IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Montague Road, AYLESBURY, HP21 8JT

California seems to have developed as the result of the construction of a printing works between Bear Brook and California Brook in Victorian times. Penn Road was the first residential street to be developed in the area, which later expanded into the massive suburban sprawl of the Southchurch estate.

Ordnance Survey cut mark benchmark described on the Bench Mark Database at http://www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm35846

Chiltern Railways use this depot at their Aylesbury terminus to undertake maintenance work on their trains. In this view on the left is unit number 168216, in the centre is number 165013, while end on is redundant coach number 51411 from a much earlier slam-door train stock unit. The line on the right gives access to the depot from the station, but otherwise is only currently used for freight services to a landfill site further north. It was originally part of the main Great Central Railway line between London and Sheffield.

The station is the current terminus of the London to Aylesbury Line from Marylebone station via Amersham. A branch line from Princes Risborough, on the line from Marylebone to Birmingham via High Wycombe, also reaches the station. The railway first reached Aylesbury in 1863 and has had a chequered and complex history since. For example the current station buildings seen here date from 1926 when the London and North Eastern Railway had joint operating rights with the Great Western Railway, while between 1948 and 1961 the station was the terminus of the steam operated services of London Underground's Metropolitan Line! Services today are entirely London orientated. If for example you wanted to go from Aylesbury to Milton Keynes or Oxford, each about 23 miles and about 35 minutes away from Aylesbury by car, it would take a minimum of two and a half hours and a trip to London to achieve the journey by train to Milton Keynes, while the Oxford journey would involve visits to, and changes at, Princes Risborough and Banbury and take at least an hour and a half. From a train point of view in the picture in the siding on the far right is a first generation diesel multiple unit which is used for route training, while the passenger train about to depart for London is No. 165022.

Aylesbury Railway Station overlooked by the new apartments of Grand Central