People power brought the railways to Abingdon.

The Great Western Railway’s Didcot to Oxford line, completed in 1844, bypassed the town, because of opposition by Thomas Duffield, the MP for Abingdon, and three influential landowners.

But 10 years later, the town council, backed by townspeople, had become concerned that Abingdon was missing out on the prosperity the railway was bringing to other communities.

The Abingdon Railway Company was formed to build a branch to connect with the main line at Radley – and the Abingdon Flyer was born.

The line earned good profits from both passengers and freight.

Frequent passenger trains, connecting at the junction station with main line services, ran to and from the town, and in between, there were numerous freight trains.

The main cargo was coal, to heat and power homes and businesses, but the line also carried large quantities of animal skins to the tannery in the town and large numbers of cattle from the livestock market.

Between the wars, the transport of cars from the MG factory became the main freight business.

After the Second World War, the fortunes of the Abingdon Flyer began to decline.

Regular bus services between Oxford and Abingdon took away passenger traffic, and the last train ran on September 9, 1963.

Freight trains continued to run until March 1984 but there was only sparse traffic in the final years, after the closure of the MG works in 1980.

The track was removed a few years later and 25 years on, there are few reminders of the town’s rail link.

The story of the Abingdon Flyer is told in the Lost Railways of Berkshire, written and illustrated by Rupert Matthews and published by Countryside Books, of Newbury, priced £9.99.

memory.lane@oxfordmail.co.uk