East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Depends what you mean by ‘not much’; it certainly wouldn’t all fit in my house!

 

In recent years, they’ve made a great deal of the fact that Florence Nightingale spent a lot of time there (IIRC she was Sir Harry’s wife’s sister). 
 

TBH, my main interest is that it is a really pleasant place to stop for a late breakfast when out on my bike!

 

When we visited some years ago many of the rooms were empty, or sparsely filled with furniture.

We were told IIRC that the NT were gifted the house but not the contents.

[1E BoY]

On 04/04/2020 at 16:27, The Stationmaster said:

According to GWR records the Wycombe Railway was amalgamated with the GWR in February 1867 and in any case the GWR had leased the line from the outset such lease being authorised by the original Wycombe Railway Act of 1846,.  The line was not converted to narrow gauge (throughout from Maidenhead to Kennington Jcn, Oxford) until the final week of August 1870.  The main route of the Wycombe Railway seems to have never had any mixed gauge mileage although the branch between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury had been converted to narrow gauge in October 1868 ('to avoid mixing the gauge at Aylesbury' - on the opening of the A&B).  The junction with the Metropolitan's line at Aylesbury opened on 1 January 1894 according to GWR records.

 

 

I was somewhat surprised when going through my 1978 pictures to see that the GWR monogram logo appears either side of the words STATION BUFFET on the end wall! 

 

The last time I was on Aylesbury station the Buffet was a more modern facility in the main building.

 

[1E BoY]

A close up

[lmsforever]

An extremeley good buffet  well used I went every morning when working for WHSmith I had to check our news kiosk to see if one of paper boys had not come in to work.One in particular used to not come in if the weather was bad and I had to cycle five miles on the shop bike delivering papers even worse if two rounds were left !!! The manager could not give a dam if I had to do this moaning if I got back late several times I had to meet the paper train and make up the rounds for delivery.I was expected to be in work at the shop by 8,30 am  needless to say I did not stick this for to long ,

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, 1E BoY said:

I was somewhat surprised when going through my 1978 pictures to see that the GWR monogram logo appears either side of the words STATION BUFFET on the end wall! 

 

The last time I was on Aylesbury station the Buffet was a more modern facility in the main building.

 

Looks like the platform side entrance to the buffet is a newer addition as it has cut through the word "Coffee"

[rodent279]

These two could equally well go in the class 25 thread, but I thought I'd post them here, as the location is relevant. These are about the only useable photos I have of Bletchley flyover being used. They show a class 25, possibly 262, on vans. The date is early April 1984, around 6pm, as I had almost certainly jumped off a Euston-Northampton "cobbler" and was waiting for an EMU back to Leighton Buzzard. The new order is starting to appear in the shape of the 31 stabled, loathed by us local enthusiasts at first. Don't know about what train crew felt about them, I believe 31's rode better, but couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by rodent279

[Pete the Elaner]

On 05/04/2020 at 19:44, 1E BoY said:

A close up

A little off-topic but..

Why do no model lighting manufacturers make a model of that type of station lamp?

It was common throughout the 70s/80s, being used on many stations.

I have tried 3d printing a post-mounted version but not got it quite right yet & I'm not working on the right layout for it at the moment.

[stewartingram]

PD Marsh do one on a post.

 

https://www.pdmarshmodels.com/collections/oo-gauge/products/pw140-1-br-t-shaped-station-lamps-5

 

Stewart

Edited April 7, 2020 by stewartingram
Wrong manufacturer now corrected

[melmerby]

Or you could buy working ones:

https://www.layouts4u.net/oo-scale-lighting/oo-scale-lampposts/616-pack-of-4

[08221]

If we are sharing photos of Bletchley flyover...

 

 

 

[rodent279]

And another from around the same time, April 1984. 25213 & 25269 snooze whilst awaiting their next turn.

