Buckinghamshire Railway Centre

 

In 1962, the London Railway Preservation Society was formed. It bought a series of former London Underground vehicles and collectables, and holds the largest collection of London and North Western Railway memorabilia.^[1] These were held at various sites around London, mainly two government depots at Luton and Bishop's Stortford,^[2] making both access, restoration and preservation difficult.^[1]

While other closed stations on the former MR lines north of Aylesbury were generally demolished or sold,^[3] in 1969 the Quainton Railway Society was formed to operate a working museum at the station.^[4] On 24 April 1971 the society absorbed the London Railway Preservation Society, taking custody of its collection of historic railway equipment.^[5]

The station was maintained in working order, used as a bookshop and ticket office.^[6] The extensive sidings were still intact, and although disconnected from the mainline in 1967,^[7] were used for locomotive restoration work.^[4] The Society eventually restored the main station building to its 1900 appearance, renaming the site the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.^[8] A smaller building on the former Brill platform, once a shelter for passengers waiting for Brill and down trains, was used first as a store then as a shop for a number of years before its current use to house an exhibit on the history of the Brill Tramway. A former London Transport building from Wembley Park was dismantled and re-erected at Quainton Road to serve as a maintenance shed.^[9]

 

Although the BRC's trains are run on the former station sidings, the station still has a working Network Rail line passing through it. This connects Aylesbury with the Bletchley to Oxford cross-country route at Claydon (LNE) Junction. Regular landfill freight trains and High Speed 2 spoil trains traverse the line from waste transfer depots in Greater London as well as some from the freight terminal at Tytherington and other freight locations in the South-West of England to the former brick pits at Calvert. The High Speed 2 trains also terminate here, but are used for the construction of the new High Speed 2 depot at Calvert.^[10]

From 1984 until 1990, the station briefly came back into passenger use, when special Christmas shopping services between Aylesbury and Bletchley were operated by British Rail Network SouthEast on Saturdays only, and stopped at Quainton Road.^[11] From August Bank Holiday 1971 until the 1987 season, and again from August Bank Holiday 2001 until May 2017 the station has had special passenger trains from Aylesbury in connection with events at the Centre - these shuttles ran regularly each Spring and August Bank Holiday weekend.

With an extensively redeveloped site on both sides of the working mainline, BRC houses around 170 items of locomotives and rolling stock, in buildings dating from 1874 to the 1960s. The adjacent World War II warehouses of the Ministry of Food Buffer Depot in the former downside yard have been taken over to display many items awaiting restoration, whilst the Society have added a members' reference library.

 

Rewley Road, the Oxford terminus of Harry Verney's Buckinghamshire Railway and of the Oxford to Cambridge Line, closed to passengers on 1 October 1951 with trains diverted to the former GWR Oxford General, the current Oxford station. In co-operation with the Science Museum, Rewley Road was dismantled in 1999. The main station building and part of the platform canopy were then moved to BRC and re-erected in 2002 at the north-west corner of the site, now providing improved visitor facilities and the main offices of the QRS.^[12]

As one of the best-preserved period railway stations in England, Quainton Road is regularly used as a filming location for programmes such as The Jewel in the Crown, the Doctor Who serial Black Orchid, Midsomer Murders and was a recurring location for the eighth series of Taskmaster.^[7]

High Speed 2's planned route passes immediately to the west of the site, not impacting the centre directly, although it will preclude any restoration of the Brill Tramway.^[13]

The collection includes locomotives, carriages, and assorted rolling stock, plus a large amount of memorabilia and documents.^[14]

