I recently bought an O/S map of this area (landranger 165) and it shows
the
line running from MK to LS (which also joins up with the line to
Quainton
railway centre) as being disused. Is this the case and if so how come?
Also there seems to be a short spur line branching off north of
Quainton
and ending in the middle of nowhere. What was/is this for? A quarry of
some sort of did they simply not finish lifting the tracks?

B2003

"Boltar"  wrote in message 
news:1124826490.372774.217690@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

>
> I recently bought an O/S map of this area (landranger 165) and it shows
> the
> line running from MK to LS (which also joins up with the line to
> Quainton
> railway centre) as being disused. Is this the case and if so how come?
> Also there seems to be a short spur line branching off north of
> Quainton
> and ending in the middle of nowhere. What was/is this for? A quarry of
> some sort of did they simply not finish lifting the tracks?


I think the first line you describe is the one from Bletchley to Bicester 
via Winslow and Verney Junction, if it joins up with the line from Quainton. 
Am I right? There *is* a totally disused line from Weedon to Leamington Spa 
via Daventry but I don't think that's the one you're talking about.

The Bicester-Bletchley line had track laid until a few (five?) years ago but 
some of the line rails have been lifted - I've seen threads in this NG which 
suggest it was stolen by travellers who sold them for scrap, but I'm not 
sure whether there's any truth in that.

The short spur north of Quainton sounds like the remains of the old 
Metropolitan line to Verney Junction. This was closed to pax in the 1930s 
and track lifted in the 1950s when freight ceased.

> > I recently bought an O/S map of this area (landranger 165)

> I think the first line you describe is the one from Bletchley to Bicester
> via Winslow and Verney Junction, if it joins up with the line from Quainton.


I have the same map that the OP described, and I can confirm that the
line shown is that, the Bletchley - Bicester via Winslow & Verney
Junction. This is disused as far as the Junction with the Quainton Road
line, Claydon L&NE Junction, which features a run-round at the junction
for Freight between Bicester Tn & Calvert.


> The Bicester-Bletchley line had track laid until a few (five?) years ago but
> some of the line rails have been lifted - I've seen threads in this NG which
> suggest it was stolen by travellers who sold them for scrap, but I'm not
> sure whether there's any truth in that.
> The short spur north of Quainton sounds like the remains of the old
> Metropolitan line to Verney Junction. This was closed to pax in the 1930s
> and track lifted in the 1950s when freight ceased.


Whilst that is possible, the only spur shown on this map is the Grendon
Underwood line, which joins up with the P Risborough - Aynho Jn Line.
It is shown as far as the A41 and is shown as dismantled all the way to
the P Risborough - Aynho Jn Line.

"Martin Underwood" <a@b> wrote in
news:430b841e$0$97137$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net: 


> The Bicester-Bletchley line had track laid until a few (five?) years
> ago but some of the line rails have been lifted - I've seen threads in
> this NG which suggest it was stolen by travellers who sold them for
> scrap, but I'm not sure whether there's any truth in that.


Exactly 1/2 mile of track was 'lifted' due east of Swanbourne station.

Not a single piece of metal was removed from the site. Every nut, bolt, 
fishplate and rail was simply moved out of the way.

The sleepers, however, vanished into thin air.

"Peter Wright" <Overground> wrote in message 
news:430b8a69$0$6469$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com...

> "Martin Underwood" <a@b> wrote in
> news:430b841e$0$97137$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net:
>
>> The Bicester-Bletchley line had track laid until a few (five?) years
>> ago but some of the line rails have been lifted - I've seen threads in
>> this NG which suggest it was stolen by travellers who sold them for
>> scrap, but I'm not sure whether there's any truth in that.
>
> Exactly 1/2 mile of track was 'lifted' due east of Swanbourne station.
>
> Not a single piece of metal was removed from the site. Every nut, bolt,
> fishplate and rail was simply moved out of the way.
>
> The sleepers, however, vanished into thin air.


They took the sleepers and left th rails? Weird!

> They took the sleepers and left th rails? Weird!


Maybe they were making a new garden ;-)

"Joe Patrick"  wrote in 
news:1124830447.404607.63750@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:


>> They took the sleepers and left th rails? Weird!
> 
> Maybe they were making a new garden ;-)
> 


That was quite possibly the reasoning behind it, although on a more 
commercial scale.

They constructed their own access to the line and even erected site fencing 
at the start point of their excavations. It was some while before anybody 
twigged that there was something not quite right.

