Some of those MK1's must be grim. They were prone to rusting around the window frames, so I can imagine that some are removed from traffic for being unsafe. I hope you do a bit on preserved Railways. I can imagine that steam ended later, maybe about 1971, that means that more engines might have gotten preserved, but the lack of lines means that you might have less railways. However, you said lines were mothballed in the seventies, and the POD is after woodham began buying up steam engines, so provided the wagons kept coming in (I presume they would, as rail freight was collapsing in the Sixties, even without the Beeching axe and, so their could have the purchase of a number of mothballed lines from BR, to get cash flow in.
As for London, that could be reasonably decent, if we remember he's going around the outer country.
Good writing. Keep it up.
As for London, that could be reasonably decent, if we remember he's going around the outer country.
Good writing. Keep it up.
seems there are more countries keeping old models around a long time
we (the netherlands) also have a model like that
these:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mat_'54 (in dutch alas)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Mat_'64 (this one was built starting 61, and is still in use)
I'd agree with that and certainly some of the ways passenger numbers were measured were a bit dodgy - only looking at ticket sales from a station rather than numbers using it. Using those perameters I could imagine quite a few existing unmanned halts would have to be closed. Beeching also forgot that a lot of smaller lines served as feeder networks for larger stations and once people got into their cars they tended to stay in them until they got where they were going.
On the plus side modern container trains in the UK can trace their origins back to his idea of 'liner trains'. Without Beeching rail freight may well have almost died if there had been no changes.
IIRC Beeching proposed that the money saved from the routes and services cut be ploughed back in the remaining network. Of course the government decided to just not spend the savings on railways at all.
The Wilson government also seems to have decided that having opposed a lot of the closures it was going to do nothing to halt them once it was in power. Also if memory serves more track milage was lost after Beeching and lines he never proposed for closure ended up dissapearing.
On a related note as well as closing a great deal of our rail network it was the Beeching Axe that killed 'Operation Exodus' the government's plan to evacuate non-essential people from cities if it looked like there was going to be a war. The plan depended on the network of branch lines that were closed to get people to relative 'safety'.
I think we do have the good doctor to thank for the, IMVHO, the best herritage rail industry in the world - a combination of the early withdrawal of steam and the closure of so many routes which later became preserved lines. It is also interesting to chart the slow roll-back of Beeching in many places.
Oh yes, I've seen the photographs of the old arched glass roofs and front façade which were really something. So of course they decided to knock it down and put up a couple of unimpressive office buildings and a multi-storey car park there instead. Bit like the Great Western Arcade opposite where they apparently knocked down the old entrance to build an office block above it plus redeveloping some other bits of it as well.
In an ideal world you'd hope that as Prime Minister she would at least be able to push through In Place of Strife so that even if the railways have gone to pot the country would be in a better condition elsewhere. Sadly I doubt it as this is not an ideal world we live in. But I digress, since as you say politics isn't really featuring.
Thande
Donor
Indeed, I like this as it's a more critical look rather than wish fulfilment. What with grass is always greener there are probably people in TTL who think cuts and privatisation would have delivered a better rail experience, and depending on exactly what part they're talking about, they're not necessarily wrong.
The remaining Mark I's are mainly used on excursions, specials and reliefs. However, they have been carefully selected because of the problems you mention.
I will cover a bit about preserved lines at a later point, but most preserved lines are leased from the BRB Retention Committee rather than owned.
We will see a fair bit of "pockets of decency" later on, but nowhere is up to OTL standards.
The accountancy systems used to determine Beeching were very dubious, especially the allocation of ticket value to lines* but the whole question of passenger counting has always been a bit odd with the railways. It wasn't until about 2008 that an effective way of counting PTE tickets was done, which for instance increased my local station from 77,000 to 167,000**.
The parameters have changed a few times over the years, the main thing with remote unstaffed halts is that they can slow trains up. Where the service is already slow such as the Far North Line, places like Kinbrace will keep their halt. It was stations on the main lines that suffered a bit more than OTL, the North Wales line was an exception.
Here we had full review and early adoption of the social railway. Too late for some lines, although some of the lines closed in the early 60's were mothballed and one or two reopened during the oil crisis.
Quite a few lines were closed after Beeching the most obvious one was the Woodhead Line, but obviously there were expensive reasons for this.
