I was at school in Aylesbury in the 1970s. In his retirement speech, one of the teachers, who had been there for many years, told a hilarious and farcical story about an incident that happened during the trial of the Great Train Robbers. It was reminiscent of Gerard Hoffnung's "bricklayer and the barrel" monologue. In the mid sixties, when the trial was taking place, the school did not have its own dining room, so it was that job of one of the teachers, on a rota basis, to shepherd all the boys across the road to another building. It so happened that this road was the one that was used to take the robbers between Aylesbury Jail, and Aylesbury Council Chamber which was being used as the court (Aylesbury Court in the Market Place was not large enough to accommodate all the defendants). Every lunchtime the prisoners were taken from court to jail, to have their lunch, and then returned to court for the afternoon session. One new member of staff didn't know this when it was his turn to see all the boys across the road. As they were waiting to cross, he saw a couple of police cars with their lights on. "They're in a hurry. I'll wait for them to go past," he thought. Following them were a couple of plain black vans - which happened to be the Black Marias containing the robbers. "They can wait," he thought, and he stepped into the road to stop the traffic. All the boys filed across. The police escort realised that they had lost their prisoners so they did handbrake turns and came bombing back - just as the last boy crossed. The police cars and the Black Maria prisoner vans crossed in opposite directions. The Black Marias saw their escort going in the wrong direction, so they turned round - as did the police escort. So the two sets of vehicles crossed again. Eventually normality was resumed. Apparently every day after that, the robbers looked out of the windows of the vans, and cheered and waved at the boys who were waiting to cross the road. None of the other teachers made the same mistake after that of separating the escort from the prisoners.
@@RediscoveringLostRailways Apparently the teacher who had stopped the Great Train Robbers' van still worked at the school when my form master gave his retirement speech, but he wouldn't name him, and no-one on the stage with him looked ill-at-ease. I bet there were a few choice comments and a lot of teasing in the staff room after "the Great Train Robbers Hold-Up" ;-) My sister used to live in Oakley about 10 years ago, and knew the people who owned Leatherslade Farm then. Apparently they had no idea that it had been the robbers' hide-out back in 1963.
Just after Cheddington, on the branch, there was a level crossing on the road leading to Mentmore Park. I have a photo of me c.1959 leaning on the (rather damaged, Aylesbury side) crossing gate. The line was intact and I still have an LMS 1943 rail chair that happened to be lying in the grass there. Cheddington station footbridge was a favourite place to stand upon as down trains (all steam apart from 10000 & 10001 in a pair) would come tearing down from Tring Cutting.
When I was at Broughton Crossing in 1992 the remains of one of the crossing gates was still standing. Also, on the right at the end of the pub carpark, there still stood a gradient post. Luckily I photographed both.
It's nice to see a video about this line as it's fascinated me for many years. The original station was at the bottom of Railway Street in Aylesbury, hence the name. That was there for 50 years until a new station opened in High Street. Someone here mentioned having physical relics of the line. I have a piece of cast iron from the footbridge at Park Street (formerly Dropshort). I found it at a local antique shop. I'm glad you set the record straight about Marston Gate. It only recently became known as Beeching House and when I saw that I laughed. The owners just assumed as the line was closed it was done by Beeching but as you rightly point out that was years after its actual closure in 1953.
So glad you enjoyed the film and that you feel I've done it some justice! Well done on picking up that relic - hoping to one day come across some such thing on my explorations! Do subscribe if you've not already done so and enjoy my other films in the series 🙂
If only the line had been kept in existence, there could have been “Great Train Robbery” tours and maybe a shop selling souvenir mailbags? Good work. A most interesting film.
Not a chance. I knew the man who told me he was instructed to travel with the coach to a scrapyard, set fire to it and to stay until the coach was totally destroyed, thus makind sure no one had any "souveniers" of the coach.
I had never been aware of this branch line, but certainly remember the GTR and remember where I was at the time (on holiday on the Isle of Wight). This brilliant video puts the location in perspective. Thank you for highlighting the vicious attack on driver Jack Mills which certainly led to his untimely death. It was disgraceful how the robbers were portrayed as loveable rogues in the popular press and the likes of Ronnie Biggs given almost celebrity status.
Ah, my part of the world gets its turn in the spotlight! I drive over and alongside the Cheddington end on my way to work, and while it may not be the most romantic of lost lines, it has a few memories for me. I may be wrong (it was the very end of the 70's and I was very young) but I can remember seeing old/abandoned rolling stock behind the fences alongside Stocklake road, and also the gravelled car park that presumably sat on the site of the old town station. Looking at Aylesbury nowadays it's amusing to think how long that central part of the town remained so run down. Great little video.
I think this would've made a lovely heritage line, but that is probably a little wistful! Glad this stirred some memories and I like the sound of that rolling stock! 🙂
I lived in Marston Gate (opposite the station house) for 15 years until last year, so as a subscriber to this channel nice to be featured. Once you know there was a line there it’s very obvious on the ground - there was a small embankment at the bottom of my garden, and a bridge over a stream massively over-engineered for its current use of allowing cows to go between fields.
Love your videos; the music; everything about them, particularly the Saffron Walden branch line one, as I'm local to there. How about the Chesterford-Newmarket line, fairly early to open and very early to close! The scars are still there on the landscape. I see them nearly every day. All the best.
I'm so pleased that you enjoy my films, thank you for taking the time to say so. I don't know why I haven't done that line as it isn't far from me - I will do it in the months ahead!
Another gem of a video, well researched and very interesting. I knew about the robbery, and the Class 40, D326, but I didn't know it was shunted up the Aylesbury branch. Do you remember the TV show about the robbery, they used a class 37 instead of a 40, and the signal was on the ground! And it wasn't a ground signal.
