I'm about to start researching Railways during WW2, in particular the branch lines. I wondered if anyone could point me in the direction of a website/books etc that would enable me to find out which were the busiest branch lines in the country at that time.
Including what they carried, such as ammunitions and troops, and just how important these branch's were to the war effort. I would dearly love to get my hands on several time tables and/or goods logs too.
I would be grateful for any information. Many thanks.
Although not a branch line dedicated to military traffic, the former Oxford - Cambridge line was very busy with wartime munitions trains travelling from munitions factories and storage depots like Fenny Compton, Kineton, Bicester, and Elstow, across to Cambridge for the RAF/USAAF stations in the Eastern Counties.
Some trains would have proceeded north to Lincolnshire either via Bletchley, Northampton, Market Harborough, Leicester, Nottingham, or alteratively via Bedford and Leicester.
The Ordnance Depot at Elstow was alongside the Upside of the Midland main line south of Bedford and was served by a signalbox called Elstow Sidings. The connections into the Depot were to the south of the farm overbridge which is south of the existing connection into the Redlands sidings.
During the Second World War Elstow Storage Depot was developed as an armaments factory by J. Lyons and Co. Ltd (the tea company).
The first job undertaken at the factory was the filling of two inch trench mortar bombs, during the first few weeks an average of 6,000 bombs of this type were filled. The factory was an enormous concern and during the years 1942 - 1945 it produced over 100,000 tons of bombs, which is about one-seventh of the entire tonnage dropped by Bomber Command on Germany.
The site was vast with over 250 buildings (excluding small sheds and air raid shelters), six miles of main roads, eight miles of concrete roads and fifteen miles of railway lines.
Five electricity sub-stations of 2,500 k.w. output were needed to provide electricity for the factory and power the machinery and motors. The factory also had its own medical service and surgeries on site, a fire service, police service and laundry
In later years the Depot was used to house Italian POWs many of whom settled in Bedford and the surrounding area and formed the largest group of foreigners in the County post war. There was an Italian Consulate (probably still is) in Bedford and many shops were Italian owned.
After the war, the majority of unskilled Italians worked in the various brickworks around the north of the County.
The Depot has now been renamed Elstow Storage Depot and contains many small factory units and storage warehouses. There used to be a variety of reduced price retailers on site there as well. There was even a recording studio !
Many of the former wartime buildings together with the track linking them are still there and it used to be possible to walk around the site unhindered.
I hope this may be a little help.