Quainton Road Railway Station - Wotton Tramway

Wotton Tramway

With a railway now running near the border of the Wotton House estate at Quainton Road, the 3rd Duke decided to open a small-scale agricultural railway to connect the estate to the railway. The line was intended purely for the transport of construction materials and agricultural produce, and it was not intended to carry passengers. The line was to run roughly southwest from Quainton Road to a new railway station near Wotton Underwood. Just west of the station at Wotton the line split. One section would run west to Wood Siding near Brill. A short stub called Church Siding would run northwest into the village of Wotton Underwood itself, terminating near the parish church, and a 1 mile 57 chain (1 mile 1,254 yards; 2.8 km) siding would run north to a coal siding near Kingswood.

Construction work began on the line on 8 September 1870. The line was built as cheaply as possible, using the cheapest available materials and winding around hills wherever feasible to avoid expensive earthworks. The stations were crude earth banks 6 inches (150 mm) high, held in place by wooden planks. As the Duke intended that the line be worked only by horse-drawn carriages, it was built with longitudinal sleepers to reduce the risk of horses tripping.

On 1 April 1871 the section between Quainton Road and Wotton was formally opened by the Duke of Buckingham in a brief ceremony. At the time of its opening the line was unnamed, although it was referred to as "The Quainton Tramway" in internal correspondence. The extension from Wotton to Wood Siding was complete by 17 June 1871; the opening date of the northern branch to Kingswood is not recorded, but it was not yet fully open in February 1873. The London and North Western Railway immediately began to operate a dedicated service from Quainton Road, with three vans per week of milk collected from the Wotton estate shipped to their London terminus at Broad Street. Passengers were not carried, other than estate employees and people accompanying livestock.

The tramway did not link to the Aylesbury and Buckingham railway, but had its own station at Quainton Road at a right angle to the A&B's line. A 13-foot (4.0 m) diameter turntable at the end of the tramway linked to a spur from the A&B's line. This spur ran behind a goods shed, joining the A&B's line to the northwest of the road. The Tramway had no buildings of its own at Quainton Road, using the A&B's facilities when necessary. As the tramway ran on the east side of the road, opposite the station, this spur line had its own level crossing to reach the main line. In 1871 permission was granted to build a direct connection between the two lines, but it was not built.