Now and Then
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- A look at some of Britain's abandoned railway stations.
After the 1963 Beeching report, Over 2,000 stations in Great Britain were closed and most were left to rot.
Pictured stations:
Ide Halt
West Moors
Kingsbridge
Wickham
Cowley
Littleham
East Budleigh
Forest Row
Music by Yann Tiersen
These places are like old folks, forgotten - there is a feel of emptiness and sadness seeing those once beautiful places in ruins 💔😪
I remember waking up to look out my bedroom window at trains going by. Now the tracks are replaced with a bypass roadway.
man, that would been awsome for you but annoying for everyone the train
Dan Man10 Gaming
I loved it. I kept a scanner on to know when the trains were coming.
Love your videos. "Start the video, son!"
Strangely moving - There was something very wholesome and welcoming about these rural railway stations and its so sad to see their demise and decay. Beeching was a short-sighted fool!
Beeching was just the hatchet man for Ernest Marples, the minister of transport who just happened to own a road building company.
Beeching did what any academic would have come to when faced with all the facts ,he also stopped some lines being closed ,when 1% of your footfall use 50% of your network it’s totally uneconomic ,he was just the guy that took the rap on behalf of the rail management at the time ,if his name had been Smith it would have been the Smith cuts...he was also payed a huge wedge to take the criticism....
Beeching just did what he was asked to do, list the lines that had to go to save the sum of money required. Not a fool, just a man doing a job.
@@MrDorbel That’s what Beeching said!
@@jerribee1 Marples used to own a Civil engineering company. When he was mead a junior cabinet minister in Oct 1951, he was required by Parliamentary law to resign his directorship which he did, and his was recorded at Company's House. The Parliamentary standards committee would also have been informed of this. From that time onwards he was not involved in the day to day running or contract negotiations of that company. Beeching as the Chairman of the newly formed BRB was responsible for pruning the rail network of all unremunerative lines that were identified in a survey of passenger traffic done in April 1962. The railways were running a deficit of £150 million and rising and something had to be done to stem these losses.
It's very sad that these beautiful places that served so many people are being lost to history.
I don't live in Great Britain and never have but I like how this video was put together showing what it used to look like and then showing what it looks like now
It used to be so cozy, cute and beautiful..my motto is: Changes sucks. works good for almost everything :(
So sad a time gone by and forgotten such a shame
So painful to see the conditions of these forgotten stations
One of the worst mistakes any country can make is to let its railway infrastructure go to rot. It leads to the building of more roads, which in turn leads to more car and truck traffic, requiring still more roads, and so on. This is the price of individual "freedom".
Nicely done and well matched music.
Well done.
Good choice of music. Very melancholy.
Where I live there use to be a train station connecting the Swansea to Brecon Railway which suffered the Beaching axe. My late grandfather worked as a fireman on the footplate of the LMS Railway which ran on the branch line. I have spoken to people who remembered riding on the railway and said how sad they were when it closed as it was a brilliant form of transport,if it were kept open could still be carrying passengers today.
Yes, I bet a lot of closed lines would be well used today if the tracks/stations had just been left in place.
Is there anything more depressing then today's bland, cold buildings and concrete. The world used to have a tucked away, cozy feeling to it.
The Brits were way ahead of us in at least one regard. Every single station pictured had a high-level platform. I think they also had very few grade crossings and speed restrictions. BUT other TH-cam postings show tremendous amounts of money going into high-speed rail across England. Just look at the Norton posts. They are thrilling to see.
a Terrible waste Beeching was EVIL as it killed communities, jobs and peoples livelihoods :( Station masters took such pride along with their staff to make their the BEST looking station, we were PROUD of our railways and of being British, where has all that gone?
Nonsense, I'm afraid: all Richard Beeching did was to implement the actions that BR was afraid to sanction itself. As a structured businessman Beeching soon discovered that just one of the regions - GWR - was losing 17 million pounds a year through bad practice and overmanning, so what would the final total have added up to if all the regions had similar losses?All the evidence is well recorded and out there if people care to look for it.Without Beeching the UK railway map would now look like that of France, where rural railways and branch lines just do not exist (I know - I now live there!).
And if you believe that you'll believe anything! Beeching was a hatchet man, sent in by Ernest Marples (who had extensive business interests in road building) to eviscerate the railways of Britain. "Structured" he might have been; ethical, he was not.
