A major donation of track was made to the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway this week when 400 yards of track arrived with thanks to Network Rail and delivered by Freightliner.

The track was hauled as far as the Network Rail/Chinnor Railway boundary on the 9th July by Class 66 Freight Locomotive 66542 where it was replaced by the line’s resident Class 37 227 for positioning prior to unloading the following day.

This track will be used for the ‘Independent Line’ which is the former foundation of the Chinnor Branch out of Princes Risborough as far as the railway’s current end of operations at their so named ‘Thame Junction Run Round Loop’.

The Railway currently operates on the Network Rail operated former Thame Branch, which comes with stipulations over when access to Princes Risborough is allowed or not.

This new Independent line will allow for the railway to operate independently from Network Rail, which will allow guaranteed access to Princes Risborough.

This line needs replacing as it currently has life expired rails and sleepers and these 21 donated 60 foot track panels will allow the railway to have enough track in order to complete the replacement of rails and sleepers.

The track panels were unloaded via the C&PRR owned Track Relaying Machine, allowing all 21 panels to be unloaded in just one day.

The railway is still looking to raise funds for other materials required, such as an estimated 800 tonnes of ballast. Contributions to this can be made on their website.

The railway would like to thank Network Rail for their continued support and their generous donations of materials and to Freightliner for their support with delivery.