The Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway was a railway built and operated jointly by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and Great Central Railway (GCR) between Northolt and Ashendon Junction. It was laid out as a trunk route with gentle curves and gradients and spacious track layouts. The two companies each needed approach railways at both ends of the line to connect their respective systems; these were built as part of a single project.
Saunderton looking south to the separate alignments
Quainton Road station; now a heritage railway centre
Neasden Junction looking north; a football special from Wembley is leaving the route from Northolt
Quainton Road railway station was opened in 1868 in under-developed countryside near Quainton, in the English county of Buckinghamshire, 44 miles (71 km) from London. Built by the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, it was the result of pressure from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham to route the railway near his home at Wotton House and to open a railway station at the nearest point to it. Serving a relatively underpopulated area, Quainton Road was a crude railway station, described as "extremely primitive".
Up (southbound) platform and the main station building
Quainton Road station in 2006, showing the platform formerly used by trains to Brill. The building on the platform now houses an exhibition on the Brill Tramway.
Manning Wardle Huddersfield at Quainton Road in the late 1890s with the Wotton Tramway's 1870s passenger coach, an 1895 Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad passenger coach, and a goods wagon loaded with milk cans
The road from Quainton now crosses the railway line via an 1896 bridge immediately northwest of the station platforms.