DarloRich
Veteran Member
The line between Princes Risborough to Aylesbury is a charming rural branch line running for about 7 miles through pleasant Buckinghamshire. It is a very nice trip through verdant countryside but what makes this line really special is the soon to be replaced aged traction which only runs at peak hours.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
Getting to either end of this branch from Milton Keynes is really easy if you have a car as it is only 20miles. I don’t have a car and the train is either via London or Brum. Bus it is then. There is a direct bus from MK to Aylesbury but it takes ages and didn’t really connect with the train. Time for plan B and a bit of an adventure. I settled on the X5 coach from MK to Bicester, a short walk across the town to Bicester Village and the train to Princes Risborough. Using the X5 means I can do the trip after work with no need for leave and for a fairly decent price. The X5 return ticket is £13. You get a big blue coach, leather (ish) seats, free wifi , a toilet and a driver at least on the pleasant side of grumpy. The return from Bicester is £7.50. I must be mad.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
Anyway, off we pop. The connection is easy as long as the bus at 16:00 is somewhere near to on time. It wasn’t. It wasn’t even close. Sugar. It will be ok. I am sure. The bus decanted me in Bicester and my half hour contingency had reduced to 12 minutes. Bicester looked nice as I rushed through the high street and I arrived on the platform at Bicester Village to find the train from Oxford pulling in. It was a three carriage Chiltern effort of the class 168 type. It was already full and there were a large number of oriental tourists heavily loaded with duty free shopping from the eponymous nearby shopping village. They all wanted the London train. It was a squash and squeeze to get on with what looked like a couple of people left behind. Thankfully I was only going two stops and I could not wait to bail out at Princes Risborough.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
Before we talk about the journey let’s look at the brief history of the line. The line was built as a single track broad gauge branch of the Wycombe Railway in 1863. The branch became part of the Great Western Railway when the latter took over the Wycombe Railway in 1867. The GWR converted the line to standard gauge in 1870. The branch was incorporated into the newly formed Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway in 1906. It passed to BR on nationalisation and through the BR regions and Network South East to Chiltern Railways who now operate the line.
Princes Risborough station currently has three platforms: bay platform 1 for Aylesbury; platform 2 for London and Aylesbury; and platform 3 for Bicester, Banbury and Birmingham. Platform 4 is under construction by the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway and will serve as their new mainline interchange station. Waiting in the bay platform was the object of the journey: Chiltern Railways green liveried class 121 “Bubble Car” 121034 ready to work the 1806 service to Aylesbury.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
The single carriage train was burbling away as if impatient to be off and the doors were being slammed by the guard so he could get his small train away on time. The driver was busy choosing a destination from his roller blind of tricks. York, Keighley, Pickering & Lichfield came and went before he alighted on Pwllheli. I guess they work on the assumption that if you travel by this train you know where you are going. There are, after all only two intermediate stops.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
Jumping aboard and slamming the door behind ( ahhhhh – that reassuring clunk of a carriage door slamming shut) I found myself transported back to a time half remembered: of comfy, springy seats like mini sofas arranged in bays, the mini luggage racks, a red emergency stop chain above each seat, a door and dropping window between you and your companions, a view out of the front of the train and an engine you can feel and hear working. This is like a preserved line rather than the 21st century railway.
But this is no old fashioned railway line preserved in aspic for tourists or recreated from destruction; a fact rammed home by one of the newest locomotives in the country roaring the station non stop just before we set off. This is a live railway, used by passengers and heavy freight, complete with colour light signals and for most of the day modern diesel units most of which run to London.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
However our little green bubble car is now a unique mainline example of a small class of units built by Pressed Steel in the 1960’s and purchased by Chiltern Railways in 2003. It has been serving the 18-minute journey from Princes Risborough to Monks Risborough, Little Kimble and Aylesbury ever since. Sadly it is living on borrowed time. Its last companion is languishing out of service at Aylesbury with mechanical difficulties. This is the reason the trains will be retired by Chiltern at the timetable change in May 2017. It is becoming harder and harder to find the spares needed to keep them in service. After that the last vacuumed braked service train in Britain will be no more and that will be a sad thing. I am sure Chiltern will crow loudly about improving the journey experience for passengers but that will be at the expense of character and comfort and whimsy.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
After a blast on the whistle and a reassuringly mechanical clunk from the engine we were off rolling out of the station on our short journey. Immediately on the left as we curve away from the station is the 1904 built the Princes Risborough North Signal Box. This is the largest surviving Great Western Railway signal box in the country which closed in 1991. It became a Grade II listed building after a successful public campaign to save it from demolition and is being restored by The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association.