Thank you - yes I remember a production from a few years ago - alas I know so little about the technical side of these things so it escaped me! So glad you enjoyed the film!
Good piece of info and very interesting about the GTR,the loco and coaches were moved before the police had a chance to set up a crime scene,both the driver and his fireman were victims and died before their time and even the loco was involved in unfortunate events and was withdrawn early from service
I really enjoyed your video very much. I had no idea that this branch line is where the diesel loco and two coaches were held after the GTR. As usual, your commentary and camera work are brilliant. Thanks so much for posting this piece of history
Thank you very much! I was drawn to this one because, on the map, it is more or less a dead straight line and I though 'how curious?'...the rest followed from there!
I believe I have a book recounting this notorious event tucked away somewhere. Suppose I should attempt to locate it... Glad to see "Sir Alfred" got in his cameo.
Thank you for an excellent journey, well documented and filmed, along a route so well known. The Aylesbury terminus was orignally situated - for a few years only - at the meeting point of Railway Street and Station Street, a stone's throw from the later High Street station. The original station became the goods depot and the sidings occupied what is now the B&Q car park, the Royal Mail delivery office entrance, a section of Upper Hundreds Way and a multi-storey car park. The only hint there was ever a station there is the surviving Railway Street: Station Street disappeared when the area was redeveloped in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
I can remember the Aylesbury High Street station building still existed in 1977 when I used to walk from school into town to catch the bus home. It was derelict but it still had one of old totem signs on the front. That has all gone, swept away when a new bypass road was constructed as an extension of Exchange Street. I'd always wondered why Station Street and Railway Street were a short distance from the High Street station: I hadn't realised that there had previously been another terminus on Station Street and that the station on the High Street was built later.
@@RediscoveringLostRailways This is roughly how I remember it i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cW4AAOSwSzdXCpQh/s-l1600.jpg though I can't work out where the flower bed in the foreground was.
Thank you so much for saying so! Next film will be out in the weeks ahead - I tend to upload once every two months to focus on quality over quantity - I hope it will be worth the wait 🙂
An excellent and informative video. Great to see this line getting some attention! As a local to this line, I didn't even know of it's existence for the longest time, let alone the fact it was a leading example of how useful branch lines were to the community. Looking forward to more of these brilliant videos in the future :)
Great video as always showing these lost lines.Plenty more lines to cover yet you will never run out of content luckily for us fans of your excellent programs which without your research and hard work would be lost to history.
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I love your channel (and have the bell clicked). I am fascinated by British Railways and London Underground (I live in Canada but lived in Chiltern Court Baker Street as a kid in the 1970's)! The GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY is an incredible part of British Railway History and I have researched much of it myself. Keep up the good work! Love the Historical photos!
I love the format of your films. Classical music makes such a powerful background. I've just discovered a new channel called Pastfinder and he uses a similar format.
Though the station building was long gone, the forecourt and the railings dividing it from the road survived well into the 80s in Aylesbury as it was used for parking...
What an interesting video, you time to film, the research and your commentary are a credit. Thank you. It's interesting to see now that there is talk of rebuilding the Oxbridge rail links.... sometime.
Thank you and my pleasure! As for the Oxbridge railway - yes, Oxford to Bedford is happening...I'm not going to hold my breath for the Bedford - Cambridge stretch, as much as I want to see it! Many thanks again
Good little info vid, thanks. I think I've watched all of yours now. Nice pace, tone and improving camera work. Great job getting hold of the old images and archives, must take you ages! The Paignton to Brixham line ( Inc the still running Dartmouth steam railway line past my old school at Churston, is hopefully on your to do list.....?)
Bill Simpson who was mentioned early on in the video wrote a book titled The Aylesbury Railway and published in 1989. It is available through Amazon and is a very enjoyable read with some marvellous pictures. Highly recommended.
even though the film was short... it was packed with information galore... heck i knew about the robbery itself but no the line asscoiated with it... lookking forward to more down the line!
Just a question Was you also running lost railway station in Uk? Because it seems it has been removed and I think I recognised you voice in that canal as the speaker
Thank you! I try to upload once every couple of months - just gives me time to film and have reserves - I like to have a couple in the bank, so to speak!
This is the one I have been waiting for and just to let you know. I really enjoyed it sir 👏🏻 Thank you for all the work you do to bring us your excellent video's. All the very best 😀🍻👍🏻
Another great video! In your opinion, do you believe that Beeching's cuts actually saved future railway closures? Ive noticed quite a bit of speculation on the topic and wondered what your take was.
There's no doubt that the railway's needed cutting back. It would have been good if more had been mothballed rather than obliterated, but even then, that comes with ongoing costs. I don't subscribe to the simplified view of Beeching as some sort of tawdry pantomime villain. Though Beeching did not close this line, you can see why it was shut, so there was definitely a wider case to be made!
Great video and commentary as always. I'm surprised you didn't mention the Aylesbury duck - which, if I remember rightly, is why the line was so important for freight purposes? I've lived in this area all my life and often wondered what the original reasoning was to build a branch line that only went North along the WCML - and to the 'fast' line. Perhaps if it had connected Southbound - and indeed, due to the geography, almost economically impossibly to the South, slow line, perhaps the branch could have survived with fast, direct, electric services to London, rather than the slow, clunky, diesel, present connection Aylesbury has to Marylebone. If you're looking for far more juicy meat on the lost railway bone - how about the Nicky line from Hemel Hempstead to Harpenden/Luton?
Really glad you enjoyed the film and I agree about the connection at Cheddington - had it turned south it may have still been in use today! I've made a film about the Nickey Line - have a rummage around my channel and you'll find it somewhere! Many thanks again 🙂
And to this day, the ever growing town of Aylesbury still has no direct link to the WCML. Even a link to East/West Rail is in doubt, although the town MP is trying hard to get it done on the cheap.
