Riding The Rails: Ilfracombe To Barnstaple In 1969 - A Vintage Journey
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- Victor Thompson, formally of the BFI, shoots and narrates the closure of the railway from Ilfracombe to Barnstaple, North Devon.
Although the summer traffic was very busy, it was rarely used outside of that and financial losses started to take their toll and the line was closed in Oct 1970. Much to the sadness of the locals.
This clip was taken from: • Back Along North Devon...
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All good wishes to the campaign for a light rail reopening of the Braunton to Barnstaple section.
Great video of something that should still be with us 😢 so just missed the line being open. We drove to llfracombe this year and the traffic was awful and parking war even worse 🙄
Thats the reason I don't drive from Liverpool to Devon any more the roads are just to busy and congested so I just stay local and avoid all the stress.
Wonderful . provocative documentary capturing many detailed aspects of the line . A glimpse of days gone by .
What a wonderful era captured perfectly in this archive film. Thanks to the original cameraman/woman for having the foresight to produce the film and to you for taking the time and trouble to research, edit and post such a simply amazing video. Looked a stunning and amazing railroad.
It was a man called Victor Thompson, he was a film maker who worked for the BFI. He had a wonderful narrating voice.
Another lovely film and a sad loss of what must have been a wonderful line. How popular that would be now if it had survived, like most of the Cornish branches are these days.
Brilliant. I was 15 in 1969 and fascinated by all these branch lines, Liskeard to Looe, Maiden Newton to Bridport, Par to Newquay. I remember the atmosphere well and also how much I loved it.
I was recently given some footage of Maiden Newton to Bridport. A new video is on the way.
It survived Beeching only to be chopped in 1970, what a tragedy 😢
Fantastic loved it, full of history and very inspiring.
I went on holiday to Braunton with my Mother and Father in the early 70s . I went for a walk with my father one evening and we found Braunton station exactly as it was in this film except with no track !! The signals still had their arms , the gates and the box were still there !! I climbed over the fence and walked on the platforms . I thought I remembered an island platform ? Do I remember a waiting shelter with lots of glass windows and a Newspaper stand ? There were a few broken windows for sure !!
The creator of this film had great foresight to capture this journey before the line closed. I note the tracks from Ilfracombe have already been singled, presumably running down the service to justify closure. What a short-sighted decision
I'm always so glad to find movie footage of closed railways, but Victor's work was something so special.
My Dad (who grew up on Exmoor) jokes the only people left in Ilfracome are the ones who couldn't run fast enough to catch the last train out of town.
How sad i used to go to Ilfracombe when I was a kid in the early 70s the branch line closed in 1970 shocking should still be open i hope they manage to open part of the line up again good luck 🍀🤞
I find this narrator's accent very reassuring in an old fashioned way. It's surprisingly different to a modern Devon accent with certain words and grammar not used now.
If voice is wonderful.
This line should never have closed. The first time we went to Ilfracombe on holiday we got off the train at Exeter, caught a train to Barnstaple, thinking a train would take us to Ilfracombe, surely its a popular seaside holiday destination. No there was no trains the line had closed years earlier, so we had to get a taxi, which was quite a long drive & expensive. It was very tiring coming from Yorkshire. To be honest i dont see why there is no train from Exeter direct to Ilfracombe calling at Barnstaple. Ilfracombe is a nice holiday destination but yo get there by public transport is very tiring & i think puts people off from going there. We need more tracks open!
Unfortunately people don't go on holiday to places like Ilfracombe... they go to Spain, or Greece... and a line like this would never fill up a DMU in anything but the rush hour and the summer.
It's ironic that back in the 1960's, everyone was moving to the 'freedom' of car travel... and now that freedom results in being stuck in traffic congestion!
Today routes like this might see a resurgence... but for this precise line, the economics wouldn't be worth it because of the cost of building a new bridge over the river at Barnstaple.
An extension from Barnstaple to Bideford might be feasible though.
@Cliffjumper24 well said, I used to love a drive down to Devon from Liverpool and leave about 3am to avoid the traffic but it still gets very busy on the M5 these days so I tend to stay local to avoid all the traffic congestion.
Fantastic video! Thank you.
You're welcome, thank you for watching.
I used to live on that line!
My parents were in the RAF, and from 1988-91 we lived at, what was then, RAF Chivenor, and I went to school in Braunton.
Nice to see what it used to look like!
Damn shame would have been easier on the roads if they hadnt closed it along with all the others round there
Must of been on holiday 68 or 69 and went on a return day trip with Dad, I remember it well.
Rare and wonderful thanks for uploading
As a 10 year old we took our first holiday to Croyde Bay in 1969 and remember having to cross the level crossing at Braunton and seeing a train on it once.
Ah, a refreshing swig of Corona fizzy pop - and from a proper returnable bottle!
I also liked that bit, old school cool.
@@AarchiveRailways An early example of product placement!
Trains ran over the line twice after its closure, although only for B.R. engineers to inspect the track & infrastructure. These were in 1973 and 1975. The locals thought the 1975 engineers' train might have been a pre-curser to a re-opening of the line as a whole, but it wasn't to be. Such a pity!
