hi guys and welcome back to announcer bing. today we are on a Chiltern railways service from lodnon Marylebone to oxford in the drivers cab. the drivers amazing, shoutout to him. click here to subscribe / @announcerbing2k24
Just north of Marylebone you enter a tunnel about a mile long and the railway travels under St Johns Wood. When the railway was built in the late-1800's the landlords of St Johns Wood fought a battle with the railway company over where the last mile or so of track would go, and it was agreed to put it in a tunnel. However the freeholds of some very grand streets, as grand as anything in St Johns Wood, immediately north of where the station now is and before the tunnel, were owned by the St Johns Wood landlords aswell. These were all destroyed to build the railway and huge compensation was paid to the landlords by the railway company - which was already short of money by the time the railway had got to its conclusion at Marylebone. The pay out, and the higher than anticipated railway construction costs, meant the company was nearly broke by the time the railway was finished. It is for this reason that Marylebone station is so tiny, it is minute compared to all the other London railway stations - the company had little money left to build it.
In the absence of station-name captions, here are timings for stations, junctions, tunnels etc: 00:00 London Marylebone sta 01:20-02:47 St John's Wood tunnel 02:48 cross over South Hampstead on West Coast Main Line out of Euston 02:52-03:20 Hampstead tunnel 03:56 West Hampstead sta (Metropolitan line only) 03:40 cross over North London line (Stratford to Richmond) 04:49 Kilburn sta (Met line) 05:50 Willesden Green sta (Met line) 06:30 Dollis Hill sta (Met line) 06:50 cross under Cricklewood to Acton Wells freight-only line 06:55 Neasden sta (Met line) 06:59 Neasden junction: line to Amersham and Aylesbury diverges right 08:08 Wembley Stadium station 08:37 cross over West Coast Main Line (again) 09:11 Sudbury and Harrow Road sta 09:52 Sudbury Hill Harrow sta 10:09-10:14 South Harrow tunnel: cross under Picadilly Line 10:36 Northolt Park sta 11:10 Northolt junction: left branch joins freight-only line (formerly GWR express line from Paddington) 11:43 South Ruislip sta; GWR line joins from left: now on ex-GWR main line Paddington-Birmingham 12:04 Ruislip Gardens sta (pronounced Rye-slip) 12:30 Ruislip depot 12:41 cross over Central Line 12:51 West Ruislip sta 14:00 (approx) cross over Grand Union canal 14:30 Denham sta 15:00 Denham Golf Club sta 15:30 cross over M25 motorway at Chalfont Viaduct ("Give Peas [sic] A Chance" bridge - Google it!) 15:57-16:05 Gerrards Cross covered way (tunnel constructed over cutting to allow supermarket to be built above) 16:05 Gerrards Cross sta 17:50 Seer Green and Jordans sta 18:50 Beaconsfield sta 19:52-20:00 White House tunnel 21:40 (approx) disused single-track GWR line from Maidenhead to High Wycombe 22:05 High Wycombe sta 24:10 (approx) site of disused West Wycombe sta 26:48 Saunderton sta 27:30 up/down tracks separate: begins 29:10 up/down tracks separate: ends 29:23 Princes Risborough sta; single line heritage (private) line to Chinnor (originally to Watlington) diverges left; single line to Aylesbury diverges right 33:24 Haddenham Parkway sta (large car-park to attract commuters from Thame and Aylesbury) 37:50 Ashendon junction: disused link line to GC line diverged right; up and down lines separate for a short distance 39:44-39:50 tunnel 43:44-44:50 Gavray junctions (brand new link line constructed 2018 to join Chiltern line to Bicester-Oxford line); main Chiltern line to Bicester North, Banbury and Birmingham continues straight ahead 45:30 Bicester Village (previously called Bicester Town) sta (pronounced Biss-ter) 46:40 sidings to Graven Hill MOD depot 51:52 Islip sta 55:24 Oxford Parkway sta (large car park, like at Haddenham, to serve surrounding villages) 58:05-58:10 Wolvercote tunnel (widening works delayed while provision was made for bats roosting in tunnel) 59:10 Oxford North junction: line from Banbury and Birmingham converges from right 1:01:45 Oxford sta (bay platforms: train approaches station from the *north*, having originally come from the south east) When the Great Central originally built the line, sharing the track that the Metropolitan Railway had built, the Met insisted that the GC used separate track that had no platforms at the inner-London Metropolitan stations, to avoid the GC "poaching" Met passengers. Up/down tracks take separate routes (max 1/4 mile apart) between Saunderton and Princes Risborough. GWR single line took the down line that we are on; this had a significant gradient and sharp curve, so when line was doubled, the up line was built on a flatter, straighter route to avoid heavily-laden coal trains needing to be more powerful just for that gradient; empty coal wagons (lighter train!) on return journey could take the down route with a gradient. The line from Oxford to Bicester Town was closed in 1960s (Beeching!), opened as single-track in 1980s and then upgraded to dual-track when Gavrey curve was built and trains began from Oxford to London Marylebone to provide additional capacity in addition to existing Oxford to London Paddington trains.
