Waddesdon Road railway station
Encyclopedia
Waddesdon Road railway station, called Waddesdon railway station before 1922, was a small halt in open countryside in Buckinghamshire
, England. It was opened in 1871 as part of a short horse-drawn
tramway to assist with 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
. In 1872 the line was expanded and converted for passenger use, becoming known as the Brill Tramway
. In 1899 the operation of the line was taken over by the London-based Metropolitan Railway
.
In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership to become the Metropolitan Line
of the London Underground
, and despite its rural setting Waddesdon Road station became a part of the London Transport
system. The new management could not see a future for the line as a financially viable passenger route, and Waddesdon Road, along with the rest of the former Brill Tramway, was closed in late 1935.
The station was heavily used for the transport of construction materials during the building of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild
's estate at Waddesdon Manor
in the 1870s and 1880s, but aside from that it saw little use. The station was inconveniently sited and served by few passenger trains, and other more frequently served stations were in easy walking distance. In 1932, the last full year of operations prior to the Metropolitan Railway being taken into public ownership, the station was used for only 281 passenger journeys and generated just £4 of passenger revenue.
(A&BR) was opened. It ran south from the London and North Western Railway
's Oxford to Bletchley line
at Verney Junction
, via Quainton Road railway station
, to connect with the Great Western Railway
at Aylesbury
.
The 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos served as Chairman of the London and North Western Railway from 1852 to 1861 and had a long interest in railways. In the early 1870s he decided to build a light railway
to carry goods between his estates in Buckinghamshire and the A&BR's line at Quainton Road. The first stage of the line, known as the Wotton Tramway
, was a 4 miles (6.4 km) line from Quainton Road via Wotton
to a coal siding at Kingswood
, and opened on 1 April 1871. Intended for use by horse trams
, the line was built with longitudinal sleepers
to avoid horses tripping on the sleepers.
Lobbying from residents and businesses in the nearby town of Brill
led to an extension being built in 1872 from Wotton to Brill railway station
, at the foot of Brill Hill three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) from the hilltop town of Brill itself. Two mixed train
s each day were introduced in each direction, and the line was renamed the Brill Tramway. The Duke bought two Aveling and Porter
traction engine
s modified to work as locomotives for the line, each with a top speed of 8 miles per hour (3.6 m/s), although a speed limit of 5 miles per hour (2.2 m/s) was enforced.
The Duke died in 1889, and in 1894 the trustee
s of his estate
set up the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company (O&ATC) with the intention of extending the line from Brill to Oxford
. On 1 September 1894 London's Metropolitan Railway
(MR) reached Aylesbury, and shortly afterwards connected to the A&BR line, with local MR services running via Quainton Road to Verney Junction from 1 April 1894. Through trains from the MR's London terminus at Baker Street
commenced on 1 January 1897. From 1 December 1899 the MR leased the Brill Tramway from the O&ATC and took over the operation of services on the line, although the Tramway continued to be owned by the O&ATC.
, in open countryside immediately north of Akeman Street
(the A41 road
after 1919), about 1.1 miles (1.8 km) southeast of Quainton Road, 1 miles (1.6 km) northwest of the town of Waddesdon
, and 1300 yards (1,188.7 m) from Waddesdon Manor
. The station was initially built with a single low wooden platform, primarily intended for loading and unloading freight. After the 1899 transfer of services to the Metropolitan Railway, the MR introduced a single Brown Marshall
passenger carriage on the line; at this time, a short section of platform was raised to conventional height to allow access to the higher doors on the new carriage.
Initially known as "Waddesdon Road Siding", the station was renamed "Waddesdon" shortly after opening. On 1 October 1922 the nearby Waddesdon Manor railway station
, on the Metropolitan Railway southeast of Quainton Road, was renamed "Waddesdon" and the former Waddesdon station was renamed "Waddesdon Road" in an effort to reduce confusion.
The station was heavily used during the construction of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild's estate at Waddesdon Manor in the 1870s and 1880s. The brickworks
at Brill sent 25,000 bricks per week along the Brill Tramway, and 7,000 tons
(7,100 t) of Bath Stone
were shipped from Corsham
. Aside from goods traffic associated with the building of Waddesdon Manor, the station was little used other than for shipping milk from nearby farms to Aylesbury and London. Inconveniently sited away from any nearby towns and villages, and with the far more frequently served Quainton Road and Waddesdon Manor stations within easy walking distance, the station saw very little passenger use. In 1932, the last year of private operation, Waddesdon Road station saw only 281 passengers and made only £4 (about £ as of ) in passenger receipts over the entire year.
