THE Abingdon-Radley branch railway line served passengers as well as freight, but occasionally, it was also used as a siding for the Royal Train.
It proved a convenient overnight stopping point, away from the main line, during Royal visits to Oxfordshire.
There would be tight security, with officials often refusing to confirm that a member of the Royal family was on board – or that the train was there.
Peter Heath, who lives at Radley, recalls one such occasion when the Duke of Edinburgh slept on the train on the branch before an early morning engagement.
He writes: “The train, with Class 47 locomotive 47510 Fair Rosamund at its head, made the short journey to Radley station, where the Duke alighted and was taken by car for an appointment in the area.
“The Royal Train stayed the night on the branch on more than one occasion and this time, I discovered that it would be stopping at the station.
“There was, as you can imagine, a large presence of police and when I asked what time the train would be arriving, they replied: ‘What Royal Train?”
“When I told them I could see the top of the carriages parked round the corner, they still maintained there was no such thing.”
The Queen and the Duke made an overnight stop on the branch line early in her reign and Prince Charles and Princess Diana also slept there at least once.
Farmer Dick Frearson, of Lower Farm, Radley, was unloading sugar beet from a railway wagon when a man wearing a dark overcoat and black bowler hat approached him and told him to stop.
He and his men were allowed to stay in the background and realised that the Queen was on board the Royal Train.
Mr Frearson also recalled an occasion when new gates were put at a crossing, the grass verge was tidied and a cable laid, although the line had been closed for some time.
- Going loco: Class 47 locomotive 47510 Fair Rosamund with the Royal train at Radley in about 1983 after it had been stabled on the Abingdon branch line overnight. The white marker beside the track indicated where the train should stop so that the Duke of Edinburgh, who had slept on the train, could walk directly from the train to the station steps.
On the morning news, it was announced that Prince Charles and Princess Diana had spent the night on a train in a siding near Abingdon.
On another occasion, pink gravel was laid near Radley station and villagers thought it was for a car park. It turned out that the Duke of Edinburgh was staying in the Royal train on the branch line, then alighting at Radley before visiting Culham or Harwell.
Villagers often recalled seeing men in suits and dark glasses patrolling the area and questioning people what they were doing.
The stories about the Royal Train’s visits appear in a new book, Radley People and the Railway, produced by Christine Wootton and contributors for Radley History Club, which tells the story of Radley and its railway and branch trains to Abingdon (The Bunk). For more details about Radley History Club publications, go to radleyhistoryclub.org.uk
- Memory Lane this week
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