Olney Station History (4)
'4F' 44317 on the Olney station turntable
Olney station boasted a turntable and water tank.
The turntable was of modest proportions, and could only take a 4F loco or smaller. Built of blue brick, it was turned manually.
The water tower was built in red brick, with whitewash inside walls. The leather water hose was on the right, inside at the front. An inspection /ash pit ran the length, built of red brick with whitewash sides. The water tank was open top, holding 9,000 gallons. The outer framework was painted with black bitumen and the inside with red oxide paint.
The stores lean-to on the side was made from tongue and grove wooden boards, painted in black bitumen.and there was a Head shunt at the far end of the road beyond the water tower.
Olney Station History by Barrie Trinder
23rd March 2016
Photographs shown are reproduced by kind permission of Alan Beresford.
Olney station turntable and water tower
Sources:
Callup, R: Some notes on Ravenstone Wood Junction, Midland Railway Society Journal, No 58 (2013).
Coleman, R, & Rajczonek, J: Steaming into Northamptonshire (Northamptonshire Libraries, 1988);
Coleman, R, & Rajczonek, J: Steam Nostalgia around Northampton (2nd edn, Wellingborough: Wharton, 1999);
Dunn, J M: The Stratford-upon-Avon & Midland Junction Railway (2nd edn, Lingfield: Oakwood Press, 1968);
Eatwell, D: Railway Nostalgia around Bedfordshire (Wellingborough: Wharton, 1995);
Goslin, G: Bedford - Wellingborough including Hitchin, Northampton & Higham Ferrers (Midhurst: Middleton Press, 2004);
Griffiths, R, & Smith, P: The Directory of British Engine Sheds, 1: Southern England & c (Hinckley: Hoxford Publishing Co, 1999);
Jeyes, M: Northamptonshire Branch - Oakley Junction to Northampton St Johns, Midland Railway Society Journal No 45 (2010);
R Leleux: A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, IX: The East Midlands (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1976);
Maggs, C G: Branch Lines of Buckinghamshire (Stroud: Sutton, 2000);
Morrison, G: The London Midland Then & Now (Shepperton: Ian Allan, 1995);
Riley, R C, & Simpson, Bill: A History of the Stratford-upon-Avon & Midland Junction Railway (Witney: Lamplight, 1999).
48117 reversing into Olney West Yard with a Saturday afternoon prefab train in 1964.
43449 at Olney with the Pick-Up goods - August 1961.
45292 at Northampton Castle with ECS from Olney - October 1961
Turvey signal box prior to demolition, taken on 22 January 1965
84006 taking the tablet at Olney Signal Box, 15 February 1962