As anyone who knows any thing about the early railways knows the Croft branch of the Stockton and Darlington Railway preceded this line by 10 years. The station at Croft Spa opened in October 1829 before the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened. This line was later sold to the Great North of England Railway and incorporated in their line from Darlington to York.
Is it your intention to come across as pompous, or does it come naturally? I say this because the history of your comments on this channel are a history of remarks which are either pompous or in want of a modified tone. If the latter I can help educate, if the former, then there's no hope...
@@RediscoveringLostRailways your title is wrong and a little research would show you that. I gave you one example of an earlier branch line. I don't know if this is the earliest but it is certainly earlier than what your title claims. My other comments are aimed at the rose-tinted glasses brigade who live in cloud cuckoo land who think that the railways could have survived with the losses bring incurred in the early 1960s (£100,000 per day). The railways have always been businesses and businesses need to cover their costs. The vast majority of lines and stations closed either never made the money envisioned by their promoters or duplicate lines already in existence. Yes, Bedching hot things wrong in the long term, BUT half a century is too big a gap for any reasonably accurate predictions. The rose-tinted brigade never look at the full situation. BR was losing money. That us sn undeniable fact. But why? Well let's see. There was the cost of the Modernisation Plan which did very little to a totally modernise the railways. Labour costs were going up and the government had capped fairs for both passengers and freight to stop inflation, but did cause the losses to mount. How much of this did you know? How much of this fo the rose-tinters know of these facts? From their comments I suspect very little.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 read 'The Aylesbury Railway: The First Branch Line' by Bill Simpson and you will see I have built my film on firm foundations. That would mean consulting someone else's opinion, so be careful, you might learn something!
@@neiloflongbeck5705 We've got our own Mr Gradgrind here! (he's a character in a book - I suggest reading them to obtain a variety of opinions. I know the risk of having your perspective challenged remains high, but stick with it. It's never too late to learn!)
excellent video👍 it's so sad another railway gone all because of passenger numbers pity it couldn't be mothballed kept on top of it so in future years reopened again
Yes, I think this was one case where closure seemed justified, since better routes into London were created and there were not intermediate stops of any significance... But it would've made a fine heritage railway! Many thanks for your comment 🙂
I wonder if the line would have had better traffic revenue with a south facing junction at Cheddington so the LNWR could run trains from London directly to Alysbury?
I think you're absolutely right. I don't know if this would have saved it altogether, but it might have sustained it for longer - thank you for your comment 🙂
I grew up knowing some of the ahem more rascally folks in South London and the old lags were always surprised that the gang actually got away with it as before then they had a reputation as being a bunch of low level criminals that had discovered how easy and unprotected these large sums of money could be got at and this in a day when policemen still had to rely on police phone boxes and kiosks lacking radio communication. Yes it was a clever idea to mask the signal but even today the same could be done more so with hardly any station, lineside or signalling staff across the network, of course today mobile fones and whatnot and radio coordination of police would see a response very quickly but back then it showed how behind Britain was in that regard. Of course if the poor old driver hadn't been so beaten up these robbers would have been lauded more positively.
Thank you - it did make me think that there's been no train robbery like this in the UK since - I suppose that the GTR was a source of great embarrassment to those it targeted and things were tightened up. Nevertheless, it is a unique story!
Mate another great video well done I love your videos I just wish I knew how to start my own channel as like you I’ve done lots of studying and reading up on lost lines etc and would love to put my twist
Thanks so much! When I started making films I didn't really look around TH-cam, I just made my own thing and plugged away - the format of my films changed a year or two ago for the better, so these things evolve. In short: make the sort of film that you would like to see and get some friends to offer criticism. Don't be too cautious - just give it a go!
@@peterwatkins7419 That's uncanny - I'm making The Lost Railways of the Isle of Wight this summer too! Best of luck - I use a camcorder - I just prefer working with them and I prefer their zoom function as opposed to those on phones.
@@RediscoveringLostRailways u never know we may pass each other on one of the walks ur have to let me know your dAtes ur there maybe do one of the lines together if were there same time maybe
@@RediscoveringLostRailways being from west yorkshire this is a million mile from me but so captivating i have to watch your vids over and over as with the whitewicks and darren of adventure me
The Great Train Robbery of 1963 wasn't the first robbery of a train on the UK rail network. There was a train robbery during the Crimean War that was carried out in the UK. Sadly, the report stated that it was carried out in France not in the UK.
Jack Higgins (under one of his other pseudonyms) wrote a novel set shortly after the Great Train Robbery (though I don't think it ever mentions the GTR) in which a group of Irish terrorists stage a robbery at a remote station in the Lake District (north west England, for those people overseas) in which a mail van of bank notes is robbed after the robbers stop the train the station. They make off over the hills, evading pursuit, back to their hideout where they are planning to get a boat to Ireland. And one of them looks in the bag and finds that the bank has perforated all the notes that were being returned for pulping, making them useless. There is also the fictional First Great Train Robbery film with Lesley-Anne Down, Donald Sutherland and Sean Connery.
@@Mortimer50145 The film that you are talking about is a highly fictionalised version of the real event, which took place on a service between London Bridge station and Folkestone on the night of 15 May 1855.
I do in fact own one - see my recent film concerning the S&D - but I made this film before I owned it. They are a great bit of kit - but even in a slight headwind they suffer - I took it out for my filming today and the footage is pretty unusable... I blame the pilot! 😉
today I learned that a chain times a furlong equals an acre. Oh you British and your units :) At least this one is ox based and not the length of the King's nose times 100 or something.
Very interesting, but if I'd got here via the suggestion that this was about the GTR, I'd have been a bit disappointed! Also, I somehow doubt this was the world's first branch line, as there were multiple lines in the north by the time this line was built and surely they included branch lines? But I forgive you your slight 'click baitery', as the more viewers for this channel the better!
