Southcote Junction

Southcote Junction is a railway junction in the English town of Reading. It is the point where the Reading to Taunton line diverges from the Reading to Basingstoke line, and is situated between the Reading suburbs of Southcote and Coley Park and to the south of Reading West station. Both lines were proposed as part of the Berks and Hants Railway, but that company became part of the Great Western Railway before the track was laid.[1][2][3][4]

View from footpath crossing former Coley branch line, looking towards Reading and taken in 2009
View from footpath in opposite direction showing lines to Basingstoke (left) and Taunton (right), taken in 2021

Until 1983 there was a third line at the junction, the Coley branch line, which diverted just to the north at Coley Branch Junction and served Reading Central goods station.[5][6][7]

The junction is readily visible from a footpath linking Wensley Road in Coley Park to Southcote Farm Lane in Southcote. This first crosses the trackbed of the old Coley branch, before running alongside the railway and then passing under both lines at the junction.[1][5]

Southcote Junction and the line between it and the junctions with the Great Western Main Line are heavily trafficked with a mixture of local passenger, long distance passenger and freight trains on both lines. In 2015, Network Rail’s Western Route Study suggested the provision of a grade separated junction at Southcote, with a third track to be provided between there and the Oxford Road Junction at Reading West.[8]

References
  1. Explorer Map 159 - Reading (Map). 1:25000. Ordnance Survey. 2006. ISBN 0-319-23730-3.
  2. "Railway Rambles Page 2". Coley Park and Beyond. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  3. Biddle, Gordon; Nock, O.S. (1983). The Railway Heritage of Britain. Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-2355-7.
  4. Leigh, Chris (3 November 2010). "1835-2010: Brunel's GWR legacy". Rail Magazine. No. 656. Bauer. p. 50.
  5. "Railway Rambles Page 1". Coley Park and Beyond. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  6. Maggs, Colin (2013). The Branch Lines of Berkshire. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1445625577. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  7. Matthews, Rupert (2006). Lost Railways of Berkshire. Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 1-85306-990-6.
  8. "Network Rail predicts new route requirements". Rail Magazine. 28 September 2015. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2022.

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