Buckinghamshire_Railway_Centre,_Quainton_Road

Buckinghamshire Railway Centre

Buckinghamshire Railway Centre

Operational railway museum

Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is a railway museum operated by the Quainton Railway Society Ltd. at Quainton Road railway station, about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. The site is divided into two halves which are joined by two foot-bridges, one of which provides wheelchair access. Each side has a demonstration line with various workshop buildings as well as museum buildings.

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History

The curved Brill platform at Quainton Road. The short stretch of rail from this platform is the only surviving part of the Brill Tramway.

In 1962, the London Railway Preservation Society was formed. It bought a series of former London Underground vehicles and collectables, and holds the largest collection of London and North Western Railway memorabilia.[1] These were held at various sites around London, mainly two government depots at Luton and Bishop's Stortford,[2] making both access, restoration and preservation difficult.[1]

While other closed stations on the former MR lines north of Aylesbury were generally demolished or sold,[3] in 1969 the Quainton Railway Society was formed to operate a working museum at the station.[4] On 24 April 1971 the society absorbed the London Railway Preservation Society, taking custody of its collection of historic railway equipment.[5]

Restoration

The station was maintained in working order, used as a bookshop and ticket office.[6] The extensive sidings were still intact, and although disconnected from the mainline in 1967,[7] were used for locomotive restoration work.[4] The Society eventually restored the main station building to its 1900 appearance, renaming the site the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.[8] A smaller building on the former Brill platform, once a shelter for passengers waiting for Brill and down 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.[9]

Mainline services

Chiltern Railways Class 121 'Bubble Car' diesel unit at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre on a shuttle service from Aylesbury on 3 May 2010

Although the BRC's trains are run on the former station sidings, the station still has a working Network Rail line passing through it. This connects Aylesbury with the Bletchley to Oxford cross-country route at Claydon (LNE) Junction. Regular landfill freight trains and High Speed 2 spoil trains traverse the line from waste transfer depots in Greater London as well as some from the freight terminal at Tytherington and other freight locations in the South-West of England to the former brick pits at Calvert. The High Speed 2 trains also terminate here, but are used for the construction of the new High Speed 2 depot at Calvert.[10]

From 1984 until 1990, the station briefly came back into passenger use, when special Christmas shopping services between Aylesbury and Bletchley were operated by British Rail Network SouthEast on Saturdays only, and stopped at Quainton Road.[11] From August Bank Holiday 1971 until the 1987 season, and again from August Bank Holiday 2001 until May 2017 the station has had special passenger trains from Aylesbury in connection with events at the Centre - these shuttles ran regularly each Spring and August Bank Holiday weekend.

Present

With an extensively redeveloped site on both sides of the working mainline, BRC houses around 170 items of locomotives and rolling stock, in buildings dating from 1874 to the 1960s. The adjacent World War II warehouses of the Ministry of Food Buffer Depot in the former downside yard have been taken over to display many items awaiting restoration, whilst the Society have added a members' reference library.

Rewley Road

The former Oxford Rewley Road station building following its reconstruction at Quainton Road

Rewley Road, the Oxford terminus of Harry Verney's Buckinghamshire Railway and of the Oxford to Cambridge Line, closed to passengers on 1 October 1951 with trains diverted to the former GWR Oxford General, the current Oxford station. In co-operation with the Science Museum, Rewley Road was dismantled in 1999. The main station building and part of the platform canopy were then moved to BRC and re-erected in 2002 at the north-west corner of the site, now providing improved visitor facilities and the main offices of the QRS.[12]

Media

As one of the best-preserved period railway stations in England, Quainton Road is regularly used as a filming location for programmes such as The Jewel in the Crown, the Doctor Who serial Black Orchid, Midsomer Murders and Taskmaster.[7]

Future developments

High Speed 2's planned route passes immediately to the west of the site, not impacting the centre directly, although it will preclude any restoration of the Brill Tramway.[13]

Collection

The collection includes locomotives, carriages, and assorted rolling stock, plus a large amount of memorabilia and documents.[14]

Locomotives

More information Class, Number (and name) ...

Diesel multiple units

Electric multiple units

1930 Stock Car No. 803 at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre

Carriages and vans

Carriages

Passenger coaching stock

More information Original company, Number ...

Non-passenger coaching stock

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Wagons

Cranes

More information Original company, Number ...

References

  1. [1]
    Simpson 1985, p. 110.
  2. [2]
    Oppitz 2000, p. 70.
  3. [3]
    Simpson 2005, p. 35.
  4. [4]
    Mitchell & Smith 2006, §16.
  5. [5]
    Oppitz 2000, pp. 70–71.
  6. [6]
    Jones 1974, p. 58.
  7. [7]
    Perfitt, Geoff (7 April 1994). "Those silver days of steam at Quainton". Bucks Herald. Aylesbury. p. 12.
  8. [8]
    Mitchell & Smith 2006, §18.
  9. [9]
    Oppitz 2000, p. 71.
  10. [10]
    Oppitz 2000, p. 66.
  11. [11]
    Quick (2009): "Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain" and Chiltern Lines News
  12. [12]
    QRS publication "Quainton News", Annual Report of the Quainton Railway Society (various years)
  13. [13]
    London-West Midlands Environmental Statement Volume 5 Technical Appendices CFA12 Waddesdon and Quainton Impact assessment tables (CH-003-012) Cultural heritage (PDF). e Department for Transport (DfT). November 2013. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 June 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  14. [14]
    Quainton Railway Society. "Quainton Virtual Stockbook Home". Retrieved 8 June 2008.
  15. [15]
    Devereux, Nigel (3 January 2020). "Twin 4-6-0s for Quainton Road as 'Owsden' moves from Swindon". The Railway Magazine. Mortons Media Group. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  16. [16]
    "Work in Progress". wightwick-hall-6989.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  17. [17]
    "Buckinghamshire Railway Centre Stockbook". Archived from the original on 28 September 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2008.
  18. [18]
    "Buckinghamshire Railway Centre Stockbook". Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2008.
  19. [19]
    "Buckinghamshire Railway Centre Stockbook".

Bibliography

  • Jones, Ken (1974). The Wotton Tramway (Brill Branch). Locomotion Papers. Blandford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-149-1.
  • Jones, Robin (2010). Britain's Weirdest Railways. Horncastle, Lincolnshire: Mortons Media Group. ISBN 978-1-906167-25-7.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2006). Aylesbury to Rugby. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-904474-91-8.
  • Oppitz, Leslie (2000). Lost Railways of the Chilterns. Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 1-85306-643-5. OCLC 45682620.
  • Simpson, Bill (1985). The Brill Tramway. Poole: Oxford Publishing. ISBN 0-86093-218-4.
  • Simpson, Bill (2005). A History of the Metropolitan Railway. Vol. 3. Witney: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 1-899246-13-4.
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