Little Kimble station geograph-3752220-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Little Kimble railway station is a small, single platform

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

serving the village of

Little Kimble Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh is a civil parish in central Buckinghamshire, England. It is located to the south of Aylesbury. The civil parish altogether holds the ancient ecclesiastical villages of Great Kimble, Little Kimble, Kimblewick a ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, England.

Services

The station is served by trains operated by

Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways, formally The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Railw ...

between

London Marylebone Marylebone station ( ) is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone an ...

and . Services mostly operate hourly although there are some two or three hour gaps between services. An additional shuttle service operates between and during the Monday to Friday peak periods.

History

The

Wycombe Railway The Wycombe Railway was a British railway between and that connected with the Great Western Railway at both ends; there was one branch, to . History The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an act of Parliament passed in 1846. The act ...

opened the line from Princes Risborough to Aylesbury on 1 October 1863. The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

took over the Wycombe Railway in 1867 and opened Little Kimble station in 1872. The station building once had ornate stone chimneys, and was identical to the "up" platform building at . The station was transferred from the

Western Region of British Rail The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex- Great ...

to the

London Midland Region The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irelan ...

on 24 March 1974. In 1998 Little Kimble received the

British Royal Train The British Royal Train is used to convey senior members of the British royal family and associated staff of the Royal Household around the railway network of Great Britain. It is owned, maintained and operated by DB Cargo UK. The Royal Trai ...

. The

G8 Summit The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia left in 2014. The forum originated ...

was held in Birmingham that year and the wives of the G8 countries' leaders, including

Cherie Blair Cherie, Lady Blair, (; born 23 September 1954), also known professionally as Cherie Booth, is an English barrister and writer. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Tony Blair. Early life and education Booth ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

, were taken to

Chequers Chequers ( ), or Chequers Court, is the country house of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A 16th-century manor house in origin, it is located near the village of Ellesborough, halfway between Princes Risborough and Wendover in Bucking ...

via the Royal Train and Little Kimble, which is the nearest station to Chequers. The train reversed at Princes Risborough and the wives alighted at Little Kimble, whence they were transferred to Chequers via limousine. Little Kimble is in an area of the country where edible dormice (''Glis glis'') are common and, in 2010, they made their home in the ticket machine meaning that travellers could not buy their tickets.

References

External links

Chiltern Railways

Little Kimble - Least Used Station in Buckinghamshire
2017 YouTube video by Geoff Marshall about the station. Former Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway stations Railway stations in Buckinghamshire DfT Category F2 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1863 Railway stations served by Chiltern Railways {{SouthEastEngland-railstation-stub