The Railway that Just STOPPED - AKA We visited 500 Abandoned Stations
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Welcome to our latest offering. #EveryDisusedStation from the Witney and Fairford Line. This week we try and explore Every Disused Station along a line with two stories.
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The irony is that so many former lines and stations served rural communities that have since hugely expanded and would now benefit, economically and environmentally, from having a rail connection.
Absolutely
I can understand routes being closed for financial reasons but I have always thought it was shortsighted to build houses or industrial estates etc on the actual route of the lines. If these had remained then at some point if not now but in the future they could be reinstated as so many of these communities expand. The engineers had selected the best routes and deviating from these would mean even greater work to get them back to working line. Alas most will never be returned to service.
A lot of the lakes have killed the old canal/railway routes, mainly the railway but just up from where you are at Fairford there’s an issue with the Cotswold Canal and a recent quarry where they haven’t restored it as promised in the planning for the quarry, it’ll now be incredibly difficult
We used to live in the Fair ford House,
Congratulations on 500 disused stations. This has been an adventure for you both... and for us following you. Here's to the next 500.
500 disused stations is a tremendous achievement! Another superbly made and informative video. You have come a long way since your start on your journey and the early days!
Having grown up in Witney (from 1958 onwards) most of these stops are familiar to me. Indeed, even managed to climb into the old Water Tank at Witney in my teenage years. The road that runs through the Industrial estate, called Avenue 3 today, would have run alongside the railway line in the past (except it didnt exist then). Kernahan service building and the others to the west of it are roughly where the station was. I still have memories of one of the tank engines in the station, filling with water before leaving for Fairford. I think the intention was to carry on to Cheltenham but by the early 1900s the idea was shelved as being too expensive - even for GWR.
Isn't there a rumour that Witney-Oxford could be reopened?
@@JerryFlint6 Every so often people come up with the idea of reopening it. Theres a road on top of the track bed at Eynsham but apart from that it would be possible. There may be some quarry access along the old trackbed just before Yarnton too but problems are not insurmountable if the will was there.
It might make some sense to include a stop at Carterton as that is quite a substanital town these days but the old alignment is down the wrong side of Brize Norton airfield so something completely new would have to happen.
I guess people will still moot it from time to time but it doesnt seem very likely as there wouldnt appear to be the will in the right quarters.
How interesting I live close to Witney. I remember travelling from Witney to London on that railway back in the sixties.
Congratulations on reaching 500 stations, reaching the milestone on what is my local line. I live in Carterton and was in the RAF based at RAF Brize Norton until 2019. I still work on the base today. There is still a section of the old rails that can be seen within the base near what is now the industrial estate. The plane, by the way was a Boeing C17 the last type i worked on before I left... keep the videos coming 😃.
Very nice.
I actually visited a disused station yesterday. Angel Road, just north of Meridian Water (about 50 yards between the south end of Angel Road and the north end of Meridian Water). The latter replaced the former about 5 years ago due to local construction and wanting to increase services there (plus adding a bay platform), and I was a little surprised at how visible the platforms still are.
I made it to over 700 mainline stations yesterday, as well as doing the remaining 31 DLR stations to finish off all 45. I also rode as many DLR units as I could, leaving about 44 of the remaining 146 in service to ride (I wasn't bothered about doing more than that, because not all units are out on a given day, and I couldn't identify any in Beckton depot).
Congratulations to you both on reaching this great milestone - thank you for all these fascinating videos
Cheers David
Another good vlog Paul Rebecca that was interesting more power to elbow good people
I was told by a Fairford resident, the line was planned to join the MSWJ&R line near Cirencester, going North to Cheltenham and South to Swindon.
Interestingly I found no reference to that. It would have made good sense.
Loved learning this history... and your history. Congrats on 500 stations. May there be 1,000 more.👍👍👍
Hi Paul (and Rebecca, havent seen you for a while), love your channel. Thank you for all your hard work and investgation, but, as you say, sometimes a half-day trek to a patch of woodland where there once was a piece of something but now there is nothing, can be a bit less than exciting. Evolution is a good thing!
Thank you. Yup definitely evolving here
I live in the area. At 4.08. Its LechLADE Station. I enjoy your series very much.Thank you..There are proposals to re-open the line from Yarnton to Witney to create a Parkway station to relieve the traffic congestion on the eastbound A40 into Oxford.
Great progress Paul, another wedge of history supplied. Railways are so fascinating in this country, when I was a kid in Landkey, Devon, we played on the disused Barnstaple/Taunton line where the stations were in the most obscure places, my dad used to say they drove a cow along the route and every time it had a sh@t they built a station! Sounds about right!
