Culham Station in the news
Press reports 2000 to the present day
Body on line
Thursday 19th March 2009, Oxford Mail
'CULHAM RAILWAY VICTIM YET TO BE NAMED - Police are still working to formally identify the man who died on railway tracks at Culham. Although his next of kin have been informed, British Transport Police have still not officially identified the man, so his name cannot be released. Officers were called at 2.45am on Tuesday after a train driver spotted the man on the line near Culham station. A BTP spokesman said the man was hit by a freight train. The death is not being treated as suspicious.'
The Old Ticket Office opens its doors
Monday 8th September 2014, Oxford Mail
Local reporter, Helen Wright, turned the spotlight onto some of the 130 venues in and around Oxford who would be participating in the seventh Open Doors weekend in Oxford, which was itself part of the annual nationwide Heritage Open Days scheme, running from the 13th to the 15th September. The Old Ticket Office at Culham was highlighted as Entikera Ltd., who had been renting the building since earlier in the year, were opening the building to visitors for four days. The ticket office had actually been closed to the public for much longer than reported in the article as the station became unmanned in the mid 1970s.
'After being hidden away for almost 20 years, the Old Ticket Office at Culham Station will be open to the public for the first time since it shut.' The report goes on to quote ...'When we started to rent the property it was completely empty with hardboard covering the floors. After negotiation with Network Rail we were able to remove the mouldy hardboard and reveal the beautiful solid wooden floor that had been laid over 150 years ago. We found the floor had worn away in front of the ticket window where people waited in line. Entikera decided to open the doors to the public. We hope people love it as much as we do.'
Radio Oxford also visited the ticket office during the weekend and transmitted two live reports from the building during its morning show.
Expansion plans for Culham Station
Tuesday 21st July 2015, Oxford Mail
'CULHAM STATION COULD EXPAND TO TIE IN WITH SCIENCE VALE - Proposals for a £13m expansion of Culham Station, near Abingdon, could help provide more regular services and longer trains, rail campaigners hope. ... South Oxfordshire District Council leader John Cotton said: “This scheme is very high on our list of priorities. “We have got the Culham Science Centre, which is set to create significant employment over the next 20 years and carries out world-leading research. We hope fusion research and design can provide a long-term future for us in hi-tech employment. To make that work, we need these improvements.” The council’s longer term ambition, he added, was to push for Network Rail’s long-term proposal for four railway tracks between Reading and Oxford, providing more services at Culham. The scheme was welcomed by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, based at Culham. Transport coordinator Anne Tingley said: “Train travel is the second most popular mode of transport for staff at Culham Science Centre and we welcome any improvements to the station which will encourage more staff and visitors to travel by train. Under plans being considered by South Oxfordshire District Council, the station would get longer platforms, new passenger facilities, as well as extra car and cycle parking spaces. First Great Western has said it is also involved. It is hoped the expansion could tie in with planned road improvements, such as a new link road between Abingdon and Didcot, as well as improvements to the A34 at the Milton Interchange. Transport bosses also hope it could improve links with the nearby science park, where thousands of jobs are to be created. It expected this would further promote the growth of the Science Vale, a key area in the economic plan for Oxfordshire.'
Visit by BRM magazine
November 2017
Click or tap to watch BRM's preview video
Courtesy of BRM magazine
Wednesday the 29th November 2017 saw a surprise visit by Phil Parker and team from the magazine British Railway Modelling to the Old Ticket Office. He recorded the visit on his blog which carries a photograph of Station House, the Old Ticket Office seen from platform 1, and a view of Pendon Parva station (at the famous Pendon Museum) which is based on Culham. The team were meeting up at Culham station before going on to Pendon Museum to record a magazine feature for publication in 2018. They were pleasantly surprised to find the ticket office occupied and actually stayed for nearly an hour recording both video footage and stills.
February 2018
The February 2018 issue of British Railway Modelling carried a very special dvd with coverage of their visit to Culham featuring as the first item and that to Pendon forming the other. The Old Ticket Office had its 5 minutes of fame! A short preview of the dvd was put on the BRM YouTube channel and it can be viewed by clicking or tapping the thumbnail image. Whilst the preview only features the station for a few seconds, it does have this nice drone shot of a First Great Western class 180 Adelante set passing through.