I think milk and coal kept going into the early 70's probably at a horrendous loss, but otherwise Beeching was right on Freightliner and that part was implemented. Similarly, the Merry Go Rounds and the class 56 appeared pretty much on schedule.
The information on Operate Exodus is very interesting but not germane to this little timeline. You could write a whole time line about that.
* The same method was used by BA to rid themselves of their non-London services.
** Which from observation is probably more like 240,000 such is the level of fare evasion.
Great start!. Nice to see 101s and 50s still around in 2015.
Are we still subjected to BR Blue? (I grew up with 90s stock so have a liking for Regional Railways, NSE, RES etc...)
Are we still subjected to BR Blue? (I grew up with 90s stock so have a liking for Regional Railways, NSE, RES etc...)
Sideways
Donor
I imagine one area this will impact majorly is model railways - there'll be considerably less nostalgia because the steam lines will have gradually become eye-sores, rather than been removed from the landscape suddenly.
I feel I'm not getting the full benefit from this - trains are something I ride, not something I need to know much about. But it's an interesting read.
I feel I'm not getting the full benefit from this - trains are something I ride, not something I need to know much about. But it's an interesting read.
Steam doesn't last very much longer in TTL. Passenger steam dies out about the same time, some coal freight on the WCML north of Crewe lingers on maybe one year longer. Even with the smaller number of closed lines and with the WMCL electrification stopping at Crewe/Manchester/Liverpool, there is still enough spare stock due to freight disappearing to get rid of steam by 1969. Of course, that does mean the such horrors as the Co-Bo's get a couple more years of life, but they are long gone by the time of TTL.
The main image problem of the railways is that they are slow, stuffs a bit decrepit and some inner city stations in some areas look like bombsites.
Your average survivor in TTL is a ruralish secondary route. So Hereford to Gloucester survives, but small branches don't (unless they are in a marginal seat
).There is some sectorisation and some sectional liveries, I'll expand on this the next update, which is probably tomorrow now I've calculated the connection at Merthyr.
I reckon that using the Beeching methodology some well used stations, such as South Gyle in Edinburgh, would be closed. South Gyle is very well used at peak times, but I doubt many people actually buy a ticket there.
Mallingford Junction....
...and it's branch to Titfield - you must feature Mallingford Junction and it's Branch to Titfield! It wouldnt be a story without the Thunderbolt!
Steam doesn't last very much longer in TTL. Passenger steam dies out about the same time, some coal freight on the WCML north of Crewe lingers on maybe one year longer. Even with the smaller number of closed lines and with the WMCL electrification stopping at Crewe/Manchester/Liverpool, there is still enough spare stock due to freight disappearing to get rid of steam by 1969. Of course, that does mean the such horrors as the Co-Bo's get a couple more years of life, but they are long gone by the time of TTL.
The main image problem of the railways is that they are slow, stuffs a bit decrepit and some inner city stations in some areas look like bombsites.
Your average survivor in TTL is a ruralish secondary route. So Hereford to Gloucester survives, but small branches don't (unless they are in a marginal seat
...and it's branch to Titfield - you must feature Mallingford Junction and it's Branch to Titfield! It wouldnt be a story without the Thunderbolt!
Sideways
Donor
Steam doesn't last very much longer in TTL. Passenger steam dies out about the same time, some coal freight on the WCML north of Crewe lingers on maybe one year longer. Even with the smaller number of closed lines and with the WMCL electrification stopping at Crewe/Manchester/Liverpool, there is still enough spare stock due to freight disappearing to get rid of steam by 1969. Of course, that does mean the such horrors as the Co-Bo's get a couple more years of life, but they are long gone by the time of TTL.
The main image problem of the railways is that they are slow, stuffs a bit decrepit and some inner city stations in some areas look like bombsites.
Your average survivor in TTL is a ruralish secondary route. So Hereford to Gloucester survives, but small branches don't (unless they are in a marginal seat
The Carmarthen to Aberystwyth line is still open, right?
I wonder if this could have an impact on the South Devon main line, after storm in 2014 it needed a lot of money to fix. ITTL, it might not be worth the investment.
