Potton: the Sandy & Potton Railway engine shed

Image: © John Sutton Taken: 7 Jan 2018

From 1857-61 this was the engine shed of the Sandy & Potton Railway, at its terminus. The doors through which the engine passed were at the left-hand end. The Sandy & Potton ceased to exist with the opening of the Bedford and Cambridge line, whose station (closed 1968) is a few hundred yards away. The owner of the Sandy & Potton was Captain William Peel, who paid £800 for its locomotive, which, like its shed, still exists - at the Didcot Railway Centre. This tiny engine passed to the London & North Western Railway (owners of the Oxford-Bedford-Cambridge Varsity Line), then to the Wantage Tramway Co in Oxfordshire, where it worked until 1946, thereafter standing on display at Wantage Road station until being restored and appearing at the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1975. For more about the locomotive, try the Didcot website: http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/locos/5/5.html .

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