Westcott railway station
Encyclopedia
Westcott railway station was a small station built to serve the village of Westcott, Buckinghamshire
and nearby buildings attached to Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild
's estate at Waddesdon Manor
. It was built by the Duke of Buckingham
in 1871 as part of a short horse-drawn
tramway to allow for the transport of goods from and around his 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 to Brill railway station
in 1872, becoming known as the Brill Tramway
.
Cheaply built and ungraded
, and using poor quality locomotive
s, services on the line were very slow, initially limited to 5 miles per hour (2.2 m/s). 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.
Following the 1933 transfer of the Metropolitan Railway to public ownership to become the Metropolitan Line
of London Transport
, Westcott station became a part of the London Underground
, despite being over 40 miles (64.4 km) from central London. The management of London Transport believed it very unlikely that the line could ever be made viable, and Westcott station was closed, along with the rest of the line, from 30 November 1935. The station building and its associated house are the only significant buildings from the Brill Tramway to survive other than the former junction station
at Quainton Road.
(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
. 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 to Verney Junction from 1 April 1894. Through trains from the MR's London terminus at Baker Street
commenced on 1 January 1897.
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 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
.
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 the nearby town of Brill
for the introduction of passenger services on the line led to an extension from Wotton to Brill railway station
, at the foot of Brill Hill of a mile (1.2 km) from the hilltop town of Brill itself, in the summer of 1872 and the introduction of two mixed train
s each day in each direction, at which time 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
. The MR leased the Brill Tramway from 1 December 1899, although the line continued to be owned by the O&ATC.
, which at the time of the railway's opening had a population of about 150. Initially named "Westcott Siding", the station was renamed "Westcott" shortly after opening. 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.
Limited by poor quality locomotives and the bumpy, cheaply laid track which followed the contours of the hills, trains ran very slowly in the area; in 1882 trains took 20 minutes to travel the short distance from Quainton Road to Westcott, and 50 minutes from Westcott to Brill.
From 1872 to 1894 Westcott 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. 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 reduced journey times from Westcott to Quainton Road and Brill to 13 minutes and 28 minutes respectively.
Passenger trains generally served the station only on weekdays, although between 1903 and 1922 trains also ran on Sundays. While the village of Westcott was small, the proximity of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild
's estate at Waddesdon Manor
made Westcott one of the busier stations on the branch in terms of passenger and goods traffic.
Despite the low frequency of service and relatively low numbers of people using the station, Westcott station was staffed; the single employee's responsibilities included maintaining the oil lamp
s on the platform and working a nearby level crossing
gate. As with all employees on the line, staff at the station were contractually obliged to "devote themselves exclusively to the service, attend regularly during the appointed hours and to refrain from using improper language, cursing or swearing". The single member of staff was provided with a house immediately adjacent to the station; built by the Duke of Buckingham, the house bears the inscription "B&C" (Buckingham & Chandos).
A small gasworks
a short distance to the south of Westcott station opened in 1889 to provide power to Waddesdon Manor and to other buildings on the Rothschild's estate. A short spur line was built from Westcott station to the gasworks, running immediately parallel to the road south from Westcott village. In 1926 the gasworks closed and was replaced by an electrical generator elsewhere on the Waddesdon Manor grounds, and the track of the spur was removed.
(LPTB). As a consequence, despite it being 43 miles (69.2 km) from the City of London
, Westcott station became part of the London Underground
network. The Brill Tramway was by this time losing significant sums of money. Goods traffic had dwindled, and unlike other areas served by the former Metropolitan Railway, passenger numbers were low; in 1932 Westcott station saw only 1,560 passengers and had made only £27 (about £ as of ) in passenger receipts.
Frank Pick
, Managing Director of the Underground Group
from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, saw the lines beyond Aylesbury to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes, concluding that over £2000 (about £ as of ) would be saved simply by closing the Brill Tramway. As a consequence, 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.
Metropolitan Line 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. No trace of the line at Westcott remains, but the station building remains in place in the back garden
of the former station house, now a private residence, and carries an exact replica of its original "Westcott" station sign. Aside from the junction station
at Quainton Road, now preserved as the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
, the two buildings at Westcott are the only significant buildings associated with the Brill Tramway to have survived.
Westcott, Buckinghamshire
Westcott is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile west of Waddesdon.The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'west cottage'....
and nearby buildings attached to 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...
. It was built by 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...
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 allow for the transport of goods from and around his extensive estates in Buckinghamshire
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....
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...
. A lobbying campaign by residents of the 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 the tramway being converted for passenger use and extended 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...
in 1872, 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...
.
Cheaply built and ungraded
Land grading
Grading in civil engineering and construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and garden improvements, or surface drainage...