You've obviously been living in France for too long, since you don't seem to have much of a clue as to what really happened in Britain. Beeching was a shyster, working for a crook (Marples, who eventually did a moonlight flit out of the UK - ironically by rail - before the law could catch up with him!), and used "creative" accountancy methods to fabricate a case for closing the railways down.
www.christianwolmar.co.uk/2013/03/rail-717-beeching-guilty-as-charged-but-should-not-have-been-alone-in-the-dock/
Worth reading, even if Wolmar actually concedes more ground to Beeching than he merited.
LMAO "We all had a car" utter bullshit. Beeching was a axe man, pure & simple. Rural communities were devastated by these closures you must me wearing rose coloured glasses!
It's a crying shame that Britain was once a nation that was looked upon as a shining beacon. Now I don't know what to make of Britain. It's not the country I recognise.
I recognised East Budleigh (or otterton station) as it was. I use to travel that line with my Grandad back in the 60's!!! The station is now a private house although the track bed is still there as it was.
Phil Barnett is right,Mr Beeching destroyed so much of our heritage with the stroke of a pen.
What a bonus these little branch lines would have been today, not only by keeping less cars and trucks of our roads, but also riding on a train through such wonderful countryside.
No they would still be losing money. The car is the way forward.
STFU. Some routes/stations would be well used today if the lines still existed. The population has increased massively since these stations closed. More people use trains today than at any other time in history.
No you are wrong, car ownership has also increased massively. Public transport in rural areas does not pay. And many of the lines closed were rural or semi-rural or they were duplicate routes. Well done to Dr Beeching, a national hero who has saved the country countless billions.
LocoScrapper you are so obviously a Troll. Go and sit in a huge traffic jam on your favourite motorway with all your roadtransport mates. The whole purpose of a nationalised railway system was to provide transport at an affordable price for the less well off people in society to enable them to travel to work/school/college etc. Beeching was a crook who was in bed with a typical crooked politician, Marples the motorway man. They just lined each others pockets - very much like modern day Tories are doing for their old mates with these so-called privatised Train Operating Crooks... er I mean Companies.
Cyberdon Blue Pull up duplicate lines and melt them for scrap charge. Rip redundant steam locos apart with cutting torches and melt them down.
Now, then, that words ring a bell
My great grandfather John Pooke was the station master at East Budleigh, it is now a private home...
Some of those old stations would make nice single-family residences.
I read recently that some railway lines/stations may be re-opened.
lost much of the British heritage to the Beeching report and all those old navies who worked so hard to have these lines and infrastructure axed it was murder of a history now in places lost
Even putting aside emotional reactions to Beeching's cuts he still made a grave mistake in the closure of these stations. Only now are people beginning to realise the importance of alternative modes of travel as opposed to cars and the motorways. Lines in the midlands that were closed would now make a booming trade. In Scotland too the lines that have been reopened - against much pessimistic opposition - have proven successful beyond the campaigners'wildest dreams. Take the line from Edinburgh to Tweedbank for example, every morning it's packed with commuters and school kids. It's all very well to say that we are always clever with hindsight but people at key positions like Beeching are supposed to have a vision of the future. Unfortunately his vision was mistaken.
Beeching, was resposible for the greatest act of vandalism,that the UK has ever known...
Beechinng was given a brief, to identify the lines that had to go to save a set sum of money. That's it. His personal responsibility was zero.
Lovely video
I hear many people tell me that, 'change is good'. I tend to disagree on much... but not all. What happened to the railways was a disgrace, but [retrospectively] needed. Maybe not in quite the way it was conducted, but it had to change... or so I am told!
thats a shame that those old stations had character. now gone forever
It sad to see how alike were british railways dismantled here in argentina. Something like 6/7 of all the railways networks are like the "now" images of the videos or even worse, just the enbankment without rails and field, not even the station.
He could have just left them opened without service and it would be in the future reused, but he didn't. Sad to see 1 man decide the decline of thorps and towns without connectivity
nice pics whis could vist
The service is quite poor in Sydney most of the time
Maybe if instead of closing stations and ripping lines up they ran the station with little or no staff closed the buffets etc an passengers paid on the train the stations just might be still here today.
But thinking about it if the branch lines weren't closed there would be no preserved railways today.
Silloth's loss was a sad blow.
When railways are trashed, it's not for economic reasons, it's for political reasons, if there's a downturn in the economy, you're not going to rip out the road from in front of your house.
