| | The very fact that the Lambourn Valley Railway existed at all owes much to perseverance and the will to succeed against considerable odds. Always very much a local railway, it took several schemes, from the original tramway proposal to the final contract, a full 25 years of frustration and despair, before the inaugural service arrived at Lam-bourn in April 1898 amidst the cheers of the gathered crowds. One man above all deserves the accolade for this, Col. Archer-Houblon, the chairman of the LVR, who person-ally financed much of the necessary capital and eventually had to purchase the rolling stock, and later the line's motive power, on behalf of the con-cern. The independent little company managed to struggle on for seven years, owing much to the gener-osity of the chairman, until it was finally forced to sell out to the GWR in 1905. Much of the individual charm of the line disappeared under the con-siderable upgrading work undertaken by the GWR following their acquisition and for the major part of its existence it became yet another Great Western branch. This account chronicles the events from the earliest years of the line's history, through to the final develop-ments of the 1950s when a new military line gave part of the branch an extension of life, postponing its final demise until 1973. In producing their intimate account, the authors have spent many hours of painstaking research, bringing together much original information from numerous sources however remote or obscure, including discussions with many of the surviving members of staff. Contents:
- Introduction
- Chapter One The Early History 1873-1898
- Chapter Two The Independent Days 1898-1905
- Chapter Three Under The Great Western 1905-1948
- Chapter Four - Operation
- Chapter Five A Journey On The Line
- - The Stations
- Chapter Six The British Railways Regime 1948-1973
- Appendices:
- - 1. Welford Park Military Line
- - 2. Boards of Directors
- - 3. Financial Capital of the LVR Co.
- - 4. LVR Timetable for 1898
- - 5. LVY By-laws and Regulations
- - 6. Inaugral dinner Menu
- - 7. LVR Mileage
- - 8. LVR Receipts
- - 9. Goods rates Lambourn to Paddington 27th June 1903
- - 10. LVR Locomotives
- - 11. LVR Passenger Stock
- - 12. Goods Stock
- - 13. Return of Working Stock 1898-1904
- - 14. Fullers Auction of LVR Stock
- - 15. The disposal and subsequent history of the locomotive and rolling stock of the former LVR
- - 16. LVR System of Passenger Receipts
- - 17. LVR Improvement Costs 1908
- - 18. Staff
- - 19. Locomotives allocated to Lambourn
- - 20. Gradient Profile
- - 21. Signalling Diagrams
- - 22. Architectural Drawings
- - 23. Traffic dealt with at Stations
- Acknowledgements
Continent: Europe
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