Then there is the letter H. This letter's job is to aspirate : I.E. a 'hur' sound. The letter itself is an aitch and that is its name - aitch. So when you refer to HS2 please don't aspirate the letter into 'haitch' because there is no such thing. You knew about Bicester - ahem - and now you lnow about the letter aitch. Thank you.
That's funny, if you were well aware, why did you call it "Bye-shester"? Some inside joke? Otherwise take the hit and accept that you didn't know and were rightly called out on it!
Brilliant! I rode on the very last loco hauled regular service over this line. The lilting Irish station announcer gave a lovely send off to the train. "welcome to the last locomotive hauled train to Banbury via High Wycombe. This train will be even more memorable as they have put a special locomotive (47/3) on the train that has no heating so you'll all have to huddle together to keep warm!" I also remember getting an elderly DMU back from Wycombe to Marylebone on the night and it had stickers warning passengers that the new (class 155?) DMUs would be non smoking throughout!
I remember back in 1957 when I was a 16 year old schoolkid I had a gorgeous journey from Aberystwyth through to Paddington on the 'Cambrian Coast Express which took this route. After the fabulous Welsh scenery we came through Shrewsbury and then to Wolverhampton Low Level and so to.Birmingham Snow Hill. This was a fine station indeed The rest of the run through places like Leamington Spa and Banbury was beautiful and then we had the fine country from Princes Risborough to High Wycombe through the Chilterns I remember triumphantly whizzing alongside the Central Line on the last stretch before reaching Old Oak Common and finishing in magnificent Paddington. Thanks for the memories.
Oh what a stunning run! Thank you for sharing the story, that mustve been a wonderful trip 😊 dont suppose you remember what locomotive was in charge of your train?
thanks, Thats where I started train spotting in 1962 after travelling to Birmingham Snow Hill from Paddington. I actually lived in a house overlooked by the ex-GCR line into Marylebone at Northolt Park but if I cycled for a mile to the bridge near Northolt Station. where i could see Kings, the brand new Westerns and the Birmingham Pullman plus the Cambrian Coast express and the Inter City. The prototype white diesel Lion used to be a regular on the line. Cup Final specials were exciting and there would be specials even for schoolboy internationals and hockey matches and then the Euston diversions and the Starlight Specials.going past my house. Until 1958 hte Master Cutler used to depart Marylebone and race to Northolt Jnc so as not to caught behind the King on an express to the West midlands. The southbound Master Cutler used the line via Aylesbury and Harrow.
Another lovely video, I honestly do love that music gives it a 90s style intro, There is still some lovely interesting features on the former New North Main Line, North Acton you can still see the old Railway platforms next to the Central Line station, I have done the old service and the new service myself a few times.
It was a first rate line, and one of the last to be built, it went originally over to the GCR, and there are still massive earthworks with the line orientated towards the GC and the GW line diverging; there was also a flying junction at Kings Sutton where the GW line joined with the original route via Oxford. My idea is that this could have been HS2 London to Birmingham much more cheaply and built more quickly too.
Before cross country services started running from Reading to Birmingham, it was possible to travel from Paddington to Manchester. In the late 1970s all services from Paddington to Birmingham New Street travelled via Reading and Oxford except for 1 peak service at 1740 which took the route you travelled today via High Wycombe then Banbury through to Birmingham. There was a service which left at 1727 which travelled via Oxford and ended at Banbury where passengers could change onto the 1740 from Paddington previously mentioned.
I actually, I did the change at Banbury, once.I was a Student in Reading between 1978 and 1982. At that time the Paddington - Birmingham service was two hourly plus there was the off Poole/Bournemouth service. There was also one DMU late afternoon service which went to Moor Street. In the 1980s one of the Paddington Birmingham services was extended to Glasgow/Edinburgh. They also started a service to Brighton - which I think started from Manchester via North Pole junction.
Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane. We had relatives at High Wycombe, and - though normally from West London we took the Green Line bus to visit - on two occasions we travelled homeward on this line (tho' I don't remember if we arrived at Marylebone or Paddington. Neither were sparklingly convenient for Putney/Roehampton, so it took a further trek to get home). Both times - about a year apart - we were hauled by King Richard III, and it surprised me at quite how slowly this big express engine would move. It was an awful journey. Considering that Wycombe is now London commuter belt, it was damn near a foreign country when I was young.
If you had the 1967 timetable (before completion of the WCML electrification) you’d see a much more intense service including the ‘Blue Pullmans’ doing Paddington to Birmingham in about 1 hour 50mins.
@@suzyqualcast6269 The Buxton Matlock bit shut for the same reason. WCML electrification. Back to the GWR, that line went through Snow Hill, Wolverhampton Low Level, Shrewsbury, Wrexham(?) to Birkinhead
The line's hayday was during the eletrification of the WCML. While Euston was being rebuilt this briefly became THE way to Birmingham. The pullmans and Westerns (later replaced by Class 47) could get up to 90mph down the hill past Greenford. As a kid (1971) I got a cabride in a Hymek from Old Oak to West Ruislip & back - several test stops outbound but 70mph all the way back - great fun! By then the route was in decline with just one Paddington-Brum per 2 hours, but still a mainline.
Oh wow, that sounds incredible! I find it shocking just how little photographs or material seems to even exist of the NNML from its heyday. Precious little given the activity it played host to. I also remember talking to a chap during my first run on the line explaining how regularly in the 1980s Class 50s would run the Padd-Birmingham (or maybe Oxford?) peak services - what a dream that would've been for me to see!
@@HeyItsAJOmega I used to cycle down to the trackside between South and West Ruislip every evening when daylight permitted just to see the 17:42 out of Paddington….still have the log containing the locos I saw. Probably more 47’s than 50’s but also the occasional 45/1 and I think a 31 as well. This was about 1982-83. Never took a camera!😩😩😩
This line would also have been used for the GWR trains that ran between London Paddington and Birkenhead Woodside, can still see in some places on Merseyrail where there were extra tracks and platforms for the GWR trains.
