SIGNALBOX SURVIVOR

Historic England describes Princes Risborough North’Box (PRNB) as the ‘largest and only unaltered example of a Churchward era GWR design box.’ After a period of dereliction, the Grade II listed building has been undergoing a gradual renaissance at the hands of volunteers from the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway (CPRR) – its future now brighter than it has been for many years.

Lying on the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border, the heritage line has, for nearly three decades, operated a portion of the former GWR Watlington branch, from its base at Chinnor to a temporary terminus some distance from Princes Risborough. As its name suggests, the intention was always to make it to that place. For most of those decades, the extension to there has always been ‘a couple of years away.’ CPRR trains began operating into a restored platform at Princes Risborough station in August 2018.

Located on the Chiltern line from London Marylebone to Birmingham – once pounded by Kings and Castles on the Paddington to Birkenhead expresses – Princes Risborough station was and is a junction.

Two of its diverging single-line branches set off westwards together, only separating two-thirds of a mile away at a location now known as Thame Junction. The right-hand line went to Thame and Oxford – long closed now, but