Wantage Tramway
| Wantage Tramway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 "Jane", the only surviving locomotive on
the Wantage Tramway, built in 1857 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 4.0 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Wantage Tramway was a single-track, standard-gauge steam train that connected the small town of Wantage in Oxfordshire in England with the Wantage Road station of the Great Western Railway (GWR) on the Reading - Swindon route. The name Wantage Tramway denotes both the operating company Wantage Tramway Co. Ltd. as well as the four-kilometer route.
history
The company was founded in 1873. In 1904 the company moved to a new building. The line was opened for freight traffic on October 1, 1875, and ten days later for passenger traffic. Initially horses provided the locomotion, but after a year Merryweather & Co. in London purchased the first steam locomotive. The operation was maintained for 70 years until 1945. Wantage Tramway Co. Ltd. was dissolved in 1947.
The route ran from the city in a north-easterly direction overland parallel to the road, which is very unusual in Great Britain , and in the town in the middle of the road. The terminal stops were Mill Street in Wantage and Wantage Road station, with the platform of the Wantage Tramway east of the GWR route and could be reached through an underpass.
The company initially flourished so much that there was a direct connection to Wantage for every GWR train on the main line. In 1895 36,700 passengers were counted, in 1906 there were already over 56,000. As a result of increasing motorization after the First World War, the number of passengers fell. In addition, from 1924 the GWR competed with the Wantage Tramway by using buses on the same route. The bus line was later taken over by the Oxford Bus Company . As early as 1925, passenger transport on the Wantage Tramway was stopped. Freight traffic was stopped on December 31, 1945, after the locomotives were confiscated from 1939 to 1945 due to the war and the company was struggling to survive. There were no longer enough funds available for a fresh start. The GWR's Wantage Road station closed in 1965 in the wake of the Beeching ax .
Vehicle fleet
Locomotives
Over the years, the company owned around ten locomotives, which were in use for very different lengths of time. A special feature is No. 5, popularly baptized "Jane", but in 1946 she was officially named "Shannon". It is the last remaining vehicle in society. It is also the only surviving standard gauge locomotive made by George England and Co. from London-New Cross; the other four still existing examples are narrow-gauge locomotives.
The "Jane" was manufactured in 1857 for the Sandy & Potton Railway in Bedfordshire and in 1862 sold to the London and North Western Railway . They sold the locomotive to Wantage Tramway in 1878. After the company was closed, it had been on the GWR platform at Wantage Road station since 1948 . In 1969 it was restored and added to the collection of the Great Western Society, Didcot Railway Center , in the railway town of Didcot . In 1975 it took part in the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway under steam , but had to be taken out of service a few years later due to cracks in the boiler and has been an exhibit in Didcot ever since.
| designation | Wheel alignment | Manufacturer | Construction year | Acquisition | Retired / sold / scrapped | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 2-2-0T | s. Note | 1872 | 1875 | 1890/1891 /? | "Experimental Locomotive". "Steam tram car" designed by John Grantham . Bodywork from Oldbury Carriage & Wagon Works in Birmingham . Machine and horizontal double cylinder from Merryweather & Co , London. Later converted to a single cylinder by Shand in Mason; u. U. from 1903 for Port Down & Horndean Tramway run |
| - | 2-2-0T? | s. Note | 1876 | 1876 | 1877 back to the manufacturer | “Steam tram engine” built by Merryweather & Co, London |
| No. 4th | 0-4-0T | Hughes Loco & Tramway (HLT) | 1877 | 1877 | 1919 / - / 1920 | |
| No. 5 "Jane" / "Shannon" | 0-4-0WT | George England & Co (GE) | 1857 | 1878 | now in the Didcot Transport Museum | |
| No. 6th | 2-2-0T | s. Note | 1881 | 1881 | 1925 / - / 1931 | "Steam tram engine" designed by James Matthews , built by FW Jackson , London-Dalston |
| No. 7th | 0-4-0ST | Manning Wardle (MW) | 1888 | 1893 | - / 1946/1956 | before Manchester Ship Canal Co. |
| Wye | 0-4-0T | Fletcher Jennings (FJ) | 1876 | 1906 | n./v. | on loan from GWR from 1894 |
| Raven | 0-4-0ST | AE (?) | 1874 | 1910 | - / - / 1919 | Built in 1874 for the South Devon Railway in broad gauge . Converted to standard gauge by Great Western Railway in 1892 |
| Driver | 0-4-0T | Manning Wardle (MW) | 1875 | 1919 | - / - / 1920 due to cylinder damage | previously at Woolwich Arsenal |
Passenger cars
The first passenger cars were discarded horse-drawn tram trailers that were still used in the first few years with steam operation. Later, more comfortable, because more spacious cars were added.
literature
- Reg Wilkinson: Wantage Tramway, 1976, ISBN 978-0-853614-36-4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Current photo of the gable of the administration building
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b History of Jane and other locomotives with numerous photos ( memento of the original from September 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.transportdiversions.com/publicationshow.asp?pubid=1311 ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.transportdiversions.com/images/books/TE4239S.jpg ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.carendt.com/microplans/pages/real/standard/index.html
- ↑ 0-4-0WT - "Shannon" on the sides of the Didcot Railway Center , accessed on July 29, 2014
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
