Thursday 6th August dawned fine and dry; a perfect day for our Society visit to the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway. Thanks to Colin Homans and Mark Stewart arrangements had been made for our small party to spend a day at large on this charming four mile railway in the shadow of the Chiltern Hills.
D1501 at Chinnor Station complete with Society’s 50th Anniversary Headboard
On the appointed day an advance party consisting of Chris Brennan, Chris Dory, Colin Homans and John Maine made their way to Princes Risborough on the 1031 Chiltern Railways train from Oxford to Marylebone. The Eastern element of the pincer movement, consisting of Alex Cullen, myself and my dog, Scooby, travelled by the first train from Chinnor to meet up at Princes Risborough. For the journey back from Princes Risborough the railway kindly agreed for us to display our Society headboard in pride of place on the locomotive, Brush Type 4 locomotive number D1501 which was substituting for a steam locomotive, due to the general ban on the use of steam locomotives because of the risk of fire in the record hot weather.
Our tickets allowed us to travel on all the scheduled trains during the day so it was possible to have several trips on the four mile line during the day. An added bonus was the conducted tour of the Railway’s workshops at Chinnor, arranged by our member Mark Stewart who is also a volunteer member of the C&PRR. In fact Mark was acting in his role of Stationmaster at Princes Risborough on the day.
The tour was conducted by Gavin, a member of the Engineering Team, who was the source of a wealth of interesting and informative info about the railway and it’s operation.
All in all a great day was had by all, so as a token of the Society’s appreciation of the arrangements made, a donation was made to the Chinnor Railway from the Society’s bequest from the late Brain Wakeford.
Members on shed tour with Gavin (on right)
USATC S160 (6046)
We are all now looking forward to more such Society days out in the future…
Report by Ron Saunders
Photos by Chris Brennan
Oxfordshire Railway Society 