Limited by poor quality locomotives and bumpy, cheaply laid track which followed the contours of the hills, trains ran very slowly in the area: in 1882 trains took 13 minutes to travel the short distance from Waddesdon Road to Quainton Road, and 57 minutes from Waddesdon Road to Brill. From 1872 to 1894 the station was served by two passenger trains per day in each direction, and between 1895 to 1899 the number was increased to three per day. Following the 1899 transfer of services to the Metropolitan Railway, the station was served by four trains per day in each direction until closure in 1935. Improvements to the line carried out at the time of the transfer to the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad, and the improved locomotives of the Metropolitan Railway, reduced journey times from Waddesdon Road to Quainton Road and Brill to 6 minutes and 22 minutes respectively.
(LPTB). As a consequence, despite its distance from London, Waddesdon Road station became part of the London Underground
network.
By this time the Brill Tramway was losing significant sums of money. Goods traffic had dwindled, and unlike other areas served by the former Metropolitan Railway there had not been a growth in population and thus passenger numbers remained low. Frank Pick
, Managing Director of the Underground Group
from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, planned to move the new London Underground away from goods services to concentrate solely on serving passengers. He saw the lines beyond Aylesbury to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes, concluding that over £2,000 (about £ as of ) would be saved by closing the Brill Tramway. As a result, the LPTB decided to abandon all passenger services beyond Aylesbury.
The Brill Tramway was closed on 1 December 1935, with the last trains running on 30 November. Upon the withdrawal of London Transport services the railway and stations reverted to the control of the by now almost dormant Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company. 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; the most expensive lot sold was the 37 yards (33.8 m) platform of Waddesdon Road station, which fetched £7 10s (about £ as of ). Excluding the station houses at Westcott and Brill, which were sold separately, the auction raised £112 10s (about £ as of ) in total. No trace of the buildings at Waddesdon Road remains, but the former trackbed is now a public footpath known as the Tramway Walk.
Metropolitan Line passenger trains ceased to run north of Aylesbury from 6 July 1936. London and North Eastern Railway
services (British Rail
from 1948) continued to run from London's Marylebone station
over the line to Verney Junction via Quainton Road until March 1963, and the LPTB continued to maintain and to operate freight services over the Verney Junction line until 6 September 1947. After the withdrawal of services from London, Verney Junction station remained open to serve trains on the Oxford–Bletchley line. It was closed following the withdrawal of services between Oxford and Cambridge from 1 January 1968.
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, England. It was opened in 1871 as part of a short horse-drawn
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
tramway to assist with the transport of goods from and around the Duke of Buckingham
Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos GCSI, PC , styled Earl Temple until 1839 and Marquess of Chandos from 1839 to 1861, was a British soldier, politician and administrator of the 19th century...
's extensive estates in Buckinghamshire and to connect the Duke's estates to the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway
The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway was an English railway located in Buckinghamshire, England operating between Aylesbury and Verney Junction.-History:...
at Quainton Road
Quainton Road railway station
Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in undeveloped countryside near Quainton, Buckinghamshire, from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House and to open a...
. In 1872 the line was expanded and converted for passenger use, becoming known as the Brill Tramway
Brill Tramway
The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch, was a six-mile rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England...
. In 1899 the operation of the line was taken over by the London-based Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
.
In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership to become the Metropolitan Line
Metropolitan Line
The Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in Transport for London's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening as the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863...
of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
, and despite its rural setting Waddesdon Road station became a part of the London Transport
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
system. The new management could not see a future for the line as a financially viable passenger route, and Waddesdon Road, along with the rest of the former Brill Tramway, was closed in late 1935.
The station was heavily used for the transport of construction materials during the building of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild
Ferdinand James von Rothschild
Ferdinand James Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild was an English art collector, and a member of the prominent Rothschild family of bankers...
's estate at Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...
in the 1870s and 1880s, but aside from that it saw little use. The station was inconveniently sited and served by few passenger trains, and other more frequently served stations were in easy walking distance. In 1932, the last full year of operations prior to the Metropolitan Railway being taken into public ownership, the station was used for only 281 passenger journeys and generated just £4 of passenger revenue.
Brill Tramway
On 23 September 1868 the small Aylesbury and Buckingham RailwayAylesbury and Buckingham Railway
The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway was an English railway located in Buckinghamshire, England operating between Aylesbury and Verney Junction.-History:...
(A&BR) was opened. It ran south from the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
's Oxford to Bletchley line
Varsity Line
The Varsity Line is an informal name for the railway route that formerly linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated successively by the London and North Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and British Railways...
at Verney Junction
Verney Junction railway station
Verney Junction was a railway station at a junction serving four directions between 1868 and 1968 and from where excursions as far as Ramsgate could be booked...
, via Quainton Road railway station
Quainton Road railway station
Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in undeveloped countryside near Quainton, Buckinghamshire, from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House and to open a...
, to connect with the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
at Aylesbury
Aylesbury railway station
Aylesbury railway station is a railway station in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England and is a major stop on the London to Aylesbury Line from Marylebone station via Amersham. It is 37.75 miles from Aylesbury Station to Marylebone Station...
