Brill Tramway

Brill Tramway

Manning Wardle engine Huddersfield at Quainton Road in the late 1890s with the Wotton Tramway's passenger coach of the mid 1870s, an 1895 Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad passenger coach, and a goods wagon loaded with milk cans
Overview
Headquarters	Brill (1872–99) London (1899–1935)
Locale	Aylesbury Vale
Dates of operation	1871–1935
Successor	Abandoned
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)

The Brill Tramway, also known as the Quainton Tramway, Wotton Tramway, Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and Metropolitan Railway Brill Branch,^{[note 1]} was a six-mile (10 km) rail line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England. It was privately built in 1871 by the 3rd Duke of Buckingham as a horse tram line to help in the transport of goods between his lands around Wotton House and the national railway network. Lobbying from residents of the nearby town of Brill led to the line's extension to Brill and conversion to passenger use in early 1872. Two locomotives were bought for the line, but as it had been designed and built with horses in mind services were very slow; trains travelled at an average speed of only 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h).

In 1883, the Duke of Buckingham announced plans to upgrade the route to main line railway standards and extend the line to Oxford, creating a through route from Aylesbury to Oxford. If built, the line would have been the shortest route between Aylesbury and Oxford at the time. Despite the backing of the wealthy Ferdinand de Rothschild, investors were deterred by the costly tunnelling proposed, and the Duke was unable to raise sufficient funds. In 1888 a cheaper scheme was proposed, in which the line would be built to a lower standard and wind around hills to avoid tunnelling. In anticipation of this, the line was named the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad.

Although the existing line was upgraded in 1894, the extension to Oxford was never built. Instead, the operation of the Brill Tramway was taken over by London's Metropolitan Railway, and Brill became one of their two north-western termini. The line was rebuilt a second time in 1910, and more advanced locomotives were introduced, allowing trains to run faster. The population of the area remained low, and the primary source of income remained goods traffic to and from surrounding farms. Between 1899 and 1910 many other railway lines were built in the area, providing more direct services to London and the north of England. Facing competition from these new lines and the increase in motorised road transport, the Brill Tramway went into severe financial decline.

In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership and became the Metropolitan Line of London Transport. As a result, the Brill Tramway became a part of the London Underground, despite being over 40 miles (65 km) from London and not being underground. The management of London Transport aimed to concentrate on electrification and the improvement of passenger services in London, and saw little possibility that the former Metropolitan Railway routes in Buckinghamshire could ever become viable passenger routes. In 1935 all services on the Brill Tramway were withdrawn, and the line was closed. The infrastructure of the route was dismantled and sold shortly afterwards. Very little trace of the Brill Tramway remains, other than the former junction station at Quainton Road, now the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.

Brill is a small town situated at the top of the 600-foot (180 m) high Brill Hill in the Aylesbury Vale in northern Buckinghamshire, about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Oxford,^[5] and 45 miles (72 km) northwest of London.^[6] Historically the town was the only significant population centre in Bernwood Forest, an ancient forest owned by the English monarchs and preserved as a hunting ground.^[6] Traditionally believed to have been the home of King Lud,^[5] Brill Palace was a seat of the Mercian kings,^[7] the home of Edward the Confessor,^[8] and an occasional residence of the monarchs of England until at least the reign of Henry III (1216–72).^[7] Although historically an important town and a centre for the manufacture of pottery and bricks,^[7] Brill was a long distance from any major roads or rivers, and separated by hills from the nearest significant population centre in Oxford. It remained relatively small and isolated.^[6] Although it was still the most important town in the area, in the 1861 census Brill had a population of only 1,300.^[9]

Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, the only son of Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, was born on 10 September 1823.^[6] By the mid-18th century the family was in serious financial difficulties.^{[10][note 2]} The family's vast estates and their London home at Buckingham House were sold to meet debts, and the family seat of Stowe House was seized by bailiffs as security and its contents sold.^[10] Over 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) of the family's 55,000-acre (22,000 ha) estates were sold to meet debts.^[10] The only property remaining in the control of the Grenville family was the family's relatively small ancestral home of Wotton House and its associated lands around Wotton Underwood near Brill.^[14] Deeply in debt, the Grenvilles began to look for ways to maximise profits from their remaining farmland around Wotton, and to seek business opportunities in the emerging fields of heavy industry and engineering.^[6] Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (titled Marquess of Chandos following the death of his grandfather Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1839) was appointed chairman of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) on 27 May 1857.^[6] After the death of his father on 29 July 1861 he became the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos,^[10] and resigned from the chairmanship of the LNWR, returning to Wotton House to manage the family's remaining estates.^[6] His efforts to pay off the debts incurred by his father rather than declare himself bankrupt earned praise from Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli,^[15] and in 1875 he was appointed Governor of Madras, serving until 1880.^[15]

On 15 June 1839 entrepreneur and former Member of Parliament for Buckingham, Sir Harry Verney, 2nd Baronet, opened the Aylesbury Railway.^[4] Built under the direction of Robert Stephenson,^[16] it connected the London and Birmingham Railway's Cheddington railway station on the West Coast Main Line to Aylesbury High Street railway station in eastern Aylesbury, the first railway station in the Aylesbury Vale.^[6] On 1 October 1863 the Wycombe Railway opened a branch line from Princes Risborough railway station to Aylesbury railway station on the western side of Aylesbury, leaving Aylesbury as the terminus of two small and unconnected branch lines.^[6]

Meanwhile, to the north of Aylesbury the Buckinghamshire Railway was being built by Sir Harry Verney.^[17] The scheme consisted of a line running roughly southwest to northeast from Oxford to Bletchley, and a second line running southeast from Brackley via Buckingham, to join the Oxford–Bletchley line roughly halfway along its length.^[18] The first section opened on 1 May 1850, and the whole of the line opened on 20 May 1851.^[18] The Buckinghamshire Railway intended to extend the line southwards to connect to their station at Aylesbury, but this extension was not built.^[4]

On 6 August 1860 the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, with the 3rd Duke (then still Marquess of Chandos) as chairman and Sir Harry Verney as deputy chairman, was incorporated by Act of Parliament with the object of connecting the Buckinghamshire Railway (by now operated by the LNWR) to Aylesbury.^[18] The 2nd Duke used his influence to ensure the new route would run via Quainton, near his remaining estates around Wotton, instead of the intended more direct route via Pitchcott.^[19][20] Beset by financial difficulties, the line took over eight years to build, eventually opening on 23 September 1868.^[18] The new line was connected to the Wycombe Railway's Aylesbury station, and joined the existing Buckinghamshire Railway lines at the point where the Oxford–Bletchley line and the line to Buckingham already met.^[18] A new junction station was built at the point where the lines joined. With no nearby town after which to name the new station, it was named Verney Junction railway station after Sir Harry who owned the land on which it was built.^[21] Aylesbury now had railway lines running to the east, north and southwest, but no line southeast towards London and the Channel ports.

