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Wood Siding railway station

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Coordinates: 51°49′59″N 1°01′28″W / 51.833°N 1.0244°W / 51.833; -1.0244
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Wood Siding
Wood Siding is located in Greater London
Wood Siding
Wood Siding
Location of Wood Siding in Greater London
LocationBrill, Buckinghamshire
Local authorityAylesbury Vale
OwnerWotton Tramway
Number of platforms1
Other information
Coordinates51°49′59″N 1°01′28″W / 51.833°N 1.0244°W / 51.833; -1.0244
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Wood Siding railway station was a small halt in Bernwood Forest, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. It was opened in 1871 as part of a short horse-drawn tramway to allow for the transport of goods from and around the Duke of Buckingham's extensive estates in Buckinghamshire and to connect the Duke's estates to the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway at Quainton Road.

A lobbying campaign by residents of the town of Brill led to the tramway being converted for passenger use and extended a short distance beyond Wood Siding to Brill railway station in 1872, becoming known as the Brill Tramway. Cheaply built and ungraded, and using poor quality locomotives, services on the line were very slow, initially limited to 5 miles per hour (8 km/h). In the 1890s it was planned to extend the tramway to Oxford, but the scheme was abandoned. Instead, the operation of the line was taken over by the Metropolitan Railway in 1899. Between 1908 and 1910 the station was completely rebuilt on a bridge over the newly built Chiltern Main Line of the Great Western Railway, which passed directly beneath the station.

In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership and became the Metropolitan Line of London Transport. As a result, Wood Siding became a station on the London Underground network, despite being over 40 miles (60 km) from central London. London Transport's new management aimed to move away from goods services to concentrate on passenger services; as the line served a very lightly populated rural area, the management of London Transport believed it very unlikely that it could ever be made viable, and Wood Siding was closed, along with the rest of the line, from 30 November 1935. Although all infrastructure associated with the station was removed in 1936, the remains of the bridge which supported the station remain in place.

The Brill Tramway

On 23 September 1868 the small Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway (A&BR) opened, linking the Great Western Railway's station at Aylesbury to the London and North Western Railway's Oxford to Bletchley line at Verney Junction.[1] On 1 September 1894 London's Metropolitan Railway (MR) reached Aylesbury,[1] and shortly afterwards connected to the A&BR line, with local MR services running to Verney Junction from 1 April 1894.[1] Through trains from the MR's London terminus at Baker Street commenced on 1 January 1897.[1]

small green steam locomotive
One of the original 1871 Aveling and Porter locomotives used by the line

The Duke of Buckingham had long had an interest in railways, and had served as Chairman of the London and North Western Railway from 1852 to 1861. In the early 1870s he decided to build a light railway to carry freight from his estates in Buckinghamshire to the A&BR's line at Quainton Road.[2][note 1] The first stage of the line, known as the Wotton Tramway, was a 4-mile (6.4 km) line from Quainton Road via Wotton to a coal siding at Kingswood,[5] and opened on 1 April 1871.[2][6] Intended for use by horse trams, the line was built with longitudinal sleepers to avoid horses tripping on the sleepers.[5][7] In November 1871 the tramway was extended to Wood Siding, in a surviving fragment of Bernwood Forest 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 kilometres) from the town of Brill and 1,500 yards (1,400 m) from the nearest settlement at Dorton.[4]

Lobbying from residents and businesses in Brill for the introduction of passenger services on the line led to a 1,840 yards (1,680 m) further extension from Wood Siding to Brill railway station, at the foot of Brill Hill 3⁄4 of a mile (1.2 km) from the hilltop town of Brill itself,[5] in the summer of 1872 and the introduction of two mixed trains each day in each direction,[6][8] at which time the line was renamed the Brill Tramway. The duke bought two Aveling and Porter traction engines modified to work as locomotives for the line, each with a top speed of 8 miles per hour (13 km/h),[8][9] although a speed limit of 5 miles per hour (8 km/h) was enforced.[3]

balding man with a dark bushy beard
The Duke of Buckingham, founder of the Brill Tramway

The duke died in 1889, and in 1894 the trustees of his estate set up the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company (O&ATC) with the intention of extending the line from Brill to Oxford.[note 2] The MR leased the Brill Tramway from 1 December 1899,[1] although the line continued to be owned by the O&ATC.[10][note 3]

Services and facilities

The siding was positioned on the southern edge of Rushbeds Wood, part of the Bernwood Forest; it was on the western side of the level crossing over Kingswood Lane.[12] Intended primarily for goods use, Wood Siding initially had no facilities for passengers, not even a platform.[13][14] In 1894 a low platform and small corrugated iron waiting room were built for passengers.[15] As well as the passenger platform, a short siding led to a raised wooden platform, alongside the through line to Brill, which served both as a buffer stop for the siding, and as a loading platform for milk.[16]. The station was staffed by a single porter, responsible for opening the gates of a nearby level crossing and for loading and unloading freight (mainly milk);[16][17] a small, unheated hut was provided for his use.[16] While the original Aveling & Porter locomotive was slow and noisy and could be heard by the porter long before its arrival, the more advanced locomotives introduced by the Metropolitan Railway were quieter and quicker; a ladder was installed against a large oak for the porter to observe oncoming trains.[16]