Another Station, Another Mile: great video, glad to see your "time Traveling" skills working (just!). Yes this is a sad sad end to what was "The Better Way" from London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill, it was well engineered for high speed running, spacious and solid earthworks, opened in 1908 the "New North Mainline" from Northolt to Ashendon Junction was under the GC & GW moniker, the route from Old Oak to Northolt and Ashendon Junction to Aynho Junction was pure Great Western, it enabled Padding ton -Wolverhampton services to compete equally for the lucrative traffic, this New Line reduced the mileage from 123 miles to 110 miles for the GW, when the "Kings" came along in 1927 this further accelerated services and in theory a King hauled train could easily have maintained a 1 hour 30 minute timing the same as the Paddington to Bristol services, the New Line was given priority as this was a lucrative money-earner and carried far more passengers (a favorite for the royals too..) than the Bristol mainline. With the electrification works between New Street & Euston, most services increased between Paddington and Wolverhampton to hourly rather than the traditional 10 minutes past every two hourly departures, it was indeed a "Golden Period", and Indian Summer if you will for this line, right up to about 1965 it was in no-one's mind to downgrade and brutally cull this lovely route for the sake of the new swish electrified Euston route. achingly little has been written about this route, I have all the available publications: Paddington to the Mersey (OPC) Paddingtons lost route to the Mersey. The Final Link (Bloomsbury Books), Last Years Of Steam, Paddington-Wolverhampton (Ian Allan), and The Great Western & Great Central Joint Railway (The Oakwood Press). these have a good history and pictorial accounts of this lost line, but I feel more needs to be published really and always saddened by how quick this route has quietly submerged into history, it was brutally downgraded and neglected by what I feel was a vengeful LMR ending on Saturday March 7th, 1967 when at Snow Hill all inter-city (and Pullman) services to London ended, and would you kindly step over to New Street where fast, clean air-conditioned electric trains will whisk you to Euston awaits.....
Ooh, lower quadrant semaphores aswell! We have a fair few upper quadrant semaphore home signals in the North of Scotland still. I believe our only lower quadrants used to be on the West Highland railway, and where replaced with RETB many years back. I think all of our distant signals are now coloured lights (there might still be a semaphore distant on the Stranraer line, but that's not part of my territory so I don't know). But places like Cupar, Leuchars, Carnoustie, Arbroath, Laurencekirk, Stonehaven, Dunkeld, Blair Atholl, Dalwhinnie, Kingussie etc. Still have upper quadrant semaphore starting signals for guards to check before dispatching.
Ahhh that's fantastic! I love seeing a lesser spotted semaphore in the wild these days, they're so rare yet so aesthetically pleasing. Theres some unique disc semaphores at Worcester Shrub Hill I think?
@@HeyItsAJOmega ooh, not sure about Worcester . . . In Scotland, ours are all upper quadrant these days. I'm actually going to Google Worcester shrub Hill now 😅😅
Looks like they have some 'Tobys' (semaphore shunting disks) on the platform. Plus a whole array of distant and home lower quadrants. Lovely! Currently also looking up 'Somersault semaphores' aswell 🤣🤣🤣 Damn Wikipedia and their blue highlighted links, i may have jumped down a rabbit hole here 🤣🤣
indeed there are, but for how much longer, Network Rail are planning on transferring Worcester from the Western Region into the Midland Region, and that will likely lead to resignalling :(
I was born in 1963. In my teens I recall there was a daily late afternoon train from Paddington to Birmingham New Street at around 17:03. I never understood why only the one train a day went from Paddington via High Wycombe but looking back I suspect it was for train crew to retain their route knowledge. I assume it took this route. ironically I did the train while on a rail rover in the 1980's but again the significance was, embarrassingly, lost on me.
Hi bib the padd train departed at 1742 in the mid 70s,i lived at Bicester and would bike to bicester north to see it arrive ,usually hauled by a 47 with a saltley train crew (seagulls).Then i would bike down to Bicester london rd level crossing were the evening calvert brick train was powered by a western.Happy days
The old oak men retained route knoledge on the padd to Bicester north paper train which left at around 330 in the morning and ran non stop to Bicester north in under an hour.Then terminated at Banbury.
Hi, interesting video, this was in the 50s and 60s the Birmingham main line and on to birkenhead. 14 or 15 coach trains would be hauled by king class locos as it was quite an incline out of London up the denham bank and on
Wow, you could actually go from Paddington directly to Birmingham via High Wycombe, amazing! Well, no actually, as a schoolboy, I would watch trains bound for Birmingham and as far as Birkenhead on the Mersey break off the GWR mainline at Old Oak Common and go up the Northolt/High Wycombe line (double track) usually hauled by GWR Kings. The GWR actually had priority running powers over the junction with the Great Central (Chiltern Line) at South Ruislip, so you could see a Marylebone down express like the Master Cutler hauled by a Gresley A3 held at the signals, waiting for an up Paddington train to cross the junction. Oh dear, showing my age.
The GWR's New North Main Line wasn't just considered to be the section from Old Oak Common Northolt Junction - it was the entire route from Old Oak Common via Greenford, the GW&GC Joint line as far as Ashendon Junction, and the 'Bicester cut-off' to Aynho Junction. The idea was that the idea being that Birmingham trains did not have to go via Reading and Oxford. Paddington to South Ruislip is just a fraction of the line!
In the 60s I used to travel from Snow Hill to Paddington to train spot and I remember that line well. £2. 6 shillings cheap day return. Those were the days.
There was still an early evening train from Paddington to Banbury in the 1980s. I caught it, once, to try and retrace the Paddington to Birkenhead route. Of course, there was a gap from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, but I managed the rest.
Another great gem of a not so familiar line. I remember a few years back, GWR HSTs were being diverted up this line, seeing them run along here is worth a picture or two. I do believe that a tunnel ventilation shaft is being built next to the line for hs2 and after completion, the line will get a new lease of life.
They say you learn something every day and this my lesson today. I live at the other end of the Central Line. So I knew nothing about this Parliamentary Line. We also have to apply for permission to close a Public road for Road Rallying from The Parliament. Martin. (Thailand)
There is another disused GWR line that runs alongside the Central Line. It left the New Road west of the present North Acton station to the United Dairies milk depot/bottling plant in Wood Lane, White City. The "new" eastbound Central Line platform stands on the disused formation. One of the services along the New Road were trains carrying Irish meat from Birkenhead docks direct to Smithfield Market. IIRC this was a fitted train signalled as an express passenger train. There was a loco change at Old Oak where a 97xx condensing tank took the train forward over the Metropolitan/Hammersmith & City to Smithfield. A railway modelling acquaintance used to build spoof vehicles to bait enthusiasts. One of these was a "bogie Toad" brake van used on the meat trains.