With a railway now running near the border of the Wotton House estate, the 3rd Duke decided to open a small-scale agricultural railway to connect the estate to the railway.^[22] His intended route ran almost exclusively on his own land, other than a small stretch immediately west of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway line. This land was owned by the Winwood Charity Trust, an operator of almshouses in Quainton of which the Duke was a trustee.^[18][23] The Duke agreed to pay the Winwood Charity an annual rent of £12 (about £1,500 as of 2024), in return for permission to run trains across their land.^[13][18] With the consent of the Winwood Charity the route did not require Parliamentary approval, and construction could begin immediately.^[19]

The Duke envisaged a tramway running west from Quainton Road railway station across his Wotton estate. The line was intended purely for the transport of construction materials and agricultural produce, and it was not intended to carry passengers.^[9] The route would not have a junction with the Aylesbury and Buckingham railway, but would have its own station at Quainton Road at a right angle to the A&B's line.^[18] A turntable at the end of the tramway would link to a spur from the A&B's line.^[18] The line was to run roughly southwest from Quainton Road to a Wotton railway station near Wotton Underwood. Just west of the station at Wotton the line split. One section would run west to Wood Siding near Brill. A short stub called Church Siding would run northwest into the village of Wotton Underwood itself, terminating near the parish church, and a 1 mile 57 chain (2.8 km) siding would run north to a coal siding near Kingswood.^[24] The branch to Kingswood was routed to pass a pond, to allow the horses working the line to drink.^[25]

Ralph Augustus Jones was appointed as Manager of the project,^[26] and construction work began on the line on 8 September 1870.^[20] The bulk of the work was carried out by agricultural labourers from the Wotton estate, who would otherwise have been unemployed during the winter following the harvest.^[24] Twenty labourers were employed for six days a week to build the line, each paid 11 s per week.^[27] They undertook all of the construction except the laying of the track, which was done by Lawford & Houghton, specialists in such work.^[27] The line was built as cheaply as possible, using the cheapest available materials and winding around hills wherever feasible to avoid expensive earthworks.^[24] Ballast was a mix of burnt clay and ash.^[19] The stations were crude earth banks 6 inches (150 mm) high, held in place by wooden planks.^[24] As the Duke intended that the line be worked only by horse-drawn carriages, the line was built with longitudinal sleepers to reduce the risk of horses tripping.^[28] A 13-foot (4.0 m) diameter turntable was installed at Quainton Road to link the tramway to the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway.^[28]

On 1 April 1871 the section between Quainton Road and Wotton was formally opened by the Duke of Buckingham in a brief ceremony, in which coal from the first goods wagon to arrive at Wotton was distributed amongst the poor of the parish.^{[29][note 4]} At the time of its opening the line was unnamed, although it was referred to as "The Quainton Tramway" in internal correspondence.^[1] The extension from Wotton to Wood Siding was complete by 17 June 1871; the opening date of the northern branch to Kingswood is not recorded, but it was not yet fully open in February 1873.^[9] The London and North Western Railway immediately began to operate a dedicated service from Quainton Road, with three vans per week of milk collected from the Wotton estate shipped to their London terminus at Broad Street.^[30] Passengers were not carried, other than estate employees and people accompanying livestock.^[30]

As the Duke and Jones intended never to run more than one train on each section of the line, the line was not built with passing loops or signalling.^[9] When more than one horse-drawn train or locomotive was in operation on the line, the Tramway operated a token system using colour coded staffs to ensure no more than one train could be on a section simultaneously. Drivers on the section between Quainton Road and Wotton were obliged to carry a blue staff; those on the branches west of Wotton and the Kingswood siding a red staff.^[31]

Although not intended for passenger use, on 26 August 1871 an excursion service ran from Wood Siding to London hauled by the Great Western Railway (GWR).^[32] It carried around 150 people,^[32] for a total of 1051⁄2 passenger fares (with each child counted as half an adult), and was drawn by horses between Wood Siding and Quainton Road and by locomotive from Quainton Road to Aylesbury where the carriages were attached to the 7.30 am GWR service via Princes Risborough to London, arriving at 10.00 am.^[25] The experiment was not a success. Sharp overhanging branches along the route posed a danger to passengers and had to be cut back in the week before the excursion. The day itself was extremely rainy, and ticket sales were lower than expected. The return train from London to Quainton Road was delayed in Slough,^[25] and the excursion eventually arrived back at Wood Siding at 2.00 am.^[1]

The surveyors designing the line had worked on the assumption that the wagons would have a load on each wheel of 21⁄2 tons (2,500 kg), and had designed the line accordingly.^[33] As it turned out, the four-wheeled wagons used had an average weight of 31⁄2 tons and each carried 6–7 tons of goods, meaning this limit was regularly exceeded.^[9] The coal wagons used on the line weighed 5 tons (5,100 kg) each and carried 10 tons (10,200 kg) of coal, meaning a load on each wheel of 33⁄4 tons (3,800 kg).^[33]

As well as damaging the flimsily built track the loads seriously strained the horses, and soon after opening the line began to suffer a problem with derailment, particularly in wet weather.^[9] On 20 October 1871 Jones wrote to the Duke that "The traffic is now becoming so heavy that I would, most respectfully, venture to ask your Grace to consider the subject as to whether an Engine would not be the least expensive and most efficient power to work it."^[33]