Map of two diverging railway lines branching north and west from a single southeast-northwest line
The twin branches of the Metropolitan Railway from Quainton Road to Verney Junction and Brill

After the 1899 transfer of services to the Metropolitan Railway, the MR introduced a single Brown Marshall passenger carriage on the line;[18] unlike other stations on the line, the platform height at Wood Siding was not raised at this time to accommodate the new carriage.[16] From 1872 to 1894 the station was served by two passenger trains per day in each direction, and from 1895 to 1899 the number was increased to three per day.[19] Following the 1899 transfer of services to the Metropolitan Railway, the station was served by four trains per day until closure in 1935.[19]

Limited by poor quality locomotives and ungraded, cheaply laid track which followed the contours of the hills, and stopping at four intermediate stations between Wood Siding and Quainton Road to pick up and set down goods, passengers and livestock, trains ran very slowly; in 1887 trains took between 15 and 20 minutes to travel approximately one mile from Wood Siding to Brill, and a little over 1 hour 20 minutes from Wood Siding to the junction station with the main line at Quainton Road.[20] Improvements to the line carried out at the time of the transfer to the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad, and the use of the MR's better quality rolling stock, reduced the journey time from Wood Siding to Quainton Road to about 30 minutes.[20]

In 1910 the new Bicester cut-off line of the Great Western Railway (GWR) Chiltern Main Line was routed directly past Wood Siding, although no interchange station was built. The GWR ran in a cutting beneath the existing station; Wood Siding station and its siding were rebuilt at the GWR's expense between 1908–1910 to stand on a wide bridge above the GWR's line.[16]

With trains travelling only marginally quicker than walking pace, and serving a lightly populated area, the stations at Wood Siding and Brill saw relatively little passenger use; in 1932, the last year of private operation, the two stations saw only 3,272 passenger journeys and raised only £191 (about £16,700 as of 2024) in passenger receipts.[21][22]

Closure

On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway, along with London's other underground railways aside from the small Waterloo & City Railway, was taken into public ownership as part of the newly formed London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB).[10] Thus, despite it being 45 miles (72 km) and over two hours travel from the City of London, Wood Siding became a London Underground station.[23][note 4] As a cost cutting measure Wood Siding became unstaffed and the porter's hut was sold as a garden shed; from then on, the train crew would work the crossing gate.[16]

Frank Pick, Managing Director of the Underground Group from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, aimed to move the network away from freight services and saw the lines beyond Aylesbury via Quainton Road to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes,[25] concluding that over £2000 (about £180,000 as of 2024) would be saved by closing the Brill Tramway.[22][26] As a consequence, the LPTB decided to abandon all passenger services beyond Aylesbury.[1][25][note 5] The Brill Tramway was closed on 1 December 1935,[1][28] with the last trains running on 30 November.[10][29]

Railway line passes beneath the brick abutments of a wide bridge. The span of the bridge is missing, and the tops of the remaining parts of the bridge are overgrown with trees.
The Chiltern Main Line passes the ruins of the bridge which once supported Wood Siding, 2005.

Upon the withdrawal of London Transport services the lease expired and the railway and stations reverted to the control of the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company.[30] With no funds and no rolling stock of its own the O&ATC was unable to operate the line, and on 2 April 1936 the entire infrastructure of the line was sold at auction;[30] excluding track, the infrastructure at Wood Siding fetched a total of £9 2s 6d (about £790 as of 2024).[22][31][note 6] While Wood Siding station was demolished shortly after closure, the abutments of the bridge which carried the station and sidings remain intact.[32]

With the stations at Wood Siding and Brill closed, and the Great Western Railway's Brill and Ludgershall railway station inconveniently sited, the GWR opened a new station on the Chiltern Main Line at Dorton Halt on 21 June 1937. Although the line remains open, both Dorton Halt and Brill and Ludgersall stations were closed under the Beeching Axe on 7 January 1963, and there are no longer any railway stations in the area.[16]