Years to build economy and to be forgotten years later "(¬ . ¬)"
Yesss
Beeching was a bastard. He should be stripped of his title (a peerage). He rips the hearts out of rural communities and gets a peerage - only in sick Britain woyld this happen.
Face facts, people stopped travelling by train - railways became obsolete abnd cripplingly
expensive. Buses were much more local and direct, cars even more so.
Passengers voted with their feet.
The reopening of a few lines Dr Beeching had closed shows that he was quite mistaken. He had the same passion for identifying uneconomic railway lines as Senator McCarthy had for identifying communist sympathisers.
Cool2BCeltic And McCarthy was right.
are these your photo?
How very sad...
So sad..... Sooo sad...
Independent trucking companies researched and found OTR trucking to be better for them..er I mean more cost effective.
Pls decrie name of station
yes its crazy.. in this day and age, the govts should be trying to get large semi trailers off the roads and to use rail instead.. Here is Aust the same thing has happened in every state..more over sized and heavy trucks. most of our shunting yards are long gone..
People were buying cars and not using the railways!
such a shame ;(
very strange Indians renovated British made platforms in India while English people wipe out their own govt made platforms
So terrible to see what has become. Here in central Pennsylvania, there are many, many abandoned railway grades, bridges, tunnels, trolley lines, and so on.
I try to imagine how grand things must have been in the 1950's, and regret not having the opportunity to live in that era.
I see you almost everywhere
@@zodiotekgaming probably just some of my growing army of clones. Soon, we will be everywhere on TH-cam! Muh ha ha ha ha haaaaaa!
The new Cardiff - Ebbw Vale line has proved such a success that, the local bus company has taken off the bus service from Ebbw Vale - Cardiff and road traffic has been reduced
Beeching was just the whipping boy, the real villain of the piece was Ernest Marples...God rot his soul !!!!
It's the government
Marples was a very greedy self-serving individual who made millions out of the construction of motorway contractors Taylor Woodrow, but rot his soul is a bit strong. Anyway, he was a Tory, so he probably didn't have one.
@Colin H he had run away from UK he was so corrupt Beeching was a hard Headed realist and with intercity 125s hs2 crossrail etc he has been proved partially correct at a huge cost to some areas who were isolated meaning jobs moved etc
@@ColinH1973Marples was also a crook.
Marples just happened to own the companies that built the motorways 😮
Heartbreaking and unecessary.
Unfortunately it WAS necessary. Very sad, but it had to be done. The biggest `crime` was letting the track beds go immediately afterwards.
I agree to a certain extent. I think Marples wanted them closed and Beeching could not see the longer term benefit or the cultural heritage side of things either. I think they could have spared about 25-35% of what they closed. I know a couple of abandoned railways near me in South Wales that would now be profitable and they have recently re-opened Ebbw Vale to Newport with brand new stations.
Marbles wife, had a construction company, and guess who got loads of motorway contracts. A bit like today with Covid and MPs friends getting contracts too.
Marples & Beeching could not see the future of Britain. Ok the railway system was in need of modernisation, but to destroy as much as they did was absolutely disgusting. The stations that were shut should have been provisional with a view that in say 10 20 years if the need arose they could be reopened. The infrastructure that the victorians built was a fantastic achievement, it was criminal that it was destroyed by unscrupulous people like Marples & Beeching.
Not Quite. in 1962 there was a survey done across the whole rail network to determine what the passenger usage of lines was. The results of this survey were used to produce the Railways report what is colloquially called the Beeching 1 report. Lines that did not run at a profit as specified in the 1962 Transport Act would be candidates for closure, and lines that did make a profit would be developed. Also the Railways were running at a loss, a deficit of £150 million so something had to be done, in order to stem these losses. Also the Railway itself was closing lines via the Branchline committee, and had done so with a number of unremunerative lines. It is what happened to the Bluebell line here in Sussex that was closed in 1958, reopened and closed again, then a preservation society got involved and the rest is history.
fool
what's marples got to do with it?
Loved the music that accompanies the film...... Also the old lines should be reopened as cycle/foot paths, I know about Sustrans but I don't think it does enough.... The government spends millions widening roads for cyclists safety when there are many on lines that can be used again.....
Sustrans does what it can considering it is a charity.
Excellent Video
Notice how well kept the railway system was in those days, not like they are now.
