Peterborough North

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

 I'd like to sit at Hatfield station, when it still had it's overall roof on the Up main, engine shed, branch lines. Magical.

 

 

 

manna

 

[Straits Settlements]

Inappropriate on here, perhaps; but, line side somewhere near Scout Green, Westmoreland; with the sounds of Peewit, Curlew, Skylark and Spring lambs regularly broken by a seemingly endless procession of ex LMS motive power storming towards Shap Summit.

 

John D, aka ‘Straits Settlements’

[great northern]

Cold and windy here again. Too dark for photography, so I may be forced to do housework. Not thhough until I have had my breakfast, and posted the early images. The first is again of 60111, with a certain amount of zooming in.

 

 

I couldn't get enough light on the front of the loco, but apart from that I like this.

 

Meanwhile, the relieving B17 has backed on to the Birmingham -Ely, and is starting away towards the photographer.

 

 

He's OK though, he's on the edge of the platform, so a step back will be sufficient.

 

 

 

[great northern]

Most of you didn't want to venture too far back into the 19th century, so the 1890s, either watching the broad gauge or at York was the most popular period.

 

What can we look at today? How about railway closures?  Some of those from the 60s have already been reversed, often at great expense, and others are being considered for re-opening. But what was the most short sighted and impactful decision back then?

[Oldddudders]

RMweb was the scene of a long-running thread about the sea's terrible vengeance on the GWR mainline between Exeter and Newton Abbot. Big numbers are being quoted for effective mitigation long-term. Closure of that route cuts Plymouth and Cornwall off from the rest of the network. So I would suggest that the late-'60s closure of the former LSWR route from Exeter to Plymouth via Okehampton and Tavistock might yet be regarded as folly. 

 

It is also sobering to recall that lines were still being closed less than 10 years before Privatisation. Grove Junction to Birchden Junction, aka Tunbridge Wells to Eridge, closed in July 1985, and I was Project Manager for making it happen. Not my favourite role. 

[31A]

A lot of large towns were left without railways, so a lot of valid contenders, but for me it has to be the Cambridge-Oxford line. OK the middle part never closed, and work is being carried out to reopen the rest, but sadly for me not on the original formation between Cambridge and Bedford.  Under the Beeching plans it was supposed to be developed as a strategic route!

 

 

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

RMweb was the scene of a long-running thread about the sea's terrible vengeance on the GWR mainline between Exeter and Newton Abbot. Big numbers are being quoted for effective mitigation long-term. Closure of that route cuts Plymouth and Cornwall off from the rest of the network. So I would suggest that the late-'60s closure of the former LSWR route from Exeter to Plymouth via Okehampton and Tavistock might yet be regarded as folly. 

 

It is also sobering to recall that lines were still being closed less than 10 years before Privatisation. Grove Junction to Birchden Junction, aka Tunbridge Wells to Eridge, closed in July 1985, and I was Project Manager for making it happen. Not my favourite role. 

I had to go to a derailment at Birchden Junction on a very hot, pollen-laden summer night that very year. Not my favourite recollection of a callout.

[JamieR4489]

Cambridge-Oxford for me, too.

[great northern]

I gave in and put the heating on for an hour. Why sit and shiver?  Mid morning tea is late because golf club politics reared their head again, but here is Huddersfield Town from another angle.

 

 

One bit of good news is that while searching for something else entirely I found a picture of a Claud on a Leicester train, and the stock consisted of three Thompson non corridors!

[Metropolitan H]

Oxford - Cambridge is the biggest loss, closely followed by the Somerset and Dorset.

 

Regards

Chris H

[bigwordsmith]

I know you're all thinking about it, so here's a treat...

 

 

[St Enodoc]

1 minute ago, bigwordsmith said:

I know you're all thinking about it, so here's a treat...

 

 

It's an interesting diversion to note which lines and stations in the song have NOT closed.

[stewartingram]

Oxford - Cambridge for me, I travelled on that line the most out of Cambridge.