But seriously, only the woodwork went missing. They unscrewed every single 
bolt from every sleeper and left all the metalwork meticulously in place.

"Boltar"  wrote in news:1124826490.372774.217690
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:


> 
> I recently bought an O/S map of this area (landranger 165) and it shows
> the
> line running from MK to LS (which also joins up with the line to
> Quainton
> railway centre) as being disused. Is this the case and if so how come?
> Also there seems to be a short spur line branching off north of
> Quainton
> and ending in the middle of nowhere. What was/is this for? A quarry of
> some sort of did they simply not finish lifting the tracks?
> 
> B2003
> 


Back to your original question, I can't find any trace of the spur north 
of Quainton on any Landranger map I have, but the earthworks are still in 
place.

I have scanned the relevant portion of 1" map no. 146 (dated 1954) that 
you might find useful for comparison, and posted it here..

http://overground.members.beeb.net/maps/claydon.png

*Warning* : 4MB file. Also the scan is at 200% because the map has 
yellowed and faded, and I couldn't get the detail otherwise.

Strangely, this map does not show the intermediate stations (Granborough 
and Winslow Road) between Quainton and Verney Junction although it is 
still possible to find the platforms of both stations if you know where 
to look.

Between Claydon Junction (where you can only be a signalman if you own a 
4-wheel drive vehicle) and Newton Longville (at a point where the track 
was gated), the line is supposedly mothballed. This section of track is 
relatively intact except:

The LC at Claydon has been tarmaced over the rails.
West of Winslow the track has subsided due to flooding.
West of Swanbourne the ballast has washed away due to flooding.
East of Swanbourne, 1/2 mile of track has been 'removed'.
At Lower Salden Farm the gauge is only 18" where the sleepers have rotted 
away due to flooding.
Two short lengths of track are 'missing' between Swanbourne Sidings and 
Newton Longville.

The section from Bletchley to Newton Longville brickworks (site) was 
completely refurbished a few years back, but nothing has been over it 
since apart from a tamper, and one visit for spot-ballasting. The end of 
the refurbished section is no longer aligned with the rest of the line.

The guy who lives in the station house at Swanbourne still wanders up and 
down his 'patch' with a watering can of weed killer, trying to keep it 
looking like a railway, although if anything bigger than a hand cart was 
to rumble past - his residence would probably collapse.

At Winslow there has been a desparate rush to put housing on the station 
site (and all available land adjacent to the line) so there is nowhere 
left to put a new station if the line was ever to re-open.

For no apparent reason, the vegetation was cleared from the entire 
mothballed section during 1999-2000. At the same time, the Swanbourne 
Sidings site was completely cleared of trees and the perimeter planted 
with new trees which were never watered and have now died.

"Peter Wright" <Overground> wrote in message 
news:430b8a69$0$6469$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com...

> "Martin Underwood" <a@b> wrote in
> news:430b841e$0$97137$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net:
>
>> The Bicester-Bletchley line had track laid until a few (five?) years
>> ago but some of the line rails have been lifted - I've seen threads in
>> this NG which suggest it was stolen by travellers who sold them for
>> scrap, but I'm not sure whether there's any truth in that.
>
> Exactly 1/2 mile of track was 'lifted' due east of Swanbourne station.
>
> Not a single piece of metal was removed from the site. Every nut, bolt,
> fishplate and rail was simply moved out of the way.
>
> The sleepers, however, vanished into thin air.
>


Not difficult to see why.

Rails: heavy, 60' length or CWR which needs cutting, relatively low cash 
gain for effort involved, specialised re-sale market.
Sleepers: can be carried by one person, fits in normal car or several in van 
or pickup, sell to public at 10-15 each.

A 60' panel of track would yield 2 rails which could perhaps be sold to an 
unscrupulous scrap man for about 100 but transport would be difficult. Even 
a preservation society would smell a rat eventually no matter how cheap they 
were.

The same panel would give 24 sleepers. Even if 20% were rotten 19 times an 
average 12.50 is a quite respectable 237.50. A half-mile would have 44 
such panels so that makes a nice 10,450. Over 10 grand for something that 
even if they open the line will be thrown away, I don't know whether to call 
them Thieving B****rds or say "Well Done!"

-=# Amos E Wolfe #=-

"Amos E Wolfe"  wrote in
news:NnOOe.852$ER4.819@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net: 


> [snip]
> I don't know whether to call them Thieving B****rds or say "Well Done!"


Good point, but while it looked like a railway it was giving some distant 
glimmer of hope that it might re-open.

Without rails, there is a need to protect the site from groups who would 
like to turn it into a cycle path or similar.