Thank you! We know sod-all about trains but I couldn't help noticing the semaphore signal at Greenford Station this morning and even took a picture.Checked you out via Google and now we're going to bore our friends senseless about our discovery.
@@HeyItsAJOmega definitely! Also I wasn't saying this to be all 'oh I know about this, it's not that mysterious' more surprised that me, knowing barely anything about trains, knew about it haha
The closing shot of High Wycombe station ( 10:52) reminded me of my Saturday trips from Gerrards Cross (when I had Saturday morning school) home to where my mother could pick me up in Marlow. How about a trip down memory lane on the Bourne End and Marlow branch line? I may have been accused by the police of trying to derail the Marlow Donkey (train nickname) in about 1968) at the pedestrian crossing near Little Marlow. No charges and no record so I never did it again.....
Ahhh, that's really nice! And I'm very curious to hear about this story, but I'm not sure you should tell it in case it gets you in trouble all these years later xD
Hello AJ, great video as ever. I grew up by the Junction of the NNML and the South Greenford branch (I got left on the platform at SG by a Class 121 when I was 3 as my Mum struggled to get my sister's pram off haha) and I'm interested in modelling something roughly based on this area in the early 90s. I wondered if you knew of any good reference books on the subject you could recommend? I'm not having a lot of luck finding stuff, I'm particularly interested in the sort of stock and formations the London rubbish trains used (and yes, I've already bought Dapol's NSE bubble car - it is, I am pretty sure, the one I saw the arse end of in 1987). Love the channel, best wishes. AC
On the junction at Worcestershire Parkway (Cotswold Malvern Line, Oxford to Worcester Shrub Hill/ Foregate St going over part of the CrossCountry route between Birmingham New St and Cheltenham) there are semaphore signals
@Chris Green Many Americans can't even pronounce "Worcester" correctly even though there is a fairly well known Worcester in Massachusetts. .... Which has a railway connection as there was a manufacturuer of railway passenger carriages there. .... Which manufactured the Fat Boy's Diner "dining car" now located at Trinity Buoy Wharf, E14. :)
@@HeyItsAJOmega I lived in Bicester for a few years. Even some locals get it wrong. And please don't start me on Americans. A Jaguar XJ6 Coupé is not a "Jagwahh ex-jay-six koop".
I was on a Chiltern Line train at Princes Risborough station many moons ago and a French person asked me if the train was stopping at Bonbory? I lived in Bi Chester at the time!
When I moved to Bicester in the late 1980s I needed to go to Banbury for a meeting. I rocked up at dilapidated Bicester North station and journeyed to Banbury on some appalling aged rattler. (I believe it was a class 115?). This put me off travelling by rail for years until I got a job in High Wycombe and it was obvious to use the train. I dreaded the thought of using those old rattlers every day so imagine my delight at discovering that the line was now run by Chiltern Railways with bright spacious comfortable modern trains that ran on time.And the station had had a upgrade! 😀
At the time your May 1968 timetable was active, I was living on the Chatham Islands, approx 500 miles east of New Zealand, which placed it inside of a kink in the International Dateline, making it the first place to see the sunrise in the British Commomwealth. 0000 UTC/GMT = Chathams NZT 0045.
It was also kept open as a diversion route when Engineering works closed the Paddington Main Line without train running meant driver knowledge could also be refreshed .....
Bicester: Literally in latin, two camps (or two barracks - Bi - Cester - where cester is a corruption of Castra or Castrum). At one time it was possible to see the two camps either side of the town. Of course, towns with names ending cester, chester, caster are all former roman camps - including Exeter (or Exe -cester). Sure you knew that.
I’d love to have done London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill on the GWR back in the day. I kinda like the 80s brutalist Snow Hill but the original looked immense.
Could London Overground one day take over the West Ealing-Greenford branch line and to bring back the Class 172/0 which sadly are now with West Midlands Trains. Or to inherit few Class 170s or Class 171s from Southern to be used on the West Ealing-Greenford branch line.
a better proposal would be for the Greenford branch to be converted to an underground line as an extension of the District line from Ealing Broadway. Some new construction from Ealing Broadway to West Ealing will be required but once it gets on to the Greenford section, just the electrification by third and fourth rail will suffice!
That line was very nearly going to be the mainline and Marylebone closed down but it was decidedd to do a "total route maintainence" . The services were going to be diverted to Paddington. I think this was in the late 80s / early 90s (Under Chris Green?) Good job Marylebone was saved, Paddington wouldn't have coped
It's not really clear why Paddington decided against a less than two hour journey when a King with a 340 tare load could easily maintain an hour and half timing (signals and TSR's permitting) the King could easily maintain the scheduled timings, but it was decided to keep the level two hours instead. With indecent haste all the "Kings" were withdrawn by September 1962, a few were kept steaming at Stafford Road for emergencies when the new hydraulic "Westerns" took over the services, the last "King" Hauled service being March 1963. 1960 saw the "Blue Pullmans" (2 x units for the route) introduced with 4 daily (Mon-Fri) services, two from Pad--Wolver LL, and two midday services between Pad--Snow Hill, it was a popular service and gave the route a nice touch, timings were slightly better than the scheduled 2 hours, but the units were limited to 90 mph running. The "Warships" and "Westerns" gave way to the ubiquitous class 47 haulage to the end, though LMR West Coast services were hauled by double-headed class 40's, the New Line never was so busy and standing at Denham or Greenford would have given you a feast of services roaring past on a route designed for fast running. In comparison physically with the WCML the New Mainline did have a couple of slight hiccups: Saunderton Hill (not too much of an issue for a loaded "King"), Hatton Bank (Not as steep as the Lickey Incline), the High Wycombe PSR of 40 mph but with some slight slewing of the running lines could be bumped up to 70 mph, The Leamington Spa PSR of 20 mph, again this could have been eased by the closing of the LMR Rugby route and a generous slewing built over it, the main issue would be locomotive recovery timings. Why this route from Birmingham Moor Street all the way to Paddington wasn't chosen for the "Hs2" is a mystery to me, it has the space to compliment the current Chiltern Services, reinstate the fast lines through certain stations, reinstate the 4 track formations where it was taken up, the savings in cost and environment would have been heartwarming to the tree huggers and swampies of the world, as the line is well engineered and physically sound, it was that well built. :-)
When I was a boy I lived next to this line in Northolt and remember the regular express services running along it, pulled mostly by locos like deltics after they took over from steam. I can vaguely remember steam services but I would have been very young then! I think it is a shame that so much money is being spent burying HS2 under this line to save upsetting the neighbours even though modern high speed trains are much quieter than the trains that I grew up seeing which would rattle the windows in the house!
