The Wolverton–Newport Pagnell line was a railway

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom running from

Wolverton Wolverton is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, England. It is located at the northern edge of Milton Keynes, beside the West Coast Main Line, the Grand Union Canal and the river Great Ouse. It is the administrative seat of Wolverton and G ...

on the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) (today's

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

) to Newport Pagnell. The line fully opened to passengers in 1867. An extension to Olney was planned in 1865, but this scheme was abandoned after partial construction. Earthworks along the route of the extension still exist in Bury Field (Newport Pagnell), and plaques exist detailing the history of the failed project. Competition from road traffic starting in the early twentieth century put pressure on the railway, and it was later a victim of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the M ...

. The line was seen as unprofitable, and it closed to passengers in 1964, and to goods traffic in 1967. Part of the trackbed today provides a section of the

Milton Keynes redway system The Milton Keynes redway system (locally known as ''redways'') is an over network of shared use paths for cyclists and pedestrians in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is generally surfaced with red tarmac, and criss-crosses most o ...

, a network of

shared path A shared-use path, mixed-use path or multi-use pathway is a path which is 'designed to accommodate the movement of pedestrians and cyclists'. Examples of shared-use paths include sidewalks designated as shared-use, bridleways and rail trails. ...

s that serves the

Milton Keynes urban area The Milton Keynes urban area or Milton Keynes Built-up Area is a designation established by the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics. Milton Keynes has no statutory boundary: the 1967 designated area only determined the area assi ...

Background

The Newport Pagnell Canal had opened in 1817 between the Grand Junction Canal at

Great Linford Great Linford is a historic village, district and wider civil parish in the northern part of Milton Keynes, England, between Wolverton and Newport Pagnell. Great Linford village Great Linford was one of the North Buckinghamshire villages i ...

and Newport Pagnell. The canal carried a reasonable level of traffic but, in 1845, the LNWR attempted to buy the canal to use its route as a potential railway line. The offer was refused for two decades, until 1862, when the LNWR was able to purchase the canal for £9000. The canal closed in 1864. Despite this, the railway when built did not run on the line of the old canal. Two earlier proposals had been made in 1845 and 1846 for a railway serving Newport Pagnell: both schemes failed to attract sufficient capital.

Construction and operation

Permission to build the long single line branch railway was obtained on 16 June 1863. The line opened for goods in 1866, with passenger services commencing on 2 September 1867. The line was officially absorbed by the LNWR in 1875. The one engine that worked the single track branch was later nicknamed ''Newport Nobby''. In 1865, powers were granted to extend the line from Newport Pagnell to Olney and then on to meet the

Northampton and Peterborough Railway The Northampton and Peterborough Railway was an early railway promoted by the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) to run from a junction at Blisworth on the L&BR main line to Northampton and Peterborough, in England. The construction of the lin ...

Wellingborough Wellingborough ( ) is a large market and commuter town in the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, 65 miles from London and from Northampton on the north side of the River Nen ...

. Construction was underway, and a bridge had been completed when the extension was abandoned in 1871. Olney was later served by a station on the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

Bedford–Northampton line The Bedford–Northampton line was a branch of the Midland Railway which served stations in three counties: Northampton and Horton in Northamptonshire, Olney in Buckinghamshire and Turvey and Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. Opened in 1872, t ...

from 1872: that line closed in 1962. In 1900 a spur connecting the branch to the up slow line of the

was constructed. The water supply for locomotives at Wolverton was insufficient, so a water column was built at the intermediate station in Bradwell. Water came from the town's own source, with many houses losing their supply. On Mondays, housewives were known to shake their fists at engine drivers when their weekly wash was interrupted Eventually drivers were forbidden from taking water from Bradwell on Mondays. In 1898, the first motor bus service in Buckinghamshire began running between Newport Pagnell and Olney, followed by numerous other routes, which took traffic away from the railway line. Despite this, the LNWR considered electrification of the line in 1904, believing such a scheme would bring about considerable savings, but the idea never materialised.

Closure

The branch was included in the

Beeching report Beeching is an English surname. Either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames' ...

of 1963 which concluded that, since 30% of the railway network carried less than 1% of the total passenger traffic, much of it should be closed. The residents of Newport Pagnell resisted the closure, demanding an enquiry which took place on 7 June 1964. Despite many objections, it was determined that the line would close. The last passenger service was the 5:34 pm train from Newport Pagnell on 5 September 1964, just under a century after the line opened to passengers. The mourning of the line was so great that a bucket of water was poured over a double dressed as

Richard Beeching Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the e ...

, the man commonly associated with the closure of over 4,000 miles of the British railway network. The crowd cheered as this happened, a mark of the public's feelings about the closure. The line was finally closed to freight traffic in 1967, after which the tracks were lifted.

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