Definitely some click baitery going on here, but the GTR is the subheading, so hopefully the disappointment won't be total to those seeking it out. Many thanks for your kind words about my film! 🙂
really? so even if hedging wasn't customarily assembled intentionally therealong, does it still get to be called as much because of its rooting along tampered turf (by humans)? what about 'thicket(s)'?
nah nah...I become jumpy here on the Island of Montreal watching English back in me homeland becoming all Canadienne...but! I suspect I be muddling "hedging" with 'hedgerow(s)'.....
@@RediscoveringLostRailways You only do what you can do. The cutting of many of these arteries risked killing the patient, especially in remoter areas. You do it very well.
@@HughTerry69 and without cutting them the entire network would have been much more reduced. Take coal deliveries to local coal depots as an example. By 1961 over 1000 stations with open coal facilities didn't receive a single wagon load if coal in the preceding 12 months and a further 1500 odd got between 1 and 5 wagons per week. Why focus on coal? Easy, in 1961 if made of profit of just under £3 million pounds. It was the only freight flow that did, general goods, I.e the majority of freight, lost about £75 million a year. Something had to be done to cut the losses. That's not to say that savings, short of complete closure, might have worked or even to suggest that all lines that were closed didn't have a future. But how far into the future could you reasonably see? No one foresaw the economic disaster that the mid-1960s were going to be for the country which ended with the Pound being devalued by 14%. Hel,l no one with all the techology we have foresaw the Credit Crunch on 2008.
If we were going to be REALLY awkward, the first branch lines were off the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Warrington and Wigan, but they were independent companies and quickly became just part of the West Coast Main Line. ...But I'm not going to be that awkward...?
Please *like*, *share*, *subscribe* and *comment*. Might you consider supporting my channel even more? www.buymeacoffee.com/rediscovering
I was at school in Aylesbury in the 1970s. In his retirement speech, one of the teachers, who had been there for many years, told a hilarious and farcical story about an incident that happened during the trial of the Great Train Robbers. It was reminiscent of Gerard Hoffnung's "bricklayer and the barrel" monologue.
In the mid sixties, when the trial was taking place, the school did not have its own dining room, so it was that job of one of the teachers, on a rota basis, to shepherd all the boys across the road to another building. It so happened that this road was the one that was used to take the robbers between Aylesbury Jail, and Aylesbury Council Chamber which was being used as the court (Aylesbury Court in the Market Place was not large enough to accommodate all the defendants). Every lunchtime the prisoners were taken from court to jail, to have their lunch, and then returned to court for the afternoon session.
One new member of staff didn't know this when it was his turn to see all the boys across the road. As they were waiting to cross, he saw a couple of police cars with their lights on. "They're in a hurry. I'll wait for them to go past," he thought. Following them were a couple of plain black vans - which happened to be the Black Marias containing the robbers. "They can wait," he thought, and he stepped into the road to stop the traffic. All the boys filed across. The police escort realised that they had lost their prisoners so they did handbrake turns and came bombing back - just as the last boy crossed. The police cars and the Black Maria prisoner vans crossed in opposite directions. The Black Marias saw their escort going in the wrong direction, so they turned round - as did the police escort. So the two sets of vehicles crossed again. Eventually normality was resumed. Apparently every day after that, the robbers looked out of the windows of the vans, and cheered and waved at the boys who were waiting to cross the road. None of the other teachers made the same mistake after that of separating the escort from the prisoners.
What a fabulous story! Thank you so much for sharing!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways Apparently the teacher who had stopped the Great Train Robbers' van still worked at the school when my form master gave his retirement speech, but he wouldn't name him, and no-one on the stage with him looked ill-at-ease. I bet there were a few choice comments and a lot of teasing in the staff room after "the Great Train Robbers Hold-Up" ;-)
My sister used to live in Oakley about 10 years ago, and knew the people who owned Leatherslade Farm then. Apparently they had no idea that it had been the robbers' hide-out back in 1963.
Just after Cheddington, on the branch, there was a level crossing on the road leading to Mentmore Park. I have a photo of me c.1959 leaning on the (rather damaged, Aylesbury side) crossing gate. The line was intact and I still have an LMS 1943 rail chair that happened to be lying in the grass there. Cheddington station footbridge was a favourite place to stand upon as down trains (all steam apart from 10000 & 10001 in a pair) would come tearing down from Tring Cutting.
Wonderful, evocative memories - thank you for sharing!
Tring Cutting.
nothing more needs to be said.
When I was at Broughton Crossing in 1992 the remains of one of the crossing gates was still standing. Also, on the right at the end of the pub carpark, there still stood a gradient post. Luckily I photographed both.
I wish I was able to find such relics when I visited - alas, there's not much more the a few hints of the railway today!
It's nice to see a video about this line as it's fascinated me for many years. The original station was at the bottom of Railway Street in Aylesbury, hence the name. That was there for 50 years until a new station opened in High Street. Someone here mentioned having physical relics of the line. I have a piece of cast iron from the footbridge at Park Street (formerly Dropshort). I found it at a local antique shop. I'm glad you set the record straight about Marston Gate. It only recently became known as Beeching House and when I saw that I laughed. The owners just assumed as the line was closed it was done by Beeching but as you rightly point out that was years after its actual closure in 1953.
So glad you enjoyed the film and that you feel I've done it some justice! Well done on picking up that relic - hoping to one day come across some such thing on my explorations! Do subscribe if you've not already done so and enjoy my other films in the series 🙂
If only the line had been kept in existence, there could have been “Great Train Robbery” tours and maybe a shop selling souvenir mailbags?
Good work. A most interesting film.
