As a child my Dad often took me on steam trains on preserved railways. I became fasinated by the evidence of railway lines that had closed. Bridges, cuttings, embankments and tell tale lines of trees across the countryside usually involved examining maps to find where the line had gone. I regularly travelled from Cheltenham to Bourton and spotted varoius landmarks from The Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway
The Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway was the successor to the failed East Gloucestershire Railway. Construction started in 1874, and the line was opened on 1st June 1881. The last passenger train ran on 17th October 1962.
It reached a summit of 784ft near to Salperton in a deep cutting. The railway used the Chelt Valley and the Windrush Valley. Consideration was given to making it double track but costs meant that only Sandywell Park tunnel was. The rest was single track with crossing points at the stations.
The Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway by Stanley Jenkins, Bob Brown and Neil Parkhouse is an excellent read.
The line crossed Warden Hill Road here. The fenced off area in front of you was where the track went. Caches GCAB2D8 and GCAB2DV are further along the route but there is no evidence except for the wide gap between the gardens either side.