The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre

The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre became the UK's newest national museum on April 5 2006

The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is a fascinating working steam museum which displays the "giants of steam' across its 25-acre site. The Centre boasts one of the largest private railway collections in the country with many steam locomotives from "Express' passenger types to humble shunting engines. The museum is also home to a host of interesting rolling stock and railway memorabilia.

The Museum has worked hard to achieve the standards required by the Museums, Libraries, and Archives (MLA) Registration scheme and has earned the right to call itself a "national museum'.

More than 1800 museums throughout the UK are now part of the MLA scheme which is national and voluntary and sets out minimum standards for museums in collection care, public services and museum management.

Staffing

The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre and Museum is run largely by volunteer members of the Quainton Railway Society with a very small number of paid part-time and permanent staff.

History

In 1968 the London Railway Preservation Society chose Quainton Road Railway Station, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire to establish its centre.

From modest early beginnings on a few metres of overgrown tracks the hard working volunteer members of the renamed Quainton Railway Society established the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre as one of the leading steam museums in the country.

The core objectives of the museum are to collect, restore and maintain a comprehensive collection of items of railway and associated transport history in order to provide variety for visitors, schools and film makers and to enable industrial, metropolitan and rural country station scenes to be recreated and interpreted.

The Centre demonstrates period locomotives and rolling stock from both its own and other collections by providing facilities to operate trains, complete with appropriate servicing facilities; and even allows operators to run several trains simultaneously.

How it used to be

Quainton Road Station, 100 years ago, was a bustling hive of railway activity, being the meeting point of three distinct railway lines each with a very special character of its own.

First to arrive in 1868 was the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, which threaded through the countryside from Verney Junction on the Oxford to Cambridge line to Aylesbury.

In 1871 this was followed by the Wotton Tramway a private venture built by the Duke of Buckingham to serve his estates. Originally horse-drawn this line eventually became a part of London's "Underground" railway system known as the Metropolitan Line.

Finally in 1899 the Great Central Railway from Manchester arrived, utilizing the now Metropolitan Railway tracks through Quainton and Aylesbury on its way to London and Marylebone Station.

A decline in traffic brought the closure of the Brill Tramway in 1935 followed by the Verney Junction line in 1947 with the end of all passenger services coming in 1963 on closure of Quainton Road Station itself.

Today a single track still passes through the Centre with traffic to a landfill site at Calvert but all is far from lost as recently schemes have been put forward to open the line again – complete with links to the rapidly growing city of Milton Keynes and to provide railtour week-ends from Marylebone to Quainton.

April 2006 Celebrations

Buckinghamshire Railway Centre will be buzzing this month as Sir William McAlpine, President of Quainton Railway Society and Andrew Bratton, the Honorary Chairman plus the Mayor of Aylesbury, with officials from the MLA and Tourism South East and other local VIP's and dignitaries celebrate the museum's official recognition.

The Chairman Mr Andrew Bratton commented "This achievement is proof that the members of this Museum, which is run principally by volunteers, take their responsibilities seriously".

"Donors, by giving their time, money or artefacts, can now be rest assured that their contributions are not wasted and the Collection is in safe hands for the benefit of present and future generation."

The collection

The collection is absolutely fascinating for "steam enthusiasts and lay-people alike.

It even includes a coach from the 1901 Royal Train and another carriage used by Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower for wartime planning meetings in 1944.

The Centre has also become a major educational study centre for regional and national schools for subjects as diverse as Transportation, Victorian Society, Arts, Sciences and social History.

The Future

When all the razzmatazz of the award ceremony has died down, the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre and Museum will continue to host many special events, galas and fetes throughout the season, as well as providing a venue for many corporate conferences, dinners and weddings.

2006 looks particularly promising as a number of new events and attractions have been added to the calendar.

On June 17 – 30 this year the Centre hosts a number of very exciting educational days centred on the steaming of a replica Stephenson's Rocket, on loan from the National Rail Museum.

The various days will celebrate Victorian Society, History of Transport and specific KS1 & KS2 subjects.

WWII Evacuees

On July 12th, 15th & 16th the Centre will host a World War 2 Evacuees event.

(History.uk.com's editor will be attending this event so do say hello if you spot him!)

This ambitious event will re-enact and celebrate the use of Quainton Road Station during the war as a major railway station for the reception of evacuated children from London.

The Centre will recreate for all the local and regional schools how life was in those days, providing extra historic interests such as steam train rides, tank and army displays, air raids and a delightful soup kitchen for lunch.

Click here out. for more information about:

The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Quainton Road Station
Quainton
near Aylesbury
Bucks
HP22 4BY

Tel: (01296) 655720