Sunday 7th June 2015
Harry's Hotel had done me just fine for the night and had a decent little bistro for my evening meal. It was only a short walk to back to the station via a little newsagents to pick up supplies and I quickly went to platform 2, missing this train would mean an awful lot of rescheduling. Aberystwyth has four platforms in use and has been smartened up and rebranded as part of 'Network Wales/Rhwydwaith Cymru', the Vale of Rheidol steam narrow gauge trains go from platform 1, the Carmarthen's from Platform 2 and the Cambrian line from Platform 3. I'm told that Platform 4 is mainly used for excursions.
Until two years ago, most of today's journey wouldn't have been possible, because the rural network in Wales ran very few Sunday services. BR ran very few services at all on some routes, but the new Welsh Assembly has pumped a lot of money into trying to improve rural public transport - mainly at the behest of the Plaid and LibDem members of the governing coalition. The restart of most Sunday services was only really possible when the new DMU's arrived.
The result is that on a Sunday, the Carmarthen line sees three trains along its entire length, two local trains and a Cardiff-Holyhead through service, there are also a couple of extra services from Carmarthen to Lampeter. Some of the other lines have a similarly sparse service and I will admit to being worried about the connection at Talyllyn Junction which if missed would mean heading to Brecon for the night instead of ending up at Bristol.
Of course, the line is lucky to have a service, after the Llanilar landslip of 1965, there were a number of years where the service only ran to Tregaron and was cut back to a bare minimum. It was only the upcoming 1968 election which supposedly saw that repaired. It was threatened further when the milk traffic was withdrawn on 1971 and eventually settled down to two trains a day with a couple of additional services on parts of the route. There was also some downgrading, closure of a lot of remote halts and the line limited to three passing loops. For a long time the line was the haunt of the East German railbuses that BR had bought cheap after the collapse of the DDR, but now it is all second or third generation DMU's.
Having said all that, it is still an extremely slow whilst extremely scenic route. It might only be 56 miles to Carmarthen, but it is scheduled for 2 hours passing the up service at Lampeter. However, Sunday is notorious for recovery time on services and the class 162's on the stopping trains are being held to the same timetable as the railbuses. It is, however, a very pleasant two hours through some stunning scenery with the assistance of a bottle of pop. The load is very light for the 2-coach train and there are only a dozen of us between Tregaron and Lampeter, but it does get busier and the request stops are used going into Carmarthen which we get into 10 minutes early.
There's a pleasant 25 minute wait at Carmarthen for the inbound train from Tenby which will take me through to Swansea, Carmarthen does rate a booking office and a Travellers Fare kiosk, but neither are open on a Sunday, nor is much of Carmarthen but a newsagent provides a fresh cold bottle of pop. The train into Swansea arrives on time and is fairly busy which accounts for the service every 40 minutes, it is a 3 coach 162 with the new Network Wales livery, as opposed to just a decal on the old BR Blue. It isn't an unpleasant journey, especially the journey through Burry Port and Ferryside and we arrive in Swansea a little early.
I'm fairly familiar with Swansea as I went to University there, after dropping my bag at left luggage, it's a short walk down to the Adam and Eve for a pint and a bite to eat. That passes a very pleasant hour before it is time to go back to the station. The next leg is on a line that has only recently been reopened to passenger traffic, whilst it has remained open for coal traffic, the long term effects of the Plan for Coal has slowly shut most of the colleries in South Wales leaving only a handful of working pits. Aberpergwm still provides some traffic but otherwise the line would be abandoned. The passenger service is to allow people in the upper Vale of Neath access to the growing market for jobs in Swansea. The service is provided with a single coach class 153 Runner DMU, usually referred to as a "Dogbox" by the enthusiasts. It's not a fast line, the track isn't in the best condition and it seems to be mainly busy between Swansea and Neath, but some more people get on at Hirwaun for the long journey through the Merthyr Tunnel on the single track section of the line.
The line is, in a way, an example of why the railways are overburdened, the Vale of Neath is a double track to Hirwaun. The old Mothball orders means that the double track has to be preserved even if it would best be single track adding to the expense. Luckily, the Smith Government loosened the rules on sidings and goods yards and the Owen Government loosened the rules on goods only lines that did not serve a significant population centre which has helped considerably with mothball costs in places like South Wales whilst assisting with the housing shortage in London, Birmingham and the booming other cities.