Yes! It would have made a good self-contained heritage line! Really glad you enjoyed it!
@ONLY COMPETITIONS. That would have been great!
Could've had that corner of the market sewn up tight! Boom Boom!😀
Not a chance. I knew the man who told me he was instructed to travel with the coach to a scrapyard, set fire to it and to stay until the coach was totally destroyed, thus makind sure no one had any "souveniers" of the coach.
I had never been aware of this branch line, but certainly remember the GTR and remember where I was at the time (on holiday on the Isle of Wight). This brilliant video puts the location in perspective. Thank you for highlighting the vicious attack on driver Jack Mills which certainly led to his untimely death. It was disgraceful how the robbers were portrayed as loveable rogues in the popular press and the likes of Ronnie Biggs given almost celebrity status.
Agreed. What they did was dastardly.
Interesting, informative, logically presented, well-documented. What a good job.
Very kind of you to say so, thank you!
Ah, my part of the world gets its turn in the spotlight! I drive over and alongside the Cheddington end on my way to work, and while it may not be the most romantic of lost lines, it has a few memories for me.
I may be wrong (it was the very end of the 70's and I was very young) but I can remember seeing old/abandoned rolling stock behind the fences alongside Stocklake road, and also the gravelled car park that presumably sat on the site of the old town station. Looking at Aylesbury nowadays it's amusing to think how long that central part of the town remained so run down.
Great little video.
I think this would've made a lovely heritage line, but that is probably a little wistful! Glad this stirred some memories and I like the sound of that rolling stock! 🙂
A brilliant film saving what’s left of the branch line on the internet to be viewed for years to come. Brilliant work.
Most kind of you to say so - and happy birthday for yesterday 🎂
I lived in Marston Gate (opposite the station house) for 15 years until last year, so as a subscriber to this channel nice to be featured. Once you know there was a line there it’s very obvious on the ground - there was a small embankment at the bottom of my garden, and a bridge over a stream massively over-engineered for its current use of allowing cows to go between fields.
Wonderful memories - thank you for sharing them!
Love your videos; the music; everything about them, particularly the Saffron Walden branch line one, as I'm local to there. How about the Chesterford-Newmarket line, fairly early to open and very early to close! The scars are still there on the landscape. I see them nearly every day. All the best.
I'm so pleased that you enjoy my films, thank you for taking the time to say so. I don't know why I haven't done that line as it isn't far from me - I will do it in the months ahead!
I walked the line a couple of years back just at the start in one of the house was the old Network Southeast sign in somebodies garden.
I'd love to find a similar sign somewhere - that would be the icing on the cake!
as always a great film . 40 126 was allocated to springs branch many years later . my local shed . lets never forget jack mills and david whitby
Many thanks indeed!
Another gem of a video, well researched and very interesting. I knew about the robbery, and the Class 40, D326, but I didn't know it was shunted up the Aylesbury branch.
Do you remember the TV show about the robbery, they used a class 37 instead of a 40, and the signal was on the ground! And it wasn't a ground signal.
Thank you - yes I remember a production from a few years ago - alas I know so little about the technical side of these things so it escaped me! So glad you enjoyed the film!
I whizzed through Cheddington many times in the last fifty years never even realised that there was a branch at Cheddington.
Glad you found my film and discovered thus railway secret!
Thank you. As always, well shot and beautifully narrated.
Thank you for saying so, it is always a pleasure to make these films and know they are well received by my regulars - thanks again 🙂
Good piece of info and very interesting about the GTR,the loco and coaches were moved before the police had a chance to set up a crime scene,both the driver and his fireman were victims and died before their time and even the loco was involved in unfortunate events and was withdrawn early from service
Glad you enjoyed the film!
I really enjoyed your video very much. I had no idea that this branch line is where the diesel loco and two coaches were held after the GTR. As usual, your commentary and camera work are brilliant. Thanks so much for posting this piece of history
Thank you very much! I was drawn to this one because, on the map, it is more or less a dead straight line and I though 'how curious?'...the rest followed from there!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways All the more remarkable since most of the West Coast main line isn't.
Once again a wonderful video!
You always deliver the best.
Thanks for the tag and was a pleasure helping you with this one.
You're very kind, Neil, thank you - and my pleasure!
Awesome. I’m from and still live in Cheddington, it has always fascinated me this branch and the robbery!
I hope I did justice to your local lost line!
I believe I have a book recounting this notorious event tucked away somewhere. Suppose I should attempt to locate it...
Glad to see "Sir Alfred" got in his cameo.
Yes - he's there - in fact we've not been able to make many films together since - so this might be the last cameo for a while!
Thank you for an excellent journey, well documented and filmed, along a route so well known. The Aylesbury terminus was orignally situated - for a few years only - at the meeting point of Railway Street and Station Street, a stone's throw from the later High Street station. The original station became the goods depot and the sidings occupied what is now the B&Q car park, the Royal Mail delivery office entrance, a section of Upper Hundreds Way and a multi-storey car park. The only hint there was ever a station there is the surviving Railway Street: Station Street disappeared when the area was redeveloped in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
My pleasure - and thanks for the details about the station history - fascinating!
I can remember the Aylesbury High Street station building still existed in 1977 when I used to walk from school into town to catch the bus home. It was derelict but it still had one of old totem signs on the front. That has all gone, swept away when a new bypass road was constructed as an extension of Exchange Street.
I'd always wondered why Station Street and Railway Street were a short distance from the High Street station: I hadn't realised that there had previously been another terminus on Station Street and that the station on the High Street was built later.
It's remarkable that the station was still around for so long...how I'd love to have acquired that totem!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways This is roughly how I remember it i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cW4AAOSwSzdXCpQh/s-l1600.jpg though I can't work out where the flower bed in the foreground was.
