"Guy Gorton" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 21 Jan 2006 16:02:21 -0000, "Ronnie Clark"
rve.co.uk wrote:


A map showing the approximate layout of the region before
rationalization:
http://www.blugman.freeserve.co.uk/calvertmap.jpg
(Note for pedants, whilst lines are colour coded by original builders,
the
spur between Claydon LNE and Calvert Junctions was a WWII innovation, and
not built by any of the original companies!)

What an invitation for pedantry! The stretch from Verney Jct to
Aylesbury was not 'originally' Metropolitan but was the Aylesbury and
Buckingham Railway (worked by the GWR). Stayed that way from 1868
until 1892 when the Met reached Aylesbury and took over the A&B.

So much for a 2 minute sketch I think I knew what I meant, and it does at
least work for illustration purposes, if not being entirely accurate

Nice pictures, BTW - if I can find some slides I took at Calvert quite
recently of the detail of a binliner being discharged, I will scan and
put them on the web..

Yours are good too - nice to see that the theoretically open line from
Claydon to Bletchley is at least as overgrown as the section of GC that is
now the GCR(N) was when it was still "open". I've heard at least one story
that a man doing a GCR(N) trackwalk in the early 90s was trudging through
the undergrowth and spotted a wagon to one side. As he made his way over to
it he was rather surprised to bump into Rushcliffe Halt's platform edge!

If I have time, I'll find the a couple of photos I took in and around
Quainton Road. I feel a small webpage is in order (having photographed most
of the GC from Quainton Road (Bucks) to Annesley (Notts) in the last couple
of years, I should probably do a whole site sometime...


--
Ronnie
--
Have a great day...
....Have a Great Central day.
www.greatcentralrailway.com

Peter Masson wrote in
:

"TheOneKEA" wrote

I presume then that the spur to Claydon LN&E Junction is nominally
intact to allow the refuse trains to be propelled into the down
siding and thence to the pits, correct? I had heard that some of the
rails on the mothballed line between Bicester and Bletchley had been
stolen.

The line from Oxford is open for passenger trains as far as Bicester
Town, and for freight as far as Claydon LNE junction. The Avon
binliner normally comes this way, and reverses down the spur to
Calvert. The line from Claydon to Bletchley isn't currently in a fit
state for trains, and ISTR that I had heard the suggestion that some
rails had been stolen.

It's always intrigued me that the Avon binliner dumps its rubbish at Calvert
rather than at the landfill site near Appleford just north of Didcot, given
the Avon trains would go past it on the way to Calvert. Not that I'm
complaining since I live near the Appleford landfill site and there's a big
enough problem already in summer with the smell and the flies.

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 15:50:08 -0000, "Ronnie Clark"
rve.co.uk wrote:


Nice pictures, BTW - if I can find some slides I took at Calvert quite
recently of the detail of a binliner being discharged, I will scan and
put them on the web..

Yours are good too - nice to see that the theoretically open line from
Claydon to Bletchley is at least as overgrown as the section of GC that is
now the GCR(N) was when it was still "open". I've heard at least one story
that a man doing a GCR(N) trackwalk in the early 90s was trudging through
the undergrowth and spotted a wagon to one side. As he made his way over to
it he was rather surprised to bump into Rushcliffe Halt's platform edge!

Both LNWR platforms are still in place at Verney - if you can finsd
them! Also a nice sign at the footcrossing 'Look and listen....'.
Patience needed, I think.

If I have time, I'll find the a couple of photos I took in and around
Quainton Road. I feel a small webpage is in order (having photographed most
of the GC from Quainton Road (Bucks) to Annesley (Notts) in the last couple
of years, I should probably do a whole site sometime...

