There was a massive marshalling yard at Hinksey in the war years (1939-1945) and beyond, which probably served a national rail-purpose, and on warm still summer nights in the 1940s and 1950s I could hear the very characteristic sounds of shunting (buffers ‘kissing’, loose-coupled wagon-links snatching-tight, panier tank-engines chuffing in a ‘GWR’ way) in Sandfield Road, Headington, 2 or 3 miles away, in the dead of night. Fond memory!
(The above page-content is derived from the web-site of South Oxford Community Association [http://www.southoxford.org/local-history-in-south-oxford/interesting-aspects-of-grandpont-and-south-oxford-s-history/the-coming-of-the-railway-to-oxford], to whom I offer grateful thanks, and whose page is also to be found in the album-page of this web-site where this present page is located. I would merely have provided a link to the S.O.C.A’s page for this purpose, but experience has taught me that such links inevitably stop working after a time, whenever the slightest change-of-their-address occurs, so, as the present page is part of a permanent record, with grateful acknowledgement of C.O.S.A’s research and publication, I provide here, access to their wonderful work. pba.21.8.2016)