.
Light railway
Light railway refers to a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail". This usually means the railway uses lighter weight track, and is more steeply graded and tightly curved to avoid civil engineering costs...
to carry goods between his estates in Buckinghamshire and the A&BR's line at Quainton Road. The first stage of the line, known as the Wotton Tramway
Brill Tramway
The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch, was a six-mile rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England...
, was a 4 miles (6.4 km) line from Quainton Road via Wotton
Wotton railway station
Wotton railway station was a small station in Buckinghamshire, England, built by the Duke of Buckinghamshire in 1871. Part of a private horse-drawn tramway designed to carry freight from and around his lands in Buckinghamshire, Wotton station was intended to serve the Duke's home at Wotton House...
to a coal siding at Kingswood
Kingswood, Buckinghamshire
Kingswood is a hamlet of 30 dwellings on the South side of the A41 from Waddesdon to Bicester and between the villages of Ludgershall and Grendon Underwood in Buckinghamshire, England. Kingswood is also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district. Parish matters are currently administered via a...
, and opened on 1 April 1871. Intended for use by horse trams
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
, the line was built with longitudinal sleepers
Baulk road
Baulk road is the name given to a type of railway track or 'rail road' that is formed using rails carried on continuous timber bearings, as opposed to the more familiar 'cross-sleeper' track that uses closely spaced sleepers or ties to give intermittent support to taller rails...
to avoid horses tripping on the sleepers.
Lobbying from residents and businesses in the nearby town of Brill
Brill
Brill is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire. It is about north-west of Long Crendon and south-east of Bicester...
led to an extension being built in 1872 from Wotton to Brill railway station
Brill railway station
Brill railway station was the terminus of a small railway line in Buckinghamshire, England, known as the Brill Tramway. Built and owned by the Duke of Buckingham, it was later operated by London's Metropolitan Railway, and in 1933 briefly became one of the two north-western termini of the London...
, at the foot of Brill Hill three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) from the hilltop town of Brill itself. Two mixed train
Mixed train
A mixed train is a train that hauls both passenger and freight cars or wagons. In the early days of railways they were quite common, but by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. As the trains provided passengers with very slow service, mixed trains have...
s each day were introduced in each direction, and the line was renamed the Brill Tramway. The Duke bought two Aveling and Porter
Aveling and Porter
Aveling and Porter was a British agricultural engine and steam roller manufacturer. Thomas Aveling and Richard Thomas Porter entered into partnership in 1862, developed a steam engine three years later in 1865 and produced more steam rollers than all the other British manufacturers combined.-The...
traction engine
Traction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...
s modified to work as locomotives for the line, each with a top speed of 8 miles per hour (3.6 m/s), although a speed limit of 5 miles per hour (2.2 m/s) was enforced.
The Duke died in 1889, and in 1894 the trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
s of his estate
Estate (law)
An estate is the net worth of a person at any point in time. It is the sum of a person's assets - legal rights, interests and entitlements to property of any kind - less all liabilities at that time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of bankruptcy and death of the person...
set up the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company (O&ATC) with the intention of extending the line from Brill to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. On 1 September 1894 London's Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
(MR) reached Aylesbury, and shortly afterwards connected to the A&BR line, with local MR services running via Quainton Road to Verney Junction from 1 April 1894. Through trains from the MR's London terminus at Baker Street
Baker Street tube station
Baker Street tube station is a station on the London Underground at the junction of Baker Street and the Marylebone Road. The station lies in Travelcard Zone 1 and is served by five different lines...
commenced on 1 January 1897. From 1 December 1899 the MR leased the Brill Tramway from the O&ATC and took over the operation of services on the line, although the Tramway continued to be owned by the O&ATC.
Services
Waddesdon Road was the first station out from the Quainton Road junction stationJunction station
Junction station usually refers to a railway station situated or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines...
, in open countryside immediately north of Akeman Street
Akeman Street
Akeman Street was a major Roman road in England that linked Watling Street with the Fosse Way. Its junction with Watling Steet was just north of Verulamium and that with the Fosse Way was at Corinium Dobunnorum...
(the A41 road
A41 road
The A41 is a formerly-major trunk road in England that links London and Birkenhead, although it has now largely been superseded by motorways. It passes through or near various towns and cities including Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton,...
after 1919), about 1.1 miles (1.8 km) southeast of Quainton Road, 1 miles (1.6 km) northwest of the town of Waddesdon
Waddesdon
Waddesdon is a village within the Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, 6 miles from Aylesbury on the A41 road. The centre of a civil parish, including the hamlets of Eythrope, Wormstone and Woodham, Waddesdon was an agricultural settlement with milling, silk weaving and lace making...
, and 1300 yards (1,188.7 m) from Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...
