It’s lucky Friday the 13th for Princes Risborough extension!

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By Phil Marsh

Friday the 13th proved to be a lucky day for Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway when it ran its first train into the new platform at Princes Risborough in April.

Following the major track lift and relocation overnight on March 10/11, as highlighted last month, the CPRR infrastructure team bolted together the track panels and reconnected the new platform 4 line to the sidings south of Princes Risborough station.

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Ballast being dropped on the day that the first train ran into the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway’s new platform at Princes Risborough. ANDREW ROYLE

This move made it possible for trains to access the new platform running via the existing line used for passenger services and then reversing from the sidings.

The track was connected on Friday, April 6, the last panels connected on Monday, April 9 and declared ready for its first train. The track had been aligned to the platform with sleeper ends ballasted for stability, ready for the first train movement, a three-wagon ballast train running from Chinnor behind Class 08 No. 08825 arriving just before noon on April 13.

The locomotive was detached from the wagons and run along the new line at caution as a gauging run, running to just north of the new platform to a temporary stop board.

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It then set back into the sidings to retrieve the wagons which proceeded to drop ballast on the line. There is still much work to be done before the first passenger train is able to operate.

The main work is the track slew from the temporary stop board, including installing a point to the existing running line.

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