In late 1871 the residents of Brill petitioned the Duke to extend the route to Brill and to open a passenger service on the line.^[9] The Duke agreed to this; it is likely that he had already planned to run passenger services to Brill, as correspondence from early 1871 mentions passenger facilities at "the Brill terminus".^[9] In January 1872 a scheduled passenger timetable was published for the first time, and the line was officially named the "Wotton Tramway".^[1] (Although officially named the "Wotton Tramway", it was commonly known as the "Brill Tramway" from the time of its conversion to passenger use.^[34]) The new terminus of Brill railway station, at the foot of Brill Hill approximately 3⁄4 of a mile (1.2 km) north of the town,^[35] opened in March 1872.^[36] Although it was now a passenger railway, goods traffic continued to be the primary purpose of the line.^[37] The line was heavily used for the outward shipment of bricks from the brickworks around Brill,^[38] and of cattle and milk from the dairy farms on the Wotton estate. By 1875 the line was carrying around 40,000 gallons (180,000 l; 48,000 US gal) of milk each year.^[39] The inbound delivery of linseed cake to the dairy farms and of coal to the area's buildings were also important uses of the line.^[40] The line also began to carry large quantities of manure from London to the area's farms, carrying 3,200 tons (3,300 t) in 1872.^[41] The Tramway also opened a cartage business to handle the onward shipment of goods and parcels unloaded at Brill and Wotton stations.^[42]

With the horses unable to cope with the loads being carried, Jones and the Duke decided to convert at least part of the railway for locomotive use. The lightly laid track with longitudinal sleepers limited the locomotive weight to a maximum of nine tons,^[43] and it was thus necessary to use the lightest locomotives possible.^[33] Two traction engines converted for railway use were bought from Aveling and Porter at a cost of £398 (about £44,900 as of 2024) each.^[13][33] The locomotives were chosen on grounds of weight and reliability, and had a top speed on the level of only 8 miles per hour (13 km/h).^[33] The new locomotives took 95–98 minutes to travel between Brill and Quainton Road, an average speed of 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h).^[37] With an unusual configuration in which a flywheel drove chains which in turn drove the wheels,^[44] the locomotives were extremely noisy and were nicknamed "Old Chainey" by locals.^[45]

The first of the new locomotives, given serial number 807 by Aveling and Porter and numbered 1 by the Tramway, was delivered to Wotton station on 27 January 1872.^[46] On the day of its delivery, the now-redundant horses had been sent away. Nobody at Wotton was able to operate the locomotive, so a horse had to be hired from Aylesbury until the driver arrived.^[46] After the delivery of the second locomotive on 7 September 1872, all passenger services were drawn by locomotive except on Thursdays, when the locomotives were replaced by horses to allow for maintenance.^[37] The line carried a total of 104 passengers in January 1872, rising to 224 passengers in April,^[47] and 456 in August 1872.^[48]

With steam locomotives came the need for a reliable water supply. Initial plans to dig a well near Wotton came to nothing, and the Duke's expedient of drawing water from a pond near Quainton Road did not impress the pond's owner.^[49] By March 1872 Jones recorded that "The party to whom the pond near the Quainton Station belongs is making complaints about our having water and I expect he will be using force to prevent our getting any".^[49] As a solution a wooden water tower was built at Brill station, and a large water tower known as the Black Tank was built in the fork of the main line and Church Siding.^[49][50]

While the Aveling and Porter engines proved adequate for their job, they were very slow. On 6 February 1872, Jones timed one of the locomotives as taking 41 minutes to travel roughly 2 miles (3 km) from Quainton Road to Wotton hauling a load of 42 tons (43 t).^[49] They were also very low-powered, and when pulling a heavy load their front wheels would lift off the track.^[51] The Duke's cost-cutting led to poor maintenance of the track and equipment, and the service suffered frequent interruptions from derailments and other accidents.^[49]

In 1876 the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway substantially raised its prices for coal haulage. As all coal hauled on the Tramway needed to pass along the A&BR from either Verney Junction or Aylesbury, Jones was faced with the choice between raising the Tramway's own prices to cover the additional surcharge to be paid to the A&BR, or keeping prices stable despite the huge loss of profits it would mean.^[53] Road-hauled coal shipped from Bicester was already undercutting the Tramway's coal charges, and the unreliable engines had given the Tramway a poor reputation.^[53] Jones saw no alternative but to keep prices fixed and absorb the increased costs, wrecking the Tramway's already declining business.^[53]

In 1873 the 3rd Duke attempted to have the Wotton Tramway recognised as a railway, and William Yolland inspected the line in April 1873.^[54] The Railway Regulation Act 1844 defined minimum standards of travel, one of which was that the trains travel at an average speed of 12 miles per hour (19 km/h), a speed of which the Aveling and Porter locomotives were not capable. None of the stopping places had adequate station buildings, and the line had no system of signals. Yolland permitted the line to continue to operate as a tramway, but refused to recognise it as a railway.^[48]

By the mid-1870s the slow speed of the Aveling and Porter locomotives and their unreliability and inability to handle heavy loads were recognised as major problems for the Tramway.^[38] In 1874 Ferdinand de Rothschild bought a 2,700-acre (1,100 ha) site near the Tramway's Waddesdon station from John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, to use as a site for his planned country mansion of Waddesdon Manor.^[55] Jones and the Duke recognised that the construction works would lead to a significant increase in the haulage of heavy goods, and that the Aveling and Porter engines would be unable to cope with the increased loads.^[56]

Engineer William Gordon Bagnall had established the locomotive firm of W. G. Bagnall in 1875. Bagnall heard that the Tramway was looking for improved locomotives, and wrote to the Duke offering to hire their first locomotive to him for trials.^[56] The offer was accepted, and on 18 December 1876 the locomotive, named Buckingham, was delivered.^[56] Buckingham entered service on 1 January 1877, and was mainly used on the steepest section of the line between Wotton and Brill.^[56] Although Jones was unhappy with some aspects of Buckingham, he recognised the improvement over the Aveling and Porter engines, and an order was placed to buy a locomotive from Bagnall for £640 (about £76,100 as of 2024).^[13][56] After some delay the new locomotive, named Wotton, was delivered on 28 December 1877, and Buckingham was returned to Bagnall in February 1878.^[56]

Buckingham and Wotton were far more reliable than the Aveling and Porter engines.^[56] With modern locomotives working services on the Brill–Quainton Road route (the Kingswood branch generally remained worked by horses, and occasionally by the Aveling and Porter engines), traffic levels soon rose.^[56] The crucial figure for milk traffic rose from 40,000 gallons carried in 1875 to 58,000 gallons (260,000 l; 70,000 US gal) in 1879,^[39] and in 1877 the Tramway carried a total of 20,994 tons (21,331 t) of goods.^[57] In early 1877 the Tramway was shown on Bradshaw maps for the first time, and from May 1882 Bradshaw also listed the Tramway's timetable.^[58]

