17-494: The Oxford Bus Museum is a transport museum at Long Hanborough , West Oxfordshire , England, about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Witney and 7 miles (11 km) northwest of the city of Oxford . The museum houses a collection of 40 historic buses and coaches , the remains of four horse trams and a replica City of Oxford Tramways Company tram. The site includes the Morris Motors Museum , which has
34-715: A 1913 Commer WP3 to a 1999 Dennis Trident . Several of the buses and coaches are in running condition and on certain days give free rides driven and crewed by museum volunteers. 24 of the museum's buses and coaches were operated by City of Oxford Motor Services (COMS) or its successors Midland Red (South) and Oxford Bus Company . From the 1930s to the 1970s COMS bought mostly AEC buses. The museum's collection reflects this by including 17 AECs: six Regals, six Regents , four Reliances and one Renown . The collection also preserves buses from other local operators including Chiltern Queens and Thames Transit . Notable early vehicles include three Daimler Y buses from 1915 to 1917. There
51-521: A collection of 12 Morris Motors cars and vans . The two museums' collections also include many smaller historical artifacts . The museum is owned and operated by the Oxford Bus Museum Trust, a registered charity . The museum is open to visitors throughout the year on Sundays, Wednesdays and bank holiday Mondays (excluding Christmas and Boxing Day week). In July and August it is open also on Saturdays. In spring and summer there
68-566: Is a railway station in the village of Long Hanborough in Oxfordshire , England , serving the village and surrounding district. As a result of the Cotswold Line being singled the former up platform is the only one now in use for both up and down trains. It is served by Great Western Railway trains between London Paddington and Worcester Shrub Hill . It is also the nearest station to the towns of Woodstock and Witney . There
85-450: Is a passenger-operated ticket machine (card payments only; not cash) at the entrance to the station platform. The station has two car parks, which between them provide 241 car spaces. However, as of 2014, on most weekdays the number of passengers parking at Hanborough exceeds the number of spaces available. Oxford Bus Museum is just east of the station, in the former goods yard. The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway opened
102-516: Is a programme of events that includes free historic bus rides on selected Sundays and bank holiday Mondays. Please see the museum's website for current details. The Oxford Bus Museum preserves the history of tram, bus and coach transport in Oxfordshire. It has a collection of 40 buses and coaches, the remains of four horse trams, and a complete replica of a City of Oxford horse tram built by museum volunteers. The buses and coaches range in age from
119-421: Is also a restoration workshop with a public viewing gallery. The Morris Motors Museum has a collection of 11 cars and one van built by Morris Motors and other Nuffield Organization companies and their successors. They range in age from a 1928 Morris Oxford bullnose to a 1977 BMC Mini . The collection includes also a Z type van and a Nuffield tractor. The collection is displayed in a reconstruction of part of
136-538: Is also a unique coach built in 1961 for the Morris Motors factory brass band . It has a Morris Commercial FF chassis and a unique split-level body built by Wadham Stringer . The rear part of the passenger accommodation is raised, with a boot beneath it large enough to carry all of the band's brass musical instruments. Exhibits include several bare chassis , and a Dennis Loline double-decker bus that has been sectioned to show how buses used to be built. There
153-527: The collection of vehicles was moved to its present site, the former goods yard of Hanborough railway station . New covered accommodation was built for the buses. In the 1990s the museum established a collection policy which focuses on public service vehicles and smaller exhibits that operated within Oxfordshire. In 2001 its buildings were refurbished and expanded with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund . The Morris Motors Museum opened on
170-712: The former factory from Cowley, Oxford . The museum also commemorates the life of the industrialist and philanthropist William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield , who founded the business in 1912, developed it into one of Britain's largest motor vehicle manufacturers and chaired it until its merger with Austin in 1952 to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC). In November 1967 the Oxford Bus Preservation Syndicate bought its first vehicle, an AEC Regal III 1949 semi-coach, registration mark NJO 703, COMS fleet number 703. In 1984
187-459: The funeral for BBC television, Richard Dimbleby said the report The Reshaping of British Railways had scheduled the station for closure. In fact the station remained open, but in January 1966 it was de-staffed. Thereafter the standard OW&WR wooden station building and goods shed were demolished. On 28 September 1992 the station was renamed Hanborough . Toward the end of the 1990s
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#1732772435742204-490: The investment needed was £275 million. Double tracking would be reinstated between North Oxford and Long Hanborough and two disused platforms reopened. The local constituency MP and Prime Minister David Cameron told delegates at the meeting " am utterly convinced of the necessity of investing in this line. I will do everything I can to give this vision a boost" A new ticket office was officially opened in August 2019 as part of
221-538: The number of passengers slowly increased, until reaching an estimated total of almost 63 thousand in 1999–2000 (April-March respectively). Passenger numbers fluctuated until 2005–06, when the Office of the Rail Regulator estimated that the total number for that year was just above 70 thousand. The number of passengers increased rapidly to 2015-16 was more than 271 thousand, but fell back to 224 thousand following
238-414: The opening of Oxford Parkway before recovering to 275 thousand in 2019-20. More than 250 passengers a day come by car, but the original car park had only 50 spaces and by 2011 it had been overwhelmed. In August 2011 First Great Western and a house-building company jointly proposed a new development on a green field site next to the station that would provide new homes and a new 191-space car park. This
255-657: The site in 2004. Transport museum A transport museum is a museum that holds collections of transport items, which are often limited to land transport (road and rail)—including old cars , motorcycles , trucks , trains , trams / streetcars , buses , trolleybuses and coaches —but can also include air transport or waterborne transport items, along with educational displays and other old transport objects. Some transport museums are housed in disused transport infrastructure such as dismantled trolley systems, former engine sheds or bus garages . Hanborough railway station Hanborough railway station
272-525: The station on 4 June 1853, and it was originally named Handborough . Between 1854 and 1861 it served as a junction for Oxford-bound passengers changing from through trains between Worcester and London Euston , for whom a refreshment room was provided. On 30 January 1965, by which time the station boards read "Handborough for Blenheim", it was the destination for the state funeral train of Sir Winston Churchill hauled by Battle of Britain class locomotive No. 34051 Winston Churchill . In his commentary on
289-661: Was officially opened in July 2013, by which time it was already more than half-full each weekday. In November 2014 the Cotswold Line Promotion Group found 204 vehicles parked in the 191-space second car park and reported that it "was being used beyond capacity on most weekdays" . Plans were announced to increase services from Hanborough Station, by Great Western Railway . A launch event was held in Witney, at which GWR's managing director Mark Hopwood said that
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