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This poster is located inside a shelter on platform 4 at Princes Risborough station and is one of six mentioning Risborough's railway story. It has the following wording, photos and map:

RISBOROUGH'S RAILWAY STORY
THE CHINNOR AND PRINCES RISBOROUGH RAILWAY (THE ICKNIELD LINE)
1989 - present

Left column
Following on from the history of the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway, which closed to passenger traffic in 1957 and later for goods (principally in the last years to and from the cement works at Chinnor), the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association was formed in August 1989 some months before the line itself closed officially from January 1990. The Association was awarded the maintenance of the surviving branch from Chinnor to the point where it was joined by the Thame Branch (the branch through Thame to Oxford that was built by the Wycombe and Princes Risborough Railway but was operated from the start by the Great Western Railway) and which was closed on 7 January 1963.

Originally Rugby Cement were to buy the track bed and lease it to the steam railway but when negotiations dragged on they pulled out. After a stupendous fund-raising effort, the railway itself bought the track bed in August 1994 to enable work to proceed. In the early days of the Association, replacement track was taken from the cement works.

Photo one: Work commencing in 1991 on the removal of the facings of the disused Fulwell & Westbury station near Buckingham (on the former London and North Western Railway's Banbury Branch) for use at Chinnor Station (photo credit: Alan Jeffries)
Photo Two: The rebuilding of Chinnor Station in the early 1990's (photo credit: Alan Jeffries)

A new platform suitable for two coaches had been completed at Chinnor in May 1994 (the Station itself having been demolished in the early 1970's). The first public service since 1957 was run on 29 August 1994 with round trips over the 1.3 miles to Wainhill Crossing. The track was extended for two miles more, past Bledlow to Horsenden Lane in April 1995. A further extension to Thame Junction was ready for the start of the 1996 season where a run-round loop was incorporated. The platform at Chinnor still lacked a building but this was rectified from 1998 with the construction of an award-winning replica of the original station building which was opened in April 2002 by Sir William McAlpine. This building could not have been completed without careful analysis of the only surviving station building on the line, the identical but ruined example at Watlington. The late Victorian signal box at Chinnor was donated by the family of Ken Cruse in June 2007. He had rescued it from Mouldsworth near Chester and had rebuilt it in his garden. The specially adapted box now sits on a brick plinth and has been equipped with a salvaged Great Western lever frame.

The first phase of the Restoration and Engineering Centre ('REC') at Chinnor was completed in early 2015 with the erection of the main shed. The concept came from the contribution of land and financial help in 2009 from Taylor Wimpey who were about to commence the redevelopment of the former cement works. The massive Centre provides a covered space for mechanical repairs and carriage and wagon restoration work during the winter.

Right column
Photo: Chinnor Station almost complete except for the roof (photo credit: Alan Jeffries)

During 2007 passenger services reached Princes Risborough but there was no platform available at first. The original 'bay' platform had been destroyed and its site was a shrub-covered bank with some vestiges of brickwork surviving. The platform edge was built up by volunteers and a local firm was called in to pave the new platform. The ticket office arrived in a poor state from its previous role as the car park attendant's hut at another Chiltern Railways station and was refurbished and painted in the chocolate and cream livery used by British Railways Western Region, as selected for Princes Risborough Station. (Chinnor Station uses the two-tone 'stone' livery used by the Great Western Railway for its buildings and structures, also now adopted by Chiltern Railways at its Moor Street station in Birmingham).

Once the track work was satisfactorily completed, Princes Risborough platform 4 was officially opened on 15 August 2018 by our Patron, Lady McAlpine. Work continues at Risborough on the restoration of the signal box, the provision of signalling and of additional services and facilities.

Photo: The opening of the CPRRA platform at Princes Risborough in August 2018 (photo credit: Geoff Huntingford)

Map of The Great Western Railway
The Watlington Branch
Opened 1872 and Closed 1957
Left: image of Wainhill Halt
The branch to Watlington ran for 8 miles 66 chains (1452 yds) and opened for traffic in 1872 as the Watlington & Princes Risborough Railway. The railway was taken over by the G.W.R. in 1883. The branch was single line throughout and worked on the one-engine-in-steam principle and carrying third class only.
Image of Chinnor Station
Right: image of Bledlow Bridge Halt
Map courtesy C Yeates

Link

Foot of poster from left to right:
Logo of Princes Risborough Town Council
This poster has been produced with a grant from Princes Risborough Town Council.
Logo of the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway Association