TODAY it is busy and provides some of the most punctual train services in the country. But when this picture was taken in 1967, the railway line from London through Princes Risborough and Bicester to Banbury was under threat.

A special train hauled by 7029 Clun Castle ran from Paddington to Banbury to mark its downgrading.

As the picture shows, hundreds of enthusiasts turned out at Banbury to watch its arrival.

There were fears at that time the route north of Princes Risborough could close.

The line was originally the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway and was the last main line to be built, carrying its first traffic in 1910.

The route satisfied the ambitions of two railway companies – the Great Central wanted an uncluttered route into London for its main line from the north, while the Great Western wanted a faster link between London and Birmingham.

It was paradise for trainspotters in the steam era, with Castles, Halls and other Great Western locomotives mixing with a variety of Great Central engines.

One enthusiast described the highlight of a typical day in the 1950s.

He wrote: “At 6.45pm, in the quiet Buckinghamshire countryside, the King-hauled Inter-City and its long train of chocolate and cream coaches would thunder past the maroon and cream A3-headed Master Cutler at a combined speed of around 150mph.”

Until 1910, the Great Western’s main line from Paddington to Birmingham had been via Reading and Oxford, but the new route meant it was able to offer a shorter and quicker service to compete with trains on the route out of Euston.

Journey times of less than two hours were achieved, at speeds of up to 100mph. But when the Euston-Birmingham electrification was completed in 1967, the writing was on the wall.

Services on the Paddington-Birmingham route through Bicester were reduced, hence the enthusiasm which greeted the arrival of 5029 Clun Castle in 1967.

In 1974, there was a further blow when all but two of the locomotive-hauled trains were re-routed to the more lucrative Paddington-Reading-Oxford-Birmingham line.

The shorter route, however, somehow survived the axe and now, under Chiltern Railways, it is flourishing, with frequent services between Marylebone and Birmingham and work under way on a new link to Oxford, due to open next year.

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