 

[Rugd1022]

2 hours ago, rodent279 said:

These two could equally well go in the class 25 thread, but I thought I'd post them here, as the location is relevant. These are about the only useable photos I have of Bletchley flyover being used. They show a class 25, possibly 262, on vans. The date is early April 1984, around 6pm, as I had almost certainly jumped off a Euston-Northampton "cobbler" and was waiting for an EMU back to Leighton Buzzard. The new order is starting to appear in the shape of the 31 stabled, loathed by us local enthusiasts at first. Don't know about what train crew felt about them, I believe 31's rode better, but couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.

 

 

At Stonebridge Park in April '83 we had 31 321 as our crew training loco, it was quite a novelty at the time compared to the 25s and we were keen to find out what it was like on the local trips to Watford, Tring and Bletchley..... it was a lot more comfortable than the 25s and rode better but took forever to get up any momentum with anything more than a few empty wagons. On one occasion the brakes locked on solid whilst running round some Mermaids in Bletchley Yard so it was left there for a few days until someone could go and have a shuftie at it. One thing sticks in the memory above all else - the hefty cab doors took some  serious shoving to get them open, not easy when you're clinging onto the widely spaced handrails in the cold and wet!

 

A curious thing about those trip jobs out to Bletchley was that it always seemed as though we were hauling the same wagons around from place to place for no apparent reason - the jobs they were being outstabled for were often mysteriously cancelled at the last minute, so we'd be fetching the same wagons back to the Brent the next morning.

[rodent279]

2 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

At Stonebridge Park in April '83 we had 31 321 as our crew training loco, it was quite a novelty at the time compared to the 25s and we were keen to find out what it was like on the local trips to Watford, Tring and Bletchley..... it was a lot more comfortable than the 25s and rode better but took forever to get up any momentum with anything more than a few empty wagons. On one occasion the brakes locked on solid whilst running round some Mermaids in Bletchley Yard so it was left there for a few days until someone could go and have a shuftie at it. One thing sticks in the memory above all else - the hefty cab doors took some  serious shoving to get them open, not easy when you're clinging onto the widely spaced handrails in the cold and wet!

 

A curious thing about those trip jobs out to Bletchley was that it always seemed as though we were hauling the same wagons around from place to place for no apparent reason - the jobs they were being outstabled for were often mysteriously cancelled at the last minute, so we'd be fetching the same wagons back to the Brent the next morning.

Well, those empty wagons aren't going to move themselves!

Hadn't realised 31's came on the scene that early, I thought it was 84-85. Certainly by 1986 25's were in the minority.

[Pete the Elaner]

2 hours ago, stewartingram said:

PD Marsh do one on a post.

 

https://www.pdmarshmodels.com/collections/oo-gauge/products/pw140-1-br-t-shaped-station-lamps-5

 

Stewart

 

They sort of look right, but the lights themselves are not really long enough.

 

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

Or you could buy working ones:

https://www.layouts4u.net/oo-scale-lighting/oo-scale-lampposts/616-pack-of-4

 

Sorry, they don't look close. The lamps themselves are way too short, the ends are round when they should be angled & the top is way too prominent. That is as far out from a 78s/80s lamp as trying to pass a Baby Deltic off as a 45 because they both have 3 front windows.

 

This is more like it. It is a 3d print using clear resin, but I am not entirely happy with the finish.

[melmerby]

To be honest I don't like any  of them.

 

Not my era but it's something that should be modelled properly as they were ubiquitous across the network at one time.

We can get some nice typical steam era lamps that are close to prototype (DCC Concepts/Gaugemaster) but IMHO modern image is badly served.

[1E BoY]

A picture of 2 x Class 31's heading west off the flyover on 14th May 1984. Taken from a local footpath, this part crossed the Worcester curve.

[08221]

Recreating the stone train in my earlier photo...

 

[08221]

27 minutes ago, 1E BoY said:

A picture of 2 x Class 31's heading west off the flyover on 14th May 1984. Taken from a local footpath, this part crossed the Worcester curve.

That's the first photo I have seen of 31's on the Amey's. Wonder if they had taken over from something that had failed.

[1E BoY]

31222 stabled in the field sidings at Bletchley in 1986. Bletchley lost its mixed traffic duties when it was designated a Network SouthEast depot.