What a lovely trip....Haven't been on that route since 1980, when I used to travel from Marylebone, to Bicester. There have been MASSIVE improvements on this incredible line.....AND BEST OF ALL....No live rails....No overhead wires.....BRILLIANT !!!
I haven't been along parts of this route for a very long time, the exit from Marylebone on the former Great Central through the St John's Wood and Hampstead tunnels was interesting, but the junction with the former GWR "New Line" to Birmingham Snow Hill was the best part at Northolt Junction (we go along the former "Up" GC line as the "Down" line was to the left and burrowed under the GWR mainline) I was surprised we didn't stop at High Wycombe and had trouble spotting the former West Wycombe station site as the line would open apart some distance on a curve before entering a tunnel with the old "Hell Fire" building above it! we go along the mainline split at Saunderton Summit before the complex of Princes Risborough and onward to the isolated Ashendon Junction where the former GC line would go to the right toward Calvert, again the mainline opens out as we travel on the "Down" main, the "Up" Main would have been on an embankment and girder bridge to cross over the CG Ashendon line all now lifted and heavily overgrown, we soon leave the former GWR Birmingham Mainline just before Bicester and assume we join the former LMS line to Oxford at Blackthorn. The section of line we traveled along was the former GWR /GC joint line one of the last built in this country and this route built for high speed allowed the GWR Birmingham expresses a level 2 hour schedule to Paddington was opened in 1909, here from the 1930's to 1962 would be the racing ground for the "Kings" and "Castles" hauling 10--12 coach trains easily at 80-90 mph. sadly we don't see the old mainline from Paddington (Royal Oak) to Northolt Junction where we join up, this section was singled and later abandoned, though a "Ghost Train" service leaves Paddington each morning to High Wycombe (no return) from Platform 14. Years ago I traveled from Birmingham New Street along this severely castrated mainline along to Paddington hauled by a wheezing class 50, that was in 1984! Great video Announcer Bing, good quality and interesting to see how this route is today. :-)
Hello from New Zealand, have just come across this, nice video, really enjoyed it, love seeing the English countryside. Wish we had a rail network here anywhere near that you have in the UK
Thanks for posting, great video for me to watch, especially as my dad Charlie Robbins, drove out of Marylebone until his retirement in the late 80’s. He also drove a number of Steam specials out of Marylebone including The Flying Scotsman & Sir Nigel Gresley among others.
what a lovely journey, doing what railways should do, serving local communities and NOT decimating the countryside around Bucks. This is a wonderful alternative to hs2 and simply needs a little upgrade here and there to support the wcml to birmingham, if you want speed, get a planer.
Fascinating stuff. I have travelled on that route many times over the years (Albeit to and from Bicester North), and I can see so much more scenery and infrastructure from this view. Also, it's good to see all the improvements made to the line from Bicester Town to Oxford.
Surprised no mention of stations en route & no stop at Gerrards X,Beaconsfield or H Wycombe.Having lived in Harrow for 27 years & now Rugby for 16 years, I have an ongoing interest in the GC.From Harrow to Marylebone took 12mins on the Chiltern.I love the tunnel that goes in, comes out, just below Finchley Rd Station.I remember Marylebone when it was really run down (before Chiltern took over) with the shabby DMU,s which were the last units running from Rugby to Nottingham before final GC closure in 1969.
So with 0 stops High Wycombe is reached in 22 minutes (8:09 Wembley stadium) 9:13 Sudbury & Harrow road 9:54 Sudbury hill Harrow 10:38 northolt park 11:47 South Ruislip 12:51 West Ruislip
@@leroycreasey The line starts at Marylebone station which is just to the north west of the centre of London (taking that to be Charing Cross) and heads roughly north-west out of London into Buckinghamshire and then Oxfordshire.
Pity we don't get the driver's audio. Trackside views not that much changed since I was a Marylebone passenger guard in the 60's. I left in '68 to fire Garrats on Rhodesia Railways.
Sectorisation (Network SouthEast) and privatisation (Chiltern Railway franchise) had a positive impact on this line. Sadly, that wasn't the case everywhere else.
Approaching Bicester South junction, the use of two successive pairs of signals to indicate that the train is routed to turn off the main line and towards Oxford is an arrangement I’ve not come across before. Are there other similar examples on the Network, I wonder? Isn’t the more normal way of indicating this sort of routing for the first signal to show a flashing double yellow aspect followed by a flashing single yellow?
They're called splitting distant signals. Used to be very common in the old old days but largely fell out of use. You are absolutely correct that flashing yellows is by far the more common, however splitting distants have made a comeback in recent years and these are certainly not the only ones www.railsigns.uk/info/jcnsig1/jcnsig1.html
@@semajttam Thank you for putting Peter Fox back in his box. It was plainly obvious there was a speed restriction when the tube train was passing on the right hand side.
This cab ride video is spoiled by the annoying chatter of people in the background and the lack of information such as the class of train and names of stations.
The OP has explained up thread that he didn't know how to add captions; I imagine not everyone can afford Go Pro cameras! If you listen to the chatting various features are explained.
