Infrastructure of the Brill Tramway

v t e Brill Tramway
Legend
Quainton Road Metropolitan Railway Quainton Road level crossing Waddesdon Road Akeman Street level crossing Winchendon Branch Gas works siding Westcott Wotton Great Central Railway Wotton Church Siding Kingswood Lane Coal Wharf Kingswood Lane level crossing Wood Siding Great Western Railway Wotton End level crossing Brill

The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch,^{[note 1]} was a six-mile (10 km) rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England.^[5] It was privately built in 1871 by the 3rd Duke of Buckingham as a horse tram line to transport goods between his lands around Wotton House and the national railway network.^[6] Lobbying from residents of the nearby town of Brill led to the line's extension to Brill and conversion to passenger use in early 1872.^[6] Two locomotives were bought for the line, but as it had been designed and built with horses in mind, services were very slow; trains travelled at an average speed of only 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h).^[7]

In 1883, the Duke of Buckingham announced plans to upgrade the route to main line railway standards and extend the line to Oxford, creating a through route from Aylesbury to Oxford.^[8] If built, the line would have been the shortest route between Aylesbury and Oxford at the time.^[8] Despite the backing of the wealthy Ferdinand de Rothschild, investors were deterred by the costly tunnelling proposed, and the Duke was unable to raise sufficient funds.^[9] In 1888 a cheaper scheme was proposed, in which the line would be built to a lower standard and wind around hills to avoid tunnelling.^[10] In anticipation of this, the line was named the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad.^[9] Although the existing line was upgraded in 1894, the extension to Oxford was never built.^[11] Instead, the operation of the Brill Tramway was taken over by London's Metropolitan Railway, and Brill became one of their two north-western termini.^[12] The line was rebuilt a second time in 1910, and more advanced locomotives were introduced, allowing trains to run faster.^[13]

In 1933, the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership and became the Metropolitan line of London Transport. As a result, the Brill Tramway became a part of the London Underground.^[14] The management of London Transport aimed to concentrate on electrification and the improvement of passenger services in London, and saw little possibility that the former Metropolitan Railway routes in Buckinghamshire could ever become viable passenger routes.^[15] In 1935 all services on the Brill Tramway were withdrawn, and the line was closed.^[16] The infrastructure of the route was dismantled and sold shortly afterwards.^[17] Very little trace of the Brill Tramway remains,^[18] other than the former junction station at Quainton Road, now the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.^[19]

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