Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line
Platform at former Bradwell station, now a shared use path
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| Locale | England |
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| Dates of operation | 1866–1967 |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
| Length | 4 miles (6.4 km) |
The Wolverton–Newport Pagnell line was a railway branch line in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom running from Wolverton on the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) (today's West Coast Main Line) to Newport Pagnell. The line fully opened to passengers in 1867, with an extension to Olney planned in 1865, but this scheme was abandoned after partial construction. Earthworks along the route of the extension still exist in Bury Field, and plaques exist detailing the history of the failed project.
Competition from road traffic starting in the early twentieth century put pressure on the railway, and it was later a victim of the Beeching cuts. The line was seen as unprofitable, and it closed to passengers in 1964, and to goods traffic in 1967. Part of the trackbed today provides a section of the Milton Keynes redway system.
The Newport Pagnell Canal had opened in 1817 between the Grand Junction Canal at Great Linford and Newport Pagnell. The canal carried a reasonable level of traffic, but in 1845, the LNWR attempted to buy the canal, using it for a potential railway line. The offer was refused for two decades, until 1862, when the LNWR was able to purchase the canal for £9000. The canal closed in 1864. Despite this, the railway when built did not run on the line of the old canal.
Two earlier proposals had been made in 1845 and 1846 for a railway serving Newport Pagnell, both schemes failing to attract sufficient capital.
Permission to build the 4-mile (6.4 km) long single line branch railway was obtained on 16 June 1863. The line opened for goods in 1866, with passenger services commencing on 2 September 1867. The line was officially absorbed by the LNWR in 1875. The one engine that worked the single track branch was later nicknamed Newport Nobby.
In 1865, powers were granted to extend the line from Newport Pagnell to Olney and then on to meet the Northampton and Peterborough Railway at Wellingborough. Construction was underway, and a bridge had been completed when the extension was abandoned in 1871. Olney was later served by a station on the Midland Railway's Bedford–Northampton line from 1872, that line closing in 1962.
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