The railway was cheaply built, ungraded, and used poor quality locomotives; services were very slow, initially limited to a speed of 5 miles per hour (8 km/h).

In the early 1870s he decided to build a light railway to carry freight from his estates in Buckinghamshire to the A&BR's line at Quainton Road.

[5][7] In November 1871 the tramway was extended to Wood Siding, in a surviving fragment of Bernwood Forest 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) from the town of Brill and 1,500 yards (1,400 m) from the nearest settlement at Dorton.

[10] Throughout the operation of the Brill Tramway the track and stations remained in the ownership of the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company;[10] the MR had an option to purchase the line outright, but it was never taken up.

[12] Intended primarily for goods use, Wood Siding initially had no facilities for passengers, and the platform was simply a raised earth bank.

The return train from London to Quainton Road was delayed in Slough,[15] and the excursion eventually arrived back at Wood Siding at 2.00 am.

[19] The station was staffed by a single porter, responsible for opening the gates of a nearby level crossing and for loading and unloading freight (mainly milk);[19][20] a small, unheated hut was provided for his use.

[22] Limited by poor quality locomotives and ungraded, cheaply laid track which followed the contours of the hills, and stopping at four intermediate stations between Wood Siding and Quainton Road to pick up and set down goods, passengers and livestock, trains ran very slowly.

[27] As a cost-cutting measure Wood Siding became unstaffed and the porter's hut was sold as a garden shed; from then on, the train crew would work the crossing gate.

[19] It was now officially a part of the London Underground network, but Wood Siding—in common with all Metropolitan line stations north of Aylesbury—was never shown on the tube map.

[28] Frank Pick, Managing Director of the Underground Group from 1928 and the Chief Executive of the LPTB, aimed to move the network away from freight services and saw the lines beyond Aylesbury via Quainton Road to Brill and Verney Junction as having little future as financially viable passenger routes,[29] concluding that over £2000 (about £180,000 in 2025) would be saved by closing the Brill Tramway.

[33] Upon the withdrawal of London Transport services, the lease expired and the railway and stations reverted to the control of the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad Company.

[34] On 2 April 1936 the entire infrastructure of the line was sold piecemeal at auction;[34] excluding track, the buildings and structures at Wood Siding fetched a total of £9 2s 6d (about £790 in 2025).

Both Dorton Halt and Brill and Ludgersall stations were closed on 7 January 1963; the line remains in use by trains between Princes Risborough and Bicester North.