I remember the railway around Blandford Dorset in the late 1950's. Thought it would be there forever. I remember also there were a lot of rail strikes at the time,holding up freight traffic. with road traffic becoming more convenient and affordable. This fueled the dimize of the branch lines.
The problem in the UK is that no government has ever committed to the establishment of a proper integrated transport policy. Invariably, railways have some significant advantages over public and private transport in relation to the environment, social mobility, and driving economic growth. Unfortunately, our politicians are very wary of upsetting anyone or any entity involved in road transport. It's for that reason that rail transport both here and abroad is always marginalised in favour of the road lobby.
@@dougmccoy100 absolutely correct!
The way I see it (and I might be wrong) is that we should see the nation's infrastructures as necessary infrastructures and not profit making businesses. The direct revenues from the railways may not always profit making, but indirectly do they not assist the economy through trafficking goods and passengers around the country. Nobody can quantify the cost to the economy lost through traffic congestion on our busy roads, which everybody knows cost the taxpayer a great deal.
MrHenryrolls congestion on roads do not cost taxpayers money, how can it? Example, many cars, trucks, useing taxed fuel, truck drivers paying tax on wages , get the idea ,try to think along these lines, o.k. simply put ....1 car collects more tax than 1 train ticket, and when did society come before profit?????never ever in england, after all, there is no such thing as society, er, that was a statement by an ex english prime minister,.....thanks for reading....
Yeah! The government is SO good at running things efficiently and cost-effectively.
Adrianpeters Peters perhaps society should come befor profit?
pollution from vehicles costs millions in health care
The issue is, particularly in rural areas, railways are a hugely expensive way to get people from A to B. A car on a road to achieve the same result is around 10x cheaper. And, to boot, starts off at your front door and takes you to the front door of your destination, something the railway just can`t do.
That's nothing in the early 20s the US had over 275,000 miles of rail. Now there is only about 126,000. that's more than half of the lines abandoned.
Kevin Howard Britain is smaller than America though
In the 20th century the US rail and public transport systems were decimated by the big 3 motor vehicle manufacturers (notably Chevrolet).
I really love such countryside stations. It reminds me of the opening scene of the movie Narnia where the kids would get off from the train at such a station. Anyway, given the beautiful country Britain is and the fact that it attracts tourists because of its picturesque locales, I wonder could the British govt. not revive a few of these routes as heritage rail roads and make it part of the tourism industry? If not a full-fledged rail road, at least they could have renovated the abandoned stations as sight seeing spots with cafeteria, small hotel rooms and other hospitality facilities. This could also generate some revenue for the state. I'd like to know what the British people have got to say on this.
We've all seen the famous film the railway children. A glimpse of how the railway once was. The station master so proud and life at a slower pace. What has become of society, and is technology our friend or our foe?
Yes no intention to provide a rural train service any longer, that the creators built in the heydeys of rail transport.
With renewed thinking and foresight, many of the routes could still be in use today.
They were of their time, now cast simply to the memories of thoughs people still living who remember them and to photographs.
It breaks my heart to see these once thriving stations full of life and activity in a bygone golden era , now nothing more than overgrown abandoned forgotten areas of unimportance now in the 21st century..... So sad.
Just as we saw all the tram lines ripped up we now find cities installing new tram systems. I have spent the last 8 years building equipment for Westinghouse to operate lines that have been re-opened. They made a mistake and they see that now. Why do we elect such short sighted and self-interested people to positions of authority ??
And they are all completely amateur. Not one has ever run a railway, or an army or an economy etc. All they are qualified for is getting elected. All here today, gone tomorrow opportunists.
+andrea22213: There were a few far-sighted people out there preaching the need to keep these old rail lines for the resurrection of passenger rail. The problem is their message was trampled upon by others with huge pockets and lots of hot air, who said what the people wanted to hear. Then they get elected and tear everything up just so they could line their pockets with ill-gotten gold. And the railroads suffered as a rezult.
Dashcam: whilst I think you are largely correct,my local council (tmbc/manchester) have deemed to have trams installed by foreigners which zig zag the main road blocking cars and causing regular accidents.
They ripped the roads up at great expense to run cables.
I asked them why they had gone back to a hackneyed and out of date technology when they could gave run a brand new overhead monorail that would have been modern,not blocked the cars,not caused accidents and not have needed the roads digging up,and which could have taken advantage of modern magnetic momentum propulsion systems which push the train at intervals allowing it to run under momentum till the next push.