Despite everything, we are a few minutes late into Merthyr, although there is a decent connection time here. Merthyr is one of the stations where the excess platforms and space have gone, to be replaced by a number of shops headed up by a large branch of Tesco. There are now two platforms, one to handle the half hourly trains down the old Taff Vale line to Cardiff and one recently constructed to house the Swansea trains and the occasional and intermittent Brecon service.
The Brecon lines have been a source of some interest throughout the years. They had been closed in the early 1960's long before the rise of Barbara Castle to Secretary of State for Transport, Brecon, however met the traffic guidelines and also had some pressure from the Ministry of Defence for reopening and a very limited service was restarted from Hereford in 1966. However the Merthyr-Brecon line remained firmly closed, although part of the line was used for a freight service to Dowlais until the steelworks closed. The remainder of the old Brecon & Merthyr Tydfil was taken by as an option by a heritage railway company in the 1970's from Pontsticill Junction to Talyllyn Junction operating the odd weekend train on the section below the Pontsticill tunnel. The heritage railway, however, collapsed during the recession in the mid-1980's but because of this, the line came under the Mothball rules which it hadn't before. The Owen Government under some pressure towards the end of its term reopened the line for a minimal passenger service which also included servicing Dowlais via a reversal, it was not a success and was one of the first casualties of the Fowler axe which the bus service was improved. It was reopened again in 2002, mainly to try improve access to the Brecon Beacons rather than between Brecon and Merthyr where there is a better and faster service.
Having said that, it would probably be useful if the service ran through to Hereford, which it did originally, but since the move to Network Wales, the services have been split. It isn't actually possible to take this train and connect at Brecon now, you can only connect at Talyllyn Junction and if that connection is missed, my only choice would be to go back to Merthyr on the last train of the day and head down the Taff Vale to Cardiff and thence to Bristol.
There have been various forms of motive power on the Brecon line and one of the reasons for doing it was to try and get a class 25 with two coaches. However, it was not to be and it was one of the re-engined two car Calder Valley dmu's that took us out of Merthyr, with the Gurnos at a safe distance and on the climb up into the Beacons for the views of Pontsticill reservoir and the trip through the Torpantau tunnel, the highest tunnel in the UK. It was great and whilst we were 5 minutes behind at Talyllyn Junction, it still allowed 9 minutes for the connection.
Talyllyn Junction is a little sad, it is one of the original platforms resurfaced with the other forlornly out of use. It has a bus shelter and two information boards, one for BR and one for Network Cymru, there isn't even a station clock. It might be used by a hundred people a year, most of which are connecting to avoid going into Brecon.
However, the single coach class 143 "Skipper" railbus turns up on time and has to be flagged down. The Skippers are amongst the most hated trains on BR, being almost literally a bus on rails, used on low volume and supposedly short lines, sadly, I'll be on it for around 45 minutes as it struggles its way down from Brecon, through Hay on Wye and into Hereford. Again, it's a very pretty journey on a late spring afternoon, but the service is almost empty until it calls at Hay on Wye, where we pick up quite a few passengers who have been trying the hostelries of Hay for the day. We get into Hereford just on time, but sadly an hour too late for the station buffet because I could have done with a cold drink.
Luckily, it is only a few minutes to wait before the Bubble Car turns up to go to Gloucester. The Hereford-Gloucester route is one of those which has been decimated stationwise. When reprieved in 1964, it was reduced to three intermediate stations, one of those has since closed when criteria were revised and one of the others gets a service of one train a day in each direction, it is kept open because there is to be a development near there. This means that this line is just between Hereford and Gloucester with one call at Ross on Wye where there is a passing place. It does mean that the journey is substantially quicker that it used to be and we cover the 30 miles to Gloucester in a fairly chipper 40 minutes. It is also reasonably busy.
Gloucester station consists one one very, very long platform and like Hereford, the buffet is shut, but I actually arrive in time for a class 156 Sprinter, a 4-coach unit designed for the Cross-Country services which were part of Inter City until the 1990's. Cross-Country may not have buffets on the class 156's, but they do have a trolley and I can finally get an expensive drink on the 40 minute non stop run to Bristol Temple Meads which is my destination for the night.
