The Lambourn Valley Railway (LVR) was a branch railway line running from the town of Newbury, Berkshire north-west to the village of Lambourn. It was opened in 1898. Fulfilling a local need, it was in financial difficulties throughout its independent life and was sold to the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1905.
Steam railmotors and a GWR diesel railcar were used on the line, as well as steam engines owned by the Lambourn valley Railway, and Great Western Railway standard engines.
The line closed to passenger traffic in 1960, but a section between Newbury and Welford remained open for freight traffic to RAF Welford until 1972. A special passenger service operated on 3 November 1973 between Newbury and Welford Park to give the public a final trip over the line; a nine-coach train made four runs in each direction, and a special souvenir booklet was produced.
Origins
A horse tramway scheme
Lambourn had been an important agricultural and trading centre, but in the second half of the nineteenth century it was declining. Interested parties suggested a number of ways of making a railway connection, seen as important to revitalising the town, but it was left to the Engineer of the newly authorised Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway, E E Allen. to propose a realistic scheme. This was a tramway from Newbury to Lambourn; the Tramways Act 1870 had enabled a low-cost form of railway to be constructed without some of the legal processes required for conventional railways.
There was considerable local enthusiasm for the scheme and the provisional Newbury and Lambourn Tramway Company was formed in late 1873. A 3 ft gauge single track would be laid at the side of the main road, with several short branches within Newbury. It was to be horse-drawn, the vehicle making two round trips daily at first. The cost was estimated at £30,000 and an authorising Act was obtained on 7 August 1875; one year was allowed for construction. A contract for construction was let and a first rail was ceremonially fixed; the subscribers did not come forward and only shares to the value of £4,000 were taken up. The company could not proceed and at the expiry of the year allowed, it was wound up.
Not quite a light railway
This was followed by a more conventional railway scheme taking advantage of the Regulation of Railways Act 1868 which, among other things, authorised the construction of a light railway—the first use of the term—subject to conditions that might be imposed by the board of Trade. An attempt to get an authorising Act failed in the 1881 session due to objections over level crossings, but a revised scheme with a shorter route and fewer level crossings was submitted for the 1883 session, and obtained its authorising Act on 2 August 1883. The Lambourn Valley Railway Company was incorporated, capital £100,000. It was to be a single line built on the standard gauge; the estimated cost of the infrastructure was £80,530; it was authorised as an ordinary railway, not a light railway. The engineer was John Fowler.
Actually raising the capital was now the task; the Directors offered a guaranteed dividend of 5% during the construction period, money that could only be paid out of capital. They also employed a new engineer, H O Baldry, who produced a reduced estimate for the construction of £58,068. However, by January 1885 only £23,365 had been subscribed.
In this impasse, the company acquired another engineer, William Gregory, and a new Contractor, Jonathan Edwin Billups, who it seems was prepared to undertake the work for £110,000, but he would accept £60,000 of that in shares and £33,000 in debenture stock, only requiring £18,000 in cash. As a means of actually starting construction, this was attractive to the board, although by now they had not even the £18,000: of the £25,930 subscribed £10,000 had been spent on Parliamentary costs—an extension of time had been applied for and granted—and land acquisition, and a further £10,000 was considered to be committed. Nonetheless, Billups was asked to start work, which he did on 18 June 1888.