Welcome to my Fairford Branch Line website. I hope this site will bring back memories for anyone that knew the line in its heyday and give a flavour of what it was like for those too young to remember it. The website has been primarily designed to show the route of the line in detail with a mix of archive and more recent pictures, including numerous photos that I took in 1979/80 when I walked the entire length of the line and much of interest still remained. The site is laid out to assist anyone who wants to investigate the course of the line today. Although most of the buildings have gone, numerous bridges survive and the actual trackbed is mostly still intact, despite the best efforts of local farmers at assimilating the line into their fields. Ordnance Survey map references are given, but please note that the description of various features does not indicate a public right of access, and indeed most of the route is now on private land. However all vantage points and footpath crossings are mentioned and certain sections are now public rights of way. Athough I have included a brief history, more details can be found in the books listed in the selected bibliography. If you have any comments please Contact me, it would be very interesting to hear from people who have recollections of the line. Although it may seem strange that a website about a long closed branch line would ever need updating, I am sure new material and information will continue to come to light from various sources. 

GWR 0-6-0PT No.9653 was one of the line's regular locomotives in the last years, and indeed worked the last trains. It is pictured here at Witney with the 13:50 Fairford to Oxford working on 17 April 1959. 
Martin Loader Collection