GeoGraph - photograph every grid square

Dismantled railway

The slight hump in this recently cut wheat field is the only evidence of the embankment of the former Great Central Railway, which when it opened in 1899 was the last main line double track railway to be built. The line ran between Sheffield, Nottingham and London Marylebone, see Link. Much of the line was closed in 1966, but a single track stretch between Claydon Junction, about 2km away in the direction of the picture, and Quainton Road, remains. It is used by four freight trains a day from Brentford in London carrying containerised household waste to the landfill site at Calvert just before Claydon Junction, see SP6924 : Waste transfer station, Calvert Landfill Site, Calvert.

The railway came through Twyford behind the camera and onto the next station, which was Calvert. In the middle of the picture where the hedge is now was a bridge over an unclassified road running north-south, but there is no sign of this bridge at all. This photograph shows the completed bridge in 1897 from the road looking north, Link.