SOLICITOR Martin Connor Price found an unusual way to reach a railway station – he hitched a ride on a freight train.

With time to spare after a meeting in Abingdon, he wandered into the disused town station to find two men with a diesel engine preparing to leave with MG car wagons.

After initial suspicions, the railwaymen were happy to break the rules and help the man in the pin stripe suit on his way back to London.

Writing in a new book, Radley People and the Railway, Mr Connor Price describes how the two men came to his aid in the summer of 1973.

Abingdon was the terminus of a one-and-a-half mile branch line which left the main Oxford-Didcot line at Radley.

Oxford Mail:

The Abingdon ‘Bunk’ locomotive No 1444 rests at Radley in 1959 – fireman Alan Wills, left, and driver Harry Fudge are on the footplate, while a young porter stands on the platform.

Passenger services were withdrawn in 1963, but the branch remained open to freight, mainly coal and Abingdon-built MG cars, until 1984.

Mr Connor Price writes: “Walking up the platform, I saw a diesel moving about the yard and a couple of railwaymen nearby. One enjoying a cigarette didn’t seem thrilled to see me. His colleague was equally silent. Plainly my pin stripe suit wasn’t an aid to conversation!

“Ten minutes’ talking eventually convinced them I wasn’t the latest whizz-kid from head office and that I was interested in the branch, in them and their work.

“I was invited into the cab. After sharing some fruit pastilles with them, friendship was established.

“I explained that I had been in Abingdon on business, but had to return to London. The two men looked at each other, and then at me: ‘We’ll be off to Hinksey Yard in a few minutes. You can ride with us to Radley. Any further and we might meet an inspector.

“Before long, the train of empty car-flats trundled out of the sidings and on to the branch and soon we were approaching Radley. The driver brought the diesel to a halt at the branch platform to allow me to get off.

“There was a solitary workman on the downside shelter. His stare indicated his fascination with my means of arrival. For a moment, it looked as though he was struggling to speak. Eventually, he came out with: “You must be important!”

“’Why do you say that?’, I asked.

“The city suit’, he said, ‘and the chauffeur-driven diesel.’ “A few minutes later, a rather unkempt diesel multiple unit arrived on a stopping service and I was off to London in a style completely inappropriate to my alleged eminence.”

l Radley People and the Railway, by Christine Wootton and contributors, tells the story of Radley and its railway and the branch line to Abingdon (The Bunk). For more details about Radley History Club publications, go to radleyhistoryclub.org.uk

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