Notes and references

Notes
  1. ^ Because the proposed line ran on land owned by the Duke of Buckingham and by the Winwood Charity Trust, who consented to its construction,[3] the line did not need Parliamentary approval and construction could begin immediately.[2][4]
  2. ^ Rail services from London to Oxford were very poor at this time; despite being an extremely roundabout route, had the connection from Quainton Road to Oxford been built it would have been the shortest route between Oxford and the City of London.[5]
  3. ^ Although from 1899 services were operated by the Metropolitan Railway (the Metropolitan Line of the London Underground from July 1933), the track and stations remained owned by the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company and controlled by the Trustees of the late Earl Temple's Estate.[10] The MR had an option to purchase the line outright, but it was never taken up.[11]
  4. ^ Despite being a part of the London Underground network, Wood Siding—in common with all Metropolitan Line stations north of Aylesbury—was never shown on the tube map.[24]
  5. ^ While the Brill Tramway was closed completely following transfer to public ownership, the LPTB considered the Verney Junction branch as having a use as a freight line and as a diversionary route, and continued to maintain the line and to operate freight services until 6 September 1947.[27]
  6. ^ Excluding the station houses at Westcott and Brill, which were sold separately, the auction raised £112 10s (about £9,660 as of 2024) in total.[22][30]
References
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Connor (2000), p.47
  2. ^ a b c Oppitz (2000), p.73
  3. ^ a b Simpson (2005), p.69
  4. ^ a b Mitchell & Smith (2006), §iii
  5. ^ a b c d Horne (2003), p.18
  6. ^ a b Demuth (2003), p.6
  7. ^ Oppitz (2000), p.74
  8. ^ a b Oppitz (2000), p.75
  9. ^ Simpson (2005), p.70
  10. ^ a b c d Demuth (2003), p.18
  11. ^ Oppitz (2000), p.77
  12. ^ Simpson (1985), p.29
  13. ^ Mitchell & Smith (2006), §43
  14. ^ Oppitz (2000), p.76
  15. ^ Jones (1974), pp.38,40,43
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson (2005), p.103
  17. ^ Simpson (1985), p.56
  18. ^ Simpson (2005), p.72
  19. ^ a b Mitchell & Smith (2006), §iv
  20. ^ a b Mitchell & Smith (2006), §v
  21. ^ Jackson (2006), p.134
  22. ^ a b c d UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  23. ^ Foxell (2010), p.66
  24. ^ Horne (2003), p.53
  25. ^ a b Foxell (2010), p.72
  26. ^ Horne (2003), p.55
  27. ^ Foxell (2010), p.155
  28. ^ Foxell (2010), p.73
  29. ^ "Bucks railway to be scrapped". News. The Times. No. 47236. London. 1935-12-02. col E, p. 8. template uses deprecated parameter(s) (help)
  30. ^ a b c Horne (2003), p.56
  31. ^ Jones (1974), pp.57
  32. ^ Oppitz (2000), p.82
Bibliography
  • Connor, J. E. (2000). Abandoned Stations on London's Underground. Colchester: Connor & Butler. ISBN 0947699309. OCLC 59577006.
  • Demuth, Tim (2003). The Spread of London's Underground. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 1854142666.
  • Foxell, Clive (2010). The Metropolitan Line: London's first underground railway. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 0752453963. OCLC 501397186.
  • Horne, Mike (2003). The Metropolitan Line: An illustrated history. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 1854142755.
  • Jackson, Alan (2006). London's Metro-Land. Harrow: Capital History. ISBN 185414300X. OCLC 144595813.
  • Jones, Ken (1974). The Wotton Tramway (Brill Branch). Locomotion Papers. Blandford: The Oakwood Press.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2006). Aylesbury to Rugby. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1904474918.
  • Oppitz, Leslie (2000). Lost Railways of the Chilterns. Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 1853066435. OCLC 45682620.
  • Simpson, Bill (1985). The Brill Tramway. Poole, Dorset: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0860932184.
  • Simpson, Bill (2005). A History of the Metropolitan Railway. Vol. 3. Witney: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 1899246134.

Further reading

  • Connor, J. E. (2003). London's Disused Underground Stations. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 185414250X.
  • Hornby, Frank (1999). London Commuter Lines: Main lines north of the Thames. A history of the capital's suburban railways in the BR era, 1948-95. Vol. 1. Kettering: Silver Link. ISBN 1857941152. OCLC 43541211.
  • Leboff, David; Demuth, Tim (1999). No Need to Ask!. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 1854142151.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2006). Baker Street to Uxbridge & Stanmore. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 190447490X. OCLC 171110119.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2005). Marylebone to Rickmansworth. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1904474497. OCLC 64118587.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2005). Rickmansworth to Aylesbury. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1904474616.
  • Simpson, Bill (2003). A History of the Metropolitan Railway. Vol. 1. Witney: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 189924607X.
  • Simpson, Bill (2004). A History of the Metropolitan Railway. Vol. 2. Witney: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 1899246088.
  • Wolmar, Christian (2004). The Subterranean Railway. London: Atlantic. ISBN 1843540231. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)


Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Wotton   Metropolitan Railway
Brill Tramway 		  Brill

External links

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