We trundle along the single track branch line quite happily with housing on the edge of Princess Risborough on the right and open fields on the left. It is a slow but pleasant run punctuated by a stop at the tiny, unstaffed Monks Risborough which opened in November 1929. It is a basic station with a single platform and no cover. Unlike the stations on the Marston Vale line it has a ticket machine. It even had a passenger!
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
We didn’t stop at the next station at Little Kimble in this direction but would on the way back. I guess stopping isn’t always worth it as this station is so poorly used with less than 5000 passengers last year. It is so quiet that some rare dormice took up residence in the ticket machine as it wasn’t used very often. Unlike Little Kimble there is a grand station house now in private ownership which offers the only shelter from the rain in the form of a slight overhanging roof!
Perhaps the station survived because of an interesting neighbour: Chequers, the country house retreat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Chequers was given to the nation under the Chequers Estate Act in 1917. While previous Prime Ministers had always belonged to the landed classes, the post-World War I era was bringing in a new breed of politician. These men did not have the country palaces of previous prime ministers to entertain foreign dignitaries, or a tranquil place to relax from the affairs of state. After long discussions with then Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Chequers was given to the nation as a country retreat for the serving Prime Minister and has been used by every PM since. In 1998 Little Kimble has a moment in the sun when the Royal Train was used to ferry the wives of the G8 countries' leaders, including Cherie Blair and Hillary Clinton, form the conference in Birmingham to Chequers. Drifting off into day dream one considers Sir Humphrey rushing north out of Marylebone with urgent or secret documents for the PM to sign on the eve of some national crisis………..
Aylesbury by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
The land here is more hilly than the start of the line and there are cows and sheep grazing in the fields along with a colourful splash of yellow from oil seed rape. We slow down to crawling speed for a level crossing which we roll over after a blast on the horn. Soon we are running through the outskirts of Aylesbury and running into the station where more commuters are bemused by the sight of an army of enthusiasts decamping for pictures during the very short turn around window
Aylesbury by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
Before long the guard and driver to swap ends and we are soon off back the way we have come ( with a stop at both intermediate stations) pootling happily through the Chiltern countryside before the train gets back to Princess Risbourgh and the passengers either head for London or for home. Some people stay on for another round trip but bus timetables mean I needed to be away. I cross over to the Bicester bound platform as the antique bubble car sits in the golden early evening sunshine enjoying its moment in the setting sun. The guard and driver seemed to be enjoying the attention to!
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on FlickrGetting to either end of this branch from Milton Keynes is really easy if you have a car as it is only 20miles. I don’t have a car and the train is either via London or Brum. Bus it is then. There is a direct bus from MK to Aylesbury but it takes ages and didn’t really connect with the train. Time for plan B and a bit of an adventure. I settled on the X5 coach from MK to Bicester, a short walk across the town to Bicester Village and the train to Princes Risborough. Using the X5 means I can do the trip after work with no need for leave and for a fairly decent price. The X5 return ticket is £13. You get a big blue coach, leather (ish) seats, free wifi , a toilet and a driver at least on the pleasant side of grumpy. The return from Bicester is £7.50. I must be mad.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on FlickrAnyway, off we pop. The connection is easy as long as the bus at 16:00 is somewhere near to on time. It wasn’t. It wasn’t even close. Sugar. It will be ok. I am sure. The bus decanted me in Bicester and my half hour contingency had reduced to 12 minutes. Bicester looked nice as I rushed through the high street and I arrived on the platform at Bicester Village to find the train from Oxford pulling in. It was a three carriage Chiltern effort of the class 168 type. It was already full and there were a large number of oriental tourists heavily loaded with duty free shopping from the eponymous nearby shopping village. They all wanted the London train. It was a squash and squeeze to get on with what looked like a couple of people left behind. Thankfully I was only going two stops and I could not wait to bail out at Princes Risborough.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on FlickrBefore we talk about the journey let’s look at the brief history of the line. The line was built as a single track broad gauge branch of the Wycombe Railway in 1863. The branch became part of the Great Western Railway when the latter took over the Wycombe Railway in 1867. The GWR converted the line to standard gauge in 1870. The branch was incorporated into the newly formed Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway in 1906. It passed to BR on nationalisation and through the BR regions and Network South East to Chiltern Railways who now operate the line.
