Place West Challow Pre-grouping Great Western Railway Original company Great Western Railway | Grid reference SU355905 20 July 1840 Opened Platforms in use 2 | |
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Area District of Vale of White Horse Post-grouping GWR
Western Region of British Railways Similar Wantage Road railway st, Steventon railway station, Faringdon railway station, Moulsford railway station, Churn railway station | ||
Challow railway station is a former railway station about 2 miles (3 km) south of Stanford in the Vale on the A417 road between Wantage and Faringdon. It is named after the villages of West Challow and East Challow, which are 1.5 miles (2.4 km) and 2.5 miles (4 km) southeast respectively of the former station.
When the Great Western Railway extended its main line from Reading through the Vale of White Horse in 1840 it opened the station as Faringdon Road station. After the Faringdon Railway between Uffington and Faringdon opened in 1864, the GWR renamed Faringdon Road "Challow" to avoid confusion.
Four tracks ran through the station, two fast straddled by two slow. The station's platforms stood outside the slow lines, with at least one of them having a "Pagoda" building, apparently for use as a waiting room.
On 7 December 1964 British Railways withdrew passenger services from Challow and all other intermediate stations between Didcot and Swindon.
The station today
Few parts of the station survive. The northern platform has almost disappeared completely and the southern platform is used by Network Rail, although no buildings remain and the buildings used by Network Rail are only small portable cabins. New buildings have been built around the site. The most noticeable is the bail depot on the site of the northern platform. One nearby public house, the Prince of Wales, was burnt down in 1999 and the site has been levelled.
Freight trains now use a passing loop on the site of the station to wait for High Speed Trains to overtake them.