Quainton Road railway station
Encyclopedia
Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in undeveloped countryside near Quainton
, Buckinghamshire
, 44 miles (70.8 km) from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House
and to open a railway station at the nearest point to it. Serving a relatively unpopulated area, Quainton Road was a crude railway station, described as "extremely primitive".
Following the opening of the station, the Duke of Buckingham built a short horse-drawn
tramway to assist with the transport of goods between his estates at Wotton and a terminus adjacent to the existing Quainton Road station. Extended soon afterwards to provide a passenger service to the town of Brill
, the tramway was converted to locomotive operation, becoming known as the Brill Tramway
. All goods to and from the Brill Tramway passed through Quainton Road station, making it relatively heavily used despite its geographical isolation, and traffic increased further when construction began on Ferdinand de Rothschild's mansion of Waddesdon Manor
. It was proposed to extend the Brill Tramway to Oxford, which would have made Quainton Road a major junction station
, but the plans were abandoned. Instead, the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the Brill Tramway were absorbed by London's Metropolitan Railway
(MR), who already operated the line from Aylesbury to London. The MR rebuilt Quainton Road station and re-sited it to a more convenient location, allowing direct running of services between the Brill Tramway and the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway. When the Great Central Railway
(GCR) from the north of England opened, Quainton Road became a significant junction at which trains from four directions met, and by far the busiest of the MR's rural stations.
In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership to become the Metropolitan Line
of the London Underground
, and despite its distance from London Quainton Road became a part of the London Transport
system. The management of London Transport aimed to move away from freight operations, and saw no way in which the rural parts of the MR system could be made into viable passenger routes. In 1935 the Brill Tramway was closed altogether. From 1936 London Underground services were withdrawn, leaving the GCR as the only operator still using the station, although London Underground services were restored for a short period in the 1940s. In 1958 passenger services on most of the GCR were withdrawn. Trains continued to serve Quainton Road for a short time after that, but in 1963 passenger services were withdrawn and in 1966 goods services were withdrawn and the station was closed.
In 1969 the Quainton Road Society was formed, with the aim of preserving the station. In 1971 the Quainton Road Society absorbed the London Railway Preservation Society, taking over its collection of historic railway equipment. The station was fully restored and reopened as a museum, the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
. In addition to the original station buildings, the museum has also acquired the former Oxford Rewley Road railway station
and a London Transport building from Wembley Park
, both of which have been reassembled on the site. Although no scheduled trains pass through Quainton Road, the station remains connected to the railway network. Freight trains still use the line through the station, and passenger trains still call at the station for special events at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.
for Buckingham
Sir Harry Verney, 2nd Baronet
, opened the Aylesbury Railway. Built under the direction of Robert Stephenson
, it connected the London and Birmingham Railway
's Cheddington railway station
on the West Coast Main Line
to Aylesbury High Street railway station
in eastern Aylesbury
, the first railway station in the Aylesbury Vale
. On 1 October 1863 the Wycombe Railway
opened a branch line from Princes Risborough railway station
to Aylesbury railway station
on the western side of Aylesbury, leaving Aylesbury as the terminus of two small and unconnected branch lines.
Meanwhile, to the north of Aylesbury the Buckinghamshire Railway
was being built by Sir Harry Verney. The scheme consisted of a line running roughly southwest to northeast from Oxford to Bletchley, and a second line running southeast from Brackley
via Buckingham
, to join the Oxford–Bletchley line roughly halfway along its length. The first section opened on 1 May 1850, and the whole of the line opened on 20 May 1851. The Buckinghamshire Railway intended to extend the line southwards to connect to their station at Aylesbury, but this extension was not built.
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (10 September 1823 – 26 March 1889), the only son of Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, was in serious financial difficulties by the middle of the 19th century. The 2nd Duke had spent heavily on artworks, womanising, and attempting to influence elections, and by 1847 he was nicknamed "the Greatest Debtor in the World". Over 40000 acres (16,187.4 ha) of the family's 55000 acres (22,257.7 ha) estates and their London home at Buckingham House were sold to meet debts, and the family seat of Stowe House
was seized by bailiffs as security and its contents sold. The only property remaining in the control of the Grenville family was the family's relatively small ancestral home of Wotton House
and its associated lands around Wotton Underwood
in Buckinghamshire. Deeply in debt, the Grenvilles began to look for ways to maximise profits from their remaining farmland around Wotton, and to seek business opportunities in the emerging fields of heavy industry and engineering. Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (titled Marquess of Chandos following the death of his grandfather Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
in 1839) was appointed chairman of the London and North Western Railway
(LNWR) on 27 May 1857. After the death of his father on 29 July 1861 he became the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, and resigned from the chairmanship of the LNWR, returning to Wotton House to manage the family's remaining estates.
(A&B), with the 3rd Duke (then still Marquess of Chandos) as chairman and Sir Harry Verney as deputy chairman, was incorporated by Act of Parliament with the object of connecting the Buckinghamshire Railway (by now operated by the LNWR) to Aylesbury. The 2nd Duke used his influence to ensure the new route would run via Quainton
, near his remaining estates around Wotton, instead of the intended more direct route via Pitchcott
. Beset by financial difficulties, the line took over eight years to build, eventually opening on 23 September 1868. The new line was connected to the Wycombe Railway's Aylesbury station, and joined the existing Buckinghamshire Railway lines at the point where the Oxford–Bletchley line and the line to Buckingham already met. A new junction station
was built at the point where the lines joined. With no nearby town after which to name the new station, it was named Verney Junction railway station
after Sir Harry who owned the land on which it was built. Aylesbury now had railway lines running to the east, north and southwest, but no line southeast towards London and the Channel ports.
Quainton Road station was built on a curve in the line at the nearest point to the Duke's estates at Wotton. Six miles (10 km) northwest of Aylesbury, it was southwest of the small village of Quainton and immediately northwest of the road connecting Quainton to Akeman Street
. The railway towards Aylesbury crossed the road via a level crossing
immediately southeast of the station. The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway had spent most of their limited budget on the construction of the line itself. Details of the design of the original Quainton Road station are lost, but it is likely that the station had a single timber-covered earth platform and minimal buildings; it was described in 1890 as being extremely primitive.
near Wotton Underwood. Just west of the station at Wotton the line split. One section would run west to Wood Siding
near Brill. A short stub called Church Siding would run northwest into the village of Wotton Underwood itself, terminating near the parish church, and a 1 mile 57 chain (1 mile 1,254 yards; 2.8 km) siding would run north to a coal siding near Kingswood
.
Construction work began on the line on 8 September 1870. The line was built as cheaply as possible, using the cheapest available materials and winding around hills wherever feasible to avoid expensive earthworks. The stations were crude earth banks 6 inches (15.2 cm) high, held in place by wooden planks. As the Duke intended that the line be worked only by horse-drawn carriages
, it was built with longitudinal sleepers
to reduce the risk of horses tripping.
On 1 April 1871 the section between Quainton Road and Wotton was formally opened by the Duke of Buckingham in a brief ceremony. At the time of its opening the line was unnamed, although it was referred to as "The Quainton Tramway" in internal correspondence. The extension from Wotton to Wood Siding was complete by 17 June 1871; the opening date of the northern branch to Kingswood is not recorded, but it was not yet fully open in February 1873. The London and North Western Railway immediately began to operate a dedicated service from Quainton Road, with three vans per week of milk collected from the Wotton estate shipped to their London terminus at Broad Street
. Passengers were not carried, other than estate employees and people accompanying livestock.
The tramway did not link to the Aylesbury and Buckingham railway, but had its own station at Quainton Road at a right angle to the A&B's line. A 13 feet (4 m) diameter turntable at the end of the tramway linked to a spur from the A&B's line. This spur ran behind a goods shed, joining the A&B's line to the northwest of the road. The Tramway had no buildings of its own at Quainton Road, using the A&B's facilities when necessary. As the tramway ran on the east side of the road, opposite the station, this spur line had its own level crossing to reach the main line. In 1871 permission was granted to build a direct connection between the two lines, but it was not built.
