A look over the fence: Cholsey & Wallingford.

The grand opening of the Maidenhead canopy at Wallingford on 26th and 27th June was a good opportunity to visit this little GWR branch line a second time, after about a 30 year hiatus. We had visited before, but in its very early days.

What a change for the better!

As you may know, Wallingford station was closed to passengers way back in 1959, and 10 years later the line was shortened by 500m to the only remaining freight customer, a malting works on the outskirts of town. The original station was then demolished and replaced by a housing estate. Today's preservation group moved in after the freight only stub to the maltings closed, and the line re-opened to preservation in 1985. Sadly, the terminus no longer had a station, and the new preserved line only had very rudimentary passenger facilities at the end of the stub, up against St. John's Road.

So today's entrance is no longer on Station Road, but along St. John's Road. That runs parallel to it, but 500 meters further away from the High Street. It's still OK to walk, particularly if you have had an excellent meal in the old town square.

This is the view towards the buffer stop at the end of the line. You'll have to imagine the last 500m, where it used to run. Sadly the preservation society came a good decade too late.

With the electrification of the London to South Wales line the little canopy at Maidenhead had to go, and here it is, beautifully rebuilt. They even found a huge 16ft GWR bench to go under it.

There are two good panels to explain the move of the canopy, and with these blow ups you can read for yourself how they achieved it:

Next to the explanatory panels about the canopy is another interesting one about the goals of the line.

We were particularly pleased that two of the examples they would like to emulate are from the GWSR. Can you spot them?

Again, we liked this explanatory poster, particularly useful on a railway that is changing. A small niggle is that there was no donations box (observed) nearby. We were inclined to contribute, thought we'd do it on the way out, and then forgot. At least they had our fares, and the town our lunch custom and car parking charges (£2 all day, very good)

Travel was in two Mk1s, although we saw two pre-nationalisation BGs (?) as LT restoration projects, and one of them had a fresh coat of brown, part of the effort to improve the looks with the arrival of the new canopy.

This ancient wooden bodied van was interesting too, although not from the area (LNWR?) and about to leave the site, according to the notice on it. It rested, unusually, on its 'W' irons with the wheels adjacent, apparently the result of a failed loading attempt.

Pannier 4612 arrives with one of the first trains under the new canopy.

Next to the opening of the new canopy, the big news was that services for 3 weeks or so would be hauled by a GWR Pannier, an excellent initiative. (check their timetable though!).

As the station does not yet have a run round loop (one of the future projects, subject to some money being donated) the incoming Pannier had to be freed by an 08 shunter. This, and its eventual  reappearance at the head of the train at the other end gave the station a lovely branch line terminus atmosphere.

Branch line terminus atmosphere. Ashburton, anyone?

Pannier 4612 surges out from underneath the Maidenhead canopy.

The rake is put back in place by the 08 shunter

After much to-ing and fro-ing the Pannier was attached back to the front of the train, and the Gronk hid in a siding a bit further down the yard.

Rich detail in cast iron under the Maidenhead canopy. Following some damage during a rough dismanteling repairs have been effected, but it was hard to see them, so well done!

After booking on line you got a reserved group of seats, and it was possible to book a tea and cake, which many people did. That was prepared in a cabin on the platform, and taken on board just prior to departure. The system seemed to work well.

Although there is now a lovely canopy, there still isn't a station building, just a number of cabins and/or Portacabins. There are plans for a proper station building, but again this needs financial help.

Our train set off, and did a round trip to Cholsey in just under an hour, plenty of time to enjoy your pot of tea and cake. It's a fairly plain, short line, but on the western side there is a lovely view of Cholsey church, and the platform interchange with big brother GWR at Cholsey main line offers quite some interest and excitement.

At Cholsey main line station you get main line trains such as this Voyager, which stopped for no one.

They can come past at quite a lick, so stand well back behind the yellow line.

There's a common platform, but the tracks remain separate.

The Pannier ran round, and for a moment paused on a short stretch of track which is adjacent to the main line. This is to allow the C&W line to cross a small bridge, after which branch and mainline drift apart again.

In the background there's an IEP unit racing by on the other pair of lines, and overhead you can see the newly installed electrification masts and beams.

That very short 50 yard stretch next to the main line has led to these bars being installed along the western side of the C&W rolling stock.

Why the main line was quadrupled can be seen by the fact that during the 15 minutes that we were in the station, no fewer than three main line trains came by. This one actually stopped as well, so you can travel on, to Didcot or Reading.

A nice period touch, one that we didn't even notice at first because it looked so natural, was the placing of this period luggage in the racks above. That's a good idea, and cheap too. At the GWSR we are always getting offers of luggage.

On our return to Wallingford we noticed one more thing of interest, this explanatory note on a tatty Portacabin by the exit. It's refreshing to see such candid honesty. They do not disguise the fact that these are temporary structures that do not fit, but promise that something will be done. Others nearer to home could learn from this.

Of course not the whole day was spent on the C&W railway, and if you are thinking, how will I tempt Mrs Blog Reader into joining me on a day out here, then the little town of Wallingford itself is well worth a little investigation. This charming corner, for example, which marks the entrance to St John's Road from the High Street.

Wallingford is on the Thames, so there is a bridge, boats to watch, there's a lovely riverside walk, and in an undulating landscape the enormous site of the once mighty Wallingford castle, which was never conquered, and which was ordered to be razed to the ground on the orders of Oliver Cromwell after the Royalists surrendered. There are good explanatory panels and pictures to show what it once looked like, it must have been an amazing place, with a port, three concentric walls and a water filled moat.

There are numerous eating opportunities for all pockets. Mr. & Mrs. Blogger enjoyed an Italian style meal at the Old Post Office on the town square. Not cheap, but of excellent quality. After consuming a generous Banoffee sundae it was just a short stagger to the new station in St. John's Road.

So help these chaps along with a bit of custom. They deserve it!