Despite the frequent derailments, the low speed of the trains meant the Wotton Tramway had a generally good safety record.^[60] The locomotives would occasionally run over and kill stray sheep,^[61] and on 12 September 1888 sparks from one of the Aveling and Porter engines blew back into one of the train's cattle trucks, igniting the straw bedding and badly burning two cows.^[62] The line suffered only one serious accident, in which Ellen Maria Nickalls, a servant at Wotton House, was struck by a locomotive near Church Siding and killed.^[59][60] The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death, absolving driver James Challis of any blame.^{[63][note 5]}

To boost usage Jones had increased the number of scheduled passenger journeys from two to three each day in each direction.^[64] With the locomotives generally occupied with goods traffic, many of the advertised passenger services had to be drawn by horses.^[64] While the increased number of scheduled passenger journeys boosted revenues, the Tramway no longer owned enough horses and needed to hire them to haul the passenger cars. By 1881 the passenger service was losing £11 (about £1,400 as of 2024) per month,^[13][65] although reduced use of the locomotives resulted in a slight decrease in maintenance costs.^[65] Although reliability had greatly improved, services on the Tramway were still extremely slow. Horse-drawn passenger services took 60–70 minutes to travel the six miles between Quainton Road and Brill.^[58] The locomotive-hauled mixed trains, with frequent stops to load and unload goods, were far slower, and were timetabled as taking between 11⁄2 and 23⁄4 hours to make the same journey, considerably slower than walking pace.^[58]

Ralph Jones hoped to increase passenger revenue by promoting Brill as a spa town. The chalybeate springs of Dorton Spa outside Brill were well known for their supposed healing powers,^[66] and a resort had been built around the Spa in the 1830s,^[67] featuring a modern pump house and eight baths, all set in 12 acres (4.9 ha) of parkland.^[68] Despite the redevelopment of the Spa and the building of modern hotels in Brill to handle anticipated traffic, Dorton Spa was unfashionable and by the late 19th century was little used.^[68] It was hoped by both Jones and by the Spa's owners that Queen Victoria would visit during her 1890 stay at Waddesdon Manor and thus boost the profile of Brill as a spa town. Although such a visit was arranged, Victoria changed her mind and visited the spa at Cheltenham instead.^[69] The anticipated spa traffic never materialised.^[69]

In 1876 Ferdinand de Rothschild began work on Waddesdon Manor, a short distance south of the Tramway's station at Waddesdon (later renamed Waddesdon Road).^[70] The top of Lodge Hill, a local landmark, was levelled to provide a site for the house, and sloping drives were cut into the hill to provide access to the construction site.^[70] The transportation of materials for these preparatory works was done by horse, but the contractors were faced with the problem of how to get the enormous stone blocks with which the house was to be built up the hill to the building site.^[70]

Rothschild's contractors built a branch line known as the Winchendon Branch. It turned off the Tramway between Waddesdon and Westcott stations and ran south to a depot at the foot of Lodge Hill. From there a cable tram ran on narrow gauge rails up the hill to a gully close to the building site.^{[70][note 6]} Materials were hauled along the cable tramway in tubs by a steam powered winch.^[71] The Winchendon Branch was hastily and cheaply built; after one of the Tramway's locomotives derailed on the branch on 5 July 1876 Jones refused to allow the Tramway's engines onto it, and from then on materials were hauled along the branch by teams of horses.^[70]

The building of Waddesdon Manor generated huge amounts of business for the Tramway. Large numbers of bricks from Poore's Brickworks at Brill were shipped along the line. By July 1877 the entire output of the brickworks was going to supply the demand of the Waddesdon Manor works, with 25,000 bricks per week being used.^[70] Additional bricks were also shipped via Quainton Road to meet the demand,^[70] along with 7,000 tons (7,100 t) of Bath Stone from Corsham.^[71] The Manor also required its own source of power, and in 1883 a gasworks was built to the west of the Manor. A siding from Westcott station ran south to the gasworks, to carry its supply of coal.^[70] Waddesdon Manor chose not to use the Tramway for the supply of coal to the gasworks, however, and the siding was abandoned in 1886.^[70]

In 1889, 13 years after construction began, Waddesdon Manor was complete. The Winchendon Branch was closed and the track was removed.^[70] The gasworks remained operational, although supplied by road rather than rail, until its closure during the coal shortage of 1916 and was demolished shortly afterwards.^[70] The track of the disused siding remained in place until at least 1916, but was later removed.^[70]

Although Poore's Brickworks in Brill was already well established, Ralph Jones believed that there was potential for profit in the Duke of Buckingham capitalising on his access to a railway line by becoming directly involved in brickmaking.^[72] Trials with Brill clay in 1883 proved positive, and in April 1885 Jones sought estimates for the costs of machinery and labour which would be necessary to produce 10 million bricks per year.^[73] It was decided that 5 million bricks per year was a more realistic figure, with the bricks to be manufactured in kilns between Brill and Wood Siding stations and shipped down the Tramway and onto the national rail network.^[74] Progress on the scheme was slow and obstructed by the local authority.^[75]

Few records survive of the Brill Brick and Tile Works, as it came to be called, but it was operational by 1895.^[69][76] Jones (1974) states that the siding to the brickworks opened with the extension to Brill, implying that the Brill Brick and Tile Works already existed in early 1872.^[23] This is almost certainly incorrect; no mention of the sidings is made in the Duke of Buckingham's correspondence prior to 1887 and no reference to the Brill Brick and Tile Works itself exists in any source earlier than 1895.^[69] The bricks used to build Waddesdon Manor had to be shipped by road from Poore's Brickworks to Brill or along the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway from further afield before being sent down the Tramway to the building site, implying that there was no works capable of making high numbers of bricks open along the Tramway at the time.^[69]

Brill Brick and Tile Works was unable to compete with the larger and better-connected brickworks at Calvert, and went into decline.^{[67][note 7]} The brickworks finally closed in the early 20th century.^{[note 8]} The building was taken over by the W. E. Fenemore workshop, making hay loaders, before being converted into a timber yard in the 1920s.^[67]

