The Railway Heritage of Bletchley
Born On Rails Of Steel
In 1825 the Stockton and Darlington railway was opened, in 1830 the Liverpool and Manchester line was opened. This set in motion the railway expansion. It was decided George Stephenson, Chief Engineer of the above, should be approached to build the London to Birmingham line. Stephenson advised them the route to take, but declined the job of building it. Instead he recommended his son Robert for the job. The London and Birmingham railway took his advice, and in 1833 Robert was appointed chief engineer.

An interesting item of information unfortunately involved Ferdinand Rothschild, one of the major investors in the railway. In 1846 his wife was tragically injured in a rail accident and died during childbirth, the baby being stillborn. Ferdinand vowed that he would never marry again,a vow which he kept.

Robert Stephenson was paid £1,500 a year to build the first railway into London. Due to local opposition to the route he was forced to build a 2,400 yard long tunnel at Kilsby. Also a major engineering problem was the Blisworth Cutting. The 112 mile long London to Birmingham line took 20,000 men nearly five years to build at a cost of £5,500,000.
Once formed the London and Birmingham railway was under control of Robert Stephenson and the powerful secretaries, Richard Creed and C.R.Moorsom. Creed's report was in favour of a line from Tring to north of Aylesbury, then Whitchurch, Winslow, Buckingham and Brackley, the most direct line to Birmingham, but the Board were now influenced by other factors. The Duke of Buckingham would not allow the line to go through any of his properties. Robert had other ideas he wanted the line to run in conjunction with the Grand Union Canal and the A5, this was accepted. Royal ascent was granted on 6th May 1833. By 1835 plans were complete. Meanwhile hordes of navvies descended on the villages of Bletchley, Loughton and Wolverton, being paid £12 per week. Denbigh hall was the terminus at this time, and a notorious place it was, while the line waited for the completion of the viaduct over the Ouse to be completed. By September 1838 the double track was laid the full 112 miles and the London and Birmingham railway was complete. There was no station at Bletchley, but in 1844 plans were put forward for a station to be built. It was intended to open on 20th October 1846 but a heavy rainstorm swept away part of the track at Simpson. The formal date was 17th November 1846.
In 1846 the London & Birmingham railway became part of the London and North Western railway. In 1850 the Bletchley to Banbury line was completed and the status of Bletchley was greatly enhanced. In 1851, 775 men were employed at Wolverton Works, the main engineering plant of the LNW Railway who were the largest single employer in North Bucks.

The railways had changed the face of North Bucks with Bletchley changing from being a miserable dump to a well known railway junction, Wolverton from a village of 400, to a bustling new town of nearly 3000 people all in one generation.

In 1862 the Bletchley to Bedford line was extended to Cambridge, so linking the two great university towns. There was no telegraph system along the line, but what was described as an "ingenious staff system" was in operation. The staff/baton for each section of the line had a different colour. Before a train could start from its first station, a small staff/baton, say Red, had to be handed by the Station Master to the guard who waved the driver to proceed. On arrival at the next station he was bound to give up the staff/baton to the Station Master. Before he could start afresh, he received another staff/baton, say Blue. This was given up at the next station and exchanged for Red again and so on until the end of the journey. The staff/baton fitted into a little box which released a ticket with the words "staff to follow by the next train". Without the staff/baton the box would not open. As a further safeguard a Blue staff would not open a Red box and vice versa.

In 1859 a third line from Bletchley to London was made, and the second bore of the Watford tunnel in 1874 enabled two fast and two slow lines to Willesden by 1876 and to London by 1879. In 1881 Bletchley Station was rebuilt to a design that was to remain until 1952, finally being razed to the ground in 1965.

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