Other proposed transport links that never happened exist too. More recently there was talk of a road link between Scratchwood on the M1 and Sterling Corner on the A1 again in the N (of) London area.Further north the defunct Overground rail line that ended at Buntingford Herts could have continued to Royston connecting with Cambridge. In Shefford, Beds, there was a canal. Shefford was on the old LMS link between Bedford & Hitchin Herts, where the LNER branches off to Cambridge via Royston. No doubt other proposals exist too - some would've proved very convienent within today's infrastructure.
@@HeyItsAJOmega I did a good look at it, the costs are about a wash and a tunnel would be a lot less disruptive than rebuilding all the bridges and the Hanger Lane roundabout.
@@JKK_85 100% True, however the track from old oak common out to the M25 at first look appears to be a useful section of track to convert however the bridges are not built to a large enough gauge and that includes the Hammer Lane roundabout.
Some of this is mentioned in some comments below. After the WCML was electrified the line into Snow Hill was closed from the South all trains were diverted to New Street, By the late 1970s all except one peek service were diverted via Reading. The line between Aynho Ruction and Princess Risborough was singled. There was a DMU service from Banbury but into Marylebone. By the late 1980s the Paddington Birmingham train was cut back to Leamington. Then everything changed - Snow Hill reopened and trains started running through to Marylebone. Chiltern took over mid 1990s and redoubled Aynho to Princess Risborough. There was one other point of interest. In thew 1980s the day they announce the proposed closure of the Settle Carlisle line they also proposed to close Marylebone. The Aylesbury trains going into Baker Street and the Wycombe trains going into Paddington. The Line past Wembley was going to be converted to a toll road. One of the reasons it didn't happen was because there was no capacity at Paddington!
@@JimTLonW6 there is a good bit on the Wikipedia page. I believe there was a lot of anti rail feeling in the government. This seemed to be the turning point and investment started again. I like the way it says ‘Quietly Dropped’! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marylebone_station
Haha! Nope, I'm a huge fan of Geoff, and he actually gave me a shoutout not long ago and is reportedly a fan of my work - we've chatted quite a bit! He's an excellent dude :) and thank you!
I enjoyed this video. Would love to go on this parliamentary train some time if it is still running. And if it isn’t too early in the morning. By the way, what is the song used in the titles/credits?
Actually the facts are that the London - Birmingham passenger services on the Chiltern main mostly went in and out of London Paddington station and most passenger services in and out of London Marylebone station went up and down the Great Central Main and didn't go anywhere near Birmingham. Then when British Railways / British Rail (BR) decided to close most of the Great Central main line Marylebone became available for the Birmingham service and BR could accommodate more Great Western Main line passenger services at Paddington by diverting Birmingham services to Marylebone.
There is a DVD 📀 called Chilten take two( part of video 125) and it does the route from Paddington to West Ruislip and it shows the double track still in situ. Also somewhere on UA-cam is a film from the cab of a Blue Pullman going from Paddington to Birmingham again using the route your pamphlet mentioned.
I remember one of my friend's having the "Chiltern Take Two" video. There is a preview on UA-cam - although short is still interesting that even back in 1989 there was only ONE service from Paddington that used the line🤫 ua-cam.com/video/sQB8wXc6QwY/v-deo.html
By the way, just FYI: I'm well aware that 'Bicester' is actually pronounced 'Bister'. You don't need to remind me ;)
Damn, you beat me to it!!! Made me chuckle though, rather than be annoyed. New subscriber, so only just watched the video.
Then there is the letter H. This letter's job is to aspirate : I.E. a 'hur' sound. The letter itself is an aitch and that is its name - aitch. So when you refer to HS2 please don't aspirate the letter into 'haitch' because there is no such thing. You knew about Bicester - ahem - and now you lnow about the letter aitch. Thank you.
That's funny, if you were well aware, why did you call it "Bye-shester"? Some inside joke? Otherwise take the hit and accept that you didn't know and were rightly called out on it!
Better not get started on S(oh)lihull then?! Nice video! Could have chatted about the continental loading gauge?!
L.I.M.P. is pronounced 'limp', as in 'he had a pronounced limp'. (S. Milligan)
Brilliant! I rode on the very last loco hauled regular service over this line. The lilting Irish station announcer gave a lovely send off to the train.
"welcome to the last locomotive hauled train to Banbury via High Wycombe. This train will be even more memorable as they have put a special locomotive (47/3) on the train that has no heating so you'll all have to huddle together to keep warm!"
I also remember getting an elderly DMU back from Wycombe to Marylebone on the night and it had stickers warning passengers that the new (class 155?) DMUs would be non smoking throughout!
I remember back in 1957 when I was a 16 year old schoolkid I had a gorgeous journey from Aberystwyth through to Paddington on the 'Cambrian Coast Express which took this route. After the fabulous Welsh scenery we came through Shrewsbury and then to Wolverhampton Low Level and so to.Birmingham Snow Hill. This was a fine station indeed
The rest of the run through places like Leamington Spa and Banbury was beautiful and then we had the fine country from Princes Risborough to High Wycombe through the Chilterns
I remember triumphantly whizzing alongside the Central Line on the last stretch before reaching Old Oak Common and finishing in magnificent Paddington. Thanks for the memories.
Oh what a stunning run! Thank you for sharing the story, that mustve been a wonderful trip 😊 dont suppose you remember what locomotive was in charge of your train?
Went this way in 1962 on the Cambrian Coast Express.
Oh nice!
thanks, Thats where I started train spotting in 1962 after travelling to Birmingham Snow Hill from Paddington. I actually lived in a house overlooked by the ex-GCR line into Marylebone at Northolt Park but if I cycled for a mile to the bridge near Northolt Station. where i could see Kings, the brand new Westerns and the Birmingham Pullman plus the Cambrian Coast express and the Inter City. The prototype white diesel Lion used to be a regular on the line. Cup Final specials were exciting and there would be specials even for schoolboy internationals and hockey matches and then the Euston diversions and the Starlight Specials.going past my house. Until 1958 hte Master Cutler used to depart Marylebone and race to Northolt Jnc so as not to caught behind the King on an express to the West midlands. The southbound Master Cutler used the line via Aylesbury and Harrow.