Although the introduction of the Bagnall locomotives and the traffic generated by the works at Waddesdon Manor had boosted the route's fortunes, it remained in serious financial difficulty. The only connection with the national railway network was by way of the turntable at Quainton Road. Although the 3rd Duke of Buckingham was Chairman of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, the management of the A&B regarded the Tramway as a nuisance, and in the 1870s pursued a policy of charging disproportionately high fees for through traffic between the Tramway and the main line with the intention of forcing the Tramway out of business.^[79] Relations deteriorated between Ralph Jones and J. G. Rowe, Secretary and Traffic Manager of the A&B. The A&B's trains at Quainton Road would miss connections with the Tramway, causing the milk shipped to Quainton to become unsellable, to the extent that Jones began unloading milk at Waddesdon station and shipping it to Aylesbury by road.^[80] Although Jones asked the Duke to intervene personally relations remained poor; in 1888 Rowe blocked the telegraph along the Tramway, and in one meeting Jones and Rowe threatened physical violence.^[80]

Ralph Jones sought legal advice and was informed that the Duke would be likely to win a legal action against the A&BR. However, the A&BR was in such a precarious financial position that any successful legal action against them would likely have forced the line through Quainton Road to close, severing the Tramway's connection with the national network altogether.^[64] Meanwhile local dairy farmers began to switch to beef and butter production, causing a drop in milk transport volumes.^[64] From its peak of 20,994 tons carried in 1877, goods traffic fell in each of the next four years, dropping to 9,139 tons (9,286 t) in 1881.^[57]

Many of the passengers using the Tramway continued their journey by way of the A&BR line; in 1885, 5,192 passengers changed trains between the A&BR and the Tramway at Quainton Road.^[65] Jones suggested that the A&BR subsidise the Tramway's service to the sum of £25 (about £3,400 as of 2024) per month to allow passenger services to continue, but the A&BR agreed to pay only £5 (about £700 as of 2024) per month.^[13][65] By the mid-1880s the Tramway was finding it difficult to cover the operating expenses of either goods or passenger operations.^[81]

In 1837 Euston railway station opened, the first railway station connecting London with the industrial heartlands of the West Midlands and Lancashire.^[82] Railways were banned by a Parliamentary commission from operating in London itself, and thus the station was built on what was then the northern boundary of the city.^[83] Other main line termini north of London soon followed at Paddington (1838), Bishopsgate (1840), Fenchurch Street (1841), King's Cross (1852) and St Pancras (1868). All were built outside the built-up area of the city, making them inconvenient to reach.^{[83][note 9]}

Charles Pearson (1793–1862) had proposed the idea of an underground railway connecting the City of London with the relatively distant London main line rail termini in around 1840.^[84] In 1854 to promote the scheme he commissioned the first ever traffic survey, determining that each day 200,000 walked into the City of London, 44,000 travelled by omnibus, and 26,000 travelled in private carriages.^[86] A Parliamentary Commission backed Pearson's proposal over other schemes.^[86] Despite concerns about vibrations causing subsidence of nearby buildings,^[87] the problems of compensating the many thousands of people whose homes were destroyed during the digging of the tunnel,^[88] and fears that the tunnelling might accidentally break through into Hell,^{[89][note 10]} construction began in 1860.^[90] On 9 January 1863 the line opened as the Metropolitan Railway (MR), the world's first underground passenger railway.^[91]

The MR was successful and grew steadily, extending its own services and acquiring other local railways in the areas north and west of London. In 1872 Edward Watkin (1819–1901) was appointed as its Chairman.^[92] A director of many railway companies, he had a vision of unifying a string of railway companies to create a single line running from Manchester via London to an intended Channel Tunnel and on to France.^[93] In 1873 Watkin entered negotiations to take control of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the section of the former Buckinghamshire Railway running north from Verney Junction to Buckingham.^[94] He planned to extend the MR north from London to Aylesbury and extend the Tramway southwest to Oxford, and thus create a through route from London to Oxford.^[94] Rail services between Oxford and London at this time were poor, and although still an extremely roundabout route, had the scheme been completed it would have formed the shortest route from London to Oxford, Aylesbury, Buckingham and Stratford upon Avon.^[95] The Duke of Buckingham was enthusiastic, and authorisation for the scheme was sought from Parliament. Parliament did not share the enthusiasm of Watkin and the Duke, and in 1875 the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire Union Railway Bill was rejected.^[95] Watkin did, however, receive consent in 1881 to extend the MR to Aylesbury.^[95]

With the MR extension to Aylesbury approved, in March 1883 the Duke of Buckingham announced his own scheme to extend the Tramway to Oxford.^[95] The turntable at Quainton Road would be removed, and replaced with a junction to the south of the existing turntable to allow through running of trains.^[96] The existing stretch from Quainton Road to Brill would be straightened and improved to main line standards, and Waddesdon Road and Wood Siding stations would be closed. From Brill, the line would pass in a 1,650-yard (1,510 m) tunnel through Muswell Hill to the south of Brill, and on via Boarstall before crossing from Buckinghamshire into Oxfordshire at Stanton St. John. From Stanton St. John the line would next stop on the outskirts of Oxford at Headington, before terminating at a station to be built in the back garden of 12 High Street, St Clement's, near Magdalen Bridge.^[95] The proposal included provisions for a separate set of rails to be provided where the old and new routes ran together, to allow the existing Wotton Tramway to continue to operate independently if it saw fit, but given the Duke's involvement in the new scheme it is unlikely that he ever intended to make use of this option.^[97]

At 23 miles (37 km) the line would have been by far the shortest route between Oxford and Aylesbury, compared with 28 miles (45 km) via the GWR (which had absorbed the Wycombe Railway), and 34 miles (55 km) via the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the LNWR.^[95] The Act of Parliament authorising the scheme received Royal Assent on 20 August 1883, and the new Oxford, Aylesbury and Metropolitan Junction Railway Company, including the Duke of Buckingham, Ferdinand de Rothschild and Harry Verney among its directors, was created.^[98] The scheme caught the attention of the expansionist Metropolitan Railway, who paid for the survey to be conducted.^[44] Despite the scheme's powerful backers, the expensive Muswell Hill tunnel deterred investors and the company found it difficult to raise capital.^[26] Ferdinand de Rothschild promised to lend money for the scheme in return for guarantees that the rebuilt line would include a passenger station at Westcott, and that the Duke would press the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway into opening a station at the nearest point to Waddesdon Manor on their line.^[99] Waddesdon Manor railway station was duly opened on 1 January 1897.^[99]

