The 160th birthday of one of Oxford's most unusual buildings will be celebrated on Sunday - in rural Buckinghamshire.Rewley Road railway station was rescued from dereliction in the late 1990s by the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.
The Grade II listed building was dismantled, restored and reassembled at the centre in Quainton Road, between Bicester and Aylesbury, at a cost of ^4m.
Today it houses a visitor centre, telling the story of the region^s railways, but is also available for hire as a wedding venue, with the platform standing in for a church aisle.
Built in 1851 as the terminus for trains on the Buckinghamshire Railway from Bletchley.
It is the only building still standing that was built at the same time and using the same techniques as the Crystal Palace in London ^ which housed the Great Exhibition ^ using a frame of prefabricated cast iron components.
Sunday^s celebrations will have a Victorian theme, with two 19th century steam locomotives hauling trains on the centre^s demonstration line, an exhibition telling the story of the station, a Victorian treasure hunt, a display of veteran bicycles and centre volunteers dressed in period costume.
The railway centre is also offering half-price admission to visitors in Victorian clothes.
Spokesman Sheila Lobley said: ^It is a fantastic building. After it opened to the public in 2002, people would come into the railway centre entrance and just go ^Wow^. A lot of people came from Oxford and were so surprised, even some who were against moving it from Oxford to Buckinghamshire. We^re so proud of it and it^s really proving its worth. We are now licensed to hold weddings in the building. The bride can walk along the full length of the platform, like the aisle.^
For full details of Sunday^s Rewley Road 160th event, go online at bucksrailcentre.org or call 01926 655720.
The centre is open from 10.30am to 5.30pm, with last admission at 4.30pm.
* The Railway Centre is hoping to track down staff who worked at Rewley Road station before its closure in 1951 to invite them to pay a visit and to share their memories. For more details, email our reporter William Crossley at the address above or call 01865 425441.
* TIMELINE
* 1851: Station opens on the site of Rewley Abbey. The first train to leave was an excursion to London taking passengers to visit the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park.
* October 1951: Passenger trains were diverted to the adjacent former Great Western Railway station. The goods yard remained in railway use until the 1980s, but the station building was used as a hostel, a tyre-fitting centre and a car hire depot.
* 1980s: Plans to redevelop the site are drawn up, one including a ^60m scheme featuring a Hilton hotel, housing and a car park.
* 1990s: The development plans run out of steam and Railtrack sells the site to Oxford University for its ^45m Said Business School.
* 1997: The university reaches a deal for the Grade II listed station building to be dismantled and moved to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at the same time as the county council plans to widen Park End Street, taking in part of the station site, as part of its controversial Oxford Transport Strategy
* 1998: Work to clear the site begins, sparking a series of protests and sit-ins, and eventual evictions, over the work.
* 2002: Rewley Road station is officially opened as the railway centre^s visitor centre at Quainton Road station, near Aylesbury.
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