Harry's Hotel had done me just fine for the night and had a decent little bistro for my evening meal. It was only a short walk to back to the station via a little newsagents to pick up supplies and I quickly went to platform 2, missing this train would mean an awful lot of rescheduling. Aberystwyth has four platforms in use and has been smartened up and rebranded as part of 'Network Wales/Rhwydwaith Cymru', the Vale of Rheidol steam narrow gauge trains go from platform 1, the Carmarthen's from Platform 2 and the Cambrian line from Platform 3. I'm told that Platform 4 is mainly used for excursions.
Until two years ago, most of today's journey wouldn't have been possible, because the rural network in Wales ran very few Sunday services. BR ran very few services at all on some routes, but the new Welsh Assembly has pumped a lot of money into trying to improve rural public transport - mainly at the behest of the Plaid and LibDem members of the governing coalition. The restart of most Sunday services was only really possible when the new DMU's arrived.
The result is that on a Sunday, the Carmarthen line sees three trains along its entire length, two local trains and a Cardiff-Holyhead through service, there are also a couple of extra services from Carmarthen to Lampeter. Some of the other lines have a similarly sparse service and I will admit to being worried about the connection at Talyllyn Junction which if missed would mean heading to Brecon for the night instead of ending up at Bristol.
Of course, the line is lucky to have a service, after the Llanilar landslip of 1965, there were a number of years where the service only ran to Tregaron and was cut back to a bare minimum. It was only the upcoming 1968 election which supposedly saw that repaired. It was threatened further when the milk traffic was withdrawn on 1971 and eventually settled down to two trains a day with a couple of additional services on parts of the route. There was also some downgrading, closure of a lot of remote halts and the line limited to three passing loops. For a long time the line was the haunt of the East German railbuses that BR had bought cheap after the collapse of the DDR, but now it is all second or third generation DMU's.
Having said all that, it is still an extremely slow whilst extremely scenic route. It might only be 56 miles to Carmarthen, but it is scheduled for 2 hours passing the up service at Lampeter. However, Sunday is notorious for recovery time on services and the class 162's on the stopping trains are being held to the same timetable as the railbuses. It is, however, a very pleasant two hours through some stunning scenery with the assistance of a bottle of pop. The load is very light for the 2-coach train and there are only a dozen of us between Tregaron and Lampeter, but it does get busier and the request stops are used going into Carmarthen which we get into 10 minutes early.
There's a pleasant 25 minute wait at Carmarthen for the inbound train from Tenby which will take me through to Swansea, Carmarthen does rate a booking office and a Travellers Fare kiosk, but neither are open on a Sunday, nor is much of Carmarthen but a newsagent provides a fresh cold bottle of pop. The train into Swansea arrives on time and is fairly busy which accounts for the service every 40 minutes, it is a 3 coach 162 with the new Network Wales livery, as opposed to just a decal on the old BR Blue. It isn't an unpleasant journey, especially the journey through Burry Port and Ferryside and we arrive in Swansea a little early.
I'm fairly familiar with Swansea as I went to University there, after dropping my bag at left luggage, it's a short walk down to the Adam and Eve for a pint and a bite to eat. That passes a very pleasant hour before it is time to go back to the station. The next leg is on a line that has only recently been reopened to passenger traffic, whilst it has remained open for coal traffic, the long term effects of the Plan for Coal has slowly shut most of the colleries in South Wales leaving only a handful of working pits. Aberpergwm still provides some traffic but otherwise the line would be abandoned. The passenger service is to allow people in the upper Vale of Neath access to the growing market for jobs in Swansea. The service is provided with a single coach class 153 Runner DMU, usually referred to as a "Dogbox" by the enthusiasts. It's not a fast line, the track isn't in the best condition and it seems to be mainly busy between Swansea and Neath, but some more people get on at Hirwaun for the long journey through the Merthyr Tunnel on the single track section of the line.
The line is, in a way, an example of why the railways are overburdened, the Vale of Neath is a double track to Hirwaun. The old Mothball orders means that the double track has to be preserved even if it would best be single track adding to the expense. Luckily, the Smith Government loosened the rules on sidings and goods yards and the Owen Government loosened the rules on goods only lines that did not serve a significant population centre which has helped considerably with mothball costs in places like South Wales whilst assisting with the housing shortage in London, Birmingham and the booming other cities.
