Some Early Lines
Old Railway Companies
Bedford St Johns railway station.
Cambridge – Bletchley line, which was closed on 1/1/68, view SW towards Bletchley (left), the connection to Bedford Midland Road being to the right. This station survived as a terminus until on 14/5/84 a replacement station was opened on the loop to Midland Road station and Bletchley trains then terminated there.
Date 4 June 1962 From geograph.org.uk Author Ben Brooksbank
Licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
Bedford Railway
An 1836 plan for a line between Cambridge and the London & Birmingham Railway via Bedford was dropped, but in 1844 George Stephenson visited Bedford to discuss a branch which, when authorised on 30 June 1845 and opened on 17 November 1846, was a line from Bletchley to Bedford. It was built by the London & Birmingham Railway, and absorbed by the London & North Western Railway on completion as provided for by the authorising Act, though the Company was not dissolved until 21 July 1879. It became the basis for the Bedford & Cambridge Railway.
Bedford & Cambridge Railway
The fine Midland-type canopy of the Bedford & Cambridge Railway at Potton, Beds. When this picture was taken, in July 1987, restoration was in hand with a view to use as a museum
Incorporated on 6 August 1869 as a 29.5-mile line between the two towns, the route used the track-bed of the Sandy & Potton Railway which the Company bought out. Opinions differ on the date of opening, some citing 1 August 1862, others October of that year. The Company had close ties with the London & North Western Railway, with which Working Agreements were made under an Act of 23 June 1864, and which absorbed it on 5 July 1865. The line closed to passengers on 1 January 1968.
Disused Stations:Millbrook Station
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk
The attractive blue paviours were also used at a number of stations on the Bedford and Cambridge Railway.
Chasewaterstuff's Railway & Canal Blog 