The World's First Branch Line (and its role in The Great Train Robbery!) 

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Interesting, informative, logically presented, well-documented. What a good job.

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.

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.

A brilliant film saving what’s left of the branch line on the internet to be viewed for years to come. Brilliant work.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

There's now a housing estate on the outskirts of Aylesbury (the other side of the A4157 from Stocklake), some of whose street names are a less-than-subtle nod to this railway - Marston Gate, Cheddington Grove, Carriage Road, Engine Lane, and Platform Street to name a few.

Fascinating piece of history. Well done

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.

I enjoyed this very much! Thank you!

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 remember the crossing keepers cottage at Broughton Crossing from my school Cross-country walks.

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 :-)

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

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.

Thank you. As always, well shot and beautifully narrated.

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...

I really enjoy your videos There something so relaxing about them. Please post more soon as I am under a lot a stress LOL

I whizzed through Cheddington many times in the last fifty years never even realised that there was a branch at Cheddington.

Awesome work

Awesome. I’m from and still live in Cheddington, it has always fascinated me this branch and the robbery!

Another very enjoyable video and many thanks.

I can just remember, it was sarcastically called the Cheddington Flyer 😄 I have a small booklet about it printed in the 1960s!

Another great video! Nice to see a line which is local to me.

Brilliant video. I pass through here often and had no idea at all about this branch.

Such a ramrod-straight line, like a Roman road.

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.

Once again a wonderful video! You always deliver the best. Thanks for the tag and was a pleasure helping you with this one.

Top notch stuff yet again. Thanks.

another excellent video about a forgotten branch line

My Great Grandfather, Thomas Cotchin, was Station Master at Marston Gate.

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.

Another little gem of a video ,a pity it didn't survive as a usefull WCML-GC link

Wonderful piece of work, interesting to see the changes since closure and what remains of the route. 👍

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.

Oh I love these uploads !

Another masterpiece! I knew nothing about this branch line until now. Enjoyed and learnt something new! 👍🙂

Superb...as usual. Many Thanks.

Thanks for posting this another great effort!

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.

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.....?)

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 :)

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.

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?

Well researched as usual and thoroughly enjoyed as usual.

Always enjoy your videos, cant wait for the next one, ... stay safe and keep them coming

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 😀🍻👍🏻

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

Excellent video as always. I was wondering just yesterday, when the next episode would be.

An enjoyable video once again. Thank you very much.

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!

Another well done and enjoyable documentary...

I always find your videos very interesting and informative, and this one was no exception. I really enjoyed it! Keep up the good work! 👍

These are great! Well done.

Another superb video !

Great video as always RLR. I enjoy your narrations. Are you a professional announcer?

Thank you for another excellent video.

Wonderful, as usual..

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.

Great film always interesting about the railway’s shame we lost so many lines.

Well done.

Very interesting!

He's back!

Nice one.

brilliant

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.

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 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?

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

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.

Have you considered a small drone. I think I would add another dimension to your already interesting videos?

Is there a memorial plaque at the spot where the mail train was stopped by the robbers?

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.

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!

My mate Bob's father's small lorry was stolen by the train robbers in a dry run for the robbery.

300th like

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)'?

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 Doctor..??

The Great Train Robbery - the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Excellent