, the former seat of the Mercian kings and the only significant town near Wotton House, petitioned the Duke to extend the route to Brill and to open a passenger service on the line. In January 1872 a scheduled passenger timetable was published for the first time, and the line was officially named the "Wotton Tramway". (Nevertheless, it was commonly known as the "Brill Tramway" from its conversion to passenger use until its closure.) The new terminus of Brill railway station
opened in March 1872. With horses unable to cope with the loads being carried, the Wotton Tramway was upgraded for locomotive
use. The lightly laid track with longitudinal sleepers limited the locomotive weight to a maximum of nine tons, lighter than almost all locomotives then available, and it was thus not possible to use standard locomotives. Two traction engine
s converted for railway use were bought from Aveling and Porter
at a cost of £398 (about £ as of ) each. The locomotives were chosen on grounds of weight and reliability, and had a top speed on the level of only 8 miles per hour (3.6 m/s), taking 95–98 minutes to travel the six miles (10 km) between Brill and Quainton Road, an average speed of 4 miles per hour (1.8 m/s).
The line was heavily used for the outward shipment of bricks from the brickworks around Brill, and of cattle and milk from the dairy farms on the Wotton estate. By 1875 the line was carrying around 40,000 gallons (180,000 l; 48,000 US gal) of milk each year. The inbound delivery of linseed cake to the dairy farms and of coal to the area's buildings were also important uses of the line. The line also began to carry large quantities of manure from London to the area's farms, carrying 3,200 tons (3,300 t) in 1872. As the only physical link between the Tramway and the national railway network, almost all of this traffic passed through Quainton Road station.
By the mid-1870s the slow speed of the Aveling and Porter locomotives and their unreliability and inability to handle heavy loads were recognised as major problems for the Tramway. In 1874 Ferdinand de Rothschild bought a 2700 acres (1,092.7 ha) site near the Tramway's Waddesdon station
to use as a site for his planned country mansion of Waddesdon Manor
. The Tramway's management recognised that the construction works would lead to a significant increase in the haulage of heavy goods, and that the Aveling and Porter engines would be unable to cope with the increased loads. The newly-established engineering firm of W. G. Bagnall wrote to the Duke offering to hire a locomotive to him for trials. The offer was accepted, and on 18 December 1876 the locomotive was delivered. The tests were generally successful and an order was placed to buy a locomotive from Bagnall for £640 (about £ as of ) which was delivered on 28 December 1877. With services on the Brill–Quainton Road route now drawn by the more advanced Bagnall locomotive (the Kingswood branch generally remained worked by horses, and occasionally by the Aveling and Porter engines), traffic levels soon rose. The crucial figure for milk traffic rose from 40,000 gallons carried in 1875 to 58,000 gallons (260,000 l; 70,000 US gal) in 1879, and in 1877 the Tramway carried a total of 20,994 tons
(21,331 t) of goods. In early 1877 the Tramway was shown on Bradshaw maps for the first time, and from May 1882 Bradshaw also listed the Tramway's timetable.
Although the introduction of the Bagnall locomotives and the traffic generated by the works at Waddesdon Manor had boosted the route's fortunes, it remained in serious financial difficulty. The only connection with the national railway network was by way of the turntable at Quainton Road. Although the 3rd Duke of Buckingham was owner of the Wotton Tramway and Chairman of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, the management of the A&B regarded the Tramway as a nuisance, and in the 1870s pursued a policy of charging disproportionately high fees for through traffic between the Tramway and the main line at Quainton Road, with the intention of forcing the Tramway out of business. The A&B's trains at Quainton Road would deliberately miss connections with the Tramway, causing the milk shipped to Quainton Road to become unsellable. The Wotton Tramway sought legal advice and was informed that the Duke would be likely to win a legal action against the A&B. However, the A&B was in such a precarious financial position that any successful legal action against them would likely have forced the line through Quainton Road to close, severing the Tramway's connection with the national network altogether. Many of the passengers using the Tramway changed trains at Quainton Road to continue their journey by way of the A&B line; in 1885, 5,192 passengers changed trains between the A&B and the Tramway at Quainton Road. The Tramway's management suggested that the A&B subsidise the Tramway to the sum of £25 (about £ as of ) per month to allow passenger services to continue, but the A&B agreed to pay only £5 (about £ as of ) per month. By the mid-1880s the Tramway was finding it difficult to cover the operating expenses of either goods or passenger operations.
opened, the first railway station connecting London with the industrial heartlands of the West Midlands and Lancashire. Railways were banned by a Parliamentary commission from operating in London itself, and thus the station was built on what was then the northern boundary of the city. Other main line termini north of London soon followed at Paddington (1838), Bishopsgate
(1840), Fenchurch Street
(1841), King's Cross (1852) and St Pancras
(1868). All were built outside the built-up area of the city, making them inconvenient to reach.
Charles Pearson
(1793–1862) had proposed the idea of an underground railway connecting the City of London with the relatively distant London main line rail termini in around 1840. Construction began in 1860. On 9 January 1863 the line opened as the Metropolitan Railway
(MR), the world's first underground passenger railway. The MR was successful and grew steadily, extending its own services and acquiring other local railways in the areas north and west of London. In 1872 Edward Watkin
(1819–1901) was appointed as its Chairman. A director of many railway companies, he had a vision of unifying a string of railway companies to create a single line running from Manchester via London to an intended Channel Tunnel
and on to France. In 1873 Watkin entered negotiations to take control of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the section of the former Buckinghamshire Railway running north from Verney Junction to Buckingham. He planned to extend the MR north from London to Aylesbury and extend the Tramway southwest to Oxford, and thus create a through route from London to Oxford. Rail services between Oxford and London at this time were poor, and although still an extremely roundabout route, had the scheme been completed it would have formed the shortest route from London to Oxford, Aylesbury, Buckingham and Stratford upon Avon. The Duke of Buckingham was enthusiastic, and authorisation for the scheme was sought from Parliament. Parliament did not share the enthusiasm of Watkin and the Duke, and in 1875 the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire Union Railway Bill was rejected. Watkin did, however, receive consent in 1881 to extend the MR to Aylesbury.
and Wood Siding
would be closed. From Brill, the line would pass in a 1650 yards (1,508.8 m) tunnel through Muswell Hill to the south of Brill, and on via Boarstall
before crossing from Buckinghamshire into Oxfordshire at Stanton St. John
. From Stanton St. John the line would next stop on the outskirts of Oxford at Headington
, before terminating at a station to be built in the back garden of 12 High Street, St Clement's
, near Magdalen Bridge.
At 23 miles (37 km) the line would have been by far the shortest route between Oxford and Aylesbury, compared with 28 miles (45.1 km) via the Great Western Railway
(GWR), which had absorbed the Wycombe Railway, and 34 miles (54.7 km) via the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the LNWR. The Act of Parliament authorising the scheme received Royal Assent
on 20 August 1883, and the new Oxford, Aylesbury and Metropolitan Junction Railway Company, including the Duke of Buckingham, Ferdinand de Rothschild and Harry Verney among its directors, was created. The scheme caught the attention of the expansionist Metropolitan Railway, who paid for the survey to be conducted. Despite the scheme's powerful backers, the expensive Muswell Hill tunnel deterred investors and the company found it difficult to raise capital. Ferdinand de Rothschild promised to lend money for the scheme in return for guarantees that the rebuilt line would include a passenger station at Westcott, and that the Duke would press the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway into opening a station at the nearest point to Waddesdon Manor on their line. Waddesdon Manor railway station
was duly opened on 1 January 1897.
On 26 March 1889 the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos died, aged 65. By this time the construction of the MR extension from London to Aylesbury was well underway, and on 1 July 1891 the MR formally absorbed the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway. Sir Harry Verney died on 12 February 1894, and on 31 March 1894 the MR took over the operation of services on the A&B from the GWR. On 1 July 1894 the MR extension to Aylesbury was completed, giving the MR a unified route from London to Verney Junction. The MR embarked on a programme of upgrading and rebuilding the stations along the newly acquired line.
