Ryde Rail: A History of Tube Trains on the Isle of Wight

[Ncarter2]

 Very interesting read, thoroughly enjoyed it. 
Having read the article in the link I have to disagree with some of the comments regarding the track being at fault and what the 26m is actually being used for.  

[Foulounoux]

Deleted sorry wrong thread

Edited May 24, 2020 by Foulounoux
Wrong thread

[90rob]

On 24/05/2020 at 11:39, Foulounoux said:

Deleted sorry wrong thread

 

No don't apologise - glad you posted here as I have now discovered Richard Long's book...!

 

[Ben B]

I picked this up last autumn from the W&L shop on a whim (lets face it, that gloriously colourful cover shot is extrememly eyecatching!) but only recently got round to properly reading it during lockdown.

 

Wonderful book on a subject I didn't know much about, and full of interesting info and great pictures. Very comprehensive and readable.

 

What's shocking is the sheer decline of the railway there; the initial contraction of the route when electrified, but then so much creeping rationalisation. The loss of the shunters and engineering stock is perhaps understandable, but both generations of tube trains arrived in large numbers before being whittled down to a mere handful of scruffy units on reduced timetables serving cut-back stations. I really hope the possibility or reversing this trend is taken with the new trains...

[PatC]

At long last, I've finally got myself a copy of this excellent book and I was delighted to see that it's a revised second edition which takes the story up to the announcement of the order for the Vivarail D stock. I have to say that there is so much more in Ryde Rail than I was expecting. I've only just started to read it but I've already learned a lot and seen much that I don't recall from elsewhere (and I've collected a fair few books on the IOW railway system over the years). My personal memories of the Island date back to the early seventies and, as Ben B observes above, it's actually pretty depressing to see the decline in the system even during the era of the truncated electric network (Sandown rather depresses me nowadays compared with how, relatively, interesting a place it was when I first encountered it in the 70s, with the engineers sidings, the signalbox and the presence of the 05 shunter and engineers wagons) . Even in the mid eighties I can remember packed seven car trains and the Pier shuttle being part of the summer scene. Lets hope that we see a little bit of a renaissance in the years ahead. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the Island's railway system.

Edited August 20, 2020 by PatC

[Joseph_Pestell]

Do we know yet when the Vivarail (230?) stock will be in use? I need to plan a trip to the IoW soon and it would be good to combine with this.

[Robert Shrives]

Joseph,

Get to the Island as soon as you can given the current era we live in. Once the  D stock based replacements arrive it is a one way change seeing route completely closed for perhaps a couple of months for extensive changes. If the D stock fails there is no going back as 38 stock will not be able to run - one set is slated to head to Ongar, coals to Newcastle but at least it can be made to run again.   This will be an Indian summer for certain as the curtain falls on the second generation of cast off - to be replaced by a third gen cast off Cinderella made up for the ball.  

And as all say above a great book and it rests with a load of EFE models and bits pending more rainy days.. but an rtr offering must mean we see some great models soon. 

Robert       

[PatC]

Funnily enough there was an update on the Island Line sitution on the BBC local news last night; https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000ly1l/south-today-evening-news-20082020  from about 13:20.

 

Filmed at Vivarail's Long Marston site, the report says that the first of the D stock is due to arrive in the autumn but that the 38 stock continues in traffic until the end of the year. There'll be a total shut down from January to March while the infrastructure is adapted. The loop at Brading is discussed (no mention if the Sandown loop will be retained) and there is a short bit of archive film from the 1920s showing a Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T in the station. Not a bad report, other than the fact that they keep calling the D stock 'tube trains'. 

 

I'd hoped to get across to the island this year for the annual visit to the steam railway with my youngest lad and one last run on the 38 stock down to Shanklin. Not sure it will happen now in the current climate. 

[Christopher125]

On 26/05/2020 at 11:16, Ben B said:

What's shocking is the sheer decline of the railway there; the initial contraction of the route when electrified, but then so much creeping rationalisation. The loss of the shunters and engineering stock is perhaps understandable, but both generations of tube trains arrived in large numbers before being whittled down to a mere handful of scruffy units on reduced timetables serving cut-back stations. I really hope the possibility or reversing this trend is taken with the new trains...

 

It's worth noting that most of that infrastructure was only ever needed on a few summer saturdays; while traffic did decline, visitors also arrived at different times often for shorter stays which smoothed out those crazy summer peaks.

Edited August 21, 2020 by Christopher125

[RichardLong]

In case anyone would like to win a signed copy of ‘Ryde Rail’, there’s currently a competition running on the Railcam website.   http://news.railcam.uk/index.php/2020/11/15/all-change-for-island-line-competition-to-win-ryde-rail-by-richard-long/
 

[RichardLong]

I’ve put this in a separate thread but I’ll just mention it once here as well: The follow-up volume to ‘Ryde Rail’ will be ‘All Change at Ryde’ - to be published this summer by Pen & Sword.  Available to pre-order now from some sellers: https://linktr.ee/allchangeatryde

 

 

[Ben B]

2 hours ago, RichardLong said:

I’ve put this in a separate thread but I’ll just mention it once here as well: The follow-up volume to ‘Ryde Rail’ will be ‘All Change at Ryde’ - to be published this summer by Pen & Sword.  Available to pre-order now from some sellers: https://linktr.ee/allchangeatryde

 

 

 

I'll keep an eye out for that- picked up the first book at Llanfair a few years ago, and it's a very interesting read :)

[RichardLong]

Just a quick note to say the follow-up volume has now been renamed ‘Upgrading the Isle of Wight’s Railway’.

 

The ISBN remains the same, so you if you’ve preordered a copy under the old title you don’t need to do anything.

 

https://linktr.ee/allchangeatryde