So enjoyable. Loved the old photos as well. It was great to see the plane rising . What an info. Your brain must be a walking encyclopaedia. Thank you so much for all your research and enthusiasm.
Thank you, Paul, I walked some of that too.
Nice job on 500+! Thanks!
Congrats on the 500 stations, always good to see the history. Agree in showing the stations with a story. Thank you 🙏🙏
Never heard Lechlade being pronounced 'Letch-dale' before aha. My fiancé lived in Lechade for years before he moved to Highworth and then moved to Swindon to live with me. I have a soft spot for Lechlade visiting him a decade ago
Loving the old bridges on that line. I can’t work out why there was the relatively modern railway crossing sign considering the line has been closed for 60 years. Was there a bit of freight line to RAF brize Norton?
Good question... noooo idea im afraid
Great videos Paul, informative and full of information on not very covered subjects. By the way may I say that you have a very lovely partner in Rebecca, she has a wicked sense of humour too. Let's see more of her please!
Congratulations to 500 abandoned stations. I really love all your videos. Those railway ones always remind me that I live at an abandoned railway myself, though it has only been shut down in 1992 🤣
Congratulations on the 500 stations! Of all your content I much prefer the railway related ones, even though the others aren't half bad.
Good to see a nice bit of English countryside in spring, just perfect!
The railway to Faringdon has always fascinated me. I'd heard (a long time ago) that there was initially a plan that the branch line to Abingdon would carry on, and head off towards Faringdon.
If one extends the line of the railway out of the old station yard, you'll find Broad St and Park Road well aligned with that. The branch opened in 1856, and the housing / park in the Park Rd area wasn't started until 1860 (pretty much when all the other railway plans had already fallen through). This is all around about the same time that the line to Witney started being considered.
A slight fly in the ointment is that the Abingdon branch was GWR, and if they wanted to connect any of the towns west of Abingdon to their network it was easy to branch off the existing Didcot Bristol line (which is what happened for Faringdon). Possibly they were considering a line from Abingdon to Faringdon to avoid having a lot of branches on their main express line west?
There was also the proposed Cheltenham and Oxford Union Railway, which was planned to go through Abingdon which may have followed the line of what is now Park Rd, and there were also earlier plans for the "Oxford and Salisbury Direct Railway" that would apparently have pretty much come down Spring Road.
All just part of the railway mania that existed at the time I suspect.
When you've done visiting the lost / closed stations, you could move on to the stations that never were on the lines that were never built!
Excellent video - thanks! I used to live in Filkins (near Langford) in the mid 1970s, and my abiding memory is the testing of Concorde they did from Brize Norton and possibly Fairford. Incredibly loud, but amazing to watch!
Can’t help but think that if this line had survived it would have become useful in serving the air stations at Brize Norton and Fairford.
100%
It did serve both airfields during WWII and afterwards until closure.
I know we've had our diffences. But I'm not gonna lie you've inspired me over the last few years to even make disused station videos. I enjoy watching your videos. They always inspire me to explore old abandoned railways.
Just brilliant, cheers
Great video, really enjoyed your recollections of starting your TH-cam channel, I enjoyed watching your first videos. But I disagree ...... you are funny well you both are and your gags add to the enjoyment.
I think your right to adapt the every disused stations series towards those which do have a story which you can relate, maybe its not necessary to see the remains if you can provide other evidence. Sometimes things grow into the background!!
Well done on reaching the 500 mark. Interesting to see that it was at Carterton. Only a few weeks ago this station was discovered on Ron's "Parkinsons walks" channel on the Fairford to Witney Abandoned Railway Alvescot to Carterton video. The station is still there but just doesnt look like a station.
Have a great week and good luck from Spain!!
Thank you. Lovely pic/poster on your dining room wall @6.50 !
Ah thats Saugtree
In the East Sussex area the amount of railways that were put foreword as a possible route and never left the planning stage is unbelievable
Fantastic presentation. Keep up the good work. xxx
Hi, brilliant video as always, I was wondering if you have ever made a video of the abandoned village of snap in Wiltshire, I heard about it recently and was interested to find out more, many thanks.
Congratulations on getting to 500 Paul, great achievement. I think a platform survived at Lechlade until relatively recently, but finally vanished when that lovely housing estate you briefly showed was built.