Construction of the route from Brill to Oxford had not yet begun. Further Acts of Parliament were granted in 1892 and 1894 varying the proposed route slightly and allowing for its electrification, but no building work was carried out other than some preliminary surveying. On 1 April 1894, with the proposed extension to Oxford still intended, the O&AT exercised a clause of the 1888 Act and took over the Wotton Tramway. Work began on upgrading the line in preparation for the extension. The track on the line from Quainton Road to Brill was relaid with improved rails resting on standard transverse sleepers, replacing the original flimsy rails and longitudinal sleepers. At around this time two Manning Wardle
locomotives were brought into use on the line.
Quainton Road station had seen little change since its construction by the A&B in 1868, and in 1890 was described by The Times
as "one of the most primitive-looking stations in the British Isles". While the line to Brill was being upgraded, the MR were rebuilding and re-siting Quainton Road station as part of their improvement programme, freeing space for a direct link between the former Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the O&AT to be built. The new station was re-sited to the southeast of the road, on the same side as the turntable connection with the tramway.
The new Quainton Road station had two platforms on the former A&B line, and a third platform for Brill trains. In 1896 the level crossings around the station were replaced by a road bridge over the railway.
A curve between the former Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the Brill Tramway opened on 1 January 1897, allowing through running of trains between the two lines, without the need to turn the engine and carriages individually on the turntable, for the first time. The Metropolitan Railway made a concerted effort to generate passenger traffic on the line. From 1910 to 1914 Pullman
services operated between the MR's London terminus at Aldgate
and Verney Junction station, calling at Quainton Road, and a luxurious hotel was built in the new village of Verney Junction
.
's hut at Brill station. An elderly Brown, Marshalls and Co
passenger coach was transferred to the line to replace it, and a section of each platform was raised to accommodate the higher doors of this coach using earth and old railway sleepers.
Metropolitan Railway D Class
locomotives, introduced by the MR to improve services on the former Tramway line, damaged the track, and in 1910 the track between Quainton Road and Brill was relaid to MR standards using old track which had been removed from the inner London MR route but was still considered adequate for light use on a rural branch line. Following this track upgrading, the speed limit on the line was increased to 25 miles per hour (11.2 m/s). The Metropolitan Railway was unhappy with the performance and safety record of the D Class locomotives, and sold them to other railways between 1916 and 1922, replacing them with Metropolitan Railway A Class
locomotives.
, had been authorised to build a new 92 miles (148.1 km) line from its existing station at Annesley
in Nottinghamshire
south to Quainton Road. Watkin had intended to run services from Manchester and Sheffield via Quainton Road and along the Metropolitan Railway to the MR's station at Baker Street
. Following Watkin's retirement in 1894, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway obtained permission for a separate station near Baker Street at Marylebone
, and the line was renamed the Great Central Railway
(GCR). The new line joined the existing MR just north of Quainton Road, and opened to passengers on 15 March 1899.
Although it served a lightly populated area, the opening of the GCR made Quainton Road an important junction station at which four railway lines met. The number of passengers using the station rose sharply. It had many passengers in comparison to other stations in the area. In 1932, the last year of private operation, the station saw 10,598 passenger journeys, earning a total of £601 (about £ as of ) in passenger receipts.
The 10,598 passenger journeys in 1932 made Quainton Road by far the busiest of the Metropolitan Railway's rural passenger stations north of Aylesbury. In comparison, the isolated Verney Junction railway station saw only 943 passenger journeys in the same year, and the five other stations on the Brill Tramway had a combined passenger total of 7,761.
decided to create a link with the Great Western Railway to create a second route into London which bypassed all MR property. In 1899 the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway
began construction of a new line, commonly known as the Alternative Route, to link the GWR's existing station at Princes Risborough to the new Great Central line. The line ran from Princes Risborough north to meet the Great Central at Grendon Underwood
, about three miles (5 km) north of Quainton Road, thus bypassing Quainton Road altogether. Although formally an independent company, in practice the new line was operated as a part of the Great Central Railway. A substantial part of the GCR's traffic to and from London was diverted onto the Alternative Route, reducing the significance of Quainton Road as an interchange and damaging the profitability of the MR's railway operations.
(LPTB). Thus, despite being 44 miles (70.8 km) from London, Quainton Road formally became part of the London Underground
network. By this time, the routes from Quainton Road to Verney Junction and Brill were in severe decline. Competition from the newer lines and from improving road haulage had drawn away much of the Tramway's custom in particular, and Brill trains would often run without a single passenger.
Frank Pick
, Managing Director of the Underground Group
from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, aimed to move the network away from freight services, and to concentrate on the electrification and improvement of the core routes in London. He saw the lines beyond Aylesbury via Quainton Road to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes. On 1 June 1935 the London Passenger Transport Board gave the required six months' notice to the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company that it intended to terminate operations on the Brill Tramway altogether.
, the train ran the length of the line to Brill, where the passengers posed for a photograph. Late that evening, a two-coach staff train pulled out of Brill, accompanied by a band bearing a white flag and playing Auld Lang Syne
. The train stopped at each station along the route, picking up the staff, documents and valuables from each. At 11.45 pm the train arrived at Quainton Road, greeted by hundreds of locals and railway enthusiasts. At the stroke of midnight, the rails connecting the Tramway to the main line were ceremonially severed.
Quainton Road station remained open, but with the closure of the Brill Tramway it was no longer a significant junction station. A connection between the Great Central Railway and the former Buckinghamshire Railway at Calvert
was opened in 1942, leaving the original A&B route to Verney Junction with no purpose other than as a diversionary route
. It was closed to passengers on 6 July 1936. London Transport passenger services beyond Aylesbury were withdrawn, leaving the former GCR (part of the London and North Eastern Railway
after 1923) as the only railway operating passenger services to Quainton Road.
London Transport reduced the former A&B route between Quainton Road and Verney Junction to a single track in 1939–40. LT continued to operate freight services until 6 September 1947, when the original Quainton Road–Verney Junction route was closed altogether, leaving the former GCR route from Aylesbury via Rugby
as the only service still operating through Quainton Road. London Transport services were briefly restored in 1943 with the extension of the Metropolitan Line's London–Aylesbury service to Quainton Road, but this service was once more withdrawn in 1948.
Quainton Road station closed to passengers on 4 March 1963 and to goods on 4 July 1966. On 3 September 1966 the former GCR line from Aylesbury to Rugby was abandoned, leaving only the stretch from Aylesbury to Calvert, running through the now-closed Quainton Road, remaining open for use by freight trains. This remaining stretch of line was reduced to a single track shortly afterwards. The signal box
at Quainton Road was abandoned on 13 August 1967, and the points
connecting to the goods yard were disconnected.
The Quainton Railway Society (which operates the station as the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
) restored the main station building to its 1900 appearance. A smaller building on the former Brill platform, once a shelter for passengers waiting for Brill and Down Line trains, was used first as a store then as a shop for a number of years before its current use to house an exhibit on the history of the Brill Tramway. A former London Transport building from Wembley Park
was dismantled and re-erected at Quainton Road to serve as a maintenance shed. In 1988, the station briefly came back into passenger use, with the introduction of special Christmas shopping services between Aylesbury and Bletchley railway station
. These services ran on Saturdays only, and stopped at Quainton Road.
Oxford Rewley Road railway station
, the Oxford terminus of Harry Verney's Buckinghamshire Railway and of the Oxford to Cambridge Line, had closed to passengers on 1 October 1951 with all services to Oxford from then on diverted into the former GWR station at Oxford General
(the current Oxford railway station). In co-operation with the Science Museum
Oxford Rewley Road station was dismantled in 1999, the main station building and part of the platform canopy were moved to Quainton Road for preservation with the opportunity taken to house improved visitor facilities and the main shop and office of the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre thus maintaining it as a working building. A number of former Ministry of Supply food warehouses in what is now the extended Down Yard of the station have been converted for various uses by the Society including storage and exhibition of rolling stock.
Although the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre's steam trains run on the sidings which were disconnected from the network in 1967, the station still has a working railway line passing through it which is also used for occasional special passenger trains from Aylesbury in connection with events at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. The regular freight services are mainly landfill
trains from waste transfer depots in Greater London to the former brick pits
at Calvert.
As one of the best-preserved period railway stations in England, Quainton Road is regularly used as a filming location for period drama, and programmes such as The Jewel in the Crown, the Doctor Who
episode Black Orchid
and Midsomer Murders
have been filmed there. the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre are negotiating for a reconnection of the link between their sidings and the line through the station to allow their locomotives to run to Aylesbury when the line is not in use by freight trains, and to rebuild part of the Brill Tramway between Quainton Road and Waddesdon Road.