Trains from Paddington to Birkenhead, via Birmingham (Snow Hill) and Wolverhampton used to run on this line in the 60s
Correct!
Another lovely video, I honestly do love that music gives it a 90s style intro, There is still some lovely interesting features on the former New North Main Line, North Acton you can still see the old Railway platforms next to the Central Line station, I have done the old service and the new service myself a few times.
It was a first rate line, and one of the last to be built, it went originally over to the GCR, and there are still massive earthworks with the line orientated towards the GC and the GW line diverging; there was also a flying junction at Kings Sutton where the GW line joined with the original route via Oxford.
My idea is that this could have been HS2 London to Birmingham much more cheaply and built more quickly too.
Before cross country services started running from Reading to Birmingham, it was possible to travel from Paddington to Manchester. In the late 1970s all services from Paddington to Birmingham New Street travelled via Reading and Oxford except for 1 peak service at 1740 which took the route you travelled today via High Wycombe then Banbury through to Birmingham. There was a service which left at 1727 which travelled via Oxford and ended at Banbury where passengers could change onto the 1740 from Paddington previously mentioned.
I actually, I did the change at Banbury, once.I was a Student in Reading between 1978 and 1982. At that time the Paddington - Birmingham service was two hourly plus there was the off Poole/Bournemouth service. There was also one DMU late afternoon service which went to Moor Street. In the 1980s one of the Paddington Birmingham services was extended to Glasgow/Edinburgh. They also started a service to Brighton - which I think started from Manchester via North Pole junction.
Informative, interesting and well presented.
Am liking and subscribing because you didn’t ask me to.
Haha! Reverse psychology ;) thank you!
Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane. We had relatives at High Wycombe, and - though normally from West London we took the Green Line bus to visit - on two occasions we travelled homeward on this line (tho' I don't remember if we arrived at Marylebone or Paddington. Neither were sparklingly convenient for Putney/Roehampton, so it took a further trek to get home). Both times - about a year apart - we were hauled by King Richard III, and it surprised me at quite how slowly this big express engine would move. It was an awful journey. Considering that Wycombe is now London commuter belt, it was damn near a foreign country when I was young.
If you had the 1967 timetable (before completion of the WCML electrification) you’d see a much more intense service including the ‘Blue Pullmans’ doing Paddington to Birmingham in about 1 hour 50mins.
Oh wow! So it was once the WCML electrification was completed that services dropped significantly?
BP's used to belt through Monsal Dale, Bakewell, Matlock twice a day, I believe.
@@suzyqualcast6269 The Buxton Matlock bit shut for the same reason. WCML electrification.
Back to the GWR, that line went through Snow Hill, Wolverhampton Low Level, Shrewsbury, Wrexham(?) to Birkinhead
@@g8ymw : Thankyou. Birkenhead... Was that terminating at the Cheshire Lines point? Still standing in 02.
@@suzyqualcast6269 Birkenhead Woodside which was right next to the ferry.
www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/birkenhead_woodside/index.shtml
The line's hayday was during the eletrification of the WCML. While Euston was being rebuilt this briefly became THE way to Birmingham. The pullmans and Westerns (later replaced by Class 47) could get up to 90mph down the hill past Greenford. As a kid (1971) I got a cabride in a Hymek from Old Oak to West Ruislip & back - several test stops outbound but 70mph all the way back - great fun! By then the route was in decline with just one Paddington-Brum per 2 hours, but still a mainline.
Oh wow, that sounds incredible! I find it shocking just how little photographs or material seems to even exist of the NNML from its heyday. Precious little given the activity it played host to. I also remember talking to a chap during my first run on the line explaining how regularly in the 1980s Class 50s would run the Padd-Birmingham (or maybe Oxford?) peak services - what a dream that would've been for me to see!
@@HeyItsAJOmega I used to cycle down to the trackside between South and West Ruislip every evening when daylight permitted just to see the 17:42 out of Paddington….still have the log containing the locos I saw. Probably more 47’s than 50’s but also the occasional 45/1 and I think a 31 as well. This was about 1982-83. Never took a camera!😩😩😩
This line would also have been used for the GWR trains that ran between London Paddington and Birkenhead Woodside, can still see in some places on Merseyrail where there were extra tracks and platforms for the GWR trains.
Correct! Ran via Birmingham Snow Hill and such, right?
Another Station, Another Mile Via Birmingham Snow Hill and Chester as far as I know before using what would now be part of Merseyrail’s Wirral Line
Another Station, Another Mile: great video, glad to see your "time Traveling" skills working (just!). Yes this is a sad sad end to what was "The Better Way" from London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill, it was well engineered for high speed running, spacious and solid earthworks, opened in 1908 the "New North Mainline" from Northolt to Ashendon Junction was under the GC & GW moniker, the route from Old Oak to Northolt and Ashendon Junction to Aynho Junction was pure Great Western, it enabled Padding ton -Wolverhampton services to compete equally for the lucrative traffic, this New Line reduced the mileage from 123 miles to 110 miles for the GW, when the "Kings" came along in 1927 this further accelerated services and in theory a King hauled train could easily have maintained a 1 hour 30 minute timing the same as the Paddington to Bristol services, the New Line was given priority as this was a lucrative money-earner and carried far more passengers (a favorite for the royals too..) than the Bristol mainline. With the electrification works between New Street & Euston, most services increased between Paddington and Wolverhampton to hourly rather than the traditional 10 minutes past every two hourly departures, it was indeed a "Golden Period", and Indian Summer if you will for this line, right up to about 1965 it was in no-one's mind to downgrade and brutally cull this lovely route for the sake of the new swish electrified Euston route. achingly little has been written about this route, I have all the available publications: Paddington to the Mersey (OPC) Paddingtons lost route to the Mersey. The Final Link (Bloomsbury Books), Last Years Of Steam, Paddington-Wolverhampton (Ian Allan), and The Great Western & Great Central Joint Railway (The Oakwood Press). these have a good history and pictorial accounts of this lost line, but I feel more needs to be published really and always saddened by how quick this route has quietly submerged into history, it was brutally downgraded and neglected by what I feel was a vengeful LMR ending on Saturday March 7th, 1967 when at Snow Hill all inter-city (and Pullman) services to London ended, and would you kindly step over to New Street where fast, clean air-conditioned electric trains will whisk you to Euston awaits.....