I imagine that the station at Witney would have been considered invaluable. The blanket companies here supplied the trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Trading Company. The trading posts were spread across Canada and the famous Hudson's Bay blankets were traded for furs as supplied by trappers back in the day when Canada was still a pioneering country. Incidentally, although no longer made in Withey, Hudson's Bay blankets are renowned for their quality & still command a high price.
If, as had first been planned, the line continued to Cirencester (via Kemble) and then on to Cheltenham it would have been even more useless tha stopping where it did - apart from in wartime, when it was well-used taking airmen to Oxford and then bring the drunks back again later on.
So many lines were duplicated during the early railways years, with landowners making tidy sums out of ignorant investors.
Read Harold Gasson's stories about the line - still available second-hand, although Harold himself, signalman extraordinaire, is now long gone!
Carerton/Witney/Oxford Bus company routes were quite profitable to run thanks to the rail closures.
Loving the longer, less frequent videos - wise move!
There will be a mix of both.
@@pwhitewick I don’t think you should. Keep us wanting more, more, more..
I'm always taken back by the fact the 99% of the railway infrastructure has totally disappeared, its like where I live, you'd never know that there was once a railway track here other than a couple of old disused bridges that are still standing 🤷♂️
Visiting, let alone, filming all disused stations, is a thing in itself, but, as you say, it is more feasible to select those which either have an interesting story to tell, and/or have some physical remains which merit documenting. Apart from those along disused railway tracks, there are also many closed stations on lines which remain open, and which in many cases, could be reopened to serve significant areas of population. Perhaps some might feature in future videos?
Hi Paul the river in Witney is the Windrush.
Hey guys! Thanks for another vijaeo
Vijaeo?
Very interesting Paul as always
Nice to see Faringdon branch get a mention, station is still there, very interesting book by Adrian Vaughan Faringdon branch line and Uffington station, lots of history of the branch in it.
I really enjoy watching your videos - always interesting, always good to watch - thank you!
@4:42 at Kelmscott and Langley the concrete post you spot looks like a Southern Railway Exmouth Junction art deco design. Curious!
Congratulations Paul and Rebecca, a great achievement and a great new video to boot! It's interesting how you started; did you have any video editing skills before or did you just pick it up as you went along? Keep up the good work.
4:02 should be lechlade not lechdale.
The Witney & East Gloucestershire Railway had two distinct sections (Oxford to Witney old station; and Witney new station to Fairford). The station buildings on the Fairford half were mostly stone-built all looked very similar. The station buildings on the Oxford half were mainly wooden structures.
I think you have found some of the more interesting / less well known lines that have been closed. Of course the Somerset and Dorset holds a special place in peoples memories, including for me just even the remaining bridge abutments accross the country (and A303/A30 main roads) on the holiday travels are part of the feel of the country. Likewise the "withered arm" lines of the LSWR in Devon and Cornwall , where one feels cheated , at least the Okehampton Line is finally back in a form of operation. still leaving Tavistock and Launceston bereft of direct rail services
Well Done - Keep it up!!! 🙂🚂🚂🚂
Congratulations on reaching this milestone. The only statistic missing is how many pairs of walking boots you've worked through. Completely understand why you're shifting emphasis now to stations with stories, etc. Round here, the old Boston to Spalding line is exactly what you've been finding: whole line is now housing estates and A16 realignment. So you won't be visiting here, although there are several navigations/part canals in the region. Best wishes to you both
Always bemuses when they put housing on the site of old stations. With all the extra car journeys that creates..
There is a large amount of Irony there
thanks paul
Love the video as always but, can you please post a still shot on the videos of the before and after so we can get a good look at it and compare? Just an idea? Thanks
You've developed a great story telling technique so that is what you should focus on. Whether it's old railways or Roman roads, the story is the star, well done on the 500!
Carry on Paul & Rebecca. Where's the drone?
Sadly from start to finish this was all restricted air space
Does the text say the Yarnton to Witney branch opened in 1961 rather than 1861? Sorry to point that out on what is a great film on one of my favourite former branch lines. There are some photos knocking about of a railtour going to Witney in 1970 using a diesel multiple unit.
Ballast pits. The section of the branch remained in service after the closure of the other section in 1961, when the railroad was being primarily operated by Class 21 diesels. It also provided limited goods service.
Mid suffolk railway from Haughley to laxfield .Would make a good firm as it stop in field in the middle of the country
good vid in my area the river is the windrush.
I thought this video was going to be about HS2 ! :D
Haha... Good title!!
I've been walking a trail in sections that was a canal and then a train line. There is still some evidence of the infrastructure, bit a lot is long gone. Still a nice explore, though.