Quainton
Quainton is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, north west of Aylesbury. The population is 1290, of which 1000 are adults. The village has two churches , a school and two public houses...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, 44 miles (70.8 km) from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway was an English railway located in Buckinghamshire, England operating between Aylesbury and Verney Junction.-History:...
, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House
Wotton House
Wotton House, or Wotton, the manor house in Wotton Underwood , was rebuilt from the ground up between 1704 and 1714, to a design very similar to that of the contemporary version of Buckingham House, as it is known from engravings...
and to open a railway station at the nearest point to it. Serving a relatively unpopulated area, Quainton Road was a crude railway station, described as "extremely primitive".
Following the opening of the station, the Duke of Buckingham built a short horse-drawn
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
tramway to assist with the transport of goods between his estates at Wotton and a terminus adjacent to the existing Quainton Road station. Extended soon afterwards to provide a passenger service to the town of Brill
Brill
Brill is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire. It is about north-west of Long Crendon and south-east of Bicester...
, the tramway was converted to locomotive operation, becoming known as the Brill Tramway
Brill Tramway
The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch, was a six-mile rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England...
. All goods to and from the Brill Tramway passed through Quainton Road station, making it relatively heavily used despite its geographical isolation, and traffic increased further when construction began on Ferdinand de Rothschild's mansion of Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...
. It was proposed to extend the Brill Tramway to Oxford, which would have made Quainton Road a major junction station
Junction station
Junction station usually refers to a railway station situated or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines...
, but the plans were abandoned. Instead, the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the Brill Tramway were absorbed by London's Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
(MR), who already operated the line from Aylesbury to London. The MR rebuilt Quainton Road station and re-sited it to a more convenient location, allowing direct running of services between the Brill Tramway and the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway. When the Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
(GCR) from the north of England opened, Quainton Road became a significant junction at which trains from four directions met, and by far the busiest of the MR's rural stations.
In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership to become the Metropolitan Line
Metropolitan Line
The Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in Transport for London's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening as the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863...
of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
, and despite its distance from London Quainton Road became a part of the London Transport
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
system. The management of London Transport aimed to move away from freight operations, and saw no way in which the rural parts of the MR system could be made into viable passenger routes. In 1935 the Brill Tramway was closed altogether. From 1936 London Underground services were withdrawn, leaving the GCR as the only operator still using the station, although London Underground services were restored for a short period in the 1940s. In 1958 passenger services on most of the GCR were withdrawn. Trains continued to serve Quainton Road for a short time after that, but in 1963 passenger services were withdrawn and in 1966 goods services were withdrawn and the station was closed.
In 1969 the Quainton Road Society was formed, with the aim of preserving the station. In 1971 the Quainton Road Society absorbed the London Railway Preservation Society, taking over its collection of historic railway equipment. The station was fully restored and reopened as a museum, the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is a railway museum operated by the Quainton Railway Society Ltd. at Quainton Road railway station, in the far depths of "Metro-land", about 5 miles west of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The site is divided into two halves which are joined by two foot-bridges, one of...
. In addition to the original station buildings, the museum has also acquired the former Oxford Rewley Road railway station
Oxford Rewley Road railway station
Oxford Rewley Road railway station was a railway station serving the city of Oxford, England, located immediately to the north of what is now Frideswide Square on the site of the Saïd Business School. It was the terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway, which was worked, and later absorbed, by the...
and a London Transport building from Wembley Park
Wembley Park tube station
Wembley Park tube station is a London Underground station in Wembley Park, north west London. The station is served by the Underground's Metropolitan and Jubilee Lines and is in Travelcard Zone 4...
, both of which have been reassembled on the site. Although no scheduled trains pass through Quainton Road, the station remains connected to the railway network. Freight trains still use the line through the station, and passenger trains still call at the station for special events at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.
Origins
On 15 June 1839 entrepreneur and former Member of ParliamentMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Buckingham
Buckingham (UK Parliament constituency)
Buckingham is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
Sir Harry Verney, 2nd Baronet
Sir Harry Verney, 2nd Baronet
Sir Harry Verney, 2nd Baronet PC, DL, JP was an English soldier and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1832 and 1885.-Background and education:...
, opened the Aylesbury Railway. Built under the direction of Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of...
, it connected the London and Birmingham Railway
London and Birmingham Railway
The London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway ....
's Cheddington railway station
Cheddington railway station
Cheddington railway station serves the village of Cheddington, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England. It also serves a number of surrounding villages, most notably Ivinghoe. The station is 58 km/36 miles north west of London Euston on the West Coast Main Line. It is operated by London Midland,...
on the West Coast Main Line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
to Aylesbury High Street railway station
Aylesbury High Street railway station
Aylesbury High Street railway station was the London and North Western Railway station which served the town of Aylesbury in the English county of Buckinghamshire...
in eastern Aylesbury
Aylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...
, the first railway station in the Aylesbury Vale
Aylesbury Vale
The Aylesbury Vale is a large area of flat land mostly in Buckinghamshire, England. Its boundary is marked by Milton Keynes to the north, Leighton Buzzard and the Chiltern Hills to the east and south, Thame to the south and Bicester and Brackley to the west.The vale is named after Aylesbury, the...
. On 1 October 1863 the Wycombe Railway
Wycombe Railway
The Wycombe Railway was a British railway between and that connected with the Great Western Railway at both ends; there was one branch, to .-History:The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an act of Parliament passed in 1846...
opened a branch line from Princes Risborough railway station
Princes Risborough railway station
Princes Risborough station is a railway station on the Chiltern Main Line that serves the town of Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire, England...
to Aylesbury railway station
Aylesbury railway station
Aylesbury railway station is a railway station in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England and is a major stop on the London to Aylesbury Line from Marylebone station via Amersham. It is 37.75 miles from Aylesbury Station to Marylebone Station...
on the western side of Aylesbury, leaving Aylesbury as the terminus of two small and unconnected branch lines.
Meanwhile, to the north of Aylesbury the Buckinghamshire Railway
Buckinghamshire Railway
The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford...
was being built by Sir Harry Verney. The scheme consisted of a line running roughly southwest to northeast from Oxford to Bletchley, and a second line running southeast from Brackley
Brackley
Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...
via Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
, to join the Oxford–Bletchley line roughly halfway along its length. The first section opened on 1 May 1850, and the whole of the line opened on 20 May 1851. The Buckinghamshire Railway intended to extend the line southwards to connect to their station at Aylesbury, but this extension was not built.
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (10 September 1823 – 26 March 1889), the only son of Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, was in serious financial difficulties by the middle of the 19th century. The 2nd Duke had spent heavily on artworks, womanising, and attempting to influence elections, and by 1847 he was nicknamed "the Greatest Debtor in the World". Over 40000 acres (16,187.4 ha) of the family's 55000 acres (22,257.7 ha) estates and their London home at Buckingham House were sold to meet debts, and the family seat of Stowe House
Stowe House
Stowe House is a Grade I listed country house located in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school. The gardens , a significant example of the English Landscape Garden style, along with part of the Park, passed into the ownership of The National Trust...
was seized by bailiffs as security and its contents sold. The only property remaining in the control of the Grenville family was the family's relatively small ancestral home of Wotton House
Wotton House
Wotton House, or Wotton, the manor house in Wotton Underwood , was rebuilt from the ground up between 1704 and 1714, to a design very similar to that of the contemporary version of Buckingham House, as it is known from engravings...
and its associated lands around Wotton Underwood
Wotton Underwood
Wotton Underwood is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale District of Buckinghamshire, about north of Thame in neighbouring Oxfordshire....
in Buckinghamshire. Deeply in debt, the Grenvilles began to look for ways to maximise profits from their remaining farmland around Wotton, and to seek business opportunities in the emerging fields of heavy industry and engineering. Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (titled Marquess of Chandos following the death of his grandfather Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos KG, PC , styled Earl Temple from 1784 to 1813 and known as The Marquess of Buckingham from 1813 to 1822, was a British landowner and politician.-Background:Born Richard Temple-Nugent-Grenville, he was the eldest son...
in 1839) was appointed chairman of the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
(LNWR) on 27 May 1857. After the death of his father on 29 July 1861 he became the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, and resigned from the chairmanship of the LNWR, returning to Wotton House to manage the family's remaining estates.
Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
On 6 August 1860 the Aylesbury and Buckingham RailwayAylesbury and Buckingham Railway
The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway was an English railway located in Buckinghamshire, England operating between Aylesbury and Verney Junction.-History:...
(A&B), with the 3rd Duke (then still Marquess of Chandos) as chairman and Sir Harry Verney as deputy chairman, was incorporated by Act of Parliament with the object of connecting the Buckinghamshire Railway (by now operated by the LNWR) to Aylesbury. The 2nd Duke used his influence to ensure the new route would run via Quainton
Quainton
Quainton is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, north west of Aylesbury. The population is 1290, of which 1000 are adults. The village has two churches , a school and two public houses...
, near his remaining estates around Wotton, instead of the intended more direct route via Pitchcott
Pitchcott
Pitchcott is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about two and a half miles north east of Waddesdon, and four miles south of Winslow....
. Beset by financial difficulties, the line took over eight years to build, eventually opening on 23 September 1868. The new line was connected to the Wycombe Railway's Aylesbury station, and joined the existing Buckinghamshire Railway lines at the point where the Oxford–Bletchley line and the line to Buckingham already met. A new junction station
Junction station
Junction station usually refers to a railway station situated or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines...
was built at the point where the lines joined. With no nearby town after which to name the new station, it was named Verney Junction railway station
Verney Junction railway station
Verney Junction was a railway station at a junction serving four directions between 1868 and 1968 and from where excursions as far as Ramsgate could be booked...
after Sir Harry who owned the land on which it was built. Aylesbury now had railway lines running to the east, north and southwest, but no line southeast towards London and the Channel ports.
Quainton Road station was built on a curve in the line at the nearest point to the Duke's estates at Wotton. Six miles (10 km) northwest of Aylesbury, it was southwest of the small village of Quainton and immediately northwest of the road connecting Quainton to Akeman Street
Akeman Street
Akeman Street was a major Roman road in England that linked Watling Street with the Fosse Way. Its junction with Watling Steet was just north of Verulamium and that with the Fosse Way was at Corinium Dobunnorum...
. The railway towards Aylesbury crossed the road via a level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
immediately southeast of the station. The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway had spent most of their limited budget on the construction of the line itself. Details of the design of the original Quainton Road station are lost, but it is likely that the station had a single timber-covered earth platform and minimal buildings; it was described in 1890 as being extremely primitive.
Wotton Tramway
With a railway now running near the border of the Wotton House estate at Quainton Road, the 3rd Duke decided to open a small-scale agricultural railway to connect the estate to the railway. The line was intended purely for the transport of construction materials and agricultural produce, and it was not intended to carry passengers. The line was to run roughly southwest from Quainton Road to a new railway stationWotton railway station
Wotton railway station was a small station in Buckinghamshire, England, built by the Duke of Buckinghamshire in 1871. Part of a private horse-drawn tramway designed to carry freight from and around his lands in Buckinghamshire, Wotton station was intended to serve the Duke's home at Wotton House...
near Wotton Underwood. Just west of the station at Wotton the line split. One section would run west to Wood Siding
Wood Siding railway station
Wood Siding railway station was a small halt in Bernwood Forest, Buckinghamshire, England. It was opened in 1871 as a terminus of a short horse-drawn tramway built to assist the transport of goods from and around the Duke of Buckingham's extensive estates in Buckinghamshire and to connect the...
near Brill. A short stub called Church Siding would run northwest into the village of Wotton Underwood itself, terminating near the parish church, and a 1 mile 57 chain (1 mile 1,254 yards; 2.8 km) siding would run north to a coal siding near Kingswood
Kingswood, Buckinghamshire
Kingswood is a hamlet of 30 dwellings on the South side of the A41 from Waddesdon to Bicester and between the villages of Ludgershall and Grendon Underwood in Buckinghamshire, England. Kingswood is also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district. Parish matters are currently administered via a...
.
Construction work began on the line on 8 September 1870. The line was built as cheaply as possible, using the cheapest available materials and winding around hills wherever feasible to avoid expensive earthworks. The stations were crude earth banks 6 inches (15.2 cm) high, held in place by wooden planks. As the Duke intended that the line be worked only by horse-drawn carriages
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
, it was built with longitudinal sleepers
Baulk road
Baulk road is the name given to a type of railway track or 'rail road' that is formed using rails carried on continuous timber bearings, as opposed to the more familiar 'cross-sleeper' track that uses closely spaced sleepers or ties to give intermittent support to taller rails...
to reduce the risk of horses tripping.
On 1 April 1871 the section between Quainton Road and Wotton was formally opened by the Duke of Buckingham in a brief ceremony. At the time of its opening the line was unnamed, although it was referred to as "The Quainton Tramway" in internal correspondence. The extension from Wotton to Wood Siding was complete by 17 June 1871; the opening date of the northern branch to Kingswood is not recorded, but it was not yet fully open in February 1873. The London and North Western Railway immediately began to operate a dedicated service from Quainton Road, with three vans per week of milk collected from the Wotton estate shipped to their London terminus at Broad Street
Broad Street railway station
Broad Street railway station was a major terminal station in the City of London, England. It opened in 1865 and closed in 1986. It was the main terminus of the North London Railway network of suburban services and was adjacent to station.-Opening:...
. Passengers were not carried, other than estate employees and people accompanying livestock.
The tramway did not link to the Aylesbury and Buckingham railway, but had its own station at Quainton Road at a right angle to the A&B's line. A 13 feet (4 m) diameter turntable at the end of the tramway linked to a spur from the A&B's line. This spur ran behind a goods shed, joining the A&B's line to the northwest of the road. The Tramway had no buildings of its own at Quainton Road, using the A&B's facilities when necessary. As the tramway ran on the east side of the road, opposite the station, this spur line had its own level crossing to reach the main line. In 1871 permission was granted to build a direct connection between the two lines, but it was not built.
Expansion of the Wotton Tramway
In late 1871 the residents of BrillBrill
Brill is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire. It is about north-west of Long Crendon and south-east of Bicester...
, the former seat of the Mercian kings and the only significant town near Wotton House, petitioned the Duke to extend the route to Brill and to open a passenger service on the line. In January 1872 a scheduled passenger timetable was published for the first time, and the line was officially named the "Wotton Tramway". (Nevertheless, it was commonly known as the "Brill Tramway" from its conversion to passenger use until its closure.) The new terminus of Brill railway station
Brill railway station
Brill railway station was the terminus of a small railway line in Buckinghamshire, England, known as the Brill Tramway. Built and owned by the Duke of Buckingham, it was later operated by London's Metropolitan Railway, and in 1933 briefly became one of the two north-western termini of the London...
opened in March 1872. With horses unable to cope with the loads being carried, the Wotton Tramway was upgraded for locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
use. The lightly laid track with longitudinal sleepers limited the locomotive weight to a maximum of nine tons, lighter than almost all locomotives then available, and it was thus not possible to use standard locomotives. Two traction engine
Traction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...
s converted for railway use were bought from Aveling and Porter
Aveling and Porter
Aveling and Porter was a British agricultural engine and steam roller manufacturer. Thomas Aveling and Richard Thomas Porter entered into partnership in 1862, developed a steam engine three years later in 1865 and produced more steam rollers than all the other British manufacturers combined.-The...
at a cost of £398 (about £ as of ) each. The locomotives were chosen on grounds of weight and reliability, and had a top speed on the level of only 8 miles per hour (3.6 m/s), taking 95–98 minutes to travel the six miles (10 km) between Brill and Quainton Road, an average speed of 4 miles per hour (1.8 m/s).
