East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[Pannier Tank]

14 hours ago, Arun Sharma said:

In the early pages of this thread there were photographs showing that waterlogging had occurred over much of the trackbed West of Winslow.

 

There was a Permanent 30 MPH Speed Restriction in this area in BR Days maybe even before 1948.

 

[Mike Storey]

1 hour ago, Edwin_m said:

Do we know that the work by HS2 is actually delaying the completion of EWR?  If it doesn't, then it doesn't matter.  

 

According to the published timescale (see earlier link), it is delaying completion by about a year (2023), assuming the work could have progressed in that year. But, given the new station at Winslow and new platforms and links at Bletchley won't be completely finished until 2023, I doubt HS2 actually causes even that much of the delay. However, as others have said, with a bit more imagination and, perhaps, more money, a way could have been found to mitigate this. But, we are where we are now.

 

[VarsityJim]

8 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

HS2 crosses the EW Rail line here.....

 

 

 

 

 

Calvert GCR Station on the HS2 alignment......

 

 

 

 

 

.

Will the old platform be removed?

[Ron Ron Ron]

6 minutes ago, VarsityJim said:

Will the old platform be removed?

 

The whole disused formation will be dug up and all remnants of the old disused station will be obliterated.

[lmsforever]

Watching the whole saga of EWR from the early sixties  it is a miracle that we are were at the current position ,it is  only  because of dedicated campaigners.Constant  ignorance by government departments has meant that we in Aylesbury for instance have had to use tenuous bus links and drive to MK  for years and motorists are favoured by these departments.   I think that in the sixties decisions were made that are now being  regreted ,Beeching and Marples colluded crimanally to close so many lines and then sell off trackbeds to stop any resurgance as we see so many times.Even now the DFT are trying thier hardest to drop the Aylesbury MK service plus they have downgraded the project every oportunity they find , I would have thought wires from Didcot to Bletchley was a no brainer .I think we are lucky that double track is still in place .  Frankly I will be surprised if any progress beyond Bedford happenns knowing our masters. Wi th government control of rail we are at the mercy of people who do not care what really happenns to us after all we are merely statistics.

[Northmoor]

27 minutes ago, lmsforever said:

Watching the whole saga of EWR from the early sixties  it is a miracle that we are were at the current position ,it is  only  because of dedicated campaigners. Constant  ignorance by government departments has meant that we in Aylesbury for instance have had to use tenuous bus links and drive to MK  for years and motorists are favoured by these departments.   I think that in the sixties decisions were made that are now being  regreted , Beeching and Marples colluded crimanally to close so many lines and then sell off trackbeds to stop any resurgance as we see so many times. Even now the DFT are trying thier hardest to drop the Aylesbury MK service plus they have downgraded the project every oportunity they find , I would have thought wires from Didcot to Bletchley was a no brainer .I think we are lucky that double track is still in place .  Frankly I will be surprised if any progress beyond Bedford happenns knowing our masters. Wi th government control of rail we are at the mercy of people who do not care what really happenns to us after all we are merely statistics.

The DfT have long had a London-centric view of transport infrastructure; orbital links which avoid London have struggled to get funded or have been inadequately specified.  You may shout "M25" but remember that was one of THREE proposed London rings and wasn't actually finished until the mid 1980s.  Look at roads like the A14 - carrying huge amounts of freight from Felixstowe to the Midlands and NW England - which were only built as two-lane, when it clearly demands more than that.

 

As for Beeching and Marples colluding criminally, that's quite a brave claim; Beeching proposed a lot of railway developments which the government refused to fund (only accepting the closures).  It has to be remembered that in the 1960s, almost nobody seriously believed that road traffic would reach the levels it is at now, but everyone - in almost every social group - believed the future was the private car and in most of the UK, the railways were a transport mode that would soon be defunct.

[stewartingram]

I remember, back in the 60s before closure of the line, of talk of new services from Didcot and beyond - (Southampton?) via Oxford - Cambridge then onwards to Ipswich etc. It came a shock to me (a mere youngster) when it did close. I travelled a lot at that time (usually trainspotting trips); most of my journeys out of my home station (Cambridge) were on the 'Bletchley branch' and they were always well filled.

[lmsforever]

Recently there was a programe about Marples and his doings railways were mentioned in this context during the programe.

[cctransuk]

1 hour ago, stewartingram said:

I remember, back in the 60s before closure of the line, of talk of new services from Didcot and beyond - (Southampton?) via Oxford - Cambridge then onwards to Ipswich etc. It came a shock to me (a mere youngster) when it did close. I travelled a lot at that time (usually trainspotting trips); most of my journeys out of my home station (Cambridge) were on the 'Bletchley branch' and they were always well filled.

 

I was told, several times during the forty years that we lived in Cambridge, that a major reason for the line closure was that Cambridge University wanted the straight trackbed, southwest of Cambridge, on which to erect the radio telescopes of the Mullard Research Observatory.

 

That was certainly what happened after the line closed.

 

John Isherwood.

[1E BoY]

 

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

I was told, several times during the forty years that we lived in Cambridge, that a major reason for the line closure was that Cambridge University wanted the straight trackbed, southwest of Cambridge, on which to erect the radio telescopes of the Mullard Research Observatory.

 

That was certainly what happened after the line closed.

 

John Isherwood.

 

Lords Bridge taken in 2003. My grandfather began his early railway career here as the signal box lad and married a local girl. Lords Bridge was part of the LNWR under Bletchley at the time. He lodged in the public house which stood on the bridge. 

 

[62613]

14 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Recently there was a programe about Marples and his doings railways were mentioned in this context during the programe.