I got no explanation or reply: because as you say the people in power have no vision and probably were putting back the trams they grew up with instead of moving to the future and saving money and power in one fell swoop.
Excellent film, so poignant, those after shots are quite chilling, once vibrant stations now rot amidst the weeds, so very sad.
An excellent video. But how heart breaking is it to see our railway heritage just disappearing. Dr Beeching was a lumox. i hope he isnt resting in peace.
Yes.. this is what happens when money from India stops coming🤣🤣🤣🤣
You guys had Lord Beeching, the "butcher" of the British Railways, over here we had "The Staggers Act" with it's mass abandonments. Sickening either way.
@tony mush yes they did... but it happened before Labour and after too.. a lot of short sighted fixes with no understanding of the future
@@timwaywell Politicians are never naïve or short-sighted: at best, they do what the controlling vested interests tell them to do.
Great video. Total nostalgia for another age. Love it. A lot of RRs in the US have been abandoned too. Especially on the East Coast in rural areas.
Shame to see the stations no longer being used but left in a terrible state
Just about all of them are now completely erased and replaced with housing and no trace remains whatsoever. I noticed the uploader only included images of what the stations became soon after closure, because the reality is that any later would show boring photos of rows of dwellings and alike. Agreed, it is a shame what came about for 2,500 stations.
@@marknestboxyeah and sometimes they convert themselves into private residence which means you can’t access to the stations at all
Nicely done Sir ...I often walk around abandoned railway stations and let my mind wander to a bygone era and imagine what it was like seeing steam trains and The Hustle and bustle of people coming and going. Not all that was old was bad.
In poland we had something like this from the end of 19xx to begining of 20xx (to maybye 2009) cause of crisis in the company, lack of equipment and not repairing the tracks (fatal conditon) we closed many of these lines, some of them would benefit cause of the turrists (Karpacz-Mysałkowice-Jelenia Góra)
i almost cried!
Very nice short video. But I'd have tried to find photos of some of the really big city centre stations that were also scrapped - The Beeching Report didn't just see the closure of small rural stations. Major city centre termini like the old Birmingham Snow Hill, Nottingham Victoria, Manchester, and Liverpool Central stations, and Glasgow St Enoch to name but a few. All these big stations must have looked amazing in their heyday, and the amount of work that must have gone into the construction of all of them would have been huge. But this was of no interest to the philistines of the day (back in the 60s) who saw the train as a symbol of the 19th century and therefore old fashioned. They wanted to tear down as many rail stations as possible, no matter how beautiful they were. Indeed the magnificent St Pancras station was itself earmarked for demolition. Only a massive campaign led by famous actors and literary figures of the day (ic. John Betjeman), along with pro rail politicians and the public persuaded the then government to reconsider....they took it off the 'list of stations for demolition', and thankfully we can still enjoy it's gothic grandeur today. The stature there of an old man holding his hat aloft is Betjeman, and is you could say the station's way of saying 'Thank you'.The thinking back in the 60s was that the car had well and truly arrived and was the future of travel......whereas the train was on its way out. Little did they know that 50 years later trains would not only still be running, but more popular than at any time since the 1920s.Another thing, for those that may not know, a lot of the 'after' pictures are themselves about 30 or 40 years old, and will look different again, today. The line going through Cowley station in Middlesex for instance no longer exists, the whole line was lifted in the late 70s or early 80s.
Rob Tyman The line is gone and the station is now a housing estate. A cutting from the line exists under some flats with garages. The station at the end of the branch at Uxbridge vine street is now an office block.
Here in the States, long abandoned railway routes have been turned into hiking trails.
Nicely done, 5 stars. What do you think BackwoodPictures, when I read into the subject a little it seems that the general opinion is that Beeching "saved" the railways. Shame about all the damn cars on the road though (me included)
Amazing how at one point these places were so important and vibrant and now all but forgotten.
Very sad to see the decline of our railways. Some beautiful rare images in this video of the way things used to be. Set to the piano music of Yann Tiersen sets the mood of Beechings great mistake.
Beeching made recommendions a man named marple who had interests in roads made it happen, very short sighted
This is ana amazing production, the music set it so well.
What/where is the last two photos taken - it looks like the Watercress line in Hampshire Yes/No ??
