Reminder of railway age

2:02pm Thursday 24th April 2008

The removal of Oxford's historic London Midland & Scottish rail station, and rebuilding as a railway visitor centre at Quainton, near Aylesbury, was a labour of love.

The station was constructed in 1851 by the builders of Crystal Palace, the great cast-iron and glass icon of the Victorian Age which burnt down in 1936.

Its days were numbered after the Cambridge line - now also defunct - was diverted to the GWR station next door. Then its structure gradually deteriorated, particularly after its use as a tyre depot from the 1970s.

Lance Adlam, the architect responsible for the resiting, has linked up with fellow Quainton Railway Society member Bill Simpson to write f=Swis721 Blk BT A Triumph of Restoration f=Swis721 Bd BT (£9.95 from Witney publishers Lamplight, www. lamplightpublications. co.uk). It tells the story of the Buckinghamshire Railway and of the Oxford station, as well as the problems of the removal operation.

Opened three months after Crystal Palace, the station claimed to be gateway to the Great Exhibition, and the authors use old photographs to explain the similarities in construction.

Looking happy in its new home, the Rewley Road station has now been extended to allow five extra bays - a lasting reminder of Oxford's railway age. A passenger bridge allows access from the mainline station, and there are regular steam events on Sundays and bank holiday weekends.

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