The Railway : Then & Now

[Northmoor]

On the 3rd-Rail EMUs thread, in relation to some images of Strood over the years, the idea was mentioned for a thread that I'd considered - like Steam Railway's "Permanent Way or Not So Permanent Way", but couldn't find any suitable material.  All welcome to contribute; I will have to trawl through some of my archives..... I will kick things off here with a change of view from the railway, rather than a change to the railway itself (feel free to contribute either):  this is looking East from Whitland station footbridge in August 1986 and March 2013.  On the left is Whitland Creamery which had its own rail connection until about 1983 (when milk traffic was abandoned by BR).  I had my first summer job there in 1991, working in various bits of the plant; the low brick building against the site boundary in the middle distance was the staff canteen (excellent full breakfasts almost every day!).  The train would have been the returning stock from either the York - Tenby or Paddington - Pembroke Dock Summer Saturday extras.

  

Edited June 9, 2019 by Northmoor
Resized photos

[Northmoor]

Ah - found another, also based on an older 110 format image.  This is Lymington Pier in August 1985 and March 2016; not much changed except the more modern unit and the platform has a gained some new shelters and a non-slip surface:

Edited June 9, 2019 by Northmoor

[Trev52A]

@ Northmoor

I saw that original post as well, but went on holiday shortly afterwards and forgot all about it. Thanks for reminding me.

 

Here are two taken exactly fifty years apart at Pelaw, on the Newcastle-South Shields/Sunderland line in Gateshead.

 

A J27 with coal empties from the Power Stations west of Newcastle returning to the Durham coalfield in 1967

 

Tyne&Wear metro trains now use a station on the same site - taken in 2017

 

Trevor

[Trev52A]

Here are a couple more from Tyneside, this time at South Shields.

The stone arches at Tyne Dock were built by the North Eastern Railway in the 19th century to carry coal wagons over the Jarrow-South Shields road and out to staiths in Tyne Dock basin for the loading of coal into sea-going vessels. They had fallen into disuse by the 1960s and were demolished in 1977.

 

This view from April 1976 includes all four remaining (disused) arches - the staiths had been over to the left. 'Tyne Dock Arches' had been a landmark for many years.

 

The modern view is from 2017. The stone wall on the left is the only link between the two pictures. The information panel on the right has details of the coal trade, and also a quote from South Shields-born author Catherine Cookson who described the 'slime-dripping arches' in one of her historical novels. The road has been considerably widened. I waited to get a cyclist in the same spot!

 

Cheers

Trevor

[Trev52A]

Two views at Low Fell, Gateshead, where my interest in trains was first kindled back in the 1960s:

 

A K1 climbs from Low Fell sidings with a southbound coal train on 4th March 1967

 

Fifty years later, Flying Scotsman at the same spot on 29th July 2017

 

The lineside vegetation seems to have increased in inverse proportion to the trackwork going down!

 

Trevor

[Nearholmer]

These are wonderful - many thanks.

[eastwestdivide]

Can I point you to an old album of mine, 30 years of East Midlands Rover:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/1582-thirty-years-of-east-midlands-rover/

 

[eastwestdivide]

Gravesend in 1985 and 2012. The D-numbered Dartford signals are now NK for the North Kent panel controlled from Ashford.

It's changed more since 2012, as with an additional platform built over the up through line.

 

[Trev52A]

Two at South Shields:

 

This is the BR station in 1980, with a DMU waiting to leave for Newcastle. The station closed the following year to allow construction work for the new Tyne&Wear metro to continue, and has since been demolished.

 

The new South Shields metro station was built just beyond the crossover ahead of the DMU in the earlier picture and opened in 1984. This is the view in 2017.

 

Trevor 

[Trev52A]

While we are in South Shields, here are a couple of views which show a drastic change!

 

Loco No 13 in the St. Hilda Sidings yard of the NCB's 'Harton Electric Railway' system in 1981. The railway closed in 1989, although Westoe Colliery lasted until 1993

 

The modern view in 2016, showing the small business units which now occupy the site. The only link between the two pictures is the frame for the gas holder, top right

 

Cheers

Trevor

[eastwestdivide]

Just round the corner in Newcastle, the view from the new castle, about 1984/5 and again in 2015:

 

Edited June 25, 2019 by eastwestdivide

[Trev52A]

@ eastwestdivide

 

Going back nearly twenty years before your HST shot at Newcastle, here's the view on 4th November 1967 showing the right-hand platforms (mainly suburban trains for the coast) still in use, although the Tyneside electrics had finished in June that year and the service was now being handled by dmus.

The train is a Leeds to Edinburgh special headed by 60019 Bittern, by this time privately owned although still very much in BR condition.

 

 

Trevor

[eastwestdivide]

Last year I took a trip back to Bennerley viaduct in Notts, and nearly repeated a couple of shots from 1983. Back then they were refurbishing the coal loading point. Today there's not a lot of it left.

 

Looking north from the viaduct (different angle, sorry):

 

 

And looking south, quite a few changes. That's the new Ilkeston station in the 2018 photo.

 

 

[russ p]

This may sound daft but how come  vegetation has gone absolutely mad in the last thirty years and it's not just next to railways 

[96701]

9 minutes ago, russ p said:

This may sound daft but how come  vegetation has gone absolutely mad in the last thirty years and it's not just next to railways 

Well, in 1994 when Railtrack came into existence, contracts were drawn up by those who should have known better to maintain track, signals, OLE, ETE and Telecoms. The contracts were set up between Railtrack and British Rail Infrastructure Services (BRIS). On the final privatisation, BRIS was sold to various contractors who delivered those contract with varying degrees of success. Property contracts were set up between Railtrack and Serco. 