I really enjoy your videos There something so relaxing about them. Please post more soon as I am under a lot a stress LOL
Thank you so much for saying so! Next film will be out in the weeks ahead - I tend to upload once every two months to focus on quality over quantity - I hope it will be worth the wait 🙂
An excellent and informative video. Great to see this line getting some attention! As a local to this line, I didn't even know of it's existence for the longest time, let alone the fact it was a leading example of how useful branch lines were to the community. Looking forward to more of these brilliant videos in the future :)
Thank you for your kind words about my film, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Many more to come!
A very enjoyable video, well made and narrated. It's so good to find out the history and see old pictures of past railway lines, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it - it was a delight to make - if very cold at the time of filming!
Great video as always showing these lost lines.Plenty more lines to cover yet you will never run out of content luckily for us fans of your excellent programs which without your research and hard work would be lost to history.
So very kind of you to say so - and very true - so long as there are lost railways, I'll always be busy and my channel full!
I remember the crossing keepers cottage at Broughton Crossing from my school Cross-country walks.
I wish I had managed to capture it here!
I enjoyed this very much! Thank you!
I'm so pleased that you enjoyed the film, thank you for saying so!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I love your channel (and have the bell clicked). I am fascinated by British Railways and London Underground (I live in Canada but lived in Chiltern Court Baker Street as a kid in the 1970's)! The GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY is an incredible part of British Railway History and I have researched much of it myself. Keep up the good work! Love the Historical photos!
I love the format of your films. Classical music makes such a powerful background. I've just discovered a new channel called Pastfinder and he uses a similar format.
Thank you so much - I think I've found my niche here so I'll keep at it!
Though the station building was long gone, the forecourt and the railings dividing it from the road survived well into the 80s in Aylesbury as it was used for parking...
Thanks for the info. So little left to find these days!
Another very enjoyable video and many thanks.
My pleasure - thanks for your ongoing support - always happy to hear from one of my regulars!
What an interesting video, you time to film, the research and your commentary are a credit. Thank you.
It's interesting to see now that there is talk of rebuilding the Oxbridge rail links.... sometime.
Thank you and my pleasure! As for the Oxbridge railway - yes, Oxford to Bedford is happening...I'm not going to hold my breath for the Bedford - Cambridge stretch, as much as I want to see it! Many thanks again
Good little info vid, thanks. I think I've watched all of yours now. Nice pace, tone and improving camera work. Great job getting hold of the old images and archives, must take you ages! The Paignton to Brixham line ( Inc the still running Dartmouth steam railway line past my old school at Churston, is hopefully on your to do list.....?)
Thanks Jonathan - always trying to refine my craft! I'm going to look that line up right away, thanks for the recommendation!
NP, one for this year's Staycation in sunny Devon perhaps.....
@@jonathanfabian7297 I like the sound of that!
Bill Simpson who was mentioned early on in the video wrote a book titled The Aylesbury Railway and published in 1989. It is available through Amazon and is a very enjoyable read with some marvellous pictures. Highly recommended.
Yes, this was my main source of information!
Wonderful piece of work, interesting to see the changes since closure and what remains of the route. 👍
Thank you for your kind words about my film!
Like other comments below, this is a lovely snapshot of this infamous branch line! Thanks again for your continued hard work bring us these gems :-)
My pleasure! I released this after my Somerset and Dorset film, contrasting something epic with something smaller in scale. Glad you enjoyed it!
Another masterpiece!
I knew nothing about this branch line until now.
Enjoyed and learnt something new! 👍🙂
Glad you enjoyed it! I knew nothing about it either!
Brilliant video. I pass through here often and had no idea at all about this branch.
Very kind of you to say so, thank you!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways It’s a pleasure; keep up the great work.
Such a ramrod-straight line, like a Roman road.
Yes, very unusual - that's what drew me to it!
Thanks for posting this another great effort!
My pleasure, thank you!
even though the film was short... it was packed with information galore... heck i knew about the robbery itself but no the line asscoiated with it... lookking forward to more down the line!
Thanks ever so much - yes, much shorter than my S&D film for sure! Many more to come!
Awesome work
That's kind of you to say so - thank you!
Top notch stuff yet again. Thanks.
My pleasure, thank you!
I always find your videos very interesting and informative, and this one was no exception. I really enjoyed it! Keep up the good work! 👍
Thank you very much! And I certainly will - I was out filming again today!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways That's good to hear! Like many others I will be eagerly awaiting your next upload.
@@derekmacintosh7839 We all are.
Another great video! Nice to see a line which is local to me.
Thank you!
another excellent video about a forgotten branch line
Many thanks!
Just a question
Was you also running lost railway station in Uk?
Because it seems it has been removed and I think I recognised you voice in that canal as the speaker
@Kulla1berg hi, no, I only run this channel, never had any other
Ok
Superb...as usual. Many Thanks.
My pleasure, thank you for saying so!
Excellent video as always. I was wondering just yesterday, when the next episode would be.
Thank you! I try to upload once every couple of months - just gives me time to film and have reserves - I like to have a couple in the bank, so to speak!
Is there a memorial plaque at the spot where the mail train was stopped by the robbers?
No, there's not - someone ought to affix one!
Oh I love these uploads !
You know mate!
Thanks Tim - so glad you enjoy these films - I was out making another one this morning!
I can just remember, it was sarcastically called the Cheddington Flyer 😄 I have a small booklet about it printed in the 1960s!
Very good! I can imagine the pace along the line was 'unhurried'!
This is the one I have been waiting for and just to let you know.
I really enjoyed it sir 👏🏻
Thank you for all the work you do to bring us your excellent video's.
All the very best 😀🍻👍🏻
I'm so pleased! Really glad you enjoyed the film. I was out filming this morning so there's more to come!
