This is a rare example of a ‘Door to door’ container. It could be carried either on a lorry or on a train carriage. This enabled goods to be conveyed door to door by rail without the need to repack or disturb the contents. They ere often used for household removals. This particular container was built in 1954, one of nearly 10000 built to this design in the 10 years from 1948.
It is now in preservation at the Buckinghamshire railway centre
Platform 3 was the terminating point for the Brill Tramway at Quainton Road
Platform 3 Quainton Road Station
The closure notice for the Brill Tramway
Quainton Road station now forms part of the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.
The Brill tramway was a 6 mile stretch of Private rail line, which linked the estate of the Duke of Buckingham with the national rail network at Quainton Road.
It was built in 1871 by the third Duke for horse trams to transport goods to and from his estate and the nearby village of Brill. The first passenger services ran a year later and soon the horses had been replaced by two locomotives.
Brill Tramway locomotive 1872
Brill Tramway locomotive 1872
The Duke had plans to enlarge the route and create a link between Aylesbury and Oxford. In anticipation, the tramway was renamed the Oxford and Aylesbury tramroad.
Replica of original Tramway carriage
Replica of original Tramway carriage
Replica of original Tramway carriage
However an alternative route was chosen and the extension was never completed. In 1894 the Tramway became part of the Metropolitan Railway and was rebuilt in 1910 to enable the use of faster locomotives. However, the Tramway was losing money. In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway became part of London transport. It seems that they could see no viable future for it and it was closed two years later.
All that now remains are the station buildings at Quainton Road, which now form part of the Buckinghamshire Railway centre.
2087 was built in 1948 by Peckett for use on depots owned by Courtalds. During its working life it was stationed at works in N.wales, Wolverhampton and Preston. It was replaced in 1968 and went first to the Lytham Creek Museum where it stayed until 1980 when it was transferred to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. It was moved to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre in 1983 where it has been seen frequently in steam.
video by Daniel Gosling (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1X2IHvwtnOSqef9b_WVQ-g?feature=watch)
849 was built for the War Department by Hunslet of Leeds in 1940. It has some interesting features – a maximum speed of 12 mph coupled with a pulling capacity of 584 tons made it a very powerful locomotive over short distances. It’s not that well known that in the 1940s and 1950s the Army’s fleet of locomotives ranked as the third largest in the country behind British Railways and the National coal board.
849 Worked at a number of ordinance depots across the country until it was withdrawn from service in 1966 and sold to ESSO petroleum for you use in their depot at Purfleet in Essex. It finish working in 1983 and was donated by ESSO to the Buckinghamshire Railway centre where it is currently on display.
1742 Millom, a light industrial shunter, was built in Leeds in 1946 for the Ministry of Supply. For the next 10 years it operated on government depots in the North of England. In 1957, it was sold to a mining company for use on temporary tracks laid to the open mine faces. These light engines were ideal for such work. It operated until 1968 when it was transferred to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, where it is now used for pulling passenger services.
The traveling post office service was first operated in 1830 and grew to include a number of different routes where the mail was sorted en route and dropped off or picked up without the need for the train to stop.
The most iconic portrayal of the TPO came in the 1936 film ‘Night Mail’
The full documentary includes the poem Night Mail by WH Auden.
video from http://www.youtube.com/user/40thegardener2?feature=watch
The TPO service finished in 2004 as sorting became more automated. These pictures are of one of the last TPOs to run and which is currently preserved at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.
Recently paid a visit to the Buckinghamshire Railway centre. The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is a working Steam Museum, with one of the UK’s largest collections of locomotives, rolling stock and railway memorabilia. It is situated at Quainton Road Railway Centre originally on the old Metropolitan Line and later part of the British rail network.
It includes a re-created country station in the heyday of steam travel and is home to many locomotives from different ages of steam locomotion.
An excellent day out for anyone interested in Steam railways
Further details can be found at http://www.bucksrailcentre.org/index.php
Address
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Quainton Road Station
Quainton
near Aylesbury
Bucks
HP22 4BY
A member of the GWR Castle class, 5080 was originally named Ogmore Castle. It was built at Swindon in 1939 and was allocated to Old Oak Common depot in London. It was responsible for hauling express passenger and goods trains over the GWR network. In 1941, it was transferred to Cardiff and renamed Defiant to commemorate a type of plane which fought in the Battle of Britain. It remained in South Wales for the rest of its service life.
It was withdrawn in 1963 and initially sold for spare parts. However, eventually it was restored and ran in steam for a number of years until its certificate ran out. It is now on static display at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.
3405 is a member of the 35NC class built in Glasgow for South African Railways in 1954. it is among the most powerful and advanced steam locomotives to be built. It can run for over 100 miles without having to be refilled with water, which makes it ideal for long haul trains in a country as large as South Africa. 3405 often pulled the famous ‘blue train’.
It was withdrawn form service in the late 1970s and was donated to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton Road, where it is on display. Due to the difference in gauge between UK and South African Railways it is not possible for it to be displayed in steam.
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