The Area around Shrewsbury still uses Semaphore signals
That's true, and Worcester Shrub Hill right?
Ooh, lower quadrant semaphores aswell!
We have a fair few upper quadrant semaphore home signals in the North of Scotland still. I believe our only lower quadrants used to be on the West Highland railway, and where replaced with RETB many years back.
I think all of our distant signals are now coloured lights (there might still be a semaphore distant on the Stranraer line, but that's not part of my territory so I don't know).
But places like Cupar, Leuchars, Carnoustie, Arbroath, Laurencekirk, Stonehaven, Dunkeld, Blair Atholl, Dalwhinnie, Kingussie etc. Still have upper quadrant semaphore starting signals for guards to check before dispatching.
Ahhh that's fantastic! I love seeing a lesser spotted semaphore in the wild these days, they're so rare yet so aesthetically pleasing. Theres some unique disc semaphores at Worcester Shrub Hill I think?
@@HeyItsAJOmega ooh, not sure about Worcester . . .
In Scotland, ours are all upper quadrant these days.
I'm actually going to Google Worcester shrub Hill now 😅😅
Looks like they have some 'Tobys' (semaphore shunting disks) on the platform.
Plus a whole array of distant and home lower quadrants.
Lovely!
Currently also looking up 'Somersault semaphores' aswell 🤣🤣🤣
Damn Wikipedia and their blue highlighted links, i may have jumped down a rabbit hole here 🤣🤣
indeed there are, but for how much longer, Network Rail are planning on transferring Worcester from the Western Region into the Midland Region, and that will likely lead to resignalling :(
I was born in 1963. In my teens I recall there was a daily late afternoon train from Paddington to Birmingham New Street at around 17:03. I never understood why only the one train a day went from Paddington via High Wycombe but looking back I suspect it was for train crew to retain their route knowledge. I assume it took this route. ironically I did the train while on a rail rover in the 1980's but again the significance was, embarrassingly, lost on me.
Hi bib the padd train departed at 1742 in the mid 70s,i lived at Bicester and would bike to bicester north to see it arrive ,usually hauled by a 47 with a saltley train crew (seagulls).Then i would bike down to Bicester london rd level crossing were the evening calvert brick train was powered by a western.Happy days
The old oak men retained route knoledge on the padd to Bicester north paper train which left at around 330 in the morning and ran non stop to Bicester north in under an hour.Then terminated at Banbury.
@@kenwilkins8237 Many thanks Ken...
Hi, interesting video, this was in the 50s and 60s the Birmingham main line and on to birkenhead. 14 or 15 coach trains would be hauled by king class locos as it was quite an incline out of London up the denham bank and on
Wow, you could actually go from Paddington directly to Birmingham via High Wycombe, amazing!
Well, no actually, as a schoolboy, I would watch trains bound for Birmingham and as far as Birkenhead on the Mersey break off the GWR mainline at Old Oak Common and go up the Northolt/High Wycombe line (double track) usually hauled by GWR Kings.
The GWR actually had priority running powers over the junction with the Great Central (Chiltern Line) at South Ruislip, so you could see a Marylebone down express like the Master Cutler hauled by a Gresley A3 held at the signals, waiting for an up Paddington train to cross the junction. Oh dear, showing my age.
Haha! Thank you for sharing those memories though, that sounds fascinating - and I love the visual of that scene at the South Ruislip junction :)
The GWR's New North Main Line wasn't just considered to be the section from Old Oak Common Northolt Junction - it was the entire route from Old Oak Common via Greenford, the GW&GC Joint line as far as Ashendon Junction, and the 'Bicester cut-off' to Aynho Junction. The idea was that the idea being that Birmingham trains did not have to go via Reading and Oxford. Paddington to South Ruislip is just a fraction of the line!
In the 60s I used to travel from Snow Hill to Paddington to train spot and I remember that line well. £2. 6 shillings cheap day return. Those were the days.
Ahh, that sounds fab! Was that from the original Snow Hill station too?
Yes that was. A stunning station, architecturally. Used as a temporary car park. A disgrace.
Just discovered your channel - great fun and informative stuff, cheers!
There was still an early evening train from Paddington to Banbury in the 1980s. I caught it, once, to try and retrace the Paddington to Birkenhead route. Of course, there was a gap from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, but I managed the rest.
Another great gem of a not so familiar line. I remember a few years back, GWR HSTs were being diverted up this line, seeing them run along here is worth a picture or two.
I do believe that a tunnel ventilation shaft is being built next to the line for hs2 and after completion, the line will get a new lease of life.
I remember seeing an HST passing by once - was really excited to see it
They say you learn something every day and this my lesson today. I live at the other end of the Central Line. So I knew nothing about this Parliamentary Line. We also have to apply for permission to close a Public road for Road Rallying from The Parliament. Martin. (Thailand)
There is another disused GWR line that runs alongside the Central Line.
It left the New Road west of the present North Acton station to the United Dairies milk depot/bottling plant in Wood Lane, White City.
The "new" eastbound Central Line platform stands on the disused formation.
One of the services along the New Road were trains carrying Irish meat from Birkenhead docks direct to Smithfield Market. IIRC this was a fitted train signalled as an express passenger train. There was a loco change at Old Oak where a 97xx condensing tank took the train forward over the Metropolitan/Hammersmith & City to Smithfield.
A railway modelling acquaintance used to build spoof vehicles to bait enthusiasts. One of these was a "bogie Toad" brake van used on the meat trains.
Thank you! We know sod-all about trains but I couldn't help noticing the semaphore signal at Greenford Station this morning and even took a picture.Checked you out via Google and now we're going to bore our friends senseless about our discovery.
Oh fabulous!! Glad to be of assistance :)
I actually knew about this! I had a friend who lived in High Wycombe and told me about it haha.
Ah nice! The ghost train is quite well known but I figured many people don't know as much about the line it runs on itself, if that makes sense?
@@HeyItsAJOmega definitely! Also I wasn't saying this to be all 'oh I know about this, it's not that mysterious' more surprised that me, knowing barely anything about trains, knew about it haha
I love your programmes!
The closing shot of High Wycombe station ( 10:52) reminded me of my Saturday trips from Gerrards Cross (when I had Saturday morning school) home to where my mother could pick me up in Marlow. How about a trip down memory lane on the Bourne End and Marlow branch line? I may have been accused by the police of trying to derail the Marlow Donkey (train nickname) in about 1968) at the pedestrian crossing near Little Marlow. No charges and no record so I never did it again.....