On 23 Aug 2005 13:36:57 -0700, "Joe Patrick"
 wrote:

<snip>

>Whilst that is possible, the only spur shown on this map is the Grendon
>Underwood line, which joins up with the P Risborough - Aynho Jn Line.
>It is shown as far as the A41 and is shown as dismantled all the way to
>the P Risborough - Aynho Jn Line.


For a number of years the A41 end of the line was occupied by an
electric (ex-gas turbine 18xxx ?) loco parked just short of the
overbridge IIRC allegedly being used to measure wind resistance by the
pantograph.
-- 
                                                             _______
 +---------------------------------------------------+      |\\   //|
 | Charles Ellson: charles@e11son.demon.co.uk        |      | \\ // |
 +---------------------------------------------------+      |  > <  |
                                                            | // \\ |
                                              Alba gu brath |//___\\|

On 23 Aug 2005 23:31:08 GMT, Peter Wright <Overground> wrote:


>"Boltar"  wrote in news:1124826490.372774.217690
>@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
>
>> 
>> I recently bought an O/S map of this area (landranger 165) and it shows
>> the
>> line running from MK to LS (which also joins up with the line to
>> Quainton
>> railway centre) as being disused. Is this the case and if so how come?
>> Also there seems to be a short spur line branching off north of
>> Quainton
>> and ending in the middle of nowhere. What was/is this for? A quarry of
>> some sort of did they simply not finish lifting the tracks?
>> 
>> B2003
>> 
>
>Back to your original question, I can't find any trace of the spur north 
>of Quainton on any Landranger map I have, but the earthworks are still in 
>place.
>

Go to:-
<http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/>
and feed it with-
SP 715 175  (Westcott, Bucks)
to see the line "ending in the middle of nowhere".
<snip>
-- 
                                                             _______
 +---------------------------------------------------+      |\\   //|
 | Charles Ellson: charles@e11son.demon.co.uk        |      | \\ // |
 +---------------------------------------------------+      |  > <  |
                                                            | // \\ |
                                              Alba gu brath |//___\\|

Charles Ellson wrote:


> Go to:-
> <http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/>
> and feed it with-
> SP 715 175  (Westcott, Bucks)
> to see the line "ending in the middle of nowhere".
> <snip>


Even better, if you use Firefox get the 'Streetmap' extension, set it
to use Multimap, and you can bring up a map (with the option of aerial
photos) simply by highlighting and right clicking on a placename,
postcode or grid reference.

Charles Ellson  wrote in
news:dqing15haer9p79mh3unm1eukn3gnnd9n1@4ax.com: 


> Go to:-
> <http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/>
> and feed it with-
> SP 715 175  (Westcott, Bucks)
> to see the line "ending in the middle of nowhere".


SP705181 gives me Akeman Street, but I wouldn't describe that as being 
'north of Quainton'.

Sadly, OS maps don't seem to get updated very frequently these days.
Grendon Underwood Junction has been plained for quite some time.

> SP705181 gives me Akeman Street, but I wouldn't describe that as being
> 'north of Quainton'.


I put in SP705181 and put it in Zoom 6.

"Joe Patrick"  wrote in 
news:1124887765.300140.64590@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:


> I put in SP705181 and put it in Zoom 6.


My apologies to the group!

If OP had said 'spur to nowhere running from north-west of Quainton' I 
wouldn't have mis-read this as 'spur running north *from* Quainton'.

It's all my fault for referring to a 1954 map which *does* have a spur 
running north from Quainton.

>For no apparent reason, the vegetation was cleared from the entire
>mothballed section during 1999-2000. At the same time, the Swanbourne


Why was it mothballed anyway? I'd have thought Milton Keynes would have
generated enough commuter traffic for a line in that area to be viable.

B2003

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 02:26:28 +0100, Charles Ellson
 wrote:


>Go to:-
><http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/>
>and feed it with-
>SP 715 175  (Westcott, Bucks)
>to see the line "ending in the middle of nowhere".
><snip>


I have a copy of Colin Magg's book, "Branch Lines of Buckinghamshire".