I don't get how you walked past Brize Norton and were surprised when a plane took off?
Bicycles on footpaths! my late mother (an avid rambler) used to hate that as they chew up the ground so much and create a lot of mud in wet conditions. Excellent video this one. very interesting.
Please do more canal ones ❤❤❤ I love canal ones ❤❤❤ Paul explains everything perfectly 😊
Cool how you can find them
Some are hard to even know something was there before
Agreed. We use a few different resources. Railmaponline is probably the best
Theres a website for this branchline, google is your friend.
This railway is crying to be reopened if not to Fairford certainly as far as Carterton.
I'd love to get you guys up to Edinburgh/Glasgow... We could get another 100 ticked off in a couple of weeks visit
That or a trip round Yorkshire and the old mine lines, with their stations
Lupins, dead give away for old railways.
with the nightmare of todays traffic on roads everywhere, all old railway lines should be re-opened, & people need to leave the car parked up & use them, when i travel anywhere in uk, cos of driving is a nightmare, i would much rather leave the car at the local railway station & pay to park,which is 3 quid for 24 hr parking & travel by train, which to me is far easyer than driving, but i,m just one, it needs to be a lot more, to keep the line,s open.
So what was with the new crossing sign?
Absolutely no clue
10:09 - Wiyney Original?
Hi
I'm looking at making a video on a line near me do I need permission to used people's photos or can I just add there name onto the footage and in the description
Hey, depends on a lot of factors. Largely wiki can work. I usually then credit in the description.
@Paul and Rebecca Whitewick thank you I will bear that in mind
When started to watch this very episode and saw your name along with your wife or sister? I thought i wonder how long he's been doing this TH-cam "mularky"? About the 3rd I've seen you recently and maybe a "year ago" a house or two that were originally trainstation's?
A bit like HS2 then…
Yuuuuup
I think you Owe the People of Lechlade an Appology calling it Lechdale I've never heard of the place!
For the al gorithem.
heh, use one stock photo of any field to put up any time you mention a station that's not there anymore that doesn't have a good story. You could even say, 'This is where every station that's not there anymore used to be.' Then scroll the many names.
Littered with spelling mistakes, mispronounciations and errors in dates
I thought you didn't enjoy this channel. And yet here you are back with more negatively. Love you Tony hun xx
I really appreciate the subjects covered just find lack of attention to detail and depth a big factor.
It's a shame you couldn't see Carterton station, Paul. I think it's the only station building on the whole line that's still standing. It's now used as a stable (previously as a pigsty) but is still pretty much intact. It was added much later than the other stations, as a passenger station to service RAF Brize Norton. The station building is a brick/concrete wartime structure with a big canopy extending out onto the platform, and a signal box (which was moved to the Swindon & Cricklade Railway museum in 1980, but was in too bad a condition to be preserved there). Carterton station is a surprisingly long way from the town it's named after - originally there was a road linking it directly to the town, but when the RAF Brize Norton's runway was extended, it severed that road. The photo in the link below shows Carterton station while it was operating - the bridge in the background is the exact place you were in the video when you said you couldn't find the station. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to see it from the road now, because of trees and overgrowth - which is a shame as you were standing so close to it! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carterton_railway_station_(England)#/media/File:Carterton_1_62573_1.jpg
I keep my horses at the Carterton station the history there is great. If Paul wants to see it in person I can definitely arrange to get him in
Nice to see a every disused station again and congrats on reaching 500 Disused Stations. But do agree that the disused stations even the ones I've seen are just Supermarket car parks for housing estates. But sometimes I do love seeing a old disused platform or good relics that have been left behind. Great video Paul
I've been lucky to find two disused stations in my city. One has been renovated into a very nice house with some tasteful decor acknowledging the building's history. The other has been converted to offices and is looking a bit worse for wear, especially since the roof canopy was removed.
AWWW Even if there i s not a big story to tell I like when you visit the "Boring" stations. It is fascinatingly to see you visit industrial parks, housing estates and empty fields and show the now verses the historic photos of these long gone stations. I wish you would reconsider your decision not to visit the "boring" stations. I think these are some of the most interesting places you visit.
Lechdale. Oops. Lechlade. In our part of the world.
Every time I see Witney I think of David Cameron and uncontrollably vomit. Which is a shame as the area itself actually looks quite nice.
Ah Bertie.... you are in good company.