 

None of the contracts had anything to do with drainage or earthworks or vegetation management. All contracts tended to be set up for 5 years, also known as Control Periods. Each Control Period saw a reduction in the maintenance budgets, and this continued when maintenance was brought back into Network Rail, so no money for anything other than that which went on before.

 

That's the explanation for the railways, the roads? I have no idea.

[Nearholmer]

Climate change?

 

The fact that railways run in areas that were industrialised, but now aren't?

[phil-b259]

13 minutes ago, 96701 said:

 

That's the explanation for the railways, the roads? I have no idea.

 

Budget cuts and outsourcing (plus the fact that as with the railways H&S has got a lot stricter about the levels of protection required to keep workers safe from bad drivers).

 

Of course like the railways, those in charge of maintaining the road network have less tools in he arsenal (i.e. decent weedkillers are now banned) and we have more environmental protection rules in place.

 

However....

 

On the trunk road network regular cutting of the grass in the central reservation and verges ceased over two decades ago (as did litter picking) with those in charge saying it was an unnecessary expense / too difficult to do as full lane closures were now required to keep staff safe from idiot drivers.

 

Road signs are regularly obscured by trees / bushes - or covered in the green slime they produce with no attempt made to keep them clean.

 

They then said that one of the advantages of going to an all concrete central reserve barrier + surfacing meant that they would be able to regularly keep it clean via mechanical sweepers - guess what its still as rubbish strewn as the weed covered (used to be grass bits)

 

When I first moved down to this part of Sussex it was notable how the WSCC maintained roads seemed to have regular litter picking patrols. These days thanks to continued government cuts the litter is just left to lie about and get chopped into smaller pieces by the infrequent grass cutting (itself much reduced in frequency)

 

 

Edited June 27, 2019 by phil-b259

[russ p]

Trees seem to have gone mad though,  I know they get bigger year on year  but they seem have really got bigger in last thirty years.  Anything to do with less cold winters perhaps.?

[Nearholmer]

Why don't you cut one down, say one about a century old, and have a look at the width of the growth-rings to check?

 

Might be counter-productive though, in that trees lock-in carbon, and have other beneficial affects on the climate.

[Nobby (John)]

Great photos, brings back a lot of memories.  Keep them coming 

[Reorte]

14 hours ago, russ p said:

Trees seem to have gone mad though,  I know they get bigger year on year  but they seem have really got bigger in last thirty years.  Anything to do with less cold winters perhaps.?

 

As well as the road and rail cutbacks (lack of cutbacks?) mentioned above there also seems to be a lot less cutting around field boundaries etc.  And they'll spring up over that timeframe if you've got some derelict ground that's been derelict that long. All good anyway, glad to see more trees, at least the ones that aren't getting in the way around railways and roads.

[sir douglas]

took me a while to find this from 2012

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/62299-now-and-then/

 

my gallery

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/1542-now-amp-then/

[The Stationmaster]

18 hours ago, russ p said:

Trees seem to have gone mad though,  I know they get bigger year on year  but they seem have really got bigger in last thirty years.  Anything to do with less cold winters perhaps.?

Wanna bet.  The size of trees alongside railway lines (insde the fence) generally seems tio be in direct proportion to when steam traction finished.  On the Western in the late 1960s and early 1970s we had no delay minutes down to leaf fall - it simply wasn't a problem.  But by 1985/86 when I was back involved with passenger train punctuality leaf fall was quite a serious problem in soem areas on  the WR and was getting worse.

 

If you've known a line for years - as with me in respect of our local branch - you've probably watched the trees grow from little bushes into pretty large things.  Some varieties can go very quickly - just tell my bank account that pays for the tree surgeon who deals with our trees in the garden. every three - five years and is taking down more than 20 feet of growth on some species.

[Foulounoux]

On 25 June 2019 at 23:14, Trev52A said:

@ eastwestdivide

 

Going back nearly twenty years before your HST shot at Newcastle, here's the view on 4th November 1967 showing the right-hand platforms (mainly suburban trains for the coast) still in use, although the Tyneside electrics had finished in June that year and the service was now being handled by dmus.

The train is a Leeds to Edinburgh special headed by 60019 Bittern, by this time privately owned although still very much in BR condition.

 

 

Trevor

The arrangement of the suburban platforms and track has always appealed tome as an alternative to Minories 

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Wanna bet.  The size of trees alongside railway lines (insde the fence) generally seems tio be in direct proportion to when steam traction finished.  On the Western in the late 1960s and early 1970s we had no delay minutes down to leaf fall - it simply wasn't a problem.  But by 1985/86 when I was back involved with passenger train punctuality leaf fall was quite a serious problem in soem areas on  the WR and was getting worse.

 

I have been working on project in this field for the last year and the idea that steam trains were responsible for burning back early tree growth seems widely accepted.  Quite apart from the fact that is is moisture, not leaves themselves that are the problem, I would suggest two things; (1) it wasn't the end of steam itself but the massive redundancies amongst track maintenance staff at the same time (1960s), and (2) steam trains didn't suffer from adhesion-related delay minutes because, quite simply, they didn't brake hard enough to overcome the available adhesion.  The acceleration and brake rates of modern electric stock in particular, is on a different scale from steam. Also remember, delay causes weren't attributed to anything like the same degree.  There is plenty of archive footage of express trains struggling to get their trains underway which must have caused significant delays.  What was the resulting delay recorded as caused by?  Or did the "railway" just lose it in slack scheduling?