In 1853 Wycombe was a sleepy village nestling in the Chiltern Hills indeed it was no different to any other village and quite unremarkable.

However in 1854 the railway came to our town and things would never be the same again.

Originally the route of the Wycombe Railway Company ran from the Great Western line at Maidenhead through Marlow. This railway was based on Brunel's 7ft gauge.

The original station and goods shed from 1854 can still be seen at the site of our current station. Buildings to the west meant the line was not able to be extended so a new station was built a few yards further up Amersham Hill.

In 1862 the line was extended to Princes Risborough and Thame then in 1864 an extension from Thame to Kennington Junction linked the Wycombe route to Oxford.

The Wycombe Railway Company was taken over by the GWR in 1867 and the entire line was converted to standard gauge in one week, between 23 August and 1 September 1870.

With the railway came the opportunity to transport goods and for Wycombe that meant chairs.

If it hadn't been for the coming of the railway Wycombe would not have become the powerhouse of an industrial manufacturing town that it did.

Not only could goods be exported from Wycombe but essentials like coal and food could be brought in.

On the 15th March 1899 Wycombe was linked to London via a new route, this being the Great Western and Great Central Joint line which ran into both London Paddington (GWR) and London Marylebone (GCR).

With journey times significantly reduced the line to London via Maidenhead, affectionately known as the Marlow donkey line, became secondary.

The Great Central Railway terminus at Marylebone was the dream of Sir Edward Watkin who hoped to extend the line to the coast and construct a channel tunnel to the continent. Sadly this dream was not to be fulfilled.

At one time Wycombe boasted two stations (High Wycombe and West Wycombe), three signal boxes and a large goods yard which used to be situated parallel to the line between Bellfield Road and the railway bridge which runs over the Pastures road leading to Downley on the land where the old Payless DIY store was built.

If you look carefully you will see that land slopes down toward the Pastures road this was so wagons, being loose shunted, would roll down the incline to form the goods trains. A man would run alongside the wagons and push a wooden stick into the wheels to act as a brake so the wagons did not crash into each other too hard.

In the early 1970's the Marlow Donkey line was closed and services to Paddington were scaled back. Despite closure threats in the 1980's Marylebone has remained our gateway to the capital.

Nowadays Wycombe enjoys excellent railway services to London Marylebone, Aylesbury, Birmingham Snow Hill, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Warwick Parkway, Dorridge and Solihull.

Thanks to the recent raising of the line speed limit to 100mph London is now less than thirty minutes away. With full ATP (Automatic Track Protection) installed the Chiltern Line is one of the safest in the country as it is impossible for a train to go through a red singal.

There has only been one serious accident on the line involving trains however two tunnel collapses have occurred, one at Whitehouse Farm when the line was being constructed and the other at Gerrards Cross when a newly built tunnel collapsed blocking the line for weeks.

Recent improvements at Wycombe station have seen the forecourt remodelled to give bus and taxi access.

Sadly the remodelling also saw a hideous multi storey car park spring up to blight the Wycombe skyline and part of the listed historic goods shed was tragically demolished because it blocked the view of the station from the Amersham Hill.

The original Brunel station and goods shed on the Amersham Hill site was supposed to be turned into retail units however it has laid empty since work on the station forecourt was completed leaving our station complex only half finished.

What do you think?

*Maybe you would like to suggest other suitable topics for letters of the alphabet? If you have any ideas on what you think the letter 'S' should stand for just leave a comment and let me know.