The line was heavily used for the outward shipment of bricks from the brickworks around Brill, and of cattle and milk from the dairy farms on the Wotton estate. By 1875 the line was carrying around 40,000 gallons (180,000 l; 48,000 US gal) of milk each year. The inbound delivery of linseed cake to the dairy farms and of coal to the area's buildings were also important uses of the line. The line also began to carry large quantities of manure from London to the area's farms, carrying 3,200 tons (3,300 t) in 1872. As the only physical link between the Tramway and the national railway network, almost all of this traffic passed through Quainton Road station.
By the mid-1870s the slow speed of the Aveling and Porter locomotives and their unreliability and inability to handle heavy loads were recognised as major problems for the Tramway. In 1874 Ferdinand de Rothschild bought a 2700 acres (1,092.7 ha) site near the Tramway's Waddesdon station
Waddesdon Road railway station
Waddesdon Road railway station, called Waddesdon railway station before 1922, was a small halt in open countryside in Buckinghamshire, England...
to use as a site for his planned country mansion of Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...
. The Tramway's management recognised that the construction works would lead to a significant increase in the haulage of heavy goods, and that the Aveling and Porter engines would be unable to cope with the increased loads. The newly-established engineering firm of W. G. Bagnall wrote to the Duke offering to hire a locomotive to him for trials. The offer was accepted, and on 18 December 1876 the locomotive was delivered. The tests were generally successful and an order was placed to buy a locomotive from Bagnall for £640 (about £ as of ) which was delivered on 28 December 1877. With services on the Brill–Quainton Road route now drawn by the more advanced Bagnall locomotive (the Kingswood branch generally remained worked by horses, and occasionally by the Aveling and Porter engines), traffic levels soon rose. The crucial figure for milk traffic rose from 40,000 gallons carried in 1875 to 58,000 gallons (260,000 l; 70,000 US gal) in 1879, and in 1877 the Tramway carried a total of 20,994 tons
Long ton
Long ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...
(21,331 t) of goods. In early 1877 the Tramway was shown on Bradshaw maps for the first time, and from May 1882 Bradshaw also listed the Tramway's timetable.
Metropolitan Railway takeover of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
In 1837 Euston railway stationEuston railway station
Euston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...
opened, the first railway station connecting London with the industrial heartlands of the West Midlands and Lancashire. Railways were banned by a Parliamentary commission from operating in London itself, and thus the station was built on what was then the northern boundary of the city. Other main line termini north of London soon followed at Paddington (1838), Bishopsgate
Bishopsgate railway station
Bishopsgate station was a railway station located on the eastern side of Shoreditch High Street in the modern London Borough of Tower Hamlets; the western edge of the East End. It was in use from 1840 to 1964 when it was destroyed by fire...
(1840), Fenchurch Street
Fenchurch Street railway station
Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the south eastern corner of the City of London, England. The station is one of the smallest terminals in London in terms of platforms and one of the most intensively operated...
(1841), King's Cross (1852) and St Pancras
St Pancras railway station
St Pancras railway station, also known as London St Pancras and since 2007 as St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus celebrated for its Victorian architecture. The Grade I listed building stands on Euston Road in St Pancras, London Borough of Camden, between the...
(1868). All were built outside the built-up area of the city, making them inconvenient to reach.
Charles Pearson
Charles Pearson
Charles Pearson was Solicitor to the City of London, a reforming campaigner, and – briefly – Member of Parliament for Lambeth...
(1793–1862) had proposed the idea of an underground railway connecting the City of London with the relatively distant London main line rail termini in around 1840. Construction began in 1860. On 9 January 1863 the line opened as the Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
(MR), the world's first underground passenger railway. The MR was successful and grew steadily, extending its own services and acquiring other local railways in the areas north and west of London. In 1872 Edward Watkin
Edward Watkin
Sir Edward William Watkin, 1st Baronet was an English railway chairman and politician.- Biography :Watkin was born in Salford, Lancashire, the son of a wealthy cotton merchant, Absalom Watkin who was noted for his involvement in the Anti-corn Law League.After a private education, he returned to...
(1819–1901) was appointed as its Chairman. A director of many railway companies, he had a vision of unifying a string of railway companies to create a single line running from Manchester via London to an intended Channel Tunnel
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
and on to France. In 1873 Watkin entered negotiations to take control of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the section of the former Buckinghamshire Railway running north from Verney Junction to Buckingham. He planned to extend the MR north from London to Aylesbury and extend the Tramway southwest to Oxford, and thus create a through route from London to Oxford. Rail services between Oxford and London at this time were poor, and although still an extremely roundabout route, had the scheme been completed it would have formed the shortest route from London to Oxford, Aylesbury, Buckingham and Stratford upon Avon. The Duke of Buckingham was enthusiastic, and authorisation for the scheme was sought from Parliament. Parliament did not share the enthusiasm of Watkin and the Duke, and in 1875 the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire Union Railway Bill was rejected. Watkin did, however, receive consent in 1881 to extend the MR to Aylesbury.
Wotton Tramway Oxford extension scheme
With the MR extension to Aylesbury approved, in March 1883 the Duke of Buckingham announced his own scheme to extend the Wotton Tramway to Oxford. The turntable at Quainton Road would be removed, and replaced with a junction to the south of the existing turntable to allow through running of trains. The existing stretch from Quainton Road to Brill would be straightened and improved to main line standards, and the little-used stations at Waddesdon RoadWaddesdon Road railway station
Waddesdon Road railway station, called Waddesdon railway station before 1922, was a small halt in open countryside in Buckinghamshire, England...
and Wood Siding
Wood Siding railway station
Wood Siding railway station was a small halt in Bernwood Forest, Buckinghamshire, England. It was opened in 1871 as a terminus of a short horse-drawn tramway built to assist the transport of goods from and around the Duke of Buckingham's extensive estates in Buckinghamshire and to connect the...
would be closed. From Brill, the line would pass in a 1650 yards (1,508.8 m) tunnel through Muswell Hill to the south of Brill, and on via Boarstall
Boarstall
Boarstall is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, about west of Aylesbury. The parish is on the county boundary with Oxfordshire and the village is about southeast of the Oxfordshire market town of Bicester.-History:...
before crossing from Buckinghamshire into Oxfordshire at Stanton St. John
Stanton St. John
Stanton St. John is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about northeast of the centre of Oxford.-Manor:The Domesday Book records that in 1086 William the Conqueror's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux owned the manor Stanton St...
. From Stanton St. John the line would next stop on the outskirts of Oxford at Headington
Headington
Headington is a suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames Valley below. The life of the large residential area is centred upon London Road, the main road between London and Oxford.-History:...
, before terminating at a station to be built in the back garden of 12 High Street, St Clement's
St Clement's, Oxford
St Clement's is a district in Oxford, England, on the east bank of the River Cherwell. Its main road, St Clement's Street , links The Plain near Magdalen Bridge with London Place at the foot of Headington Hill at the junction with Marston Road to the north...
, near Magdalen Bridge.
At 23 miles (37 km) the line would have been by far the shortest route between Oxford and Aylesbury, compared with 28 miles (45.1 km) via the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
(GWR), which had absorbed the Wycombe Railway, and 34 miles (54.7 km) via the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the LNWR. The Act of Parliament authorising the scheme received Royal Assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
on 20 August 1883, and the new Oxford, Aylesbury and Metropolitan Junction Railway Company, including the Duke of Buckingham, Ferdinand de Rothschild and Harry Verney among its directors, was created. The scheme caught the attention of the expansionist Metropolitan Railway, who paid for the survey to be conducted. Despite the scheme's powerful backers, the expensive Muswell Hill tunnel deterred investors and the company found it difficult to raise capital. Ferdinand de Rothschild promised to lend money for the scheme in return for guarantees that the rebuilt line would include a passenger station at Westcott, and that the Duke would press the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway into opening a station at the nearest point to Waddesdon Manor on their line. Waddesdon Manor railway station
Waddesdon railway station
Waddesdon is a closed station that served the village of Waddesdon and its manor, to the north of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. The station is not to be confused with Waddesdon Road railway station at the other end of the Waddesdon Manor estate on the Brill Tramway.-History:The station was...
was duly opened on 1 January 1897.
Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad
The new company was unable to raise sufficient investment to begin construction of the Oxford extension, and had only been given a five year window by Parliament in which to build it. On 7 August 1888, less than two weeks before the authorisation was due to expire, the directors of the Oxford, Aylesbury and Metropolitan Junction Railway Company received Royal Assent for a revised and much cheaper version of the scheme. To be called the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad (O&AT), the new scheme envisaged the extension being built to the same light specifications as the existing Tramway.On 26 March 1889 the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos died, aged 65. By this time the construction of the MR extension from London to Aylesbury was well underway, and on 1 July 1891 the MR formally absorbed the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway. Sir Harry Verney died on 12 February 1894, and on 31 March 1894 the MR took over the operation of services on the A&B from the GWR. On 1 July 1894 the MR extension to Aylesbury was completed, giving the MR a unified route from London to Verney Junction. The MR embarked on a programme of upgrading and rebuilding the stations along the newly acquired line.
Construction of the route from Brill to Oxford had not yet begun. Further Acts of Parliament were granted in 1892 and 1894 varying the proposed route slightly and allowing for its electrification, but no building work was carried out other than some preliminary surveying. On 1 April 1894, with the proposed extension to Oxford still intended, the O&AT exercised a clause of the 1888 Act and took over the Wotton Tramway. Work began on upgrading the line in preparation for the extension. The track on the line from Quainton Road to Brill was relaid with improved rails resting on standard transverse sleepers, replacing the original flimsy rails and longitudinal sleepers. At around this time two Manning Wardle
Manning Wardle
Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.- Precursor companies :The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially successful steam locomotive, Salamanca, in Holbeck, Leeds,...
locomotives were brought into use on the line.
Re-siting
The rebuilding of the Brill Tramway greatly improved service speeds, reducing journey times between Quainton Road and Brill to between 35 and 43 minutes. The population of the area had remained low; in 1901 Brill had a population of only 1,206. Passenger traffic remained a relatively insignificant part of the Tramway's business, and in 1898 passenger receipts were only £24 per month (about £ as of ).The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
as "one of the most primitive-looking stations in the British Isles". While the line to Brill was being upgraded, the MR were rebuilding and re-siting Quainton Road station as part of their improvement programme, freeing space for a direct link between the former Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the O&AT to be built. The new station was re-sited to the southeast of the road, on the same side as the turntable connection with the tramway.
The new Quainton Road station had two platforms on the former A&B line, and a third platform for Brill trains. In 1896 the level crossings around the station were replaced by a road bridge over the railway.
A curve between the former Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the Brill Tramway opened on 1 January 1897, allowing through running of trains between the two lines, without the need to turn the engine and carriages individually on the turntable, for the first time. The Metropolitan Railway made a concerted effort to generate passenger traffic on the line. From 1910 to 1914 Pullman
Pullman (car or coach)
In the United States, Pullman was used to refer to railroad sleeping cars which were built and operated on most U.S. railroads by the Pullman Company from 1867 to December 31, 1968....
services operated between the MR's London terminus at Aldgate
Aldgate tube station
Aldgate tube station is a London Underground station located at Aldgate in the City of London.The station is on the Circle Line between Tower Hill and Liverpool Street. It is also the eastern terminus of the Metropolitan Line...
and Verney Junction station, calling at Quainton Road, and a luxurious hotel was built in the new village of Verney Junction
Verney Junction
Verney Junction is a hamlet in the parish of Middle Claydon in north Buckinghamshire, England. It is on a disused railway line near Claydon House....
.
Metropolitan Railway takeover of Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad services
By 1899 the Metropolitan Railway and the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company were cooperating closely. Although the existing line had been upgraded in preparation for the Oxford extension and had been authorised as a railway in 1894, construction of the extension itself had yet to begin. On 27 November the MR arranged to lease the Tramway from the O&AT, for an annual fee of £600 (about £ as of ) with an option to buy the line outright. From 1 December 1899, the MR took over all operations on the Tramway. The O&AT's single passenger coach, a relic of Wotton Tramway days, was removed from its wheels and used as a platelayerPlatelayer
A platelayer or trackman is a railway employee whose job is to inspect and maintain the permanent way of a railway installation.The term derives from the plates used to build plateways, an early form of railway....
's hut at Brill station. An elderly Brown, Marshalls and Co
Brown, Marshalls and Co. Ltd.
Brown, Marshalls and Co. Ltd. were a company that built railway carriages, based in Saltley, Birmingham, in the UK. They were formed in 1840. In 1866 they built the original coaches for the Talyllyn Railway, which are still in use, and in 1873 built two bogie coaches for the Ffestiniog Railway....
passenger coach was transferred to the line to replace it, and a section of each platform was raised to accommodate the higher doors of this coach using earth and old railway sleepers.
Metropolitan Railway D Class
Metropolitan Railway D Class
The Metropolitan Railway D Class was a group of six 2-4-0T tank engines built in 1895 by Sharp, Stewart and Company.- External links :* http://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/stories/getobjectstory.php?rnum=L2597&enum=LE130&pnum=13&maxp=18...
locomotives, introduced by the MR to improve services on the former Tramway line, damaged the track, and in 1910 the track between Quainton Road and Brill was relaid to MR standards using old track which had been removed from the inner London MR route but was still considered adequate for light use on a rural branch line. Following this track upgrading, the speed limit on the line was increased to 25 miles per hour (11.2 m/s). The Metropolitan Railway was unhappy with the performance and safety record of the D Class locomotives, and sold them to other railways between 1916 and 1922, replacing them with Metropolitan Railway A Class
Metropolitan Railway A Class
The Metropolitan Railway A Class were 4-4-0T steam locomotives built to work the first of the London Underground lines. They were built by Beyer, Peacock and Company from 1864....
locomotives.
Great Central Railway
In 1893 another of Edward Watkin's railways, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire RailwayManchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was formed by amalgamation in 1847. The MS&LR changed its name to the Great Central Railway in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension.-Origin:...
, had been authorised to build a new 92 miles (148.1 km) line from its existing station at Annesley
Annesley railway station
Annesley railway station was a station in Annesley, Nottinghamshire. It was opened in 1874, to serve the town which had grown following the opening of Annesley colliery in 1865. It was closed in 1953 as part of the post-war cutback, and the line closed to passengers in 1964...
in Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
south to Quainton Road. Watkin had intended to run services from Manchester and Sheffield via Quainton Road and along the Metropolitan Railway to the MR's station at Baker Street
Baker Street tube station
Baker Street tube station is a station on the London Underground at the junction of Baker Street and the Marylebone Road. The station lies in Travelcard Zone 1 and is served by five different lines...
. Following Watkin's retirement in 1894, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway obtained permission for a separate station near Baker Street at Marylebone
Marylebone station
Marylebone station , also known as London Marylebone, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It stands midway between the mainline stations at Euston and Paddington, about 1 mile from each...
, and the line was renamed the Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
(GCR). The new line joined the existing MR just north of Quainton Road, and opened to passengers on 15 March 1899.
Although it served a lightly populated area, the opening of the GCR made Quainton Road an important junction station at which four railway lines met. The number of passengers using the station rose sharply. It had many passengers in comparison to other stations in the area. In 1932, the last year of private operation, the station saw 10,598 passenger journeys, earning a total of £601 (about £ as of ) in passenger receipts.
The 10,598 passenger journeys in 1932 made Quainton Road by far the busiest of the Metropolitan Railway's rural passenger stations north of Aylesbury. In comparison, the isolated Verney Junction railway station saw only 943 passenger journeys in the same year, and the five other stations on the Brill Tramway had a combined passenger total of 7,761.
Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway
Following Watkin's retirement relations between the Great Central Railway and the Metropolitan Railway deteriorated badly. The GCR route to London ran over MR lines from Quainton Road to London, and to reduce reliance on the hostile MR, GCR General Manager William PollittWilliam Pollitt
Colonel Sir William Pollitt was general manager of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway from 1886 to 1902, the final three years being as General Manager of the renamed Great Central Railway....
decided to create a link with the Great Western Railway to create a second route into London which bypassed all MR property. In 1899 the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway
Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway
The Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway was a joint venture supported by the Great Western Railway and Great Central Railway and run by the Great Western and Great Central Joint Committee. The original arrangement was agreed between the two companies in September 1898...
began construction of a new line, commonly known as the Alternative Route, to link the GWR's existing station at Princes Risborough to the new Great Central line. The line ran from Princes Risborough north to meet the Great Central at Grendon Underwood
Grendon Underwood
Grendon Underwood is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the west of the county, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire and near the Roman road Akeman Street....
