Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway

The Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway was a standard-gauge industrial railway that served an ironstone quarry near the village of Wroxton in Oxfordshire.

History
The OIR linked the quarry with the Great Western Railway about 6 km to the east at a junction just north of Banbury. The line was opened between 1917 and 1919 and closed in 1967; the track was removed between 1967 and 1968. The quarry was heavily worked in the Second World War. The line also served the Banbury Alcan works at one point. The popular footpath from Drayton to Drayton Lodge crossed the railway at Drayton Crossing.

Wroxton Central Ironstone Quarry was opened by 1919, closed and filled in 1967. Langley Ironstone Quarry was built near Balscot by 1926, and was closed and filled during 1943 when it ran out of ironstone. Dyke Lane Bridge was built in 1940 and abandoned in 1967.

The line was extended to the Balscote Quarry which was worked between 1956 and its closure in 1967. Balscote Quarry, a shorter-lived working, was built by 1956, but closed and filled in 1967. A newer quarry close by its former site is now served by road haulage only.

The mine buildings, manager's house and workers' halt are now a small set of new light industrial buildings, built circa 2006–2008. The track works' permanent way huts (p-huts) still stood at Drayton in 2007 and Horley in 2002. A few old OIR fence posts/gates remain to this day along the route. Banbury's Ruscote and Hardwick estate's (Daimler Avenue, Devon Way and Longelandes Way) are also built over a large part of its route, including most of the former Pen Hill farm grading works (Longelandes Way). Other built over places include the proposed minor Pin Hill maintenance depot (Pin Hill Road) and major active Pen Hill maintenance depot (Beaumont Road). Despite the development that has occurred north of Banbury since closure, much of the line of the route can be walked today.

Locomotive fleet
The OIR operated its own fleet of and  steam locomotives built by Hunslet, Hudswell Clarke, Peckett & Sons and s built by Hudswell Clarke, Hunslet, W. G. Bagnall and Peckett & Sons. There was also a vertical boiler locomotive supplied by Sentinel. The earliest locos carried names associated with Oxford University such as "The President" and "The Dean". Later locos carried boys and girls names, typically the 0-6-0 locos had male names eg "Graham" and "Frank" and the 0-4-0 locos had female names eg "Betty" and "Jean".

In the 1960s, the railway also purchased thirteen Rolls-Royce Sentinel diesel-hydraulic locomotives fitted with Rolls-Royce C range engines. Several of these Sentinel locomotives are still in existence, with "Betty", "Jean" and "Graham" at the Rocks By Rail Museum, "Barabel" at the Nene Valley Railway, and "Joan" at the East Somerset Railway. All five preserved locomotives are in operational condition.

Local geology
Many heavy clay and Ironstone deposits surround Banbury and Wroxton.

The Edge Hill Light Railway connection
The firm behind the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway was one of the backers of the ill-fated 1920–1922 Edge Hill Light Railway.

There was talk of reopening the Edge Hill Light Railway early in World War II but the Oxfordshire Ironstone line was considered adequate to serve the area's requirements.