Time Capsules - Old Photographs from the past

Having looked at several Geograph shots of the station, I think I can say that this view is taken on the north side of the station, looking east, ie towards Reading. There were, I suggest, three bay platforms. This one, with the Great Western railcar - see also picture #452 - may well have served the Lambourn branch [There is a suggestion in the Winter 2010 issue of the Great Western Railway Journal that this was a railcar duty at one time]. A second bay was on this side of the station beyond the footbridge and it remains in use today as Platform 3, with stopping services to Reading. A third bay platform appears on the extreme right, glimpsed by the running in board [station nameboard]. Local services may have run to Kintbury and Great Bedwyn on the main line, and possibly this is the platform that provided trains on the branch to Whitchurch and Winchester. Neither of these western bay platforms survive today; the tracks have gone and the space given over to additional car parks

According to Peter Squibb the Great Western signalmen were required to employ distinct bell codes for these AEC railcars. 5-1-3 indicated a stopping service, but 4-1-3 was used when the railcars ran as an express. [Peter Squibb, An S & T Lineman at Yeovil. Great Western Railway Journal 73, Winter 2010, 37]

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