@kernowfem Unfortunately most of these railway lines were removed because of the growing competition of road haulage and could not compete,in those days freight was the biggest money earner on the railways and so subsidised the passenger services,as the freight disappeared the passenger services were not generating enough income to support the costs of running, What Beeching did was unpopular, but unfortunately was neccesary for cutting costs.
Woke up with some vivid images flashing in my head, some urgency to be somewhere like the images portrayed here:
At the break of dawn, some old timey small town train station, with piping coffee in hand with the steam evaporating at a steady pace, as I claim a corner seat, and it’s just foggy everywhere….
I don’t know if that train came though 💭
Beeching has a lot to answer for If we still had the rail network we would have half the traffic on the roads today. At one time you could get anywhere by train if the tracks were still there with a modern train on it would certainly be a low carbon travel option.
To walk some of these old rail lines you can be transported back in time
Dick Holder I love the old branch lines and almost cried at this but the reason they got rid of them was because people were using more cars, the rail companies were near enough bankrupt after ww2, and the trains had lost in popularity
The motor car provided a freedom to travel when you wanted and quicker than by train. Yes there were many railway lines but services were often poor as well as being infrequent. Great if you were living in the Victorian era but the car made the railways look really old fashioned.
@@andrewlong6438 Oh YOU were there were you YOU certainly don't look old enough ! I WAS THERE before you were even thought of RESPECT my knowledge
I was born in Ide near Exeter and can just remember the line in use. My older sisters used to catch the train to school getting off at St Thomas Station. Just before the line was dismantled there was a special excursion to Heathfield which my parents took me on. I have only two vague memories of the day and that was getting on and off the train at either end. One of my school friends had a grandmother in the village who saw the line both built and dismantled so the line was in existence for just one lifespan.
The Victorians broke their backs creating an incredible rail network that should have lasted us for centuries. But a bunch of idiots trashed it all and denied future generations. It makes me furious and sad in equal measure.
Phil Houldershaw would you be willing to support an organisation that was losing millions (in today's money that would be billions) of pounds per year? I think not. Not considering that every government this country has elected has promised to tax us less and spend more on us. The railways as they existed in the 1950s and 1960s had to be rationalised.
Neil Dahlgaard-Sigsworth it was the auto industry that got the government to get more people into cars, that these new roadways were created for cars. As more people got cars, people were taking the trains less. The government wasn't subsidizing trains as much. The plan was to have automobiles replace trains. Now the trend is reversing, because it was learned that trains can handle large freight and passengers over long distances, where automobiles work where trains can't go. Europe is reversing the trend by getting more commuter and passenger rail service. The United States is struggling to get Americans to go back to using trains. It may take millenials to get mass rail transit back into place, because baby boomers still prefer the automobile, even in suburban and Urban America. Automobiles are a necessity in rural America, due to lack of demand for overall public transit, and that'll remain the trend for years to come.
davenwin1973 in the UK the biggest changer was WW2. Many of the men and women who returned had been taught to drive, and by tne mid-1950s many could afford to buy their first car, so that they could recapture the freedom that a car allows. This took many away from their traditional modes of transport, in a similar way that holiday makers went to the sunny Spanish resorts rather than the rainy British seaside towns. This lost of passengers coupled with the war surplus lorries, which did the same with freight lend to loss of income for Britain's nationalised railways. The British Transport Commision ran for a while all of the nations transport infrastructure. The 2 biggest parts were the railways and British Road Services, which were allowed to compete with each other instead of working together. British Railways had to get a share of the taxes and other revenues raised by the government and that government want to see the railways earn their keep, or at least contribute something to it. But the hard part for the railways upto the mid-1950s was the rail network was worn out due to the war, the roads on the other hand were not in such a poor state. Additionally, the road builders had pick up new plant, plant that had been used in the construction of the airbases for the war, plant that was equally at home building new roads. New roads were required to relieve the crowded towns and cities as the level of car ownership increased.
Whilst rail can transport freight and passengers over long distances, it is only bulk freight that it is ideally suited for. Smaller amounts as carried in a traditional freight train or on BR Speedlink services were always expensive. A locomotive, with at least one crew, would be needed at all times along with the wagons suitable for all freight loads, even if no freight was being moved that day. In some cases a single wagon would need to be moved from the freight yard to the customer or vice versa. This is where Beeching came in, and he did his best with the information and technology of the day.
The railways should be a public service - not a profit making business.
Phil Houldershaw just like they were in 1947?
