Aynho Junction
Aynho Junction is a railway junction in Northamptonshire, England, five miles south of. The junction is a flying junction, with the down line from grade separated from the up and down lines from. The junction is the point where the Great Western Railway's New North Main Line of 1910 joins the original Didcot and Chester Line via Oxford. The former line is also known as the Bicester cut-off line.
Location and former stations
Aynho Junction is located at the distances from the locations shown.| Aynho Junction from: | Engineer's Line Reference | Distance |
| London Paddington via Didcot Station | MLN1, DCL | 81 miles 12 chains |
| London Paddington via Northolt Jn and High Wycombe | MLN1, ANL, NAJ2, NAJ3 | 62 miles 33 chains |
| London Marylebone via Neasden Jn, Northolt Jn and High Wycombe | MCJ, NAJ1, NAJ2, NAJ3 | 63 miles 60 chains |
| Former Ashendon Jn | NAJ3 | 18 miles 29 chains |
| Banbury Station | DCL | 5 miles 6 chains |
Aynho junction is 2 chains south of the down junction.
Former stations
There were two stations south of Aynho Junction, one on each line.- Aynho for Deddington station was located on the Didcot and Chester Line 67 chains south of Aynho Junction. In the 'Beeching Report' Aynho for Deddington station was identified as a passenger station to be closed; it closed on 2 November 1964.
- Aynho Park Platform was located on the Northolt and Aynho Junction Line 70 chains south of Aynho Junction. In the 'Beeching Report' Aynho Park Platform was denoted as 'closure already implemented' having closed on 7 January 1963.
Train services
Signalling
Until the resignalling scheme in 1992, which transferred control to Banbury South signal box, the junction was controlled by Aynho Junction signal box. This was located between the down lines from Oxford and Bicester North. The signal box was decommissioned in 1992 and eventually demolished ten years later.As part of Chiltern's Evergreen 3, the junction was relaid and upgraded for higher speeds and a new panel was fitted to Banbury South signal box.
In January 2015 a £40m contract was signed between Siemens Rail Automation and Network Rail to renew the signalling in the Banbury area. The work involves developing a new layout at Banbury and new signalling in the area, including Ayhno. This was completed in August 2016.
The Aynho/Banbury/Leamington is now controlled from a workstation at West Midlands Signalling centre in Birmingham, via a Trackguard Westlock computer-based interlocking.