Beeching came to the conclusion that the railways should concentrate on the things that it could do well, and have investment put into them, while ridding itself of the things that it wasn't, such as station to station freight, branch lines which had never made a profit, and so on, which seem like pretty good ideas to me.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

A couple of awful quality Pocket Instamatic shots of Lords Bridge taken circa 1977/78..........

 

 

 

We were on a school Astronomical Society visit to the radio telescopes, so I took a couple of shots of the former station building & goods shed.   A lot less foliage around compared to the later shot a few posts previously.

[caradoc]

17 hours ago, lmsforever said:

I think that in the sixties decisions were made that are now being  regreted ,Beeching and Marples colluded crimanally to close so many lines and then sell off trackbeds to stop any resurgance as we see so many times.

 

By the time the passenger service between Oxford and Cambridge was withdrawn in 1968 both Beeching and Marples were gone, as indeed was the Government of which Marples was part. 

 

[lmsforever]

I had forgotten that but the culture of defunding railways persisted and governments have kept this in place until the last few years.The current project is what many of us in the area have waited for and I hope I will be able to go on a trip Winslow Bletchley when its open.

[caradoc]

17 minutes ago, lmsforever said:

I hope I will be able to go on a trip Winslow Bletchley when its open.

 

Same here, although in my case from Oxford to Bletchley, and I fully agree that the link from Aylesbury is a vital part of East West Rail. 

[Nearholmer]

My whim is to be able to cycle to Oxford, and catch the train home, and my impatience is because, if things carry on at the rate they have so far, cycling that far might be beyond me.

 

Not really a sound business case for the reconstruction of an entire railway, I admit, so let’s hope lots of others want to make similar trips!

[Pete the Elaner]

10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

My whim is to be able to cycle to Oxford, and catch the train home, and my impatience is because, if things carry on at the rate they have so far, cycling that far might be beyond me.

 

Not really a sound business case for the reconstruction of an entire railway, I admit, so let’s hope lots of others want to make similar trips!

 

Sounds like a nice day out. I know a few local cyclists who would be interested in joining you, myself included.

[Nearholmer]

It’s a nice route, and it’s actually not all that far, c40 miles depending which way you go, but the return trip in a day is just beyond me these days.

 

If, when the blasted thing opens, we’ll organise a party of bicyclists.

[31A]

1 hour ago, caradoc said:

 

By the time the passenger service between Oxford and Cambridge was withdrawn in 1968 both Beeching and Marples were gone, as indeed was the Government of which Marples was part. 

 

 

Indeed, and in fact the line wasn't shown for closure in the Beeching Plan.

 

[highpeakman]

14 hours ago, 1E BoY said:

 

 

Lords Bridge taken in 2003. My grandfather began his early railway career here as the signal box lad and married a local girl. Lords Bridge was part of the LNWR under Bletchley at the time. He lodged in the public house which stood on the bridge. 

 

 

Map showing the pub.

My interest is that I visited the Astronomy site a couple of times during my working career. I seem to remember that the reason the telescopes originally needed to spaced out well along the line was that they obtained more detailed "pictures" with muliple antennas spaced apart (Long Base line). I understand, but am open to correction, that this has long been superceded by using antennas now spaced apart internationally (Very Long Baseline?).

[Michael Hodgson]

18 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Beeching and Marples colluded crimanally to close so many lines and then sell off trackbeds to stop any resurgance as we see so many times.

Criminal conspiracy is a bit strong.

 

Misguided or misjudged, perhaps but the policy of the elected Government of the day.  There could be little economic justification for continuing to man stations and trains that nobody wanted to travel on and to perpetuate archaic goods handling methods that had become so inefficient that traders had all ceased to use them.

 

The "Beeching Report" is touted as being all about branch line closures but it was actually entitled "The Reshaping of British Railways" (1963) and "The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes" (1965).  It was an honest attempt to deal with the inefficiencies and provide services which met contemporary needs, and had Beeching never been undertaken, it seems likely that the even the main lines would have been forced to close as Governments of both complexions were unwilling to subsidise indefinitely..

 

Marples is remembered more for his time as Postmaster General and the the introduction of "Ernie", the premium bond and postcodes.

If he is accused of conspiracy, it would be more appropriate to consider whether his role as the Minister of Transport who opened of the first motorways was a conflict of interest with his previous role as MD of a road construction company.  His lot got slung out when Harold won by banging on about 13 years of Tory misrule, but Wilson's lot carried on closing enconomic lines.

[TheQ]

56 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

My whim is to be able to cycle to Oxford, and catch the train home, and my impatience is because, if things carry on at the rate they have so far, cycling that far might be beyond me.

 

Not really a sound business case for the reconstruction of an entire railway, I admit, so let’s hope lots of others want to make similar trips!

I take it not by the A421 but by the back lanes, probably, Winslow- Steeple Claydon, Marsh Gibbon, etc..

[lmsforever]

Perhaps my comment was a bit wrong but many lines closed after creative accounting  but at least now some of them are reopening. The programe about Marples was an eye opener in the way it showed how things unfolded was a very sorry story with a sad ending.  

[lmsforever]

If I went back fifty years I would happily join the bike ride but now is now so enjoy yourselves when you do the ride.

[Nearholmer]

36 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I take it not by the A421 but by the back lanes, probably, Winslow- Steeple Claydon, Marsh Gibbon, etc..

Definitely not the A421; you can go via The Claydons etc., or a bit more scenic via Qauinton and Brill.

 

The cheat method is to start at Winslow, which lops 10 miles off each way!