Sad. Just very sad :(
indeed, very sad
Lovely vid - with sweet soundtrack - cheers, Les.
It is sad that some railways were closed! Hope they'll reopen as steam railways in the future!
Thanks for bringing this to us. Great pictures and music though all very tragic of course. If only they could have known what we do now so many lines would never have closed.
All very touching pictures of a better time gone in our minds eye. The Littleham pic at 2:00 is probably the best as far as same angle before & after. I spent summers as a boy in Holland in the 60's & 70's & have small town train station memories as well. At least it's still there, but from what I hear, the 1900's era station in Baarn has been modified from what it was.
The 'now' of Cowley station actually dates back to 1965 just before track was lifted. The site is now buried under a road.
The poor labourers. It's easy to dismiss things when you don't have the back breaking work .what a shame.
This whole saga was a national disgrace - how Marples wasn't jailed for corruption is beyond me!
Sometimes, the sad truth is, we have to let nature decide what happens to the wonders of the world. Half of the times it's sad. And other it makes us feel happy. A train station that was historical, needed to go. It was sad. But a power plant being grown over by nature is happy. It shows that nature has a feeling about what we do to it. Sometimes we have to let things go.
O abandono e o descaso é uma situação triste. Rio RJ Brasil
Some old stations have been renovated. One particularly nice example is Fittleworth on the old Pulborough to Midhurst line in W Sussex. The line ceased to operate in `63 and the station lay derelict for years and years. Now it is a very nice family home with beautiful views to the North across the River Rother.
Heritage lines, brilliant as they are, only run from A to B, but don't generally join up with mainline or local line routes. The tragedy with what Marples did was to not examine the development potential of those towns that were about to start booming, house building wise. Guisborough station, N Yorks was one such location & the consequence of that is the horrific commuter traffic that now clogs up a main arterial road into central Middlesbrough, &, as current Tory Government housebuilding policy goes, viz : any field next to an existing residential dev't will get permission for housing, things are only going to get worse. ... Far, far worse!
It is sad that many station were abandoned, but they must preserved as a steam railway.
It always amazes me how the people making these decisions, Beeching and the like, are NEVER directly effected living high on
a hill immune from it all. Loved a window seat watching the countryside with the farm animals go by. Those were the days.
Nice collection of then and now, and a bit heartbreaking to think about what may have been. But pleeeaaaze, change the music...!
Keep the steam era alive so sad to see it die I love steam trains but there taking away our history!!!
sadness and nostalgia
Sad to see. I remember, as a kid, holidaying on the IOW and staying in Ventnor. It had that amazing railway tunnel close to the end of the platform. Ventnor suffered when that section of the line closed in 1966. Thanks, Dr. Beeching!
That was not a Beeching closure so to speak as Beeching had left office in May 1965. Beeching was in favour of selling or transferring the lines on the IOW, well those that existed to the local councils, as the main spike in passenger traffic was during the summer periods. The Local Authorities refused this as they considered it to be an unnecessary financial burden on their rate payers most of whom were retired. The line to Ventnor was closed as the bulk of the footfall was to Sandown and Shanklin because that was were the bulk of the Hotels and guest Houses were. Also the budget for electrification of the line was set at £500k. Had the line been electrified down to Ventnor, this would have needed a 4th 33kV/650V DC, substation. This would have put the scheme over budget and at risk of not proceeding, and the remaining lines closing. As it was this scheme was always marginal and was tacked onto the £16 million London to Bournemouth electrification scheme that was progressing at the time. It was also rumoured that there was a rock fall within the tunnel causing closure, which we have no proof of. Having said that it is my understanding that a water pipe goes through the tunnel and provides Ventnor with some of its fresh water supplies.
@@michaelhearn3052 Many thanks for the clarification of events ... so long ago! I do remember the old Ventnor Station sitting above the town, which was a bit of a hike up from the beach. Yes, I was aware that a water pipe now runs through the tunnel, to a holding tank by the tunnel's southern portal.
On a separate note ... and not sure if you would even know ... am I right in thinking that the original Ventnor kids IOW-shaped paddling pool was demolished and rebuilt, elsewhere along the promenade?
There are lots of lines in Britain that if they had managed to survive the 60's and 70's would still be open and very profitable,as rail usage is now higher than for half a century. Capacity is reaching 100% on some lines.
But sadly,many of the closed alternative routes were cynically ripped up immediately and often sold for building on, and now they would be very hard to reinstate.