Verney Junction railway station

Infobox UK disused station
name = Verney Junction


caption = Station site in 2005, stationmaster's house to the right
locale = Verney Junction
borough = Aylesbury Vale
original = Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and Great Western Railway (1868-1891)
pregroup = Metropolitan Railway (1891-1906) and Great Central Railway (1899-1906)
Metropolitan & Great Central Joint Committee (1906-1923)
postgroup = London and North Eastern Railway (1923-1948)
Eastern Region of British Railways (1948-1962)
London Midland Region of British Railways (1962-1968)
latitude = 51.9406
longitude = -0.9300
platforms = 3
years = 23 September 1868
events = Opened
years1 = 6 July 1936
events1 = Metropolitan passenger services withdrawn
years2 = 6 January 1964
events2 = Closed to goods
years3 = 1 January 1968
events3 = Closed to passengers

Verney Junction was once a railway station at a busy junction serving four directions between 1868 and 1968 and from where excursions as far afield as Ramsgate could be booked. Situated some 50 miles from Baker Street, the station is considered one of London's disused underground stations and, although it never carried very heavy levels of traffic, played an important role in the expansion of the Metropolitan Railway into what became known as Metro-land.

History

Opening

Verney Junction opened in 1868 as the northern terminus of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway's (A&BR) single track line from Aylesbury. The station was situated at a junction with the London and North Western Railway's (LNWR) Bletchley to Oxford line, 1.75 miles east of Claydon, and constructed to a rudimentary design by the latter company at the cost of the A&BR whose progress it viewed with extreme disfavour. [Cite book | author=Simpson, Bill | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=Banbury to Verney Junction Branch | year=1994 | publisher=Lamplight Publications | location=Banbury, Oxfordshire | isbn=978-1-899246-00-7 | pages=p. 133]

Although it had been intended to extend the railway further north to reach Buckingham, this never materialised and Verney Junction, then a remote location with a few cottages for the tenants of Claydon House estate. Claydon's occupant, Sir Harry Verney, was on the board of the A&BR which was chaired by the Duke of Buckingham, and invested heavily in the scheme. [Simpson, B., op. cit. p. 133.] There being no settlement from which the station could take its name, it was named in honour of Sir Harry, who was later to have another nearby station - Calvert - named after him. [Cite book | author=Dow, George | authorlink=George Dow | coauthors= | title=Great Central: Volume 3 Fay sets the pace 1900-1923 | year=1965 | publisher=Ian Allen Limited | location=London | isbn=7110-0263-0 | pages=p. 191]

Early years

The A&BR initially began advertising services to and from Banbury, Oxford and Bletchley but found itself opposed by the LNWR who attempted to isolate the A&BR by encouraging passengers to take its own longer route to Aylesbury via Bletchley and Cheddington. The A&BR therefore turned to the Great Western Railway (GWR) (with whom it jointly managed Aylesbury) to conclude a working agreement enabling services to run over the GWR's Wycombe Railway; the Wycombe line was converted to standard gauge on 23 October 1868 on which date A&BR services were reinstated. [Cite book | author=Davies, R.; Grant, M.D. | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=Forgotten Railways: Chilterns and Cotswolds | year=1984 | publisher=David St John Thomas | location=Newton Abbot, Devon | isbn=0-946537-07-0 | pages=p. 84]

The GWR worked the A&BR for more than twenty years, turning down the chance to acquire it in 1874, although for the first six years the route was operated by the A&BR's own staff, except for footplate crews who were GWR employees. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D., op. cit. p. 84-85.] Traffic was initially "almost non-existent" due to Verney Junction's rural locality [Cite book | author=Oppitz, Leslie | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=Lost Railways of the Chilterns (Lost Railways Series) | year=2000 | publisher=Countryside Books | location=Newbury, Berkshire | isbn=978-1-85306-643-6 | pages=p. 30] , but the Metropolitan Railway under the influence of Sir Edward Watkin nevertheless saw an opportunity for growth and absorbed the A&BR on 1 July 1891. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D., op. cit. p. 85.] The A&BR would be the line that the London Extension of Watkin's Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) would meet at Quainton Road. [Cite book | author=Dow, George | authorlink=George Dow | coauthors= | title=Great Central: Volume 2 Dominion of Watkin 1864-1899 | date=1962 | publisher=Ian Allen Limited | location=Shepperton, Surrey | isbn= | pages=p. 246] In anticipation of the connection, the A&BR was doubled by 1897 and the Metropolitan extended its line from Chalfont Road to Aylesbury in 1892. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D., op. cit. p. 85.]