Another great video! In your opinion, do you believe that Beeching's cuts actually saved future railway closures? Ive noticed quite a bit of speculation on the topic and wondered what your take was.
There's no doubt that the railway's needed cutting back. It would have been good if more had been mothballed rather than obliterated, but even then, that comes with ongoing costs. I don't subscribe to the simplified view of Beeching as some sort of tawdry pantomime villain. Though Beeching did not close this line, you can see why it was shut, so there was definitely a wider case to be made!
Great film always interesting about the railway’s shame we lost so many lines.
Thank you - and yes, agreed!
Always enjoy your videos, cant wait for the next one, ... stay safe and keep them coming
Thanks, will do! Next one at the start of June!
My Great Grandfather, Thomas Cotchin, was Station Master at Marston Gate.
What a wonderful connection to have with this line! 🙂
Great video and commentary as always. I'm surprised you didn't mention the Aylesbury duck - which, if I remember rightly, is why the line was so important for freight purposes? I've lived in this area all my life and often wondered what the original reasoning was to build a branch line that only went North along the WCML - and to the 'fast' line. Perhaps if it had connected Southbound - and indeed, due to the geography, almost economically impossibly to the South, slow line, perhaps the branch could have survived with fast, direct, electric services to London, rather than the slow, clunky, diesel, present connection Aylesbury has to Marylebone. If you're looking for far more juicy meat on the lost railway bone - how about the Nicky line from Hemel Hempstead to Harpenden/Luton?
Really glad you enjoyed the film and I agree about the connection at Cheddington - had it turned south it may have still been in use today! I've made a film about the Nickey Line - have a rummage around my channel and you'll find it somewhere! Many thanks again 🙂
Excellent
Thank you so much 😀
Another well done and enjoyable documentary...
Glad you enjoyed it - thank you for saying so!
Well researched as usual and thoroughly enjoyed as usual.
I'm so glad, thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
And to this day, the ever growing town of Aylesbury still has no direct link to the WCML.
Even a link to East/West Rail is in doubt, although the town MP is trying hard to get it done on the cheap.
Fingers crossed you get the EWR link!
As anyone who knows any thing about the early railways knows the Croft branch of the Stockton and Darlington Railway preceded this line by 10 years. The station at Croft Spa opened in October 1829 before the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened. This line was later sold to the Great North of England Railway and incorporated in their line from Darlington to York.
Is it your intention to come across as pompous, or does it come naturally? I say this because the history of your comments on this channel are a history of remarks which are either pompous or in want of a modified tone. If the latter I can help educate, if the former, then there's no hope...
@@RediscoveringLostRailways your title is wrong and a little research would show you that. I gave you one example of an earlier branch line. I don't know if this is the earliest but it is certainly earlier than what your title claims.
My other comments are aimed at the rose-tinted glasses brigade who live in cloud cuckoo land who think that the railways could have survived with the losses bring incurred in the early 1960s (£100,000 per day). The railways have always been businesses and businesses need to cover their costs. The vast majority of lines and stations closed either never made the money envisioned by their promoters or duplicate lines already in existence. Yes, Bedching hot things wrong in the long term, BUT half a century is too big a gap for any reasonably accurate predictions. The rose-tinted brigade never look at the full situation. BR was losing money. That us sn undeniable fact. But why? Well let's see. There was the cost of the Modernisation Plan which did very little to a totally modernise the railways. Labour costs were going up and the government had capped fairs for both passengers and freight to stop inflation, but did cause the losses to mount. How much of this did you know? How much of this fo the rose-tinters know of these facts? From their comments I suspect very little.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 read 'The Aylesbury Railway: The First Branch Line' by Bill Simpson and you will see I have built my film on firm foundations. That would mean consulting someone else's opinion, so be careful, you might learn something!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways try doing a little research and you will find that he was wrong in his opinion. Facts count, opinions don't.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 We've got our own Mr Gradgrind here! (he's a character in a book - I suggest reading them to obtain a variety of opinions. I know the risk of having your perspective challenged remains high, but stick with it. It's never too late to learn!)
An enjoyable video once again. Thank you very much.
Thanks again! Most kind!
Wonderful, as usual..
Thank you so much 😀
excellent video👍 it's so sad another railway gone all because of passenger numbers pity it couldn't be mothballed kept on top of it so in future years reopened again
Yes, I think this was one case where closure seemed justified, since better routes into London were created and there were not intermediate stops of any significance... But it would've made a fine heritage railway! Many thanks for your comment 🙂
Great video as always RLR. I enjoy your narrations. Are you a professional announcer?
Thank you very much indeed Richard. Alas, I'm very much unprofessional! 😁
Another little gem of a video ,a pity it didn't survive as a usefull WCML-GC link
Thank you so much for your kind words about my film! Yes I can imagine it would've made a good shuttle service, perhaps!
Thank you for another excellent video.
Very kind of you to say so, thank you
These are great! Well done.
Thank you indeed!
Another superb video !
Glad you enjoyed it - thank you!
Well done.
Many thanks indeed!
He's back!
Oh yes!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways Beautifully made as usual, thank you.
Very interesting!
I'm glad you enjoyed the film, thank you for saying so!
Nice one.
Many thanks indeed!
I wonder if the line would have had better traffic revenue with a south facing junction at Cheddington so the LNWR could run trains from London directly to Alysbury?
I think you're absolutely right. I don't know if this would have saved it altogether, but it might have sustained it for longer - thank you for your comment 🙂
I grew up knowing some of the ahem more rascally folks in South London and the old lags were always surprised that the gang actually got away with it as before then they had a reputation as being a bunch of low level criminals that had discovered how easy and unprotected these large sums of money could be got at and this in a day when policemen still had to rely on police phone boxes and kiosks lacking radio communication. Yes it was a clever idea to mask the signal but even today the same could be done more so with hardly any station, lineside or signalling staff across the network, of course today mobile fones and whatnot and radio coordination of police would see a response very quickly but back then it showed how behind Britain was in that regard. Of course if the poor old driver hadn't been so beaten up these robbers would have been lauded more positively.
