Rails around Aylesbury Vale
Images from The Transport Treasury archive
Compiled by Robert Freeman
A somewhat filthy BR Standard Class 4 2-6-0 No 76036 calls at Quainton Road with a southbound local train on 29 July 1961. 76036 had come new to Neasden in June 1954 and spent eight years based there before moving across to Cricklewood in June 1962. It then moved to the Birmingham area two years later and finished its days at Chester in January 1967. Local passenger services here ceased on 4 March 1963 and goods services on 4 July 1966. Semi-fast trains between Marylebone and Nottingham Victoria continued to pass through until the ex-GC main line closed south of Rugby on 3 September 1966. A single line was retained as far as Calvert, latterly for freight services to the landfill site (which ran until 2021) and also on to the link to the former Varsity Line for stock movements to Bletchley. This had been the depot for maintaining some of the Class 115 DMUs which worked the Marylebone suburban services for many years from 1960 until 1992, so a great deal of ECS mileage was accumulated! This scene is of course very recognisable today as the station is now beautifully maintained as part of the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Shuttle trains from Aylesbury have occasionally run for special events. Stephen Summerson SUM636
Whilst awaiting the Cup Final special the photographer recorded some other passing trains. Here is K3 2-6-0 No.61843 returning to its home base on the 5pm local from Marylebone to Woodford Halse, with a couple of passengers waiting. The locomotive had come to the GC shed there in September 1956 and was to spend the rest of its career there. The class was one of many made extinct by the great cull of steam engines around the country at the end of 1962, this one going in November of that year. The station name came from that of the birthname (Calvert) of the local landowner Sir Harry Verney. Just to the north of here the GC Mainline crossed the Varsity Line and a connecting spur was put in between the two in the Second World War, coming into service on 14 September 1940. This was for goods traffic and saw no passenger workings apart from excursions and diversions - particularly during the electrification of the WCML. In later years it became the most northerly point remaining of the GC route out of London and saw regular movements of DMUs going to and from Aylesbury and Bletchley for maintenance. Mike Mitchell MM827
We now move across to the ‘Varsity’ line. A Derby Lightweight single railcar is departing from Verney Junction with a Bletchley to Buckingham service on an unrecorded date and is about to take the Buckingham branch on the right. Only two of these particular vehicles were ever built, so this is either M79900 (now preserved) or M79901. They were specially built for this service and that onwards to Banbury Merton St, though that station closed on 2 January 1961. Buckingham services lingered on until 7 September 1964. This rural station was named after Sir Henry Verney, as there was no real settlement nearby. The station owed its existence to being a junction on the main Bletchley to Oxford line. This was closed to passengers by BR in 1968. It was not a Beeching closure however: his report had recommended keeping the Oxford-Cambridge route but closing all of its small intermediate stations. In the event almost the opposite happened with the stations between Bletchley and Bedford remaining open today! Trains will soon pass through here again on the reconstructed East-West Railway, but there was no reason to re-instate this station, traces of which have now been obliterated. Ken Coursey KC718
Black Five 4-6-0 No 45091, a long-term resident of Northampton shed, stands at Verney Junction ready to depart for Banbury with the RCTS ‘Grafton Railtour’ of 9 August 1959. At Banbury the train was to use the rare link to gain the main line to continue its journey. Note the relaxed attitude as to what you were allowed to do during photo stops in those days! This tour traversed a great variety of rail routes, almost all of which are now long gone. The train had arrived here from Calvert and the loco had needed to go on to Winslow to find a suitable crossover to run round the train (there being only one available here), taking twenty minutes to do so instead of the booked eight. Space does not permit more details of the tour here, but more can be found on the wonderful ‘Six Bells Junction’ website. James Harrold H947
We now move to the southern side of Linslade Tunnel to see Princess Royal Pacific No 46206 Princess Marie Louise heading south on the up fast out of the original twin bore on what was originally the down line before the route was quadrupled. The date is 4 August 1962. All twelve of the locomotives in this class were stored at the end of the summer 1961 timetable, but six of them were re-instated for one final summer in 1962, including this one allocated to Camden. Stephen Summerson SUM785
With a healthy exhaust nicely highlighted against a dark sky full of April showers, BR Standard 2MT 2-6-2T No 84004 climbs up into Leighton Buzzard Station with another ‘Dunstable Dasher’. With local branch lines closing, there was less work for these locos at Bletchley and, after seven years based there, 84004 moved far away to Oswestry in April 1963. You can still buy Potter’s Pastilles! Stephen Summerson SUM709
The aforementioned cloud has now moved in. Bulleid-designed for the Southern Railway in 1946, but not completed until 1950 and under British Railways, 1Co-Co1 diesel-electric No 10201 is in charge of an up express passing over the connection to the Aylesbury High St branch just beyond Cheddington signal box at the north end of the station on 2 August 1958. The three diesels in this pioneering class had come to the WCML permanently from the SR in 1955. With the coming of the English Electric Type 4s (of which they were the ancestors), there was less and less work for them to do and they were taken out of service and stored at Derby Works in late 1962/early 1963. They were officially withdrawn at the end of 1963 but languished at Derby until early 1968 before being sent for scrap. Donald Robertson DR12-4
Using photographs from the magnificent Transport Treasury archive, this book takes us on an imaginary circular journey from Aylesbury Town to Aylesbury High Street via the Met/Great Central and West Coast Main lines and the lines in between. The period covered is the 1950s and early 1960s just before massive changes were to take place resulting in contrasting fortunes for the two main lines: total closure for one and complete modernisation of the other. As well as the two Aylesbury stations, places featured are Quainton Road, Calvert, Verney Junction, Linslade Tunnel, Leighton Buzzard, Cheddington, Tring and many scenes in between, including brief forays down the lines to Ashendon Junction and Dunstable. We finish with a trip along what was Britain’s first branch line, that from Cheddington to Aylesbury.