Ahhh, that's really nice! And I'm very curious to hear about this story, but I'm not sure you should tell it in case it gets you in trouble all these years later xD
Hello AJ, great video as ever. I grew up by the Junction of the NNML and the South Greenford branch (I got left on the platform at SG by a Class 121 when I was 3 as my Mum struggled to get my sister's pram off haha) and I'm interested in modelling something roughly based on this area in the early 90s. I wondered if you knew of any good reference books on the subject you could recommend? I'm not having a lot of luck finding stuff, I'm particularly interested in the sort of stock and formations the London rubbish trains used (and yes, I've already bought Dapol's NSE bubble car - it is, I am pretty sure, the one I saw the arse end of in 1987).
Love the channel, best wishes.
AC
On the junction at Worcestershire Parkway (Cotswold Malvern Line, Oxford to Worcester Shrub Hill/ Foregate St going over part of the CrossCountry route between Birmingham New St and Cheltenham) there are semaphore signals
V interesting. Oh, Bi-cester is pronounced Bister!
Yeah, I had a few people point that out after I uploaded the video - oops! In fairness, I'm saying it how it's spelled :P
@@HeyItsAJOmega stop wriggling. You didn't say "hig why-com-bee ;)
@Chris Green Many Americans can't even pronounce "Worcester" correctly even though there is a fairly well known Worcester in Massachusetts. .... Which has a railway connection as there was a manufacturuer of railway passenger carriages there. .... Which manufactured the Fat Boy's Diner "dining car" now located at Trinity Buoy Wharf, E14. :)
@@HeyItsAJOmega I lived in Bicester for a few years. Even some locals get it wrong. And please don't start me on Americans. A Jaguar XJ6 Coupé is not a "Jagwahh ex-jay-six koop".
Please don't start me on Americans. A Jaguar XJ6 Coupé is not a "Jagwahh ex-jay-six koop". Drive me f***in' mad.
I was on a Chiltern Line train at Princes Risborough station many moons ago and a French person asked me if the train was stopping at Bonbory? I lived in Bi Chester at the time!
Haha! The line is just full of stops that are hard to pronounce, clearly xD
How lucky was that? Seeing that LNER A4. I've only ever seen mallard at the nrm.
When I moved to Bicester in the late 1980s I needed to go to Banbury for a meeting. I rocked up at dilapidated Bicester North station and journeyed to Banbury on some appalling aged rattler. (I believe it was a class 115?). This put me off travelling by rail for years until I got a job in High Wycombe and it was obvious to use the train. I dreaded the thought of using those old rattlers every day so imagine my delight at discovering that the line was now run by Chiltern Railways with bright spacious comfortable modern trains that ran on time.And the station had had a upgrade! 😀
Thank-you!
very good. thank you
At the time your May 1968 timetable was active, I was living on the Chatham Islands, approx 500 miles east of New Zealand, which placed it inside of a kink in the International Dateline, making it the first place to see the sunrise in the British Commomwealth. 0000 UTC/GMT = Chathams NZT 0045.
That's genuinely an astonishing bit of trivia! ^_^
So did that chiltern service start from Paddington or did i miss something?
It did
I enjoyed this video, thank you very much.
It was also kept open as a diversion route when Engineering works closed the Paddington Main Line without train running meant driver knowledge could also be refreshed .....
Correct! There's some footage of diversions using this line in the past ten years or so?
Very interesting video, thanks.
there is plans to redouble it and connect to HS2 and Old Oak
Bicester: Literally in latin, two camps (or two barracks - Bi - Cester - where cester is a corruption of Castra or Castrum). At one time it was possible to see the two camps either side of the town. Of course, towns with names ending cester, chester, caster are all former roman camps - including Exeter (or Exe -cester). Sure you knew that.
Fascinating video,I've only just discovered your channel and you are the new Geoff Marshall for me !👍
Haha! Thank you, there is only one Geoff though - I prefer to be the first AJ ^_^
@@HeyItsAJOmega ua-cam.com/video/uJb7r87uie0/v-deo.html&pbjreload=101 love it !
Don't forget to mention that some trains on this line got to the Wirral until the mid-60's.
Big up to Birkenhead and Woodside station.
@@andrewdavies523 Me mam was a regular there!
One of my GGGGG PARENTS FROM BIDSTON MET HIS WIFE FROM AYLESBURY AND THE TRAIN IS WAS THE ONLY CONNECTION I CAN THINK OF?
I’d love to have done London Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill on the GWR back in the day. I kinda like the 80s brutalist Snow Hill but the original looked immense.
Presumably that semaphore signal at Greenford Station is operated by the GWR signalbox you pass later, by the dive-under??? With a mechanical lever??
I would assume so, yes!
Those onion domed semaphores are pure Great Western..
Could London Overground one day take over the West Ealing-Greenford branch line and to bring back the Class 172/0 which sadly are now with West Midlands Trains.
Or to inherit few Class 170s or Class 171s from Southern to be used on the West Ealing-Greenford branch line.
They won't
a better proposal would be for the Greenford branch to be converted to an underground line as an extension of the District line from Ealing Broadway. Some new construction from Ealing Broadway to West Ealing will be required but once it gets on to the Greenford section, just the electrification by third and fourth rail will suffice!
Very interesting
That line was very nearly going to be the mainline and Marylebone closed down but it was decidedd to do a "total route maintainence" .
The services were going to be diverted to Paddington.
I think this was in the late 80s / early 90s (Under Chris Green?)
Good job Marylebone was saved, Paddington wouldn't have coped
Absolutely! Paddington is busy enough as it is xD
Very intresting
drat, I can’t snap! I guess I can’t time travel like you did 😭
Keep trying, you can do it! I believe in you! xD
at 00.39 that station announcement sounded like it was made by 'Hello Kitty' lol... Semaphores, yum!