Thank you - it did make me think that there's been no train robbery like this in the UK since - I suppose that the GTR was a source of great embarrassment to those it targeted and things were tightened up. Nevertheless, it is a unique story!
Mate another great video well done I love your videos I just wish I knew how to start my own channel as like you I’ve done lots of studying and reading up on lost lines etc and would love to put my twist
Thanks so much! When I started making films I didn't really look around TH-cam, I just made my own thing and plugged away - the format of my films changed a year or two ago for the better, so these things evolve. In short: make the sort of film that you would like to see and get some friends to offer criticism. Don't be too cautious - just give it a go!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I might do this when I go to the isle of wright in September do u film it on your phone ???
@@peterwatkins7419 That's uncanny - I'm making The Lost Railways of the Isle of Wight this summer too! Best of luck - I use a camcorder - I just prefer working with them and I prefer their zoom function as opposed to those on phones.
@@peterwatkins7419 The loss of most of the IoW network is a bit of a tragedy, in my view.
@@RediscoveringLostRailways u never know we may pass each other on one of the walks ur have to let me know your dAtes ur there maybe do one of the lines together if were there same time maybe
brilliant
Thank you!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways being from west yorkshire this is a million mile from me but so captivating i have to watch your vids over and over as with the whitewicks and darren of adventure me
The Great Train Robbery of 1963 wasn't the first robbery of a train on the UK rail network. There was a train robbery during the Crimean War that was carried out in the UK. Sadly, the report stated that it was carried out in France not in the UK.
I just remarked on another comment that we've not had another train robbery of the kind since - thanks for the heads up about the first one!
Jack Higgins (under one of his other pseudonyms) wrote a novel set shortly after the Great Train Robbery (though I don't think it ever mentions the GTR) in which a group of Irish terrorists stage a robbery at a remote station in the Lake District (north west England, for those people overseas) in which a mail van of bank notes is robbed after the robbers stop the train the station. They make off over the hills, evading pursuit, back to their hideout where they are planning to get a boat to Ireland. And one of them looks in the bag and finds that the bank has perforated all the notes that were being returned for pulping, making them useless.
There is also the fictional First Great Train Robbery film with Lesley-Anne Down, Donald Sutherland and Sean Connery.
@@Mortimer50145 The film that you are talking about is a highly fictionalised version of the real event, which took place on a service between London Bridge station and Folkestone on the night of 15 May 1855.
Have you considered a small drone. I think I would add another dimension to your already interesting videos?
I do in fact own one - see my recent film concerning the S&D - but I made this film before I owned it. They are a great bit of kit - but even in a slight headwind they suffer - I took it out for my filming today and the footage is pretty unusable... I blame the pilot! 😉
@@RediscoveringLostRailways Thanks, I’ll look the video up.
today I learned that a chain times a furlong equals an acre. Oh you British and your units :) At least this one is ox based and not the length of the King's nose times 100 or something.
😂😂 You're absolutely right of course! I'm glad to say that many of these measurements are quite arcane and not commonly used!
My mate Bob's father's small lorry was stolen by the train robbers in a dry run for the robbery.
Crikey! Did he ever get it back?
Very interesting, but if I'd got here via the suggestion that this was about the GTR, I'd have been a bit disappointed! Also, I somehow doubt this was the world's first branch line, as there were multiple lines in the north by the time this line was built and surely they included branch lines? But I forgive you your slight 'click baitery', as the more viewers for this channel the better!
Definitely some click baitery going on here, but the GTR is the subheading, so hopefully the disappointment won't be total to those seeking it out. Many thanks for your kind words about my film! 🙂
really? so even if hedging wasn't customarily assembled intentionally therealong, does it still get to be called as much because of its rooting along tampered turf (by humans)? what about 'thicket(s)'?
I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about...
you said the ROW was overgrown by hedging..so?
th-cam.com/video/WoprVhpOKIk/w-d-xo.html
@@trainrover I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject!
nah nah...I become jumpy here on the Island of Montreal watching English back in me homeland becoming all Canadienne...but! I suspect I be muddling "hedging" with 'hedgerow(s)'.....
Good Doctor..??
Irony
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I was gonna say... if not for Beeching, you'd be out of a job!
@@HughTerry69 now there's an irony not lost on me! 🙂
@@RediscoveringLostRailways You only do what you can do. The cutting of many of these arteries risked killing the patient, especially in remoter areas. You do it very well.
@@HughTerry69 and without cutting them the entire network would have been much more reduced. Take coal deliveries to local coal depots as an example. By 1961 over 1000 stations with open coal facilities didn't receive a single wagon load if coal in the preceding 12 months and a further 1500 odd got between 1 and 5 wagons per week. Why focus on coal? Easy, in 1961 if made of profit of just under £3 million pounds. It was the only freight flow that did, general goods, I.e the majority of freight, lost about £75 million a year. Something had to be done to cut the losses. That's not to say that savings, short of complete closure, might have worked or even to suggest that all lines that were closed didn't have a future. But how far into the future could you reasonably see? No one foresaw the economic disaster that the mid-1960s were going to be for the country which ended with the Pound being devalued by 14%. Hel,l no one with all the techology we have foresaw the Credit Crunch on 2008.
The Great Train Robbery - the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
True enough!
If we were going to be REALLY awkward, the first branch lines were off the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Warrington and Wigan, but they were independent companies and quickly became just part of the West Coast Main Line.
...But I'm not going to be that awkward...?
Good to know, thank you!
300th like
A thousand thanks!