John Betjeman goes by train - King's Lynn to Hunstanton (1962) (TalkingPicsTV)

[Miss Prism]

Even if you're not a fan of Betjeman's whimsy, there's some great BR period detail in this.

 

TalkingPicsTV, 13:45 today.

 

[paulbb]

Interesting to see how tidy the stations and the track are in pre-Network Rail days in this film.

The line was only a marginal loss maker too... many other routes lost far more and stayed open, possibly as the MP's in those areas were in marginal constituencies?

[Oldddudders]

ISTR a charming little film. Betjemanesque instant humour when the driver sounds the horn while Betjeman is narrating "The driver liked that bit"!

[The Stationmaster]

3 hours ago, paulbb said:

Interesting to see how tidy the stations and the track are in pre-Network Rail days in this film.

The line was only a marginal loss maker too... many other routes lost far more and stayed open, possibly as the MP's in those areas were in marginal constituencies?

Way before NR was even thought of.  Hunstanton closed to freight in 10964 and would have begun some layout   rationalisation from then.  By the time the passenger service went in 1969 the station appears to have been reduced to a single platform line. Big difference from later years - basically the 1970s onwards - is that the buildings and at least some of the platfrm canopies were  still intact at the time of closure.

 

And yes , in the 1960s most places - albeit a few exceptions - were still pretty tidy and the lineside was actually looked after although that too began to change as mechanised track maintenance too over and the local PerWay gangs were cut out.  But the end of steam really started the change in the appearance of the lineside as the need to keep vegetation under control no longer existed.

 

And today's repeat of the film was a nice accompaniment to my lunchtime cheese & pickle sandwiches.