This is an excellent film - obbiously shot over a number of journeys and days with some imaginative camera work and scene setting. Ot may have been done with amateur equipment, but the actual production quality is definitely professional standard. It woudl be well worth an AI restoration if the master film still exists.
Personally I'm not a fan of enhancing films like this. I think they are best left as they are.
@@AarchiveRailways I think there's a case for doing it - so long as the original is not lost. After all, the quality we see this at today is probably a lot less than it would have been when new so I see no problem with trying to claw back some of that loss. Obviously when that process goes to far and CGI imagined elements are added then that's a step too far.
This video captures vividly the beginning of the end for this country.
Not just Ilfracombe but Mablethorpe, Yarmouth South Town, Hunstanton, Bridport, Elie all discarded by Castle in favour of poorly marketed commuter branch lines.
It's heart-breaking watching this. I can just remember a family holiday to Ilfracombe in 1968. I'm pretty sure it was a loco hauled train with a Warship.
Just for interest, before dr Richard Beeching became chairman of BR he was chairman of ICI which at the time was involved in the manufacturer of fabric for motor car seats 😊
I'm doing research on Beeching and it is interesting learning about his history.
@AarchiveRailways it's also a good point off interest to note that Dr Beeching was against the axing of the main Blackpool South Station in the 60s and more in favour of the closure of blackpool north but his decision for some reason was overturned. Blackpool South today is little more than a single track holt..
Best of luck with your research 👍
The line from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe should never have been closed and should be reopened to allow the many tourists who visit Britain the option to travel from London via Exeter to Ilfracombe and give North Devon a major economic boost. Ilfracombe needs access to Exeter and beyond by rail.
Unfortunately politicians couldn’t see (or chose to ignore) the effects of mass car ownership. It’s a lovely area, but, traffic is a problem in summer. As with a lot of other things, if it don’t make money close it, forget about the other benefits. If the GCR hadn’t closed maybe we wouldn’t now have the HS2 fiasco. I bet all buses are subsidised in the area
Okehampton is the last piece of the " Withered arm " left open now !! Could be Tavistock if it reopens to the LSWR station !
What a trip it would be today.
Seen most of this before but a great film. After Western Region's takeover it was a pity that singling the line, closing two or three signal boxes and destaffing stations (I think in 1967) didn't generate enough savings to make it viable - no doubt because of (five?) level crossings that still needed to be staffed for any trains to run. Interesting parallel with the Newquay branch where road layouts made level crossings suitable for conversion to automatic open type, which wasn't the case here.
It is a repost, which I apologise for. I am working on an update about the entire video, with newer 'modern day' footage.
Use it or lose it. If the locals had patronised the line especially in the winter months instead of going everywhere in their shiny new cars, the line might still be open today.
That was the problem back then car ownership was becoming more popular and affordable for the masses but the roads are to over crowded now.
I remember Mortehoe Station in the sixties... 😢
Mentioned in the wonderful Flanders and Swann song...''The Slow Train''.
Mortehoe Station became "Once Upon a Time" which was a young children's theme park with a little train going round. It had the original platforms and a couple of railway carriages and my daughter went there lots of times and loved it. Now it's a shitty housing estate. Woof!
Mentioned in the Flanders and Swan classic...''The Slow Train''.
Great homage to the line, it had already been singled. I wonder if anything still exists of permanat way
I'm planning on an update of the video. If there is anything left, I'll try to find it.
@@AarchiveRailways that would be a great watch especially a now and then comparison
This is why Dr Beeching truly was a horrible person, only caring about money and not the experience for passengers. This video makes me depressed watching it. Living in Barnstaple, it makes me sad to think there was originally 2 branches from a 3 platform station, not a sad terminus with 1 platform
As if it needs to be restated: Beeching was hired to study the railway's costs and then make RECOMMENDATIONS. All decisions arising from them were not his to make. BR had already shut thousands of route miles before Beeching started his job and completing his (in)famous Report. Having set up a closures consultation process, the government also set up 'grant aid' support to BR for 'unrenumerative' passenger services. As the film shows, there was very little revenue from Ilfracombe except during peak summer weeks and government couldn't justify further grant aid. Whether government, local councils or BR did enough to promote the line is another matter.
It is such a shame.
Transport minister in the then Tory Government, Ernest Marples had interests in the new Motorways and roads being constructed at the time.....He eventually fled to Europe on Tax evasion crimes....make of that what you will....
And of course it was Barbara Castle who signed off the final closures after Labour under Harold Wilson campaigned not to do so.
Nonsense. Beeching did what he was asked to do, and was horrified by the financial mess he found. He wasn't "horrible", he was asked to identify where BR's absolutely massive losses were coming from. He did a pretty good job of that.
1:06 Prototype wheeled suitcase?
Quite possibly.
The heart was ripped out of the UK by way of the demise of the railways. Tracks were laid in the 1800's at then navvies rates. Why disused tracks were not mothballed is beyond belief. That would have created work for convicts or any out of work types wanting extra money but no built motorways instead and today's gridlock is as a result of government stupidity. Trucks are end to end on highways instead of the old system of railheads and local deliveries by truck.
RIP UK it lost the plot years ago.
Zing. This line should never have closed. Tragic planning or lack of it!🥸