Despite the cash boost from Rothschild, the new company was unable to raise sufficient investment to begin construction of the Oxford extension, and had only been given a five year window by Parliament in which to build it.^[100] On 7 August 1888, less than two weeks before the authorisation was due to expire, the directors of the Oxford, Aylesbury and Metropolitan Junction Railway Company received Royal Assent for a revised and much cheaper version of the scheme. To be called the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad (O&AT), the new scheme envisaged the extension being built to the same light specifications as the existing Tramway.^[100] To avoid the expensive earthworks and tunnelling which had caused the failure of the first extension scheme, the line would parallel an existing road out of Brill, following the contours of the land despite the considerable gradients involved.^[26] The entire route would be a single track, other than occasional passing places,^[101] and the Oxford terminus was to be in George Street, nearer the edge of the city.^[97] Ralph Jones was sceptical about the scheme, and felt that it was unlikely to recoup its construction costs.^[100]

On 26 March 1889 the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos died, aged 65.^[15] A special train brought his body from London to Quainton Road, and from Quainton he was taken to Stowe for the service, and on to the family vault at Wotton.^[102] Five carriages provided by the London and North Western Railway carried mourners to Church Siding, near Wotton Underwood's church.^[102] Another carried a company of the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry,^[102] closely associated with the Grenville family and the upkeep of which had helped to bankrupt the second duke.^[10] (This second train was delayed on the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, arriving late to the burial.^[103])

The Dukedom was a title inherited only in the male line. As the 3rd Duke had three daughters but no son, the title became extinct. The 1st Duke, however, had also held the title of Earl Temple of Stowe, which descended through the heirs of his relatives should the male line become extinct. Consequently, on the 3rd Duke's death this title, along with most of the Wotton estate, passed to his nephew William Temple-Gore-Langton who became the 4th Earl Temple.^{[100][note 11]}

By this time the construction of the MR extension from London to Aylesbury was well underway, and on 1 July 1891 the MR absorbed the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway.^[100] Sir Harry Verney died on 12 February 1894,^[104] and on 31 March 1894 the MR took over the operation of services on the A&BR from the GWR. On 1 July 1894 the MR extension to Aylesbury was completed, giving the MR a unified route from London to Verney Junction.^[100] The MR embarked on a programme of upgrading and rebuilding the stations along the newly acquired line.^[100]

Construction of the route from Brill to Oxford had not yet begun. Further Acts of Parliament were granted in 1892 and 1894 varying the proposed route slightly and allowing for the electrification of the route,^[105] but no building work was carried out other than some preliminary surveying.^[106] On 1 April 1894, with the proposed extension to Oxford still intended, the O&AT exercised a clause of the 1888 Act and took over the Wotton Tramway. Ralph Jones was retained as General Manager, and work began on upgrading the line in preparation for the extension.^[2]

The track on the line from Quainton Road to Brill was relaid with improved rails resting on standard transverse sleepers, replacing the original flimsy rails and longitudinal sleepers.^[2] The former longitudinal sleepers were taken up and used as fence posts and guard rails.^[107] The crude stations, which had been little more than earth banks, were replaced with wooden platforms. Waddesdon, Westcott, Wotton and Brill stations were fitted with buildings each housing a booking office, waiting rooms and toilets, while Wood Siding station was equipped with a small waiting room "with shelf and drawer".^[2] Church Siding was not included in the rebuilding, and was removed from the timetable altogether.^[108] The Kingswood branch was not included in the rebuilding, and retained its original 1871 track.^[109] At around this time two Manning Wardle locomotives, named Huddersfield and Earl Temple,^[110] were brought into use on the line.^{[2][note 12]} Huddersfield had been built in 1876 and originally named Prestwich; Earl Temple was identical to Huddersfield other than having a covered cab.^[111] The Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad could not afford the purchase price when Earl Temple was delivered, and thus the Earl bought the locomotive with his own money and rented it to the O&AT.^[111] In 1895 two new passenger carriages, each accommodating 40 passengers, were bought from the Bristol Wagon and Carriage Company.^[112] In 1896 Huddersfield was withdrawn from service,^[113] and in 1899 was replaced with a new Manning Wardle locomotive named Wotton No. 2, at which time Earl Temple was renamed Brill No. 1.^[111]

The rebuilding greatly improved service speeds, reducing journey times between Quainton Road and Brill to between 35 and 43 minutes.^[114] From 1895 onwards the Tramway ran four passenger services in each direction on weekdays.^{[114][note 13]} The population of the area had remained low, and in 1901 Brill had a population of only 1206.^[115] Passenger traffic remained a relatively insignificant part of the Tramway's business, and in 1898 passenger receipts were only £24 per month (about £3,400 as of 2024).^[13][114]

Meanwhile the MR were rebuilding and resiting Quainton Road station as part of their improvement programme, freeing space for a direct link between the former Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway and the O&AT to be built. A curve between the lines opened on 1 January 1897, allowing through running of trains between the two lines for the first time.^[111]

With through running between the lines in place, in June 1899 officials of the MR conducted an inspection of the O&AT's carriages and locomotives, which raised serious concerns. The original passenger carriage which had begun life as a horse tram was shabby internally, and unsafe to be used as part of a longer train, while the passenger carriage from the 1870s was in a very poor condition.^[116] The 1895 Bristol passenger carriages were found to be unfit for their purpose owing to their light construction.^[116] Eight of the O&AT's nine goods wagons did not comply with Railway Clearing House standards and thus could not be used on other railway lines.^[116] On 4 October 1899 the MR loaned the O&AT an eight-wheeled 70 seat passenger carriage for use on the line.^[117] As this new carriage had been built with the MR's standard height platforms in mind rather than the O&AT's low platforms, an 80–100 ft (24–30 m) section of each platform on the Tramway was raised to standard height to accommodate the MR carriage.^[117]

The Metropolitan Railway in 1903 following absorption of the A&BR and O&AT. The map is skewed about 45° from north; the MR's Buckinghamshire line ran northwest from the Inner Circle (the present day Circle line) in London (bottom). At the northwest (top) end, the MR forks at Quainton Road towards Brill (left) and Verney Junction (right).

