the not so level crossing

Yesterday, 11th June, was International Level Crossing Awareness Day.  Yes it was.  

So in celebration - and in the true spirit of the railways - a bit late - I mark the occasion with this blip, which tells the story of a Victorian dream for a railway line between Newport Pagnell and Olney.  

The bright green area in the middle of this plaque is Bury Field Common - the large expanse of common land close to where we live.  The red triangle marked ‘you are here’  is ‘where I was’  around 8 o’clock this morning.  The big news is contained in the Railway Timeline on the left hand side; 1865 works starts. 1866 work stops. 1871 work abandoned.  (best viewed large for the detail.  And remember 1866.)

Now this doesn’t fit with my understanding of Victorian engineering. Around the same time they were laying undersea cables to the Far East and Australia.  So a railway line across a slightly bumpy area of common land in Southern England should have been a piece of cake.

It turns out that in 1866 the line between Newport Pagnell and Wolverton was opened.  This was big deal because it connected Newport Pagnell to the main West Coast line from London to the North West.  To mark the occasion the newspapers of the day reported the following;

Having travelled back and forth on the train the Wolverton Brass Band marched through decorated streets to the Swan Hotel

Rustic sports were held

Celebrations continued until the early hours of the following morning

Tea and tobacco were donated to all the over-sixties in the town

I think we can see from this what happened to the Olney Line.  They blew the budget.  It was probably the fags that did it.  They usually do.