Vintage bus link at Epping Ongar Railway will boost line

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Vintage bus link at Epping Ongar Railway will boost line 

A couple of years ago now I blogged about the then-recently restored Epping-Ongar Heritage Railway and its splendid idea to run a vintage bus service, for visitors and public alike, from the West Essex New Town of Harlow to the heritage line's current westernmost terminus at North Weald.

Now I'm delighted to see that they have started doing the same from the east, with another heritage bus service being run from the nearby London-Anglia main line station of Shenfield to all three of the major terminals on the heritage railway - Ongar, North Weald and Epping.  Once again the service is not only open to visitors to the railway but also to anyone wishing to travel on the route in vintage style!  On Sundays it even becomes the only regular bus service between Shenfield and Ongar!  It's wonderful to see these classic buses carrying passengers through the district they used to serve and further proof that they can still have a valuable role to play in the local area.

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This latest addition to the EOR's transport links is a very welcome one indeed and bodes fantastically well for the future of the line, which is still looking to finish extending the old track from its present ending point just west of Coopersale all the way back to the Epping terminus so it can once again truly be the Epping to Ongar Railway.  It will certainly open the line up to many more visitors from both London and East Anglia, as those as far away as Norwich, Ipswich and Colchester will now be able to travel by train directly to Shenfield and then begin their journey back in time on one of the AEC R/Ts.  It can only be a good thing for the railway and top marks to them for their continued hard work in putting on these extra services.

There's even less reason now for me not to make the trip to the EOR, since I can hop on a train and be at Shenfield in half an hour.  I see next month is their 1940s Weekend - a little plan is forming in my mind...(!)  All that's left now is for the EOR to take over and run their trains on the main line, so that we can enjoy historic locomotive travel right from the start.  With the way they've turned the Epping-Ongar line around in the last twenty years, I wouldn't put it beyond them!

Vintage London buses in timetabled Harlow service

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Vintage London buses in timetabled Harlow service

Hooray, hurrah; finally some proper vintage news!  Just when I was beginning to worry for this poor little blog too.  Everything seems to be about the Olympics at the moment (which is no bad thing and only right).  But what a splendid news story to kickstart an otherwise quiet summer.

You may remember a couple of months ago an article about the reopening of the Epping-Ongar heritage railway following several years of restoration.  As well as using diesel and electric locomotives - and more recently steam engines too - the Epping-Ongar Railway also runs vintage shuttle buses between the current westernmost terminus of Coopersale and the original terminus of Epping, at least until new track can be laid to allow trains to continue all the way.

Now, however, as well as providing this existing service the AEC Regent R/T's used by the EOR have also started running on an exciting new route for both local residents and visitors alike.  Service 396 (the original R/T service in Harlow up until the 1960s) will run thrice-weekly between Harlow bus station and North Weald.  Not just another shuttle bus, this route is supported by Harlow District Council which means it is a bona fide service - anyone can buy a standard ticket and travel on a vintage London Transport bus!  Even better, a special all-in-one ticket is also available allowing unlimited travel on the 396 (and 339 shuttle) plus the EOR's trains (which also stop at North Weald)!  A truly integrated vintage transport system if ever there was one!

St Andrew's Church, North Weald Bassett

North Weald itself is a lovely spot, the location of North Weald Airfield (made famous during the Second World War) & Museum amongst other things where there is a huge market and car boot fair held every Saturday as well as frequent air shows and classic car & bus rallies.  I haven't been for a while but with this latest development at the EOR I may just have to see about getting over there again.  Harlow can be quite pleasant too, I'm told, although I've never been there and being a New Town it has little history to it.

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Only just this weekend I was thinking how it would be a wizard wheeze to run a vintage bus route to subsidise local services and blow me down if somebody hasn't come along and done it!  Currently the 396 Harlow-North Weald is only planned to run for one month, 'til the 1st September, on a trial basis.  Let us hope it proves such a success that Harlow Council and the EOR make a regular service out of it.  In the meantime I'm off to look at decommissioned AECs again - anyone fancy chipping in?

Epping-Ongar heritage railway reopens after restoration

This photo of Epping Ongar Railway is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Epping-Ongar heritage railway reopens after restoration

Some pleasing local news (local inasmuch as it's in the same county, if not quite as close as I'd like!) in the form of the long-awaited reopening of the Epping-Ongar railway as a heritage line - the longest in Essex!

Closed in 1994, before which it was the easternmost branch of the London Underground Central Line, the Epping-Ongar Railway has since been converted into a tourist line until recently running only diesel and electric stock.

4953 Pitchford Hall, now in use on the Epping-Ongar Railway

Now with the restoration of the line complete, with new track laid and Ongar and North Weald stations revitalised, steam locomotives are now also in use and the line is close to realising its full heritage potential.  Work is still ongoing to link up with the western terminus of Epping but until then a vintage bus service takes passengers the last leg of the way, surely the next best thing!

This photo of Epping Ongar Railway is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Congratulations to the volunteers at Epping-Ongar Railway for reaching this important milestone after 18 years of tireless work.  I'm sure they will succeed in getting to Ongar and making an already excellent heritage line even better, and I wish them the best of luck in that regard.  This is one county-dweller who certainly is proud of this Essex heritage line, which I shall have to make every effort to get to at some point in the future.