On page 51 it says that this line was retained from Grendon Underwood
Junction to Akeman Street to serve Firman Coates' private siding.
Fertiliser trains ran to Akeman Street until 1989, and in 1999 the
track was still in situ.
-- 
Terry Harper
Website Coordinator, The Omnibus Society
http://www.omnibussoc.org

"Boltar"  wrote in message
news:1124899238.776379.67560@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

> >For no apparent reason, the vegetation was cleared from the entire
> >mothballed section during 1999-2000. At the same time, the Swanbourne
>
> Why was it mothballed anyway? I'd have thought Milton Keynes would have
> generated enough commuter traffic for a line in that area to be viable.
>

Oxford - Bletchley passenger service was withdrawn in 1967, well before
Milton Keynes got going. The Milton Keynes area does not generate enough in
the way of rail freight to keep the line in use - Bicester MOD and Calvert
can be accessed from the Oxford end, or in the latter case, via Aylesbury.

Peter

"Boltar"  wrote in news:1124899238.776379.67560
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:


> Why was it mothballed anyway? I'd have thought Milton Keynes would have
> generated enough commuter traffic for a line in that area to be viable.


Nick Catford's excellent site gives a potted history of the line with good 
then-and-now photographs of all the stations.

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/s/swanbourne/index.shtml

Terry Harper  wrote in 
news:3kapg1dh52ncaet8r5qrcq7clrpkvqpokb@4ax.com:


> I have a copy of Colin Magg's book, "Branch Lines of Buckinghamshire".
> 
> On page 51 it says that this line was retained from Grendon Underwood
> Junction to Akeman Street to serve Firman Coates' private siding.
> Fertiliser trains ran to Akeman Street until 1989, and in 1999 the
> track was still in situ.


The track was still in place when I walked it in March 2003, although 
Grendon Underwood Junction had been plained and the first 200 yards of the 
spur lifted.

The track itself was then in remarkably good condition although the 
vegetation was pretty dense in places.

The bridge at SP711210, however, was not sound. Singling the track had 
ripped out all the pitch that waterproofs the cast iron vaulting of the 
span and the resulting damage was quite severe.

Terry Harper wrote:


> I have a copy of Colin Magg's book, "Branch Lines of Buckinghamshire".
> 
> On page 51 it says that this line was retained from Grendon Underwood
> Junction to Akeman Street to serve Firman Coates' private siding.
> Fertiliser trains ran to Akeman Street until 1989, and in 1999 the
> track was still in situ.


Wasn't it used for some 'wind force experiments' using a
withdrawn loco?  (E2001 maybe?)

Charlie

On 24/8/05 6:57 pm, in article Tx2Pe.38$p4.18@newsfe7-win.ntli.net, "Charlie
Hulme"  wrote:


> Terry Harper wrote:
> 
>> I have a copy of Colin Magg's book, "Branch Lines of Buckinghamshire".
>> 
>> On page 51 it says that this line was retained from Grendon Underwood
>> Junction to Akeman Street to serve Firman Coates' private siding.
>> Fertiliser trains ran to Akeman Street until 1989, and in 1999 the
>> track was still in situ.
> 
> Wasn't it used for some 'wind force experiments' using a
> withdrawn loco?  (E2001 maybe?)
> 
> Charlie
> 
> 

I don't know but I think this route should be reopened, as it is a vital
corridor if things get stuck in London.
Anyway the Oxford Bletchley line should reopen, and on to cambridge.

Peter Wright wrote:


> The bridge at SP711210, however, was not sound. Singling the track had 
> ripped out all the pitch that waterproofs the cast iron vaulting of the 
> span and the resulting damage was quite severe.
> 


What - this bridge?

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=quainton&ll=51.883333,-0.967709&sll=51.832933,-1.015871&spn=0.003240,0.007522&sspn=0.003414,0.007918&t=k&num=10&start=0&hl=en

or

http://tinyurl.com/e2aa6

It's odd that all the bushes look 'Mouldy' in these aerial photos - but 
perhaps they were taken in May and it's blossom.

It's lucky that Google maps has good definition aerial photos of this 
small area allowing a quick roam across the lot, including the entire 
Grendon Underwood to Ashendon Junction line with the Chiltern redoubling 
alterations there almost decipherable and what often appears to be land 
for four tracks of line south of there. For the patient there's the 
route of the Brill branch to discover among the fields ...

Mark Annand  wrote in
news:430cd967$0$32464$4c56ba96@master.news.zetnet.net: 


> What - this bridge?
> 
> http://maps.google.com/maps?q=quainton&ll=51.883333,-0.967709&sll=51.83
> 2933,-1.015871&spn=0.003240,0.007522&sspn=0.003414,0.007918&t=k&num=10&
> start=0&hl=en 
> 
> or
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/e2aa6


That's the one.

I think we can assume the bridge number is GUA2 as the one north of this is 
marked GUA1, and the next one south is marked GUA3.