Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
On 6 August 1860 the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway (A&B), with the 3rd Duke (then still Marquess of Chandos) as chairman and Sir Harry Verney as deputy chairman, was incorporated by Act of Parliament with the object of connecting the Buckinghamshire Railway (by now operated by the LNWR) to Aylesbury. The 2nd Duke used his influence to ensure the new route would run via Quainton, near his remaining estates around Wotton, instead of the intended more direct route via Pitchcott. Beset by financial difficulties, the line took over eight years to build, eventually opening on 23 September 1868. The new line was connected to the Wycombe Railway's Aylesbury station, and joined the existing Buckinghamshire Railway lines at the point where the Oxford–Bletchley line and the line to Buckingham already met. A new junction station was built at the point where the lines joined. With no nearby town after which to name the new station, it was named Verney Junction railway station after Sir Harry who owned the land on which it was built. Aylesbury now had railway lines running to the east, north and southwest, but no line southeast towards London and the Channel ports.
Quainton Road station was built on a curve in the line at the nearest point to the Duke's estates at Wotton. Six miles (10 km) northwest of Aylesbury, it was southwest of the small village of Quainton and immediately northwest of the road connecting Quainton to Akeman Street. The railway towards Aylesbury crossed the road via a level crossing immediately southeast of the station. The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway had spent most of their limited budget on the construction of the line itself. Details of the design of the original Quainton Road station are lost, but it is likely that the station had a single timber-covered earth platform and minimal buildings; it was described in 1890 as being extremely primitive.
Read more about this topic: Quainton Road Railway Station
Famous quotes containing the word railway:
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)