Remarks: The Wallingford and Watlington Railway opened as far as Wallingford in 1866. The railway was sold to the GWR in 1872 and, for reasons now forgotten, the line and trains that ran on it became popularly known as the Wallingford Bunk (the nearby Abingdon branch was also known as the Abingdon Bunk). The line closed to passengers in 1959, and the loss of goods traffic to the maltings on the edge of Wallingford saw the line close entirely in 1981.
The line is now preserved as the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of closure to passengers an ex GWR pannier tank and Autocoach were hired and used in push-pull mode to give an authentic GWR branch line atmosphere. Autocoaches were used on the line, but I believe the smaller 14xx class 0-4-2 tank engines provided the motive power in latter GWR and BR days.
All the scenes on this video were shot within a few hundered yards of the still open mainline station at Cholsey
The Highworth Railway was also a Bunk, so I guess it was the Great Western Term for this sort of line. Now as to the word its self, I found a definition of Bunk meaning a car that Australians used to get to work. Highworth Bunk would certainly have been used for men to get to work in the GWR, so as bunking up can also mean sharing a room, did it originally mean working together?
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