Royston Vasey
Established Member
They'll never appreciate your vision
They'll never appreciate your vision
ah well...
That's not 5 words GNERMan...
Some people can not count
That's not 5 words GNERMan...
Bend over you naughty boy
Much of what was thought to be desirable for the future in the 1950's and 1960's has been found to be wrong. Look at 1960's tower blocks! Still, there's no doubt that some of the railway system was unnecessary and had to be pruned - lines had been closing for various reasons for decades. As an example, look at the line between Ashburton and Totnes. Most local people travelled to Newton Abbot for leisure, work, shopping etc and the direct bus ttok 38 minutes as opposed to a much longer journey by train. What was unnecessary was the scale of the closures, and the dubious accounting system that was used.
Some lines were built not for a direct financial return but to address social needs such as the ND&CJLR Torrington - Halwill Devon, opened 1925 closed 1965 by Beeching Fort William - Mallaig still open or several Irish branches, Killybegs, Burtonport & Cardonagh all closed.
the big issue was the proposed costs of bringing modern technology to such underutilised lines. The ND&CJLR was a true light railway, most crossings were ungated and it made news for the wrong reason when a bus collided with a train in 1951. The train had a crew of 3 and one passenger, the bus a crew of 2 and no passengers.
However if such lines had survived, maybe some would be with us today as the Newport - Ryde was uneconomic in the 60's as the bus took a more direct route, but with population growth would probably be viable today.
Remember the GWR had a nasty habit of taking over rival lines and redirecting expresses over its own lines such as the ACE or the Pines Express S&D. When the last S&D engine entered the sheds at Bath someone chalked "Gooch must go" on the smokebox.
Incidently the S&D was the Swift and delightful to its supporters, the Slow and dirty to its detractors and finally the Sabotaged and Defeated
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ps aware that the ACE was withdrawn but WR proclaimed new accelerated diesel expresses to Plymouth notably the Golden Hind. The ACE split up providing a through service to most of the LSWR network, but shorn of through traffic the writing was on the wall for its branches
Where's me bloody CIG gone? :razz:
and talking of pipe men, while it was a tory government that employed Beeching, when the closures were being put into effect, the government was now labour under Harold Wilson who got some stick for putting up tax on fags but not pipe tobacco and apparently did nothing to reverse the closure programme