The first Great Western Railway to get to Aylesbury took a long route to get to London (Paddington) through Princes Risborough, High Wycombe, Bourne End and Maidenhead. Later in 1892, a shorter route to London was finished. This railway went through Wendover, Great Missenden, Amersham, Rickmansworth and Harrow. In 1899 all the work at Aylesbury was finally finished. The line was very expensive, costing £350,000 for the Rickmansworth to Aylesbury part.
The new railway was to transport people to London and goods like milk, newspapers, letters, parcels, cattle and many other things to and from Aylesbury. Then on the 23rd December 1904 there was a terrible accident at Aylesbury railway station. This is part of the report from The Times newspaper.
SERIOUS RAILWAY ACCIDENT
AT AYLESBURY
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THREE KILLED AND TWO INJURED.
The Great Central Railway Company last evening issued the following official statement.:-
“Marylebone. The 2 45 a.m. newspaper mail train to the north when running over Metropolitan Railway left the lines at Aylesbury Junction at about 3 45 this morning. The driver of the engine, Barnshaw, was seriously injured. The fireman Masters was killed, and a driver, Daniel Somers, and a fireman, Stanton, who were travelling as passengers in a carriage attached to the train, were also killed, and a dining-car attendant, Matthews, who was also travelling as a passenger, was injured. The 10 20 p.m. up mail train was approaching the station at the time the mishap occurred and fouled the wrecked train, but no one on the up train was injured..”
The above is a brief description of what was a most serious railway accident, causing very considerable damage to the rolling stock and permanent way, although, happily, the loss of life and injury to limb were not on the same large scale. None of the public were travelling by the train.
The newspaper train, which left Marylebone for the north in the foggy atmosphere of the early morning, consisted of three passenger coaches, six parcels vans, and a guard’s brake, drawn by a double compound engine of the most powerful type. There was a heavy consignment of newspapers, and there were quantities of Christmas hampers and parcels. All went well for nearly an hour till the train reached an awkward curve just on the London side of Aylesbury Station, where drivers are prohibited from travelling at a greater speed than 15 miles an hour. The metals were slippery from fog and frost. Suddenly the engine left the line, and fell across the down platform, the carriages being dashed against the brickwork and becoming piled up on top of each other, the two front coaches being quite demolished.