Ghost Train: Maidenhead to High Wycombe (Lost Railways Animation)

[@swearingdad]

Thank you for putting that together - really fascinating stuff and, as a Maidenhead resident, I only found out recently that there used to be a connecting line between Maidenhead and High Wycombe. It seems mad that they ever got rid of it.

[@paulhumphriesz4557]

I use to work at Soho Mills industrial estate back in the early 1980's part of the railway track was still evident running through the estate what was the Mill . And wooburn green railway station was still standing with its white crossing gates closed as you headed up the hill. All demolished and houses built over it but there was talk of reopening the line to Maidenhead from High Wycombe as a tram link but nothing happened... good memories I now live in South Africa..

[@Mortimer50145]

Brilliant! Fantastic! I have vague memories when I was 3 (so 1966) of my grandpa, a keen railway enthusiast, taking me for my very first ride on a train, probably to get me out of the house in Maidenhead while my mum was in labour with my sister. I remember sitting at the front of a 1st Generation DMU looking through the cab out of the front window and the driver inviting me into his cab to "help him drive". It was either on the GW main line to Slough or Twyford, or else more likely on the Bourne End and High Wycombe line. A memorable day! I wish I'd asked my grandpa before he died in 1979 whether he remembered which line it had been. It's plausible that it was teh Bourne End line, since that didn't close to passengers until 1970.

[@tsd550]

I feel sorry for kids today, they seem to have been robbed of these simple pleasures that create life-long memories such as you have described.

[@Mortimer50145]

@@tsd550 Exactly. I was standing with my nose pressed up against the glass of the interior window into the driver's cab. I actually had a forward view - the cab didn't have a solid wall between the passeneger and driver, so passengers could actually see out. And this driver hadn't drawn the internal privacy blinds. When we stopped at a station, the driver noticed me and opened the interior door and invited me into the cab. I remember standing by "the steering wheel" (the screw-down handbrake). I can't remember whether or not he let me stand there while he drove to the next station, or whether I had to leave once he was ready to set off. But it made my day. That was in the mid sixties. Things have changed now, to the extent that photos and videos of a driver's controls and "dashboard" are sometimes deprecated on the grounds that they might help an unskilled person to drive a train as a prank or for terrorist purposes.

[@darrenraymond5334]

i have manage to walk most of the disused section of this line back in the 1980's before parts of the line were sold off, thank you for posting this up😁

[@deerhound1952]

Fascinating and so clever, thanks. Brought back memories of childhood journeys to school between Bourne End and High Wycombe.

[@paulkettle4333]

This is brilliant. Thank you

[@rowland5951]

Great video. Can you do West drayton to Uxbridge next, please 🙏

[@johnstilljohn3181]

Fantastic... amazing to see the route existed before what we think of as the 'main' line....

[@nedkabinder]

Another great vid and massive thanks for doing this line .a sad waste really as I'm sure it wlukd have n Been useful had it survived today

[@tsd550]

Brilliant creation as always on this channel.

[@rochellehewston9367]

Another fabulous video, James. thank you so much. I enjoyed this one as I always do with your wonderful work.

[@davidlane267]

As originally opened the first station on the branch was Maidenhead Boyne Hill, the entrance to the station can still be seen in the bridge over the line, the station closed in 1870. The original Brunel terminus station at Wycombe with overall train shed roof and engine shed still survives, it closed in 1864 and was then used as a goods shed.

[@davidcoleman5246]

Thanks James, great work as always. Looking forward to the next.

[@John-ik1os]

I thought you had missed out Furze Platt (the first station out of Maidenhead) but I have just discovered it only opened in 1937.

[@Mortimer50145]

Coming into High Wycombe from the Loudwater direction, I have to remind myself that this was originally "the" route into HW; the Chiltern (ex GWR) route from Beaconsfield which joins from the right came a lot later in 1910. In an alternative universe where technology was developed a couple of decades earlier than in real life, it would have been fantastic if all the lines which Beeching proposed for closure had been given the Don Coffey treatment - a cab-view video with well-researched and informative captions - to preserve the experience for posterity. But video cameras only became available in the 1980s, and the cost of cine film for a long route would have been prohibitive.

[@christopherwright4573]

fantastic

[@tango6nf477]

Excellent as always thank you.

[@edsilvester]

Excellent work!

[@brentwestbrook]

Great work. My old territory Buckinghamshire. I've seen many of your other videos. I guess it must be a great deal of work to synchronise the historical map with Google Earth (?) and include the animation.

[@ghosttrainlostrailways]

It takes me two days usually! I enjoy comparing them as I edit. Theres always something of interest to see that has long since disappeared.

[@johntyjp]

I used this line both in steam and diesel days, it wasn't still Broad gauge though!🧐😄

[@thunderboltmag4226]

Was this originally double track all the way ?