That would be interesting. I was out and about the GCR this summer to
get some pictures of various stretches to include in a slide show I
put together entitled "Watkin to Prescott" which sketched the history
of the MSLR and the GCR but focussed on the Joint Line from Grendon
Underwood as far as Gerrards Cross, Tesco and all that.
At Quainton I tried to find the exact point where the GCR joined the
Met (formerly A&B) just west of Quainton Road but failed. Lots of
other bits of the A&B to be found but that interesting spot seems to
have been thoroughly obliterated - or have you found it?


Guy Gorton

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 12:56:43 GMT, "Jack Taylor"
wrote:

Nick Pedley wrote:

About 8 years ago there were Christmas Shopping services from
Aylesbury to Milton Keynes, IIRC.

A lot longer ago than that, I'm afraid. The last ones that I remember were
December 1989 or 1990.

Great trips with driver's blinds up on the 115s. Lots of NSE
top-brass on board. Started from Marylebone via the Joint Line and
plcked us up at Gerrards Cross. Not a fast journey, though!
Can't remember what the shops were like.

Guy Gorton

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 18:43:24 +0000, Guy Gorton
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 12:56:43 GMT, "Jack Taylor"
wrote:

Nick Pedley wrote:

About 8 years ago there were Christmas Shopping services from
Aylesbury to Milton Keynes, IIRC.

A lot longer ago than that, I'm afraid. The last ones that I remember were
December 1989 or 1990.

Great trips with driver's blinds up on the 115s. Lots of NSE
top-brass on board. Started from Marylebone via the Joint Line and
plcked us up at Gerrards Cross. Not a fast journey, though!
Can't remember what the shops were like.

Guy Gorton

I did that trip sometime back in the 80's but I got on at Quainton
Road, didn't bother with the shops though as someone collected us in a
car. These days I work in MK..................

G

That would be interesting. I was out and about the GCR this summer to get
some pictures of various stretches to include in a slide show I put together
entitled "Watkin to Prescott" which sketched the history of the MSLR and the
GCR but focussed on the Joint Line from Grendon Underwood as far as Gerrards
Cross, Tesco and all that. At Quainton I tried to find the exact point where
the GCR joined the Met (formerly A&B) just west of Quainton Road but failed.
Lots of other bits of the A&B to be found but that interesting spot seems to
have been thoroughly obliterated - or have you found it?


Guy Gorton



The location still exists:

http://tinyurl.com/9b6hx

http://www.pendar.pwp.blueyonder.co....ine_1.html#GCR


The bridge there still goes over the GCR (obviously) but has been filled in
where the Met line ran beneath it. Interestingly, there is a road sign on
the approach to the bridge that warns of a 'failed road'. Perhaps the road
collapsed into the Met line space rather than it being deliberately filled
in (or the filling in left something to be desired).

Many thanks to everyone who replied to this post.

Ronnie Clark wrote:


These photos, taken on May 14th 2005, show the area of Calvert as it is in
recent times:
http://www.blugman.freeserve.co.uk/calvert1.jpg
http://www.blugman.freeserve.co.uk/calvert2.jpg
http://www.blugman.freeserve.co.uk/calvert3.jpg


Four photos of the same location from the time of the line's
construction. That site isn't well represented in search engines and the
image size is rather more stingy than those you've provided ...
apologies if none of the following turn out to be links ...

Another image from the site is a handbill for an excursion from
Leicester to Calvert. What's the visitor attraction at Calvert ??

http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/g...tv=L1 &pnum=1
http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/g...tv=L2 &pnum=1
http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/g...&mtv=L1&pnum=1
http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/g...&mtv=L3&pnum=1

"Mark Annand" wrote

Another image from the site is a handbill for an excursion from
Leicester to Calvert. What's the visitor attraction at Calvert ??

Goodness knows. It's a tip. ;-)

Peter

Mark Annand wrote:

Another image from the site is a handbill for an excursion from
Leicester to Calvert. What's the visitor attraction at Calvert ??


There used to be a very large brickworks, and some housing for the
workers, but that's about it.

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:48:37 +0000, Gavin Hamilton
wrote:


These days I work in MK..................

G

Voluntarily?

Guy Gorton