By 1899 the Metropolitan Railway and the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company were cooperating closely. Although the existing line had been thoroughly upgraded in preparation for the Oxford extension and had been authorised as a railway in 1894, construction on the extension itself had yet to begin.^[118] On 27 November John Bell, Watkin's successor as Chairman of the MR, arranged to lease the Tramway from the O&AT, for an annual fee of £600 (about £85,000 as of 2024) with an option to buy the line outright.^[13][116] From 1 December 1899, the MR took over all operations on the Tramway.^[116] Ralph Jones was retained as Manager of the line.^[116] The O&AT's decrepit passenger coach, a relic of Wotton Tramway days, was removed from its wheels and used as a platelayer's hut at Brill station.^[119] An elderly Brown, Marshalls and Co passenger coach was transferred to the line to replace it, and a section of each platform was raised to accommodate the higher doors of this coach using earth and old railway sleepers.^[120]

On 28 March 1902 the 4th Earl Temple died aged 55, to be succeeded by Algernon William Stephen Temple-Gore-Langton, 5th Earl Temple of Stowe. The Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company, which by now did nothing except collect the £600 annual rent from the MR, pay the Winwood Charity Trust the annual rent for the piece of their land near Quainton Road which was crossed by the rails,^{[note 14]} and pay Earl Temple an annual dividend of £400, was not inherited by the 5th Earl but remained independent under the control of the 4th Earl's trustees.^[121]

The MR sold all but one of the dilapidated goods wagons to the Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway, replacing them with a fleet of five eight-wheeled carriages built in 1865–66.^[116] The MR considered the Manning Wardle locomotives unreliable, and from early 1903 they were replaced by a pair of Metropolitan Railway D Class engines,^[116] although they were not sold until 1911.^[119] The heavy D Class locomotives damaged the track, and in 1910 the track between Quainton Road and Brill was relaid to MR standards,^[121] using old track which had been removed from the inner London MR route but was still considered adequate for light use on a rural branch line.^[120] Following this track upgrading, the speed limit on the line was increased to 25 miles per hour (40 km/h).^[122]

The Kingswood branch was again not upgraded,^{[note 15]} and still retained its 1871 track.^[109][121] It was abandoned at the end of 1915, and the track was lifted (removed) in 1920.^[121] In 1911 the Brill Brick and Tile Works closed, and the siding to the brickworks was removed, with the exception of the rails on the level crossing which as of 1984 were still in place, albeit tarmacked over.^[100] On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Brill became a centre for the training of cadets, who were housed in Wotton House and ferried in trains of five passenger coaches.^[122]

The Metropolitan Railway was unhappy with the performance and safety record of the D Class locomotives, and sold them to other railways between 1916 and 1922. With much of their route closer to London now electrified the MR had many surplus steam locomotives, and two Metropolitan Railway A Class locomotives, numbers 23 (built 1866) and 41 (built 1869), were transferred to the route.^[123] Built by Beyer, Peacock and Company from 1864, the A Class had been the first locomotives owned by the Metropolitan Railway (in 1863, the first year of operation, the MR had used engines loaned from the GWR). Although the most advanced locomotives ever regularly to work the route, the A Class design predated all other rolling stock ever used on the Tramway.^{[121][note 16]} The two locomotives would alternate working the line, each operating the service for a week at a time.^[124] Occasionally, the MR would substitute other similar locomotives.^[121]

Service levels provided by the Metropolitan Railway were very similar to those which had been operated by the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company. Four services per day would operate, taking around 40 minutes from one end of the other in 1900, falling to 32 minutes by 1931 after the upgrading of the route and the introduction of the A Class locomotives.^[125]

On 1 February 1903 the now-elderly Ralph Jones retired as Manager, and control of the line was taken over directly by the Metropolitan Railway.^{[126][note 17]} Jones died on 14 April 1909, surviving to see the railway network in the Aylesbury Vale reach its greatest extent.^[26]

In 1893 another of Edward Watkin's railways, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, had been authorised to build a new 90-mile (140 km) line, from its existing station at Annesley in Nottinghamshire, south to Quainton Road.^[122] Watkin had intended to run services from Manchester and Sheffield via Quainton Road and along the Metropolitan Railway to the MR's station at Baker Street.^[122] Following Watkin's retirement in 1894, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway obtained permission for a separate station near Baker Street at Marylebone, and the line was renamed the Great Central Railway (GCR).^[122] The new line joined the existing MR just north of Quainton Road on the Verney Junction branch, and opened to passengers on 15 March 1899.^[122] Many of the bricks used in the building of the Great Central Railway were supplied by the Brill Brick and Tile Works and shipped along the Tramway, providing a significant revenue boost to the O&AT.^[127]

Following Watkin's retirement relations between the Great Central Railway and the Metropolitan Railway deteriorated badly. The GCR route to London ran over MR lines from Quainton Road to London, and to reduce reliance on the shaky goodwill of the MR, GCR General Manager William Pollitt decided to create a link with the Great Western Railway to create a second route into London.^[128] In 1899 the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway began construction of a new line, commonly known as the Alternative Route, to link the GWR's existing station at Princes Risborough to the new Great Central line. The line ran from Princes Risborough north to meet the Great Central at Grendon Underwood, about three miles (5 km) north of Quainton Road.^[122] The new line was to cross the Tramway on a bridge immediately east of Wotton station, although no intersection was built between the lines.^[122] Although the lines did not connect, a temporary siding was built from the Tramway onto the embankment of the new line, and used for the transport of construction materials and the removal of spoil from the works during the building of the new line.^[129] Although formally an independent company, in practice the line was operated as a part of the Great Central Railway.^[130]

The new line was planned as a through route and was not intended to have any stations of its own, but in 1904 it was decided to build two stations on it.^[131] A new station, also named Wotton, was built immediately to the south of the existing Wotton station.^[50] On 2 April 1906 the new route opened to passengers.^[132] The two Wotton stations were very close together, and the same stationmaster was responsible for both.^[131]

In 1910 the new Bicester cut-off line of the GWR Chiltern Main Line opened, allowing trains from London to Birmingham to bypass a long curve through Oxford. The new line was routed directly through Wood Siding, although no interchange station was built. The GWR ran in a cutting beneath the existing station; Wood Siding station and its siding were rebuilt at the GWR's expense between 1908–1910 to stand on a wide bridge above the GWR's line.^[133] The new line included the station named Brill and Ludgershall, which in reality was considerably further from Brill than the existing Brill station.^[134]

