of the louder areas of the country and move to a relatively small community. But this eventually became a sprawling town with markets a plenty and houses popping up all over the place.

There was another line that lived here before it closed. This was the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. This line saw a connection from the Great Western Mainline down to Southampton via Newbury, Highclere, Winchester and Eastleigh. This line though finally saw the end of its life in 1962 just before the infamous Dr Beeching report saw the closure of hundreds of rural lines across the UK. Many of which are actually in the process of being brought back into working life.

There used to a regular commuter service running to Swindon from Didcot Parkway that would call at Steventon, Wantage Road, Challow, Uffington, Shrivenham and Stratton Park. This was run up until 1964 when the service was terminated. Which then resulted in the closure of those stations.

1985 saw the current station building opened along with a 600 space car park to make the station more accessible, it would also serve as an entrance for the Park and Ride buses to pull into which would also aim to take traffic off the city Centre roads. This has still worked to this day and is very successful, however A new multi story car park is currently being built to the West of the station.

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[Music] hello and welcome to radio upstairs trains app and today we’re at didcot Parkway on the Great Western Main Line where you’re seeing service from Western Railway cross country and a little bit of freight as well in front of us this Freightliner 66622 or according what I believe is an empty ballast train from Thiel Foster Yeoman to East usk yard and down there is another Freightliner 66 in the Genesee and Wyoming color scheme uh that is fully loaded not sure where she’s off to those I can’t see a path on real-time trains anywhere to give me any information but 66622 was just rolling in as I was walking up the platform I believe she was going for a driver change so she should be on her way any moment uh down there is a full standing Great Western Railway service Bound for London Paddington and behind me is all of this lot it’s ugly as Central oh Deary me um there’s a load of car carriers in there the cupboard carriers that would normally take the minis from Oxford to Southampton uh there is a db66 parked up behind the foliage hooked up to a container train whether or not that’s going to go anywhere remains to be seen and that is about it so far so with that all being said and done let us see what else shall turn up okay 66 622 is now pulling away [Music] [Music] well then we can basically say that the graffiti artist is the same person judging by the uh designs on the side of those wagons as the announcer does his business the mixture inspected appearance is going to be the 1003 Great Western Railway service from London Paddington to Oxford 165123 will be sat alongside doing the local shuttles and then 387155 one of our classmates sat in platform five because we’ll then be working a service to London Paddington [Music] at least is honest now is the 1003 Great Western Railway service to Oxford but by 800-025 [Music] okay about ready to buy now is going to be the 1007 Great Western Railway service to Banbury World by one six five one two three three eight sevens are already departed but the 1006 to London Paddington thank you okay the next Range Rover is the light running 1014 grab Western Railway service from Oxford to London Paddington some of the steam engines over at the didcot railway center uh getting prepped for a day’s load of work [Music] so the LEDs flicking away and the brakes squeaking away wonderfully we have 800 303 [Music] foreign [Music] service to London Paddington [Music] [Music] okay the next round to arrive is the 1020 Great Western Railway service from Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington the number of which I should get when she leaves lovely squeaky brakes account spotting is the 1020 gruberton rubber service to London Paddington [Music] Steve whiteway 802002 [Music] [Music] okay the next range Drive is going to be a terminating Great Western Railway service from London Paddington but by 387-142 [Music] all right we’ll do an about turn to find passing by A Great Western Railway IET going from London Paddington to Swansea admittedly not going at a Breakneck speed this should be passing checks the signals behind me interesting looks like it’s stopping but according to real-time trains this is supposed to be a passing service unless they’ve gone and changed things up but she’s definitely slowing down well best way to find out is double check what’s on the destination board on the side of the carriages so it is 802 104 nope it is the uh service to Swansea and it is actually going to be stopping here very nice indeed okay we’ve got multitude of trains coming in there the first one will be a terminating Great Western Railway service from London Paddington there’s the 1026 from Bristol Temple Muse to London Paddington that’s from Oxford you idiot and then down here is going to be a cross-country super Voyager [Music] a service from Bournemouth to Manchester Piccadilly and squeaking Hawaii in is Great Western Railway 800-305 so the 165 is terminating in from Oxford to didcot Parkway you fool okay they’re about ready to depart two minutes late will be the 1026 Great Western Railway service to London Paddington [Music] okay the next round to pass by another Great Western Railway service going from London Paddington to Hereford [Music] [Music] and that is worked by 800 314. okay the next round to pass by is going to be another cross-country service going from Manchester Piccadilly to Bournemouth two two one one two seven okay the next round to make it appearance should be the 1039 Great Western Railway service from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads as the 1038 to Oxford is departing behind me and this is worked by 800 304 [Music] [Music] [Music] okay they’ve been trying to blast through will be another Great Western Railway IET make a couple of them as they fly through with a service from carmarthen to London Paddington as nuts passing is the 1038 Great Western Railway service to London Paddington where to buy 387-142 foreign okay the next freight train to pass by is going to be a Freightliner 66 of some variation going from crew Bass Hall to Southampton it’ll appear from behind the foliage as some stage I’m sure I can hear it just can’t see it here she comes 66 triple five [Music] [Music] wow one solitary container on that train okay the next range Market appearance is going to be another terminating Great Western Railway service from London Paddington watched by a pair of class 387s this time so leading of the way is 387-149 and to you sir and 307171 brings up the rear and the next freight train to pass by is going to be a Freightliner class 70 going from South Hamilton to crew Bass Hall and she is running light all right by 70.007 and then the next bucket appearance is another Great Western Railway IET in the form of 800 318 [Music] running from great Malvern to London Paddington right well rather sneaking in here is 800 309 with the 1102 Great Western Railway service to Oxford wasn’t even well yeah I just didn’t even know it was turning up as down there is an arrival from Oxford where to buy one of their 165 dmus [Music] squeaky break time hardly anybody in first class [Music] okay with the next strange Becca to Paris is going to be the 1058 Great Western Railway service from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington drive it as the blinds most of the way down on 800 308 [Music] okay and about ready to depart is 800 308 the 1058 Great Western Railway service to London Paddington [Music] [Music] all right then powering away now is the 1102 Great Western Railway service to Oxford and she continues onwards and 387 171 departs with the 1102 Great Western Railway service to London Paddington with her classmate excuse me I should leave it there thank you all very much for watching it is greatly appreciated if you have enjoyed since today then please do like and subscribe feel free to leave a comment I do go back to them as and when I get the opportunities too haven’t spent too long here but I’ve captured pretty much everything I wanted to otherwise uh you start running into the Realms of repetitiveness especially if there isn’t really a huge uh amount of freight to help break things up uh you’ve got the bin liner coming through later on this morning and you’ve got London gateway to portbury chew through as well but uh beyond that not much else uh but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed filming it it’s always a great little station to come to um they really need to do something about the foliage around here I mean it is absolutely tragic I mean look they’ve even got it growing there as well I mean you know take pride in your station and your network for Christ’s sake you know you’re not asking for much it just make the railway look a little bit more tidy that’s all you got to do but my next station will be Bristol Temple Meads really looking forward to filming there I know you don’t get any Freight but uh it’s always a great station to go to there’s always something different to be seen so until next time from me here at dickot Parkway I shall see you all later take care guys goodbye