Thank you for the tour today, Paul. Always a trip back in time. Amazing how these railway sites were abandoned. Hello to Rebecca please, and seen you on the next! Cheers Paul! ❤❤😊😊
Thanks Martin
500+ stations is a monumental effort. Congrats Paul and Rebecca!!! Love your channel!
500 stations! That's impressive
you coming to Staffordshire railway walk? There is the railway cafe....old station turned into a cafe. nice walk too with some old walls etc. its also what guy fawkes used to walk to london.
I agree that you can just show us the good stuff. You can fill in the blanks when you've done the rest of them. 😎
Just after 4 min's in you talk of LechDALE and at 04:06 your map shows that it's LechLADE-on-Thames. Still enjoy your content 👍 Thanks.
Kelmscott wasn’t a halt, it was a full station. There are pictures online.
I KNOW THIS LINE!!!!
I also know why it just stopped!
The Fairford branch of the GWR was built in two phases. The first phase connected Oxford to Witney, and terminated at the "Old" Witney station. That station was rather unique in that there was a small goods siding, with goods building, a short loop of track at platform edge, and terminated in an engine shed. There was later added a small goods yard off to one side, but as originally built, this wasn't present. At that time, the Oxford to Witney section was Brunel's 7 foot broad gauge, though the railroad was not GWR. I believe it was just called the Oxford to Witney railroad.
Some time after standard gauge took over, the second section of the railroad from Witney to Fairford was built, and with this a new station was built, but only for passengers. The old original station became only for goods. This section rather unceremoniously terminated at Fairford, though that wasn't always the plan. Rather, it was expected that the line would have continued further, on to connect to the MSWJR at Cirencester. However, GWR ran out of money, and support for continuing the line. So they just stopped it.
A couple things that you brought up, that have answers:
1.) 4:28 What you describe about the station seeming to be out in the middle of nowhere, was actually common to the line. In fact, most all of the stations were a mile, sometimes more from the actual cities they served. There were a rare few that were closer, but the majority were stuck out in such a way that it was a brisk walk, or short drive to the station.
2.) 9:24 is incorrect. While GWR opposed the connection to Cheltenham, that wasn't the reason they stopped. GWR planned for the line to continue on to Cirencester to connect to the MSWJR. This shorter route would have been easier to construct than the line up to Cheltenham, and would have completely negated the need for the previous connection. However the GWR ran into some problems during the proposals of constructing this line. At that time, though "GWR", the railroad was still nominally operated by the original constructors of the line, with GWR as their parent company. That company ran out of money, and it didn't hurt matters that local Parlimentary support for this extension evaporated. The exact reason the local MP's withdrew their support isn't exactly known, though there is some argument to be had that they preferred the Cheltenham extension over the Cirencester one.
3.) The railroad wasn't totally abandoned in the Beeching cuts. It was cut in half at Witney, with the "new" section of the line being abandoned from Witney passenger up to Fairford. The old original section of the line, however, remained in operation as a short freight only railroad, operated by Class 22 diesel locomotives, the odd Class 21, and sometimes the odd Class 08. It remained in operation until around 1970, performing limited goods service, before it too was finally completely abandoned. The only real thing the railroad had going for it, during that last final operational period, was a pair of ballast pits which the railroad served. However the pits ended up closing as well, and with more and more goods traffic going to the roads, the need for the remaining section of the line vanished, and it was ultimately pulled up. The ballast pits were located just west of South Leigh.
4.) The junction at Oxford was interesting, as during WW2, the line saw extensive use in bringing war materials up to Brize Norton. For this, a rather large goods yard was built at the junction with the GWR main line, and there are reports of WD 2-8-0's also making trips up and down the line during the war. There were also an incident where a glider in training missed the airport's runway, and came down on the railroad, blocking the line. (no injuries other than the pilot's pride were reported.) They also ran trains to South Leigh, where a Ministry of Food depot was located.
3:49 "I'm really not funny."
You make a good point about lack of remaining infrastucture, the amount of new industrial units & housing in Witney has removed what remained of the old station sites.
Both were still there in the 80's there was a nightclub called the "Sidings" that was a goods shed originally with a coach as a restaurant and the original station was a coal yard 40yrs of change!
Kelmscott is slightly famous as the home of William Morris, an important figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. His former house is a museum, well worth a look.
There is a video on Parkinson's walks about the fairford railway
I enjoy your tails from the fields and hedge rows on old railways
3 road bridges over the railway between Fairford and Lechlade, East of Little Faringdon is a crossing keepers cottage.
When the GWR were developing the Automatic Train Control system (ATC) they tested it on that branch line.