Princes Risborough station currently has three platforms: bay platform 1 for Aylesbury; platform 2 for London and Aylesbury; and platform 3 for Bicester, Banbury and Birmingham. Platform 4 is under construction by the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway and will serve as their new mainline interchange station. Waiting in the bay platform was the object of the journey: Chiltern Railways green liveried class 121 “Bubble Car” 121034 ready to work the 1806 service to Aylesbury.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on FlickrThe single carriage train was burbling away as if impatient to be off and the doors were being slammed by the guard so he could get his small train away on time. The driver was busy choosing a destination from his roller blind of tricks. York, Keighley, Pickering & Lichfield came and went before he alighted on Pwllheli. I guess they work on the assumption that if you travel by this train you know where you are going. There are, after all only two intermediate stops.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on FlickrJumping aboard and slamming the door behind ( ahhhhh – that reassuring clunk of a carriage door slamming shut) I found myself transported back to a time half remembered: of comfy, springy seats like mini sofas arranged in bays, the mini luggage racks, a red emergency stop chain above each seat, a door and dropping window between you and your companions, a view out of the front of the train and an engine you can feel and hear working. This is like a preserved line rather than the 21st century railway.
But this is no old fashioned railway line preserved in aspic for tourists or recreated from destruction; a fact rammed home by one of the newest locomotives in the country roaring the station non stop just before we set off. This is a live railway, used by passengers and heavy freight, complete with colour light signals and for most of the day modern diesel units most of which run to London.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on FlickrHowever our little green bubble car is now a unique mainline example of a small class of units built by Pressed Steel in the 1960’s and purchased by Chiltern Railways in 2003. It has been serving the 18-minute journey from Princes Risborough to Monks Risborough, Little Kimble and Aylesbury ever since. Sadly it is living on borrowed time. Its last companion is languishing out of service at Aylesbury with mechanical difficulties. This is the reason the trains will be retired by Chiltern at the timetable change in May 2017. It is becoming harder and harder to find the spares needed to keep them in service. After that the last vacuumed braked service train in Britain will be no more and that will be a sad thing. I am sure Chiltern will crow loudly about improving the journey experience for passengers but that will be at the expense of character and comfort and whimsy.
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on FlickrAfter a blast on the whistle and a reassuringly mechanical clunk from the engine we were off rolling out of the station on our short journey. Immediately on the left as we curve away from the station is the 1904 built the Princes Risborough North Signal Box. This is the largest surviving Great Western Railway signal box in the country which closed in 1991. It became a Grade II listed building after a successful public campaign to save it from demolition and is being restored by The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association.
We trundle along the single track branch line quite happily with housing on the edge of Princess Risborough on the right and open fields on the left. It is a slow but pleasant run punctuated by a stop at the tiny, unstaffed Monks Risborough which opened in November 1929. It is a basic station with a single platform and no cover. Unlike the stations on the Marston Vale line it has a ticket machine. It even had a passenger!
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on FlickrWe didn’t stop at the next station at Little Kimble in this direction but would on the way back. I guess stopping isn’t always worth it as this station is so poorly used with less than 5000 passengers last year. It is so quiet that some rare dormice took up residence in the ticket machine as it wasn’t used very often. Unlike Little Kimble there is a grand station house now in private ownership which offers the only shelter from the rain in the form of a slight overhanging roof!
Perhaps the station survived because of an interesting neighbour: Chequers, the country house retreat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Chequers was given to the nation under the Chequers Estate Act in 1917. While previous Prime Ministers had always belonged to the landed classes, the post-World War I era was bringing in a new breed of politician. These men did not have the country palaces of previous prime ministers to entertain foreign dignitaries, or a tranquil place to relax from the affairs of state. After long discussions with then Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Chequers was given to the nation as a country retreat for the serving Prime Minister and has been used by every PM since. In 1998 Little Kimble has a moment in the sun when the Royal Train was used to ferry the wives of the G8 countries' leaders, including Cherie Blair and Hillary Clinton, form the conference in Birmingham to Chequers. Drifting off into day dream one considers Sir Humphrey rushing north out of Marylebone with urgent or secret documents for the PM to sign on the eve of some national crisis………..
Aylesbury by DarloRich2009, on FlickrThe land here is more hilly than the start of the line and there are cows and sheep grazing in the fields along with a colourful splash of yellow from oil seed rape. We slow down to crawling speed for a level crossing which we roll over after a blast on the horn. Soon we are running through the outskirts of Aylesbury and running into the station where more commuters are bemused by the sight of an army of enthusiasts decamping for pictures during the very short turn around window
Aylesbury by DarloRich2009, on FlickrBefore long the guard and driver to swap ends and we are soon off back the way we have come ( with a stop at both intermediate stations) pootling happily through the Chiltern countryside before the train gets back to Princess Risbourgh and the passengers either head for London or for home. Some people stay on for another round trip but bus timetables mean I needed to be away. I cross over to the Bicester bound platform as the antique bubble car sits in the golden early evening sunshine enjoying its moment in the setting sun. The guard and driver seemed to be enjoying the attention to!
Princes Risborough by DarloRich2009, on Flickr
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