Chiltern
Trail - Marylebone (Bucks) 
Marylebone station or London Marylebone station is a National
Rail and London Underground station in central London. The station
is located midway between the mainline stations at Euston and
Paddington, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from each. It is in Travelcard
Zone 1. Marylebone is one of three rail termini in London not to
have either a direct connection, or a connection within easy
walking distance, to the Circle Line (the others are London Bridge
and Waterloo).
The mainline station has only four platforms (although this is
due to be increased to six) making it one of the smallest of the
railway terminals in London, and apart from Waterloo International
it is the newest.
The station was opened in 1899 and was the terminus of the Great
Central Railway's new London extension main line, which was the
last major railway line to be built into London, prior to the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
Originally Marylebone station was planned as a
ten-platform station, but the cost of building the GCR was far
higher than expected and nearly bankrupted the company. This
forced the original plans for the station to be dramatically
scaled back to just four platforms.
The Great Central Railway linked London to Aylesbury, High Wycombe,
Rugby, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. Also, a
number of local services from northwest London, Aylesbury and High
Wycombe terminated at Marylebone.
Beeching cuts
Marylebone had a fairly quiet and uneventful existence until 1966,
when the Great Central Railway was closed north of Aylesbury as
part of the Beeching axe.
The Beeching Axe was an informal name for the British Government's
attempt in the 1960s to control the spiralling cost of running the
British railway system by closing what it considered to be
"little-used" and unprofitable railway lines.
The GCR's closure was the single largest railway closure of the
Beeching era.
This meant that Marylebone was now the terminus for local services
to Aylesbury and High Wycombe only. After the 1960s, lack of
investment meant that the local services and the station itself
became increasingly run down. In the early 1980s there was a
proposal to close Marylebone, divert its services into nearby
Paddington station, and convert Marylebone into a coach station
with the tracks converted to a road for coaches only. These plans
were deemed impractical and dropped.
The Cache
 Please bring a pen/pencil with you. Do not leave any
hints or clues in your online logs as to the location of the cache.
It's easy enough as it is!
Make a note of the information contained in each cache of the
series. You will need it in order to find the bonus cache:
Aylesbury to London |
To prolong the life of this cache and its
contents:-
Ensure you replace the lid securely.
Please replace the cache exactly as you found it.
No piles of sticks please.
Good Luck
Oss!
Please rate my cache on the GeocacheUK
website.
Domo arigato.
Other caches in this series
are:
Aylesbury
Stoke Mandeville
Wendover
Great Missenden
Aylesbury to London BONUS cache
Geocache UK rating: 