On Mar 6, 9:29*am, Bruce wrote:
On Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:10:27 +0000, Charles Ellson

wrote:
On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 12:11:04 -0800 (PST), Jamie *Thompson
wrote:

In all fairness, Vernney Junction was, is, and probably always will be
a field, so building a *new* curve from the Oxford-Bedford line to the
route through Buckingham (running via Calvert) wouldn't exactly be
difficult. The line from Vernney Junction to Quainton road doesn't
appear to have anything but a few scattered dwellings anywhere near it
anyway. On a tangent...I do wonder why the Buckingham Railway Centre
never bothered trying to rebuild the line north so they'd have
somewhere to run their rolling stock.

Leaving aside the money

Why leave it aside? *It is the over-riding issue.

From its earliest days, the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre has had the
greatest difficulty raising funds to keep its operation going, let
alone to expand. *

The Centre flatters to deceive. *The rebuilding of the Rewley Road
station building, courtesy of a Lottery grant, gave Quainton Road an
outstanding asset. *However, that asset is slightly out of place in a
ramshackle operation that has always been run on a shoestring.

Its location is at the root of the problem. *The area is thinly
populated meaning that people have to travel from further away. *
The transport links that most people actually want to use to access
railway preservation centres (called *roads*) are poor. *

The centre doesn't have a reputation for anything in particular and is
home to several disparate groups of enthusiasts rather than having one
coherent strategy. *One could point to an overall lack of direction
but in truth there are many different directions, some of which can
conflict with others.

Buckinghamshire Railway Centre has weathered several financial crises
over the years. *The current poor state of the economy means that
survival must be their primary objective - or their sole objective. *

There isn't any money available for grandiose schemes. *There never
has been, except of course the Lottery grant for the station building
which, as I said, gives a false impression of the Centre. *

Dreaming about re-opening to Buckingham would have been a distraction
from the business of survival. *It was never going to happen.

Fair enough. Transport links to the centre will probably improve if
the Chiltern service to MK comes about though, and they'll have to see
how things go. That said, the A41's a pretty good road that runs
nearby (aside from going through central Aylesbury), so transport
links aren't that bad. I base my comments on having a running line
being useful on the *relative* success of the Bluebell and Great
Central organisations, that's all.