The 31s took over from the 25s. Some of us can remember a whole line of Class 40s being in the same position.

It is amazing what you have time to find during the current crisis!

[1E BoY]

Another memorable Class 31 working was this one on Saturday 12th May 1984. Known as the 10 Counties RailTour it was organised by the former Watford Area Manager's organisation and started from London St. Pancras behind 31116 and 31128. It then went via West Hampstead to Acton Wells, Reading and Oxford before taking the Bletchley line and over the flyover to Fenny Stratford. This was the last day of services terminating at the old Bedford St. Johns, its replacement on the curve coming into service on the following Monday (14th). The rail tour then called briefly at the new St. Johns its platform being made from the former concrete cast platform segments from the down platform at Fenny Stratford.

The tour went on to the goods lines to Sharnbrook and thence to Wellingborough and Leicester where 20135 and 20136 took over. The train then went via Nuneton and Water Orton to Walsall where 25076 and 25245 took over for the run via Bescot and Stetchford to Northampton. At Denbigh Hall Junction (Bletchley) the train then took the flyover line to Claydon LNE Junction and thence to Marylebone via Aylesbury and High Wycombe.

I was one of the volunteer stewards aboard the train on the day so photography was limited to the one grabbed shot at the old St. Johns. 31128 is nearest the camera. 

The line on the right was retained to serve a local power station after the station was relocated.

 

[Nearholmer]

What an excellent way to waste a day, pity things like that are long gone.

[rodent279]

1 hour ago, 1E BoY said:

Another memorable Class 31 working was this one on Saturday 12th May 1984. Known as the 10 Counties RailTour it was organised by the former Watford Area Manager's organisation and started from London St. Pancras behind 31116 and 31128. It then went via West Hampstead to Acton Wells, Reading and Oxford before taking the Bletchley line and over the flyover to Fenny Stratford. This was the last day of services terminating at the old Bedford St. Johns, its replacement on the curve coming into service on the following Monday (14th). The rail tour then called briefly at the new St. Johns its platform being made from the former concrete cast platform segments from the down platform at Fenny Stratford.

The tour went on to the goods lines to Sharnbrook and thence to Wellingborough and Leicester where 20135 and 20136 took over. The train then went via Nuneton and Water Orton to Walsall where 25076 and 25245 took over for the run via Bescot and Stetchford to Northampton. At Denbigh Hall Junction (Bletchley) the train then took the flyover line to Claydon LNE Junction and thence to Marylebone via Aylesbury and High Wycombe.

I was one of the volunteer stewards aboard the train on the day so photography was limited to the one grabbed shot at the old St. Johns. 31128 is nearest the camera. 

The line on the right was retained to serve a local power station after the station was relocated.

 

I was on that tour too, my one and only time over the flyover, and my one & only time into old Bedford St Johns. To this day, that is the only time I've been loco hauled into Marylebone, and I still haven't been loco hauled out! Up until 2002 it was one of the 2 times I'd been loco hauled out of St Pan, the other being later the same year on RESL's Grampian Highlander, which started with a pair of rats St P-Derby, where 46026 took over for it's last ever run to Newcastle. Someone, who shall remain nameless, shouted out "wagon!" as it backed on at Derby!

[The Stationmaster]

I went all the way over the flyover - and on to Denby Hall Jcn where I alighted on one occasion (on a Royal Train stock ECS) and once part way over the flyover and reverse back towards the Oxford direction on an Inspection Special.  Travelling ina converted bubble car was definitely a come down after my previous excursion

[Pannier Tank]

33 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

I went all the way over the flyover - and on to Denby Hall Jcn where I alighted on one occasion (on a Royal Train stock ECS) and once part way over the flyover and reverse back towards the Oxford direction on an Inspection Special.  Travelling ina converted bubble car was definitely a come down after my previous excursion

 

Denbigh Hall Jcn 

[rodent279]

6 minutes ago, Pannier Tank said:

 

Denbigh Hall Jcn 

Denbugh Hall North if you really want to be pedantic!