But the cross country M&GN route mustn't be forgotten, nor the Cambridge - Colchester.

 

Stewart

[CUTLER2579]

12 hours ago, manna said:

G'Day Folks

 

 I'd like to sit at Hatfield station, when it still had it's overall roof on the Up main, engine shed, branch lines. Magical.

 

 

 

manna

 

Bloody long way to cycle home, though  

[CUTLER2579]

For me it has to be the Great Central London Extension which would negate a lot of the need for HS2.

[Bloodnok]

I'm going to have to nominate two short bits of railway:

Uckfield to Lewes, and Selsdon to Elmers End.

Why these two?

Because with these two intact, what you have is a second London to Brighton mainline avoiding all the traditional pinch points.
A truly vast amount of money has been spent wringing every last drop of capacity out of the Brighton mainline. This route would have instantly added two additional tracks end to end on that route.

[simontaylor484]

For me i would stay local between the 3 Pontefract stations timewise probably the 1950s just gor the variety of services and race day specials. The chord between Baghill and Monkhill stations would still be open too. It would be a sight to see Garrets pulling heavy coal trains and ecpress passenger services coming through just like no 9 on her last run

[3rd Rail Exile]

31 minutes ago, Bloodnok said:

I'm going to have to nominate two short bits of railway:

Uckfield to Lewes, and Selsdon to Elmers End.

Why these two?

Because with these two intact, what you have is a second London to Brighton mainline avoiding all the traditional pinch points.
A truly vast amount of money has been spent wringing every last drop of capacity out of the Brighton mainline. This route would have instantly added two additional tracks end to end on that route.

Having been born and raised in Beckenham, the thought of Brighton expresses thundering through the suburban backwater of Clock House station is highly amusing!  Unfortunately, Selsdon to Elmers End closed just before I got interested in railways, so I didn't ever actually "do" it...

[thegreenhowards]

I’ll go for Wareham to Swanage. Given the difficulties of getting onto the Isle of Purbeck by car, a rail alternative should have been retained. Luckily the Swanage Railway goes some way to fulfilling that role.

[Clive Mortimore]

I am ducking out of this poll because it is too easy to get emotional about a railway line that might have been interesting to railway enthusiast but was economically  unsound.  I am just glad I wasn't an accountant working for BR in the 1960s trying to keep a national railway network viable.

[great northern]

6th June. Central heating on. Here is the morning Cleethorpes-KX, well cleaned Immingham B1 as usual.

 

 

[landscapes]

Hi Gilbert

 

I would like to go back to KIng's Cross Station in the late 1950's early 1960's, standing at the end of the platform looking out to the three tunnel portals.

 

The anticipation of what will arrive on a passenger train or what locomotive will back down to the station from Top Shed.

 

David

[TrevorP1]

7 hours ago, great northern said:

What can we look at today? How about railway closures?  Some of those from the 60s have already been reversed, often at great expense, and others are being considered for re-opening. But what was the most short sighted and impactful decision back then?

 

Has to be the Great Central main line for me Gilbert, although Exeter to Plymouth via Okehampton runs it a close second.

[Bloodnok]

2 hours ago, 3rd Rail Exile said:

Having been born and raised in Beckenham, the thought of Brighton expresses thundering through the suburban backwater of Clock House station is highly amusing!  Unfortunately, Selsdon to Elmers End closed just before I got interested in railways, so I didn't ever actually "do" it...

I doubt it would have been the crack expresses going that way most of the time -- the route is longer and twistier, after all. So you probably wouldn't have seen expresses unless there was a closure somewhere.

But transferring traffic across will certainly free capacity on the mainline. Effectively what you've got here is a second pair of slow lines, plus service to Brighton from a lot more intermediate places.

I lived near Oxted for a while -- being able to get to Brighton from there by train, without having to go to Croydon and back would have been very useful...

[New Haven Neil]

Been missing for a while, sorry - pressure of work (bonkers) and a bereavement have rocked the boat a bit.

 

Lost lines?  Douglas to Peel of course!