Disused Bourne End to Wycombe Line
The Wycombe railway was formed in 1845 and was successful in getting it's act in 1846. Construction was slow and the line opened between
Maidenhead and High Wycombe in 1854. In 1873 the Marlow branch was added connecting the town to Bourne End. The original station at
Maidenhead was located on Castle hill but was closed when the present Maidenhead station opened in 1871. The line was 9.75 miles in
length (excluding the Marlow branch) and, in distance from Maidenhead (original station), stations were opened at Cookham (3
miles), Bourne End (4.5 miles), Wooburn Green (5.75 miles), Loudwater (7.25 miles) and on to Wycombe station. There were numerous
underline and overline bridges and one river bridge. Also many level crossings, occupation crossings and foot crossings.
When the mainline from Wycombe to Marylebone opened in 1899, the company continued to run freight over the line with the main London
bound passenger services running over the new line. A snapshot of the line in 1937 shows there were 12 return trains a day between
Maidenhead and Wycombe which were well used by the local population. The line flourished until the 1960's when competition from the
road gradually took all the freight and more people began using private cars more and more. In 1970, British rail asked the
Wycombe council for £60,000 to help keep the line open but no money was forthcoming and consequently the line closed to all traffic
in the same year. The track and signalling were recovered and the stations left to crumble. 116 years of local train services
came to an end. Will it ever re-open? See the feasibilty section.
The first part of this feature covers the still open part of the line from Maidenhead to Bourne End and Marlow.
The second part of this feature covers the part of the line leaving Wycombe.
The third part of this feature focuses on and around Loudwater Station.
The fourth part of this feature focuses on and around Wooburn Green Station.
The last part of this feature has pictures showing the relics left behind. Over 2 pages, still quite a bit out there.
Links and Acknowledgements
SWOP - Sharing Wycombes Old Photographs Bucks County Council
Jeff Fisher's site on Fotopic
Geoff Plumb's site on Fotopic
Disused railways site on Fotopic
MDRS Marlow & District Railway Society
Marlow - Maidenhead Passenger Association
Over 17,000 photot's of Wycombe and surrounding areas.
News about the line today, plus a little bit more.
Look here for lots of locomotive pics on the Maidenhead - Wycombe branch line.
Look here for pics of the disused section as it is today.
Excellent set of pictures from the railways.
Lots of pics from old lines and more.
Many thanks to Jeff Fisher for the pics of Loudwater and Wooburn Green stations.
Many thanks to Geoff Plumb for the pics of the
loco at Loudwater, Wooburn Green and Cookham.
Many thanks to Ken Lawrie and MDRS for the pic of the mighty 9F loco no. 92220
at Cores End. (still around today at NRM)
Thanks to Chris Bellet for the pic of Bourne End station looking north
Many
thanks to MMPA for the pic of Spring Lane bridge.
Many, many, many thanks to the people who submitted pics to the BCC SWOP website
and BFP.
Thanks to Google Earth for providing such a usefull tool.
Thanks to the High Wycombe Society, who are campaigning
for the line to be rebuilt.
All rights reserved. Copyright remains with the owner.
All images within these web pages have been reproduced with the
permission of the copyright owner, either by published consent or by direct contact.
All black and white images in this feature
are copyright controlled by Bucks County Council with the exception of the 92220 locomotive at Cores End and those marked
as "High Wycombe Society".
Chris Bellet's site on Fotopic
Lots of pics from the railways in days gone by, some more recent than others.
Click on the download button to download a Google Earth kmz file containing all the locations in this feature.
Click on the download button to download a text file on how to use the kmz file.
Images reproduced using maps over 50 years old, produced by Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
New Adelstrop Railway Atlas
Great site showing the railways as they were in 1960. Lots of signalling sections illustrated.
A map is being put together showing all lines in the country including branch lines and disused lines.
Great site, full of documentation on rail crash investigations right back to the 1840's.
The fifth part of this feature brings us into Bourne End Station.
This page has a basic feasibilty study to see what problems would arise from a reinstatement of the railway.
Here on these next few pages I've done a small feature on the closed line between Bourne End and Wycombe. I don't know why, it's just
been a curiosity to me as to where it actually was, and what the stations looked like. So I started researching it and came up with
a wide spread collection of photo's from various websites here and there. There wasn't anything that portrayed the line as a whole,
so I set out to painstakingly put together this feature so that I could look at it as a whole. I have contacted the owners of the
images, sent out loads of emails, received a few back and have finally been able to produce this addition to my website. I'm not the
best website designer in the world so it probably appears a little bit random here and there, but there is a purpose to the progression
of the pages. I have put a links section further down this page so please visit them to see their sites, which you will no doubt find
interesting. Please find the time, as without this kind of sharing spirit it wouldn't be possible to produce this kind of site. One
thing I have learned a lot about on this quest is copyright and ownership laws and I have endeavoured to ensure that every image which
does does not belong to me has been granted permission by the owner or copyright holder to be used. If any mistakes have been made,
please contact me and I will put the situation right. One thing I like about researching things from the past is the relics and questions
it throws up. I have put together a lot of pictures in the relics section which I am unable to identify at present other than they
were found at the side of the old line and would appear to be connected in some way to the railway. If you're anything like me, such
things will stir the imagination.
A group campaining for the reinstatement of the railway link to Bourne End
This page shows the railways entry in Bradshaws Guide to railway journeys. (Don't get too excited)