It may be difficult to comprehend now, but Quainton was once a major junction on the Railway network. Not only that, it was also a station on the Metropolitan Railway, and not even the terminus station. If events had not dictated otherwise, this rural station could still be part of the London Underground network, some miles beyond the current terminus at Amersham.

In compiling this section of the website the question arises - what exactly counts as a "Local Railway"? As a registered museum the first place to start is Quainton Railway Society's collection policy - which is partially described in a Quainton News article on rolling stock. The broad aims of this are to cover the Met & GC Joint, the Metropolitan and the LNWR. The policy also tries to avoid an overlap with our colleagues at other local railways - e.g. the GWS at Didcot and the Great Central Railway at Loughborough.

Considering the LNWR, the "Premier Line", we will include the Buckingham Railway from Oxford to Bletchley - as this allows the Rewley Road station to be included, the main building now located at Quainton. In a similar manner we can include the Birmingham Railway up to at least Wolverton where several of the items of stock at Quainton originated. This gives a span of some twenty miles NE / SW from Quainton.

The Metropolitan originally went as far as Verney Junction almost 7 miles due North of Quainton, and Brill 8 miles to the South West, so it makes sense to include at least as far those locations. At the London end it makes sense to include at least as far Baker Street, some 45 miles to the South East, though this will be flexible!

The Great Central is more difficult, if we are including the Metropolitan as far as Baker Street, it makes sense to take the GCR from Marylebone. At the North end we will arbitrarily consider as far as Woodford Halse, some 30 miles to the North West.

In total this gives us a rough ellipsoid shape from Woodford Halse to Marylebone / Baker Street on a SE / NW axis and from Wolverton to Oxford on a SW/NE axis.

The Brill Tramway

Closed short branch from Quainton to Brill.

Rewley Road
The history of the relocated Rewley Road station building has featured in a number of articles published in Quainton News:

• Reminiscences of a Rewley Road Booking Clerk
• Rewley Road Coal Depot

The Aylesbury Railway

Closed short branch from Cheddington to Aylesbury

Other Local Railways
The history of several other local railways has been covered in various articles published in Quainton News:

• Quainton Road - Part 2
• On the Verney Line - by Mr F S White
• Quainton Road Signalbox Diagram - by T J Stevens
• Railways of Quainton District
• Recollections of Quainton Road
• Waddesdon Gasworks
• Origin of a Railway - The Aylesbury and Buckingham Line
• From the Archives - Quainton Road and Aylesbury
• British Rail - Local News - Neville Royce
• Quainton Road's Junction
• Rails around Verney Junction - John Fairman

Notes:
The text in these Quainton Railway Society publications was written from the 1970s to the present day and does not reflect events in the years since publication. The text and photographs are repeated verbatim from the original publication, with only a few minor grammar changes but some clarifying notes are added if deemed necessary. The photos from the original publication are provided as scans in this internet version of this long out of print publication.