It's not really clear why Paddington decided against a less than two hour journey when a King with a 340 tare load could easily maintain an hour and half timing (signals and TSR's permitting) the King could easily maintain the scheduled timings, but it was decided to keep the level two hours instead. With indecent haste all the "Kings" were withdrawn by September 1962, a few were kept steaming at Stafford Road for emergencies when the new hydraulic "Westerns" took over the services, the last "King" Hauled service being March 1963. 1960 saw the "Blue Pullmans" (2 x units for the route) introduced with 4 daily (Mon-Fri) services, two from Pad--Wolver LL, and two midday services between Pad--Snow Hill, it was a popular service and gave the route a nice touch, timings were slightly better than the scheduled 2 hours, but the units were limited to 90 mph running. The "Warships" and "Westerns" gave way to the ubiquitous class 47 haulage to the end, though LMR West Coast services were hauled by double-headed class 40's, the New Line never was so busy and standing at Denham or Greenford would have given you a feast of services roaring past on a route designed for fast running. In comparison physically with the WCML the New Mainline did have a couple of slight hiccups: Saunderton Hill (not too much of an issue for a loaded "King"), Hatton Bank (Not as steep as the Lickey Incline), the High Wycombe PSR of 40 mph but with some slight slewing of the running lines could be bumped up to 70 mph, The Leamington Spa PSR of 20 mph, again this could have been eased by the closing of the LMR Rugby route and a generous slewing built over it, the main issue would be locomotive recovery timings. Why this route from Birmingham Moor Street all the way to Paddington wasn't chosen for the "Hs2" is a mystery to me, it has the space to compliment the current Chiltern Services, reinstate the fast lines through certain stations, reinstate the 4 track formations where it was taken up, the savings in cost and environment would have been heartwarming to the tree huggers and swampies of the world, as the line is well engineered and physically sound, it was that well built. :-)
Is it still possible to use the north main line?
When I was a boy I lived next to this line in Northolt and remember the regular express services running along it, pulled mostly by locos like deltics after they took over from steam. I can vaguely remember steam services but I would have been very young then! I think it is a shame that so much money is being spent burying HS2 under this line to save upsetting the neighbours even though modern high speed trains are much quieter than the trains that I grew up seeing which would rattle the windows in the house!
great stuff... surprised there are not more views/likes!
how did he pronounce Bicester?? words fail me. as many other people have noticed
Other proposed transport links that never happened exist too. More recently there was talk of a road link between Scratchwood on the M1 and Sterling Corner on the A1 again in the N (of) London area.Further north the defunct Overground rail line that ended at Buntingford Herts could have continued to Royston connecting with Cambridge.
In Shefford, Beds, there was a canal. Shefford was on the old LMS link between Bedford & Hitchin Herts, where the LNER branches off to Cambridge via Royston.
No doubt other proposals exist too - some would've proved very convienent within today's infrastructure.
They should do more daily services along this line no sense in letting it go to waste
Just what is that music...please? (Edit...found it! Thanks to the end-credits).
Would it not make sense to use this line to avoid digging a tunnel for HS2?
Good question, actually! Maybe it's not the right direction for the route, or can't be upgraded enough to enable high-speed running?
@@HeyItsAJOmega I did a good look at it, the costs are about a wash and a tunnel would be a lot less disruptive than rebuilding all the bridges and the Hanger Lane roundabout.
A lot of this line towards Birmingham is actually being used for HS2 just not this London bit
@@JKK_85 100% True, however the track from old oak common out to the M25 at first look appears to be a useful section of track to convert however the bridges are not built to a large enough gauge and that includes the Hammer Lane roundabout.
Some of this is mentioned in some comments below. After the WCML was electrified the line into Snow Hill was closed from the South all trains were diverted to New Street, By the late 1970s all except one peek service were diverted via Reading. The line between Aynho Ruction and Princess Risborough was singled. There was a DMU service from Banbury but into Marylebone. By the late 1980s the Paddington Birmingham train was cut back to Leamington. Then everything changed - Snow Hill reopened and trains started running through to Marylebone. Chiltern took over mid 1990s and redoubled Aynho to Princess Risborough.
There was one other point of interest. In thew 1980s the day they announce the proposed closure of the Settle Carlisle line they also proposed to close Marylebone. The Aylesbury trains going into Baker Street and the Wycombe trains going into Paddington. The Line past Wembley was going to be converted to a toll road. One of the reasons it didn't happen was because there was no capacity at Paddington!
I think Marylebone was going to be served into a coach station; I don't remember why that was abandoned.
@@JimTLonW6 there is a good bit on the Wikipedia page. I believe there was a lot of anti rail feeling in the government. This seemed to be the turning point and investment started again. I like the way it says ‘Quietly Dropped’! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marylebone_station
Are you on speaking terms with Geoff Marshall or deadly enemies?😎 You both make superb YT rail related content.👍👍👍
Haha! Nope, I'm a huge fan of Geoff, and he actually gave me a shoutout not long ago and is reportedly a fan of my work - we've chatted quite a bit! He's an excellent dude :) and thank you!
I enjoyed this video. Would love to go on this parliamentary train some time if it is still running. And if it isn’t too early in the morning. By the way, what is the song used in the titles/credits?
Can you still ride this train???
Where is Geoff ?
Tsk! "Bi-ceste"r is pronounced "Bister"! Otherwise interesting vid!
Thank you! And yeah, that's been pointed out more than once xD
17 & 6 new street to Bichester, what a bargain.
Actually the facts are that the London - Birmingham passenger services on the Chiltern main mostly went in and out of London Paddington station and most passenger services in and out of London Marylebone station went up and down the Great Central Main and didn't go anywhere near Birmingham. Then when British Railways / British Rail (BR) decided to close most of the Great Central main line Marylebone became available for the Birmingham service and BR could accommodate more Great Western Main line passenger services at Paddington by diverting Birmingham services to Marylebone.
It is me or does this dude look like an English Kim Jong un? Anyway -love the content. Greetings from Barbados
Where is Vicky? :D
...hahaha. ;)
Glad I'm not the only one that says Bi-cester. Haha.
Why is there a "ce" in it if it's meant to be pronounced "Bister"? :P
THANK YOU, FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT xD
There is a DVD 📀 called Chilten take two( part of video 125) and it does the route from Paddington to West Ruislip and it shows the double track still in situ. Also somewhere on UA-cam is a film from the cab of a Blue Pullman going from Paddington to Birmingham again using the route your pamphlet mentioned.
I remember one of my friend's having the "Chiltern Take Two" video.
There is a preview on UA-cam - although short is still interesting that even back in 1989 there was only ONE service from Paddington that used the line🤫
ua-cam.com/video/sQB8wXc6QwY/v-deo.html
Err... that "bychester" thing? Its called "bister"
Bicester is pronounced Bister. Like Leicester etc Interesting vid though