, and using poor quality locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s, services on the line were very slow, initially limited to 5 miles per hour (2.2 m/s). In the 1890s it was planned to extend the tramway 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...
, but the scheme was abandoned. Instead, the operation of the line was taken over by the 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 1899.
Following the 1933 transfer of the Metropolitan Railway to 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 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...
, Westcott station became a 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...
, despite being over 40 miles (64.4 km) from central London. The management of London Transport believed it very unlikely that the line could ever be made viable, and Westcott station was closed, along with the rest of the line, from 30 November 1935. The station building and its associated house are the only significant buildings from the Brill Tramway to survive other than the former junction station
Junction 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...
at Quainton Road.
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) opened, linking 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...
's station 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...
to 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...
. 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 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.
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 freight from his estates in Buckinghamshire to the A&BR's line 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...
.
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 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...
for the introduction of passenger services on the line led to an extension 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 of a mile (1.2 km) from the hilltop town of Brill itself, in the summer of 1872 and the introduction of 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 in each direction, at which time 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...
. The MR leased the Brill Tramway from 1 December 1899, although the line continued to be owned by the O&ATC.
Services and facilities
Westcott station was the second station from Quainton Road, about 1+1/2 mi east of Quainton Road. The station consisted of a single platform with a small wooden station building, and was immediately south of the village of WestcottWestcott, Buckinghamshire
Westcott is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile west of Waddesdon.The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'west cottage'....
, which at the time of the railway's opening had a population of about 150. Initially named "Westcott Siding", the station was renamed "Westcott" shortly after opening. 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.
Limited by poor quality locomotives and the bumpy, cheaply laid track which followed the contours of the hills, trains ran very slowly in the area; in 1882 trains took 20 minutes to travel the short distance from Quainton Road to Westcott, and 50 minutes from Westcott to Brill.
From 1872 to 1894 Westcott 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. 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 reduced journey times from Westcott to Quainton Road and Brill to 13 minutes and 28 minutes respectively.
Passenger trains generally served the station only on weekdays, although between 1903 and 1922 trains also ran on Sundays. While the village of Westcott was small, the proximity 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...
made Westcott one of the busier stations on the branch in terms of passenger and goods traffic.
Despite the low frequency of service and relatively low numbers of people using the station, Westcott station was staffed; the single employee's responsibilities included maintaining the oil lamp
Oil lamp
An oil lamp is an object used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and is continued to this day....
s on the platform and working a nearby level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
gate. As with all employees on the line, staff at the station were contractually obliged to "devote themselves exclusively to the service, attend regularly during the appointed hours and to refrain from using improper language, cursing or swearing". The single member of staff was provided with a house immediately adjacent to the station; built by the Duke of Buckingham, the house bears the inscription "B&C" (Buckingham & Chandos).
A small gasworks
Gasworks
A gasworks or gas house is a factory for the manufacture of gas. The use of natural gas has made many redundant in the developed world, however they are often still used for storage.- Early gasworks :...
a short distance to the south of Westcott station opened in 1889 to provide power to Waddesdon Manor and to other buildings on the Rothschild's estate. A short spur line was built from Westcott station to the gasworks, running immediately parallel to the road south from Westcott village. In 1926 the gasworks closed and was replaced by an electrical generator elsewhere on the Waddesdon Manor grounds, and the track of the spur was removed.
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 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 it being 43 miles (69.2 km) from the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, Westcott 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. The Brill Tramway was by this time losing significant sums of money. Goods traffic had dwindled, and unlike other areas served by the former Metropolitan Railway, passenger numbers were low; in 1932 Westcott station saw only 1,560 passengers and had made only £27 (about £ as of ) in passenger receipts.
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, saw the lines beyond Aylesbury to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes, concluding that over £2000 (about £ as of ) would be saved simply by closing the Brill Tramway. As a consequence, 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.
After closure
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. 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 cheapest of the 53 lots sold were the Westcott station sign and the oil lamps from the Westcott level crossing, both of which sold for one shilling. The railway house at Westcott was also sold, fetching £305 (about £ as of ).Metropolitan Line 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. No trace of the line at Westcott remains, but the station building remains in place in the back garden
Back garden
A back garden is a residential garden located at the rear of a property, on the other side of the house from the public street-side entrance and front garden.-Number and size of back gardens:In Britain there are over 10 million back gardens....
of the former station house, now a private residence, and carries an exact replica of its original "Westcott" station sign. Aside from the junction station
Junction 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...
at Quainton Road, now preserved as the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is a railway museum operated by the Quainton Railway Society Ltd. at Quainton Road railway station, in the far depths of "Metro-land", about 5 miles west of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The site is divided into two halves which are joined by two foot-bridges, one of...
, the two buildings at Westcott are the only significant buildings associated with the Brill Tramway to have survived.