Thame railway station was a station on 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 ...

serving the town of

Thame Thame is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the county border wi ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. It was opened in 1862 as the terminus of an extension from

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...

''via''

Princes Risborough Princes Risborough () is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England, about south of Aylesbury and north west of High Wycombe. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through the Chilterns, the south end ...

The cost of construction of the station building was £2,201 1S 5d additional general works were £2,137 8S 8d. In 1864 the line was extended from Thame to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. The station was built with a

train shed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

over its platforms.

Construction

As originally built Thame station only had a single platform with an engine shed on the south side on the location where later cattle pens were built, sometime between 1864 and 1893 the engine shed was demolished and a second platform built, the trainshed roof was extended on one side to provide a cover over the new platform. Thame and the first station at High Wycombe were the same in design and dimensions, although different construction materials were used for each: the train-shed walls at Thame were timber, while Wycombe's were flint and brick. The station was provided with a 28 lever signal box, with ETB using Tyer's key token machines in operation.

Discontinuation of passenger service

In January 1963

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways withdrew passenger services between Princes Risborough and Oxford, closed all intermediate stations including Thame, and dismantled the track between Thame and Cowley. A BP depot remained at Thame and the line from Princes Risborough remained open for oil trains to serve it. In 1991 the oil depot was closed. In 1998 all track between Thame and Princes Risborough was lifted, with the exception of a short stub at the Princes Risborough end.

Current status

Part of the line from Thame to Princes Risborough has been re-opened to cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders under the title of The Phoenix Trail. After closure this part of the line was subsequently purchased by

Sustrans Sustrans is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United Kin ...

and converted into the cycle/pedestrian route and forms part of the UK National Cycle Route 57. The road bridges that crossed the line at either end of Thame Station and its two platforms are still there, although the station building and trainshed roof have gone. Thame is now served by Haddenham & Thame Parkway, north-east of the town, which opened in 1987 on the

Chiltern Main Line The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham ( Moor Street and Snow Hill), the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull. It is one of tw ...

References

{{Closed stations Oxfordshire Disused railway stations in Oxfordshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1862 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1963 1862 establishments in England Thame