, about three miles (5 km) north of Quainton Road, thus bypassing Quainton Road altogether. Although formally an independent company, in practice the new line was operated as a part of the Great Central Railway. A substantial part of the GCR's traffic to and from London was diverted onto the Alternative Route, reducing the significance of Quainton Road as an interchange and damaging the profitability of the MR's railway operations.
London Transport
On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway, along with London's other underground railways aside from the short Waterloo & City Railway, was taken into public ownership as part of the newly formed London Passenger Transport BoardLondon Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
(LPTB). Thus, despite being 44 miles (70.8 km) from London, Quainton Road formally became part of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
network. By this time, the routes from Quainton Road to Verney Junction and Brill were in severe decline. Competition from the newer lines and from improving road haulage had drawn away much of the Tramway's custom in particular, and Brill trains would often run without a single passenger.
Frank Pick
Frank Pick
Frank Pick LLB Hon. RIBA was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Company of London in 1906...
, Managing Director of the Underground Group
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, aimed to move the network away from freight services, and to concentrate on the electrification and improvement of the core routes in London. He saw the lines beyond Aylesbury via Quainton Road to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes. On 1 June 1935 the London Passenger Transport Board gave the required six months' notice to the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company that it intended to terminate operations on the Brill Tramway altogether.
Closure
The last scheduled passenger service on the Brill Tramway left Quainton Road in the afternoon of 30 November 1935. Hundreds of people gathered, and a number of members of the Oxford University Railway Society travelled from Oxford in an effort to buy the last ticket. Accompanied by firecrackers and fog signalsDetonator (railway)
A railway detonator is a device used to make a loud sound as a warning signal to train drivers. The detonator is the size of a large coin with two lead straps, one on each side. The detonator is placed on the top of the rail and the straps are used to secure it...
, the train ran the length of the line to Brill, where the passengers posed for a photograph. Late that evening, a two-coach staff train pulled out of Brill, accompanied by a band bearing a white flag and playing Auld Lang Syne
Auld Lang Syne
"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song . It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world; its traditional use being to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight...
. The train stopped at each station along the route, picking up the staff, documents and valuables from each. At 11.45 pm the train arrived at Quainton Road, greeted by hundreds of locals and railway enthusiasts. At the stroke of midnight, the rails connecting the Tramway to the main line were ceremonially severed.
Quainton Road station remained open, but with the closure of the Brill Tramway it was no longer a significant junction station. A connection between the Great Central Railway and the former Buckinghamshire Railway at Calvert
Calvert, Buckinghamshire
Calvert is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, near the village of Steeple Claydon.Originally named after a wealthy local family, the village was founded as a hamlet in the Victorian era to house workers for the brick works that were constructed in the area. The works have since been closed and...
was opened in 1942, leaving the original A&B route to Verney Junction with no purpose other than as a diversionary route
Detour
Detour may refer to:* Detour, a temporary routing to avoid an obstruction-Entertainment:Literature* Detour , a 1939 novel* Detour , an entertainment and fashion magazine published by the Detour Media GroupFilm and television...
. It was closed to passengers on 6 July 1936. London Transport passenger services beyond Aylesbury were withdrawn, leaving the former GCR (part of the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
after 1923) as the only railway operating passenger services to Quainton Road.
London Transport reduced the former A&B route between Quainton Road and Verney Junction to a single track in 1939–40. LT continued to operate freight services until 6 September 1947, when the original Quainton Road–Verney Junction route was closed altogether, leaving the former GCR route from Aylesbury via Rugby
Rugby railway station
Rugby railway station serves the town of Rugby in Warwickshire, England. It opened during the Victorian era, in 1885, replacing earlier stations situated a little further west...
as the only service still operating through Quainton Road. London Transport services were briefly restored in 1943 with the extension of the Metropolitan Line's London–Aylesbury service to Quainton Road, but this service was once more withdrawn in 1948.
Quainton Road station closed to passengers on 4 March 1963 and to goods on 4 July 1966. On 3 September 1966 the former GCR line from Aylesbury to Rugby was abandoned, leaving only the stretch from Aylesbury to Calvert, running through the now-closed Quainton Road, remaining open for use by freight trains. This remaining stretch of line was reduced to a single track shortly afterwards. The signal box
Signal box
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...
at Quainton Road was abandoned on 13 August 1967, and the points
Railroad switch
A railroad switch, turnout or [set of] points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction....
connecting to the goods yard were disconnected.
Restoration
While other closed stations on the former Metropolitan Railway lines north of Aylesbury were generally demolished or sold, in 1969 the Quainton Railway Society was formed to operate a working museum at the station. On 24 April 1971 the society formally absorbed the London Railway Preservation Society, taking custody of its collection of historic railway equipment. The station was maintained in working order and used as a bookshop and ticket office, and the sidings—still intact, although disconnected from the railway line in 1967—were used for locomotive restoration work.The Quainton Railway Society (which operates the station as the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is a railway museum operated by the Quainton Railway Society Ltd. at Quainton Road railway station, in the far depths of "Metro-land", about 5 miles west of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The site is divided into two halves which are joined by two foot-bridges, one of...
) restored the main station building to its 1900 appearance. A smaller building on the former Brill platform, once a shelter for passengers waiting for Brill and Down Line trains, was used first as a store then as a shop for a number of years before its current use to house an exhibit on the history of the Brill Tramway. A former London Transport building from Wembley Park
Wembley Park tube station
Wembley Park tube station is a London Underground station in Wembley Park, north west London. The station is served by the Underground's Metropolitan and Jubilee Lines and is in Travelcard Zone 4...
was dismantled and re-erected at Quainton Road to serve as a maintenance shed. In 1988, the station briefly came back into passenger use, with the introduction of special Christmas shopping services between Aylesbury and Bletchley railway station
Bletchley railway station
Bletchley is a railway station that serves the southern districts of Milton Keynes , and the north-eastern parts of the Buckinghamshire district of Aylesbury Vale....
. These services ran on Saturdays only, and stopped at Quainton Road.
Oxford Rewley Road railway station
Oxford Rewley Road railway station
Oxford Rewley Road railway station was a railway station serving the city of Oxford, England, located immediately to the north of what is now Frideswide Square on the site of the Saïd Business School. It was the terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway, which was worked, and later absorbed, by the...
, the Oxford terminus of Harry Verney's Buckinghamshire Railway and of the Oxford to Cambridge Line, had closed to passengers on 1 October 1951 with all services to Oxford from then on diverted into the former GWR station at Oxford General
Oxford railway station
Oxford railway station is a mainline railway station serving the city of Oxford, England. It is about west of the city centre, northwest of Frideswide Square and the eastern end of Botley Road, and on the line linking with . It is also on the line for trains between and Hereford via...
(the current Oxford railway station). In co-operation with the Science Museum
Science museum
A science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...
Oxford Rewley Road station was dismantled in 1999, the main station building and part of the platform canopy were moved to Quainton Road for preservation with the opportunity taken to house improved visitor facilities and the main shop and office of the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre thus maintaining it as a working building. A number of former Ministry of Supply food warehouses in what is now the extended Down Yard of the station have been converted for various uses by the Society including storage and exhibition of rolling stock.
Although the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre's steam trains run on the sidings which were disconnected from the network in 1967, the station still has a working railway line passing through it which is also used for occasional special passenger trains from Aylesbury in connection with events at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. The regular freight services are mainly landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
trains from waste transfer depots in Greater London to the former brick pits
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
at Calvert.
As one of the best-preserved period railway stations in England, Quainton Road is regularly used as a filming location for period drama, and programmes such as The Jewel in the Crown, the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode Black Orchid
Black Orchid (Doctor Who)
Black Orchid is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two parts on 1 March and 2 March 1982...
and Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
have been filmed there. the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre are negotiating for a reconnection of the link between their sidings and the line through the station to allow their locomotives to run to Aylesbury when the line is not in use by freight trains, and to rebuild part of the Brill Tramway between Quainton Road and Waddesdon Road.