165021 Wolvercote Junction 17 October 2010

An unusual visitor to the Banbury to Oxford line on 17 October 2010. 165021 passes Wolvercote Junction with the 1V50 15:38 Warwick Parkway to Oxford Chiltern Railways service. Because the Chiltern Line was closed for engineering works, a series of shuttle services were operating to Oxford to connect with First Great Western trains. This in itself was not so unusual, but the use of a Class 165 instead of the more normal Class 168 is noteworthy. Although of course Class 165/1s regularly operate on this line from Banbury and on the Cotswold Line (the route diverging to the left in the foreground), Class 165/0s definitely do not. In the early days of the class a few were hired in, and later with privatisation some were temporarily used by Thames Trains, but the sight of one of these units in Chiltern Railways livery at this location is certainly worth recording.