Man struck by train
Monday 20th May 2019, Abingdon Herald
'ELDERLY MAN DIES AFTER BEING STRUCK BY TRAIN NEAR CULHAM - A man was fatally struck by a train on railway tracks near Abingdon yesterday. British Transport Police issued a witness appeal this morning after the man, estimated to be 70 years old, was hit near Culham station. Officers were called to the line at 2.54am yesterday, and discovered the man's body. His death is being treated as unexplained.'
Click or tap to see an enlarged image
Courtesy of Dorchester News
175th Anniversary Celebrations
Wednesday 12th to Sunday 16th June 2019
Local newspapers, local radio and a number of monthly railway interest magazines recorded the celebrations which took place all along the line on Saturday 15th of June to mark the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Didcot to Oxford Railway. The Old Ticket Office at Culham was also open on Sunday 16th June. The actual date of opening of the line was Wednesday 12th June 1844, and that was marked by GWR who ran a record breaking special train between Oxford and Paddington carrying invited guests.
One of the local publications which covered the open weekend at Culham was the June edition of the Dorchester News. You can read the full article, which is reproduced by kind permission of the Editor, by clicking or tapping the thumbnail image.
You can read all about Culham's open weekend, and the record breaking train, by visiting the '175th Anniversary celebrations' item under the 'ABOUT' menu tab.
Michael Portillo visits
Monday 3rd August 2020
Culham station saw a surprise visit by Michael Portillo and a television crew when they filmed a segment outside the Old Ticket Office. There were about eighteen takes in all, but who knows what would end up on the cutting room floor. The crew were not communicative at all so it is not known when any footage would be aired, or for what particular series of the railway travel programme it was being filmed. They didn't want to come inside or learn anything about the building and when they had finished they all buzzed off by car. Sad really, but they would have had their schedule sorted before visiting.
As it turned out, Culham was to be seen in the first episode of BBC's 'Great British Railway Journeys' series 12 which first aired on April 26th 2021. Blink and you'll miss it though! He had supposedly travelled by train from Oxford and alighted at Culham before going on to visit the MG Car Club clubhouse, Kimber House, in Abingdon. Nothing was mentioned about the history of the station at Culham or the Old Ticket Office - maybe next time.
Click or tap to watch this short video
Image © John Wilkes and Andrew Burchett
Trackside Shorts visit
August 2021
Early August saw a visit by a group of local railway enthusiasts whose YouTube channel, Trackside Shorts, was launched in the May. The flowers are a little past their best and the strawberries have all been eaten, but they still brighten up the forecourt. This short video can be viewed by clicking or tapping the thumbnail image.
Work in progress during May Image courtesy of Network Rail
Nuneham bridge closure
Monday 3rd April 2023
Stabilisation works were found to be necessary on the Nuneham viaduct where the line crosses the Thames between Culham and Radley stations. For a number of weeks a temporary 20 m.p.h. line speed limit had been imposed along that stretch of the line and engineering works were started.
The story hit the news when, following very heavy rain and higher than normal river levels in early April, it was found that the southern abutment had moved and the bridge structure had shifted. At 10:30 in the morning of 3rd April the bridge was declared unsafe and immediately closed to all traffic until emergency repairs could be carried out, trains already en-route had to return to either Oxford or Didcot. In its issue of 16th April, The Sunday Times quoted Network Rail as saying that it would not reopen until the middle of June, and that the work would cost between £7 million and £10 million. The line would normally be used by about 240 trains every day.
Click or tap to watch this video
Image © John Jones
Rainham Rail Enthusiast visit
Tuesday 9th May 2023
We were very pleased to welcome John Jones, who curates the RainhamRailEnthusiast YouTube channel and blog, to the old ticket office. He had contacted us earlier to explain the reason for his visit and arrange a convenient time to view inside the building. Sadly there were no trains for him to see as the line was still closed to through services due to the emergency bridge repairs. He was very taken with the station and so returned to cover some more detail and video the various trains once the line had opened again in June.
John's first video can be viewed by clicking or tapping the thumbnail image.
