History:

The Oxford to Paddington line is the main artery of the Great Western Mainline. The original goal of the Great Western Railway Company was to provide a double tracked line heading out of London in a westerly direction. The 27 year old engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed to oversee the construction in 1833 and the actual construction was officially started by an Act of Parliament on the 31st August 1835.

Starting from Bristol, Brunel decided to take a route which passed north of the Marlborough Downs, through an area with no significant towns, while offering potential connections to Oxford and Gloucester. From there the line would follow the Thames Valley into London. Surveys of the entire route between London and Bristol were completed by Brunel himself.

Many difficulties were met during construction. For example, in order to keep the speed of trains up, Brunel aimed to keep the gradients through the route as flat as possible. However, major obstacles to achieving this were crossing the Brent Valley, the Thames at Maidenhead and the hill at Sonning between Twyford and Reading.

Where the railway had to cross the Thames, Brunel built a brick bridge with two main spans of 128ft. and a rise of only 24ft. The elliptical spans of Maidenhead Bridge are probably the most remarkable ever constructed in brickwork. The high ground between Twyford and Reading required the creation of a two-mile cutting, reaching 60 ft. in depth.

The Oxford section of the line was not part of the original vision, but was purchased in 1844 and incorporated as part of the Great Western Mainline. Today the Oxford to Paddington line is managed by First Great Western, a division owned by First Group Plc. The line still remains one of the busiest in the country and forms a major connection between the capital and the West Country. Huge numbers of commuters use the route daily to get to and from work.

Focus Time Period:

This inter-city route has been built to represent its modern day form. The route is, as accurately as possible, modelled on how the line operates and appears in late 2005. The rolling stock sports the very latest that First Great Western issued after their successful bid to operate the line for a further period of 10 years.