With the opening of the new routes, the Tramway for the first time suffered serious competition. Although further from Brill than the Tramway's station, the GWR's station provided a fast and direct route to the GWR's London terminus at Paddington. The Great Central Railway's station at Wotton, and the other Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway station at Akeman Street, provided fast and direct routes to both Paddington and to the Great Central's new London terminus at Marylebone, without the need to change trains at Quainton Road.^[131] In addition, following the end of the First World War motorised road transport grew rapidly, drawing passenger and goods traffic away from the railways.^[131] The Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company repeatedly tried to persuade the Metropolitan Railway to buy the line outright, but the MR declined.^[124] In July 1923 the O&AT tried to sell the line to the GWR and to the Electric and Railway Finance Corporation, but was rebuffed by both.^[135]

On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway, along with London's other underground railways aside from the short Waterloo & City Railway, was taken into public ownership as part of the newly formed London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB).^[137] Thus, despite Brill and Verney Junction both being over 50 miles (80 km) and over two hours travel from the City of London, the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad and the former Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway became parts of the London Underground network.^{[136] [note 18]} The locomotives and carriages were repainted with London Transport's Johnston Sans emblem.^[26]

By this time, the route from Quainton Road to Brill was in severe decline. Competition from the newer lines and from improving road haulage had drawn away much of the Tramway's custom, and the trains would often run without a single passenger.^[136] The A Class locomotives were now 70 years old, and the track itself was poorly maintained.^[136] Trains once again were regularly derailing on the line.^[136]

Frank Pick, Managing Director of the Underground Group from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, aimed to move the network away from freight services, and to concentrate on the electrification and improvement of the core routes in London.^[140] He saw the lines beyond Aylesbury via Quainton Road to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes,^[141] concluding that at least £2,000 (about £180,000 as of 2024) per year would be saved by closing the Brill branch.^[13][142]

On 1 June 1935 the London Passenger Transport Board gave the required six months notice to the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company that it intended to terminate operations on the Tramway.^[136]

To fulfil their obligations, London Transport formally inspected the line on 23 July 1935. The inspection was carried out with great speed, the special train taking just 15 minutes to travel the length of the line from Brill to Quainton Road. The inspection confirmed that the closure process was to proceed.^[144]

The last scheduled passenger service left Quainton Road in the afternoon of 30 November 1935. Hundreds of people gathered,^[145] and a number of members of the Oxford University Railway Society travelled from Oxford in an effort to buy the last ticket.^[140][146] Accompanied by firecrackers and fog signals, the train ran the length of the line to Brill, where the passengers posed for a photograph.^[146]

Late that evening, a two-coach staff train pulled out of Brill, accompanied by a band playing Auld Lang Syne and a white flag.^[136] The train stopped at each station along the route, picking up the staff, documents and valuables from each.^[136] At 11.45 pm the train arrived at Quainton Road, greeted by hundreds of locals and railway enthusiasts. At the stroke of midnight, the rails connecting the Tramway to the Metropolitan Railway main line were ceremonially severed.^{[144][note 19]}

Following the withdrawal of London Transport services the Metropolitan Railway's lease was voided and at midnight on 1 December 1935 the railway and stations reverted to the control of the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company.^[148] The O&AT Board by now had only three members: the 5th Earl Temple, the Earl's agent Robert White, and the former Brill hay-loader manufacturer W. E. Fenemore.^[144]

Although at the time of the closure there was some speculation that the O&AT would continue to operate the Tramway as a mineral railway,^[149] with no funds and no rolling stock of its own the O&AT was unable to operate the line.^[148] On 2 April 1936 the entire infrastructure of the stations was sold piecemeal at auction.^[148] Excluding the houses at Westcott and Brill, which were sold separately, the auction raised £72 7s (about £6,210 as of 2024) in total.^{[13][150][note 20]} The Ward Scrap Metal Company paid £7,000 (about £601,000 as of 2024) for the rails, with the exception of those at Quainton Road which were retained as a siding.^[13][152]

With the stations at Wood Siding and Brill closed, and the GWR's Brill and Ludgershall railway station inconveniently sited, the GWR opened a new station on the Chiltern Main Line near to Brill at Dorton Halt on 21 June 1937.^[133]

On 5 January 1937 the board of the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad met for the last time. On 5 February 1937 a winding up petition was presented to the High Court, and on 24 March 1937 Mr W. E. Fisher was appointed liquidator. On 11 November 1940 Fisher was formally discharged, and the O&AT officially ceased to exist.^[139]

After closure, the line was largely forgotten. Because it had been built on private land without an Act of Parliament, few records of it prior to the Oxford extension schemes exist in official archives.^[153] At least some of the rails remained in place in 1940, as records exist of their removal during the building of RAF Westcott.^[139] Other than the station buildings at Westcott and Quainton Road almost nothing survives of the Tramway, although much of the route can still be traced by a double line of hedges.^[154] The former trackbed between Quainton Road and Waddesdon Road is now a public footpath known as the Tramway Walk.^[71]

After the death of the 3rd Duke of Buckingham the family archives, including the records of the Brill Tramway, were sold to the Huntington Library in California.^[153] In 1968 the London Underground Railway Society launched a fundraising appeal to microfilm the relevant material, and in January 1971 the microfilms were opened to researchers at the University of London Library (now Senate House Library).^[153]

In the 1973 documentary Metro-land, John Betjeman spoke of a 1929 visit to Quainton Road, and of watching a train depart for Brill: "The steam ready to take two or three passengers through oil-lit halts and over level crossings, a rather bumpy journey".^[154]

Wotton station on the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway, which in 1923 had been taken over by the London and North Eastern Railway, remained open (albeit little used and served by only two trains per day in each direction) until 7 December 1953, when the line was abandoned.^[155] The bridge that had formerly carried the GW&GCJR over the Tramway at Wotton was demolished in 1970,^[156] and the former GW&GCJR station was converted to a private house.^[156]

Both Dorton Halt and Brill and Ludgersall stations were closed under the Beeching Axe on 7 January 1963 and trains no longer stop, although the line through them remains in use by trains between Princes Risborough and Bicester North.^[133] Quainton Road station was bought in 1969 by members of the London Railway Preservation Society to use as a permanent base, and now houses the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.^[157] The station is still connected to the railway network and used by freight trains and occasional special passenger services, but no longer has a scheduled passenger service.^[139] There are no longer any open railway stations in the areas formerly served by the Tramway.^[133] Plans have been proposed by the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre to rebuild and reopen a stretch of the Tramway as a heritage railway.^[154]

• Infrastructure of the Brill Tramway

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brill Tramway.

• Extensive collection of photographs of the Tramway's stations in operation and their sites today
• Newsreel footage of the last day of operations at British Pathé
• Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, based at Quainton Road station