Peter Masson wrote in
:

"TheOneKEA" wrote

I presume then that the spur to Claydon LN&E Junction is nominally
intact to allow the refuse trains to be propelled into the down
siding and thence to the pits, correct? I had heard that some of the
rails on the mothballed line between Bicester and Bletchley had been
stolen.

The line from Oxford is open for passenger trains as far as Bicester
Town, and for freight as far as Claydon LNE junction. The Avon
binliner normally comes this way, and reverses down the spur to
Calvert. The line from Claydon to Bletchley isn't currently in a fit
state for trains, and ISTR that I had heard the suggestion that some
rails had been stolen.

It's always intrigued me that the Avon binliner dumps its rubbish at Calvert
rather than at the landfill site near Appleford just north of Didcot, given
the Avon trains would go past it on the way to Calvert. Not that I'm
complaining since I live near the Appleford landfill site and there's a big
enough problem already in summer with the smell and the flies.