The RCTS: then and now
IN THE spring of 1963, in common with every other railway periodical, the pages of the Railway Observer carried plenty of news and speculation about the Beeching Report. Reshaping British Railways was published on March 27 that year, and public attention focused on lines proposed for closure and the likely effect of these measures on rural and less populated areas of the country. The former GWR branches in the Thames Valley between Paddington and Reading serve sizeable populations, but did not entirely escape the ‘Beeching Axe’ as the popular press put it. The nearest GWR branch to London is West Ealing to Greenford, the socalled Greenford Loop. For many years this line offered the unique opportunity of leaving a major London terminus in a single-car diesel unit ‘Bubble Car’, but the coming of electrification and the Elizabeth line put a stop to through services. GWR ‘Turbos’ now shuttle from a newly-constructed bay on the up platform at West Ealing. Moving out to Slough, with its short branch to Windsor & Eton Central, and Twyford’s link to Henleyon-Thames, both also still enjoy regular Class165 ‘Turbo’ services, often three-car sets. The peak-hour through services to and from Paddington have been consigned to history, as have the expansive terminal stations originally constructed. Today, Windsor boasts only a simple platform in a shopping centre, often becoming extremely busy at the time of royal occasions. The exception is the line running north from Maidenhead; opened in 1854 as the Wycombe Railway, the line ran through Cookham and Bourne End to High Wycombe, later extended to Princes Risborough, Thame and Aylesbury, finally extending through Thame to Oxford. The GWR took over the Wycombe Railway in 1867, and in 1873 the Great Marlow Railway opened. This was a nominally independent line along the Thames from Bourne End to Marlow, operated from the start by the GWR, perhaps surprisingly leaving the Wycombe line towards Maidenhead. The whole route was greatly affected in 1899 by the opening northwards from High Wycombe of the GW/GC joint line to Northolt (and Marylebone). Maidenhead to Wycombe thus became a branch line pure and simple, although excursions for Windsor, and some through freight, occasionally used the line. After initially escaping Beeching, the line was closed beyond Bourne End on May 4, 1970. Through trains to Paddington, especially from Bourne End, survived right up to the electric era, although needing a reversal to get from Maidenhead to Marlow remains inconvenient. Still served by GWR Class 165 sets, the route is busy throughout the year, with intermediate stations at Cookham and Furze Platt (on the outskirts of Maidenhead) providing plenty of traffic. As with other routes, talk persists of reopening to High Wycombe, but the extent of development in the vicinity of the trackbed seems to make this unlikely.