European Railroad Discussion > Chesham 125

This weekend London Underground marked the 125th anniversary of the opening of the railway to Chesham by rerouting the normal half hourly passenger service to Amersham between 10:00 and 17:00 and running their vintage train instead. I wasn't expecting to get to see it but a change of plan and family issues elsewhere meant that I was kicking my heels on Sunday afternoon so off to Chesham I went. The branch which is a couple of miles in length (Chesham is the furthest point on the Underground from Central London) carries the single line down from the junction at Chalfont into the valley of the River Chess. Consequently Chesham bound trains have it easy, but it is anything but for train's heading away from Chesham.

Today LU operated their vintage train set in the same formation as I saw it on Tuesday - L150 (the inauthentic ex-GW 2-6-2T in ersatz London Transport red), no.12 Sarah Siddons (the totally authentic 1923 Metro Vick Bo Bo electric), the four car Ashbury set of cars from 1900, the 1887 Jubilee four wheel coach, the Met Milk Van and 0-4-4T no.1. L150 led north (into Chesham) whilst no.1 hauled the train out of the Chess Valley.

There were three round trips, the first starting at Wembley Park and the final one terminating at Harrow on the Hill. In betwen the train turned round at Rickmansworth. Departures from Chesham were at 12:30, 14:30 and 16:30. I found myself on a bridge mid way between Chalfont and Chesham, in a location where London Underground has recently cut back the tree growth and smack in the middle of the most difficult part of the climb so we were treated to some great sound affects as no.1 (118 years old this year) strode up the hill. Like me most of the other enthusiasts on the bridge would have rather just had Sarah Siddons on the country end, rather than the L150 which simply doesn't look right.

So here's No.1 on the 14:30 departure from Chesham climbing the bank (with Sarah Siddons and L150 deliberately out of shot).

Next the 15:51 departure from Rickmansworth with L150 and Sarah Siddons leading, drifting down from Chalfont.

Finally the 16:30 departure with no.1 doing all the hard work. The post with 84.2 on it is a milepost, or rather a kilometre post. In 1971/2 London Transport re-measured the system (in kilometres) using the eastern most station Ongar as the point 0. Ironically whilst the kilometre posts remain Ongar doesn't, the Central Line's Epping to Ongar branch, which was a completely rural railway incongruously operated by a four car set of Central Line stock, closed in September 1995.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/14 03:53 by 86235.

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Lovely shots, Nik.It's hard to believe this is London suburbs, but great photos. . Chris uk.

Pls explain the track configuration to us on the other side of the pond. Four rails ??? Why and what for?

The London Underground uses a separate fourth rail - the one between the running rails - for the return current.

Great set of pictures of trains on curves Nick! If it wasn't for the steel fences you could almost believe these pictures were from days gone.

Yes, those boundary fences are particularly intrusive. Why LU needs to fence off the RoW in quite such an extreme fashion in rural Buckinghamshire is beyond me. But according to a local if we had been at this spot 18 months ago it would have been an avenue of trees, so on balance I prefer the open aspect.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/14 02:54 by 86235.

Some context of why the Underground runs a single track branch through rural surroundings.

One of the constituents of London Transport in 1933 was the Metropolitan Railway Co. As well as operating London's Circle Line, in partnership with the District Railway (part of the Underground Group) and the Hammersmith and City and East London Lines the Met had a mainline which, in 1933, stretched 50 miles from Baker Street (on the Circle) to a remote outpost called Verney Junction. There are three electrified branches off the mainline - from Harrow on the Hill to Uxbridge (opened in 1904), from Moor Park and Rickmansworth to Watford (opened 1925) and from Wembley Park to Stanmore (opened 1932 and now part of the Jubilee Line). The Met also operated a steam hauled rural light railway, the Brill branch which terminated at the Oxfordshire village of Brill. Working the latter is one of the reasons why no.23, one of the original Beyer Peacock built 4-4-0 tanks built from 1866 onwards, is still with us and has pride of place in the London Transport Museum.

Electrification of the Met's mainline reached Rickmansworth in 1925, for which 20 Bo Bo electric locomotives were built by Metropolitan Vickers (no.12 Sarah Siddons is the only operational survivor). Trains onwards from Rickmansworth - to Aylesbury, Chesham and Verney Junction changed power - the Metro Vick giving way to one of the Metropolitan's own very handsome H class 4-4-4T tank engines, designed by CME Charles Jones and built in the early 1920s.

All of this was completely counter intuitive to the new London Passenger Transport Board which came into existence on July 1st 1933, and which was dominated by The Underground Group of companies.

And so over the next 25 years the main line vestiges of the Metropolitan were discarded. Firstly the Brill branch and services beyond Aylesbury (37 miles from Baker Street) ceased in 1936. Then in 1938 the LPTB turned over operation of trains north of Rickmansworth to the LNER, and with it went the Met's small stud of 'mainline' power - G class 0-6-4T, the H class and the powerful K class 2-6-4T. The war put back further changes by some 15 years or more but in 1961 electrification was extended to Amersham (23 miles) and Chesham (25 miles), services beyond were turned over to BR, later Chiltern Railways.

As part of the 1961 changes the mainline was quadrupled from Harrow on the Hill to Watford South Junction, a pair of tracks being reserved for fast trains. And that is how things remain today with the main change since being the replacement of the A61/62 stock in 2012 by the new air conditioned S stock after 51 years of service.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/14 06:42 by 86235.