Metropolitan era

Not long after the Metropolitan reached its northern outpost, Verney Junction was elevated to main line status with the opening of the MSLR's London Extension (later to be known as the Great Central Railway). Around the same time, the Metropolitan inaugurated a service of through trains between Baker Street and Verney Junction, although this could hardly be said to be merited on the basis of traffic. [Simpson, B., op. cit. p. 135.] From 2 April 1906, all Metropolitan services north of Harrow South Junction to Verney Junction came under the control of the Metropolitan & Great Central Joint Committee which had been set up by an Act of Parliament to manage the companies' joint lines. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D., op. cit. p. 89.]

The Metropolitan opened another intermediate station on the A&BR at Waddesdon in 1897, adding to the three existing stations at Grandborough Road, Quainton Road and Winslow Road which had opened in 1868. A new Pullman service was introduced in 1910 as part of a drive to attract first-class paying passengers from the Great Central; two Pullman coaches named "Mayflower" and "Galatea" were used on alternate weeks between Verney Junction, Chesham and London. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D., op. cit. p. 90.]

The Metropolitan was vested in the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) on 1 July 1933 and freight and passenger workings to Verney Junction continued in trains repainted with the London Transport lettering. [Oppitz, L., op. cit. p. 37.] However, little over three years later, the LPTB decided to discontinue suburban services beyond Aylesbury and in consequence two Metropolitan outposts were closed - the Brill Tramway ended on 30 November 1935 and passenger services ceased between Quainton Road and Verney Junction on 6 July 1936 when the line was singled. [Oppitz, L., op. cit. p. 149.] London Transport did, however, reinstate a limited service between 3 May 1943 and 29 May 1948 for war workers, but there were only one or two daily services and these were not widely advertised. [Cite book | author=Mitchell, Vic | authorlink= | coauthors=Smith, Keith | title=Aylesbury to Rugby including the Brill Tramway (Midland Main Lines) | year=2006 | publisher=Middleton Press | location=Midhurst, West Sussex | isbn=978-1-90447-491-3 | pages=Plate 56]

Decline and closure

Although the two World Wars brought an increase in freight traffic from Verney Junction to London, with considerable volumes of freight passing through the station's transfer sidings, the post-war period saw a decline in the station's fortunes. The closure of the Aylesbury-Verney section by the LPTB in 1936, severing the connection to Buckingham, was followed by the removal of one of the line's tracks on 28 January 1940. In the same year, freight traffic through Verney Junction was substantially diminished by the construction on 14 September 1940 of a connecting spur between the LNWR and GCR lines at Calvert which enabled freight from the Oxford-Bletchley route to work south over the Great Central Main Line without having to pass over the Verney Junction-Quainton Road section. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D., op. cit. p. 89.]

By the end of 1940, Verney Junction was effectively left "severed from its purpose" [Simpson, B., op. cit. p. 136.] , having little usefulness other than as a rural interchange for local services. It played a useful part in the transfer of goods between the interconnecting lines, but passenger traffic declined in the face of the availability of more direct routes to and from Banbury and Oxford. Goods services were withdrawn in 1964, with passenger services following in 1968.

After closure, the track on the northern section of the A&BR between Verney Junction and Winslow Road was retained until the early 1960s, including the former Metropolitan sidings which were subsequently used for storing veteran railway vehicles. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D., op. cit. p. 91.]

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Present and future

The permanent way from Quainton Road to its connection with the Varsity Line has been closed and lifted. A single-track freight line from Bletchley to Bicester was retained and then abandoned in place in 1993 [Mitchell, V. and Smith, K., op. cit. Plate 55.] ; the track remains rusted beyond use and in overgrown state, although modern signage still warns travellers to watch for approaching trains. Of the station itself, the stationmaster's house remains as a private residence and the station ticket office has become a private garage. The platform edges have also survived in a dilapidated state. The stationmaster's house's garden occupies the former Metropolitan trackbed. [Oppitz, L., op. cit. p. 39.]

There is a current proposal to re-open the Varsity Line, but it is unlikely that the reopening would include Verney Junction station as it would serve no significant settlement.

External links

*
* [http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/Verney_Junction_line_2.html#VerneyJunction London's Abandoned Tube Stations - Verney Junction]
* [http://lostlines.fotopic.net/p36398054.html Verney Junction seen in passing from the last passenger train to traverse the line in 1993]
* [http://lostlines.fotopic.net/p35150442.html A later view of Verney Junction taken in 1997]

References