. The station was initially built with a single low wooden platform, primarily intended for loading and unloading freight. After the 1899 transfer of services to the Metropolitan Railway, the MR introduced a single Brown Marshall
Brown, Marshalls and Co. Ltd.
Brown, Marshalls and Co. Ltd. were a company that built railway carriages, based in Saltley, Birmingham, in the UK. They were formed in 1840. In 1866 they built the original coaches for the Talyllyn Railway, which are still in use, and in 1873 built two bogie coaches for the Ffestiniog Railway....
passenger carriage on the line; at this time, a short section of platform was raised to conventional height to allow access to the higher doors on the new carriage.
Waddesdon railway station
Waddesdon is a closed station that served the village of Waddesdon and its manor, to the north of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. The station is not to be confused with Waddesdon Road railway station at the other end of the Waddesdon Manor estate on the Brill Tramway.-History:The station was...
, on the Metropolitan Railway southeast of Quainton Road, was renamed "Waddesdon" and the former Waddesdon station was renamed "Waddesdon Road" in an effort to reduce confusion.
The station was heavily used during the construction of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild's estate at Waddesdon Manor in the 1870s and 1880s. The brickworks
Brickworks
A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....
at Brill sent 25,000 bricks per week along the Brill Tramway, and 7,000 tons
Long ton
Long ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...
(7,100 t) of Bath Stone
Bath Stone
Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...
were shipped from Corsham
Corsham
Corsham is a historic market town and civil parish in north west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south western extreme of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 which was formerly the main turnpike road from London to Bristol, between Bath and Chippenham ....
. Aside from goods traffic associated with the building of Waddesdon Manor, the station was little used other than for shipping milk from nearby farms to Aylesbury and London. Inconveniently sited away from any nearby towns and villages, and with the far more frequently served Quainton Road and Waddesdon Manor stations within easy walking distance, the station saw very little passenger use. In 1932, the last year of private operation, Waddesdon Road station saw only 281 passengers and made only £4 (about £ as of ) in passenger receipts over the entire year.
Limited by poor quality locomotives and bumpy, cheaply laid track which followed the contours of the hills, trains ran very slowly in the area: in 1882 trains took 13 minutes to travel the short distance from Waddesdon Road to Quainton Road, and 57 minutes from Waddesdon Road to Brill. From 1872 to 1894 the station was served by two passenger trains per day in each direction, and between 1895 to 1899 the number was increased to three per day. Following the 1899 transfer of services to the Metropolitan Railway, the station was served by four trains per day in each direction until closure in 1935. Improvements to the line carried out at the time of the transfer to the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad, and the improved locomotives of the Metropolitan Railway, reduced journey times from Waddesdon Road to Quainton Road and Brill to 6 minutes and 22 minutes respectively.
Closure
On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway, and all of London's other underground railways except the small Waterloo & City Railway, were taken into public ownership as part of the newly formed London Passenger Transport BoardLondon Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
(LPTB). As a consequence, despite its distance from London, Waddesdon Road station became part of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
network.
By this time the Brill Tramway was losing significant sums of money. Goods traffic had dwindled, and unlike other areas served by the former Metropolitan Railway there had not been a growth in population and thus passenger numbers remained low. Frank Pick
Frank Pick
Frank Pick LLB Hon. RIBA was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Company of London in 1906...
, Managing Director of the Underground Group
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, planned to move the new London Underground away from goods services to concentrate solely on serving passengers. He saw the lines beyond Aylesbury to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes, concluding that over £2,000 (about £ as of ) would be saved by closing the Brill Tramway. As a result, the LPTB decided to abandon all passenger services beyond Aylesbury.
The Brill Tramway was closed on 1 December 1935, with the last trains running on 30 November. Upon the withdrawal of London Transport services the railway and stations reverted to the control of the by now almost dormant Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company. 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; the most expensive lot sold was the 37 yards (33.8 m) platform of Waddesdon Road station, which fetched £7 10s (about £ as of ). Excluding the station houses at Westcott and Brill, which were sold separately, the auction raised £112 10s (about £ as of ) in total. No trace of the buildings at Waddesdon Road remains, but the former trackbed is now a public footpath known as the Tramway Walk.
Metropolitan Line passenger trains ceased to run north of Aylesbury from 6 July 1936. London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
services (British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
from 1948) continued to run from London's Marylebone station
Marylebone station
Marylebone station , also known as London Marylebone, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It stands midway between the mainline stations at Euston and Paddington, about 1 mile from each...
over the line to Verney Junction via Quainton Road until March 1963, and the LPTB continued to maintain and to operate freight services over the Verney Junction line until 6 September 1947. After the withdrawal of services from London, Verney Junction station remained open to serve trains on the Oxford–Bletchley line. It was closed following the withdrawal of services between Oxford and Cambridge from 1 January 1968.