Sortable table

Class	Number (and name)	Chassis	Status	Notes	Image
Metropolitan Railway E Class	No.1 (London Transport L44)	0-4-4T	Under overhaul	Built 1898. Withdrawn from service early needing boiler repairs.
LSWR 0298 Class	314 (British Railways 30585)	2-4-0WT	Static Display	Built 1874. Boiler ticket expired in 2016.
Peckett and Sons	No.1159 Annie	0-4-0ST	Under overhaul	Built 1908. Arrived in April 2018 from the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. Part way through a major overhaul.
Peckett and Sons	No.2105 Rokeby	0-4-0ST	Static Display	Built 1951. Mainly used on goods/vintage trains.
North British Locomotive Company	Coventry No.1	0-6-0T	Static Display	Built 1939. Previously acted as Thomas the Tank Engine on "Thomas" days. On static display after her boiler certificate expired.
Hudswell Clarke	No.1742 Millom	0-4-0ST	Operational	Built 1946. Used on goods and vintage trains. Currently running in guise of Percy the Small Engine. Boiler ticket expires in 2027.
Aveling and Porter	No.3587 Sydenham	0-4-0WTG	Under overhaul	Built 1895
GWR 6959 Class	6984 Owsden Hall	4-6-0	Under restoration	Built 1948. Transferred from the Swindon and Cricklade Railway in November 2019. Its tender is currently in use behind 6989.[15]
GWR 6959 Class	6989 Wightwick Hall	4-6-0	Operational	Built 1948. Returned to service for the 2019 May Bank Holiday Gala. Restoration complete as of 11 December 2018. Using 6984 Owsden Hall's tender. Currently on loan to the Bluebell Railway from 2023 to 2024.[16]
GWR 7200 Class	7200	2-8-2T	Under restoration	Built in 1934
Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST	No.3890 NCB 66	0-6-0ST	Operational	Last Hunslet Austerity built in 1964. Boiler ticket expires in 2024.
Peckett and Sons	No.1900	0-4-0ST	Under overhaul	Built 1936. Britain's smallest standard-gauge steam locomotive.
Andrew Barclay	No.699 Swanscombe	0-4-0ST	Under overhaul	Built 1891. The oldest surviving Barclay. Repainted in July 2013 into pseudo-Metropolitan Railway livery as Brill No. 1.
Bagnall	No.2469 Scott	0-4-0ST	Static display	Built 1932. Boiler ticket expired in 2024. Mainly used on goods trains.
Andrew Barclay	No.1477	0-4-0F	Static display	Built 1916. Fireless
Andrew Barclay	No.2243	0-4-0F	Static display	Built 1948. Fireless
Aveling and Porter	No.807 Brill	0-4-0TG	Static display	Built 1872. Brill Tramway No.1
GWR 5700 Class	7715 (London Transport L99)	0-6-0PT	Static display	Built 1930. Bought by London Transport in 1963, their L.99 until 1969. Out of service from December 2011 with a cracked boiler foundation ring.
Hawthorn Leslie	No.3717 Swanscombe No.3	0-4-0ST	Static display	Built 1928
Hawthorn Leslie	No.3718 Swanscombe No.4	0-4-0ST	Operational	Built 1928. Arrived in 2018 near the end of a major overhaul. She entered service in August 2018. Boiler ticket expires 2028. Currently located at the Northampton and Lamport Railway.
Hudswell Clarke	No.1334 Sir Thomas	0-6-0T	Static display	Built 1918
Hunslet	No.3782 Arthur	0-6-0ST	Operational	Built 1953. Returned to service in 2024. Currently running in guise of Thomas the Tank Engine.
LNWR	3020 Cornwall	2-2-2	Static Display	Built 1847. On display inside the Rewley Road visitor centre. On loan from the National Railway Museum.
South African Class 25NC	3405	4-8-4	Static Display	Built 1953. 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge
Sentinel Waggon Works	No.6515 Isebrook	4wd	Operational	Built 1945. Returned to steam in 2019 after overhaul. Boiler ticket expires in 2029. Currently located at the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway.
Sentinel Waggon Works	No.9366 Cynthia	4wd	Operational	Built 1945. Returned to steam in late 2017 after a major overhaul. Boiler ticket expires in 2027.
Yorkshire Engine Company	No.2498 Chislet	0-6-0ST	Static Display	Built 1951
British Rail Class 04	D2298	0-6-0DM	Under Restoration	Built 1960. Under restoration after suffering an engine failure at the East Lancashire Railway.
John Fowler	No.20067 Osram	0-4-0DM	Static Display
F.C. Hibberd "Planet"	No.3765	0-4-0DM	Operational
F.C. Hibberd	No.2102	0-4-0DM	Static Display
F.C. Hibberd	No.3271 Walrus	0-4-0DM	Static Display
Hunslet	K4428 Redland	0-4-0DM	Static Display
Hunslet	No.2067	0-4-0DM	Operational
Ruston & Hornsby	No.425477	0-4-0DM	Operational
Ruston & Hornsby	No.463153 Hilsea	0-4-0DM	Under Overhaul	Ex-British Gas

• BR Class 115 unit 51886+59761+51889 "Aylesbury College Silver Jubilee 1987"^{[citation needed]}

 

• Post Office Railway (London) 1930 Stock No. 803 ^[17]
• London Underground CO/CP Stock unit 53028+013063+54233 [1][2][3]
• New York City Subway car No. 1144, an R6, converted into a cafeteria for the museum.^[18]

• BR Mk 1 TPO sorting van no. 80394
• London Transport brake vans nos. B557 and FB578

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.

• Buckinghamshire Railway Centre website.
• Buckinghamshire Railway Centre Stockbook