The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway is a preserved

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

with its headquarters and main station at

Chinnor Chinnor is a large village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, about southeast of Thame and close to the border with Buckinghamshire. The village is a spring line settlement on the Icknield Way below the Chiltern escarpment. Sinc ...

South Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a p ...

, England. It runs along the foot of the Chilterns escarpment. Although a little distance away, it has since been given the nickname 'The Icknield Line' for its connection to the Lower

Icknield Way The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern and eastern England that runs from Norfolk to Wiltshire. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills. Background It is generally said to be, withi ...

History

The line was part of the former

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

branch line between Watlington and Princes Risborough.

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways closed the line to passenger traffic in 1957. The section between

and

Princes Risborough Princes Risborough () is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England; it is located about south of Aylesbury and northwest of High Wycombe. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through ...

thereafter carried a freight-only cement service until 1989.

Preservation

Reopening

The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association was formed around August 1989. On 19 May 1991, the first traina works train headed by a

0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...

Baguley Baguley ( ) is an area and electoral ward of the city of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 14,794. The name ''Baguley'' is derived from the Old English words ''bagga'' (badger, or possibly ref ...

dieselran from Chinnor. It began to operate passenger trains between Chinnor and the site of the former Wainhill Halt (about 1 km NE of Chinnor) in August 1994. In 1995, the route was extended by about 3 km to Horsenden Lane, and then to the old rail connection that led trains to

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

now known as Thame Junction in 1996. On 21 February 2016, the railway was connected to the main line at Princes Risborough, with services commencing later that year running in to a siding adjacent to Platform 4 at Princes Risborough while works were being undertaken to rebuild the platform there. Some service trains were not always able to run that far either due to Network Rail / Chiltern Railways requirements or other works related to platform reinstatement and continued to terminate at Thame Junction. The railway now operates between Chinnor and platform 4 at Princes Risborough, although some services may continue to terminate and turn around at Thame Junction for operational reasons. There is no platform at Thame Junction. Work to reinstate platform 4 at Princes Risborough was completed in August 2018.

Princes Risborough extension

Following discussions with

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

, an extension of about a mile (1.5 km) to Princes Risborough main line railway station was undertaken, with a view to running into Princes Risborough station. This would allow passengers to connect from

Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways (legal name The Chiltern Railway Company Limited) is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Rail ...

services on the

Chiltern Main Line The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham (Birmingham Moor Street railway station, Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill railway station, Snow Hill) on a route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington ...

. Previously, the line was reconnected at a point just yards from the head shunt at Thame Junction for special events to allow trains to run into Princes Risborough station: in October 2013, the line was reconnected for the first 3 weekends for the Railway's "Haversham & Friends" celebrations, and the first through-train for 57 years, a rail tour from Aylesbury via Princes Risborough, ran on 5 October 2013. On 21 February 2016, a small team of volunteers used a road-rail vehicle to install a track panel in place of a Network Rail buffer stop to reinstate the physical connection to Princes Risborough; the following day, official boundary gates and safety signage were installed, making the line operational.Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway
Retrieved 7 August 2016 With the extension in place, the line is in length. The link was used for the first time by a visiting locomotive as part of the diesel gala held on 4/5 June 2016;

DB Cargo DB Cargo (; previously known as Railion and DB Schenker Rail) is an international transport and logistics company. It is responsible for all of the rail freight transport activities of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn (the DB Group) bo ...

Class 66 66185 hauled 3-CEP 411198 on the 0950 from Chinnor. A test run with a single-car DMU was operated on 25 June with the train running into Princes Risborough's temporary platform 4, followed a week later by a Class 17 working and then a steam-run on 10 July. The first full public service carrying VIP guests to Risborough ran on 23 July, hauled by D3018 Haversham with the return journey worked by GWR 0-6-0PT 5786 (L.92). Bay platform 4 of the original Watlington branch has been reconstructed at Princes Risborough by the preserved railway using, where possible, materials recovered from the site; with that work completed, Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway passengers are now able to join or leave trains at Princes Risborough on certain services. Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway to operate into Princes Risborough
Retrieved 7 August 2016 The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway held an official opening ceremony of the Platform on 15 August 2018.

Future projects

Extending the line to the south-west from Chinnor towards near the A40, taking its total length to . A purpose built Maintenance and Education centre at a site some 200 yards south of Chinnor station has been opened. The railway is currently constructing a new independent line which will allow trains to run into Princes Risborough without having to use the Network Rail-owned line.

On-screen appearances

Chinnor station has been used for the filming of various TV series including ''

Miss Marple Miss Jane Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Miss Marple lives in the village of St Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterised as an elderly spinster, she is one ...

'' and ''

Midsomer Murders ''Midsomer Murders'' is a British Mystery fiction, mystery television series, adapted by Anthony Horowitz and Douglas Watkinson from the novels in the ''Chief Inspector Barnaby'' book series created by Caroline Graham (writer), Caroline Graham. ...

''.

References

External links

The Railway website
{{coord, 51.6980, -0.9063, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Heritage railways in Oxfordshire Heritage railways in Buckinghamshire South Oxfordshire District 1989 establishments in England