Despite everything, we are a few minutes late into Merthyr, although there is a decent connection time here. Merthyr is one of the stations where the excess platforms and space have gone, to be replaced by a number of shops headed up by a large branch of Tesco. There are now two platforms, one to handle the half hourly trains down the old Taff Vale line to Cardiff and one recently constructed to house the Swansea trains and the occasional and intermittent Brecon service.
The Brecon lines have been a source of some interest throughout the years. They had been closed in the early 1960's long before the rise of Barbara Castle to Secretary of State for Transport, Brecon, however met the traffic guidelines and also had some pressure from the Ministry of Defence for reopening and a very limited service was restarted from Hereford in 1966. However the Merthyr-Brecon line remained firmly closed, although part of the line was used for a freight service to Dowlais until the steelworks closed. The remainder of the old Brecon & Merthyr Tydfil was taken by as an option by a heritage railway company in the 1970's from Pontsticill Junction to Talyllyn Junction operating the odd weekend train on the section below the Pontsticill tunnel. The heritage railway, however, collapsed during the recession in the mid-1980's but because of this, the line came under the Mothball rules which it hadn't before. The Owen Government under some pressure towards the end of its term reopened the line for a minimal passenger service which also included servicing Dowlais via a reversal, it was not a success and was one of the first casualties of the Fowler axe which the bus service was improved. It was reopened again in 2002, mainly to try improve access to the Brecon Beacons rather than between Brecon and Merthyr where there is a better and faster service.
Having said that, it would probably be useful if the service ran through to Hereford, which it did originally, but since the move to Network Wales, the services have been split. It isn't actually possible to take this train and connect at Brecon now, you can only connect at Talyllyn Junction and if that connection is missed, my only choice would be to go back to Merthyr on the last train of the day and head down the Taff Vale to Cardiff and thence to Bristol.
There have been various forms of motive power on the Brecon line and one of the reasons for doing it was to try and get a class 25 with two coaches. However, it was not to be and it was one of the re-engined two car Calder Valley dmu's that took us out of Merthyr, with the Gurnos at a safe distance and on the climb up into the Beacons for the views of Pontsticill reservoir and the trip through the Torpantau tunnel, the highest tunnel in the UK. It was great and whilst we were 5 minutes behind at Talyllyn Junction, it still allowed 9 minutes for the connection.
Talyllyn Junction is a little sad, it is one of the original platforms resurfaced with the other forlornly out of use. It has a bus shelter and two information boards, one for BR and one for Network Cymru, there isn't even a station clock. It might be used by a hundred people a year, most of which are connecting to avoid going into Brecon.
However, the single coach class 143 "Skipper" railbus turns up on time and has to be flagged down. The Skippers are amongst the most hated trains on BR, being almost literally a bus on rails, used on low volume and supposedly short lines, sadly, I'll be on it for around 45 minutes as it struggles its way down from Brecon, through Hay on Wye and into Hereford. Again, it's a very pretty journey on a late spring afternoon, but the service is almost empty until it calls at Hay on Wye, where we pick up quite a few passengers who have been trying the hostelries of Hay for the day. We get into Hereford just on time, but sadly an hour too late for the station buffet because I could have done with a cold drink.
Luckily, it is only a few minutes to wait before the Bubble Car turns up to go to Gloucester. The Hereford-Gloucester route is one of those which has been decimated stationwise. When reprieved in 1964, it was reduced to three intermediate stations, one of those has since closed when criteria were revised and one of the others gets a service of one train a day in each direction, it is kept open because there is to be a development near there. This means that this line is just between Hereford and Gloucester with one call at Ross on Wye where there is a passing place. It does mean that the journey is substantially quicker that it used to be and we cover the 30 miles to Gloucester in a fairly chipper 40 minutes. It is also reasonably busy.
Gloucester station consists one one very, very long platform and like Hereford, the buffet is shut, but I actually arrive in time for a class 156 Sprinter, a 4-coach unit designed for the Cross-Country services which were part of Inter City until the 1990's. Cross-Country may not have buffets on the class 156's, but they do have a trolley and I can finally get an expensive drink on the 40 minute non stop run to Bristol Temple Meads which is my destination for the night.