Buckinghamshire Railway
Title: Buckinghamshire Railway
Subject: Brackley railway station, Great Central Main Line, Banbury railway station, Buckinghamshire Junction Railway, Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
Dates of operation
22 July 1847 – 21 July 1879
Buckingham and Brackley Junction Railway
Oxford and Bletchley Railway
London and North Western Railway
Track gauge
1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
LNWR line to Bedford
Bletchley (LNWR Main Line)
Newton Longville (proposed)
Newton Longville landfill
Met. & GC Joint Committee to Quainton Road
Verney Junction
Fulwell & Westbury
freight reversing siding to Calvert
Brackley, Finmere, Calvert (GCR main line)
Brackley (Bucks. Railway)
SMJR to Towcester
Cockley Brake Junction
Farthinghoe
Oxford and Rugby Railway to Oxford
Banbury Junction
Banbury Merton Street
Banbury Bridge Street
Oxford & Rugby Rly. towards Leamington Spa
Marsh Gibbon and Poundon
Launton
Bicester North (GWR Bicester Cut-off line)
Bicester Town (Current passenger terminus)
Bicester Military Railway
Wendlebury Halt
Charlton Halt
Oddington Halt
proposed Oxford Parkway
Oxford Road Halt
Oxford and Rugby Railway to Banbury
Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway
Witney Railway
Yarnton
Buckinghamshire Junction Railway
Wolvercote Junction
Duke's Cut and Wolvercote Tunnel
Wolvercot Platform
Wolvercote Halt
Oxford Canal
Oxford North Junction
Port Meadow Halt
Sheepwash Channel Railway Bridge and Rewley Road Swing Bridge
Oxford Rewley Road
Oxford General
GWR line to Didcot
The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford. Part of the route is still in use today as the Oxford to Bicester Line.
1.1 Origins
1.2 Authorisation
1.3 Later history
2 Present status
The origins of the Buckinghamshire Railway can be traced back to the gauge and territorial wars which took place in Buckinghamshire in the 1840s. The London and Birmingham Railway (L&B) had opened a standard gauge line from Euston to Tring on 16 October 1837, extending to Birmingham in September 1838. In June of that year, the Great Western Railway (GWR) opened the first part of its broad gauge line from Paddington to Bristol and a further branch from Didcot to Oxford had been opened by June 1844. The GWR subsequently looked to expand beyond Oxford by depositing bills for the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway and the Oxford and Rugby Railway which would take it into the heart of the Midlands.[1]
Seeking to prevent the GWR from annexing Buckinghamshire into its empire, the L&B, supported by the Midland Railway, countered with the London, Worcester and South Staffordshire Railway from Tring to Wolverhampton via Aylesbury. The scheme included loop lines from Bicester to Oxford and Banbury to Rugby.[2] A third company, Mark Huish's Grand Junction Railway, supported the GWR's schemes as a means of forcing the London and Birmingham to merge with it; it proposed a Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway which would join with the Oxford and Rugby at Fenny Compton.[3] The GWR's schemes subsequently received Parliamentary approval, whilst the London and Birmingham was obliged to withdraw its proposal. The Grand Junction Railway's scheme was also passed, giving the GWR its route to Birmingham, and it merged with the L&B in 1846 to form the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). The remains of the loop lines became the Buckingham and Brackley Junction Railway and the Oxford and Bletchley Junction Railway.[3]
Three bills were presented to Parliament in 1846-47 for the formation of railway companies to construct the relics of the thwarted L&B and LNWR ambitions in Buckinghamshire. The first two bills were for the establishment of the Buckingham and Brackley Junction Railway and the Oxford and Bletchley Junction Railway to construct lines from Bletchley to Oxford via Winslow and Bicester, and another from a point near Claydon House to Brackley and Buckingham.[4] The third bill was for the amalgamation of the two companies into the Buckinghamshire Railway and the authorisation of an extension from Buckingham to Banbury.[1] The bills were passed and, under the direction of the LNWR, the Buckinghamshire Railway was formed on 22 July 1847.[5] The second Duke of Buckingham was chairman until he encountered financial difficulties and was replaced by Sir Harry Verney, with his son, the Marquess of Chandos, taking a seat on the board.[4]
Robert Stephenson was employed to construct the line, with Thomas Brassey as the civil engineering contractor.[1] The line opened between Bletchley and Banbury (via Verney Junction) on 30 March 1850, and between Verney Junction and Oxford on 20 May 1851.[5] The line was worked by the LNWR, which originally leased the line, eventually absorbing the Buckinghamshire Railway on 21 July 1879.[5]
The Buckinghamshire Railway made modest profits until its valuable freight was re-routed through Oxford and Didcot, leaving it to sink into losses from which it never re-emerged.[6] It continued until the Chairman of the LNWR, Richard Moon, was elected to the board on 23 February 1878 and by 15 July in the same year the company's shares had been consolidated with those of the LNWR.[7]
In 1879, the LNWR also absorbed the Bedford Railway which had constructed a line between Bletchley and Bedford. It had already absorbed the Bedford and Sandy Railway in 1865, which had constructed a line between Bedford and Cambridge.[8]
The line between Oxford and Cambridge was subsequently known
Oxfordshire, London, United Kingdom, Reading, Berkshire, Cheltenham
Great Western Railway, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, London, Midland and Scottish Railway, Midland Railway, Caledonian Railway
Aylesbury, South Bucks, Berkshire, High Wycombe, Oxfordshire
Oxford and Rugby Railway
Great Western Railway, Cherwell Valley Line, West Coast Main Line, Chiltern Main Line, South East England
Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, River Thames, Banbury, Oxfordshire
Brackley railway station
Northamptonshire, London and North Western Railway, Buckinghamshire Railway, Great Central Railway, England
Great Central Main Line
Metropolitan Railway, West Coast Main Line, Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway, Chiltern Main Line, East Midlands
Banbury railway station
Oxfordshire, Chiltern Main Line, Oxford railway station, Chiltern Railways, Great Western Railway
Track gauge, Varsity Line, Bletchley railway station, Oxford Road Halt railway station, Varsity Line
Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
London Underground, National Rail, Metropolitan Railway, Aylesbury, Brill Tramway