Some people won't believe this.

[Tim V]

http://www.bristol-rail.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2767&sid=0b3baf67e7568c846abe38bfaa0d176d

 

So it was not a WR plot. Discuss.

[chrisf]

Something else implicating the LM electrification!  A learned gent was arguing the other night that the Great Central was run down so as to concentrate freight on the electrified West Coast.

 

Chris  

[Reading General]

Never thought it was! Pure economics were in play and it was a duplicate route with falling passengers and freight numbers and was expensive and awkward to work. Didn't stand a chance (in fact it really shouldn't have been built in the first place).

 

RIP S&D. I never knew you but I would have loved you, with all your faults.

[APOLLO]

And then they shut The Waverley & Woodhead. Definitely NOT WR plots !!

 

Brit15

[bike2steam]

Now you know why the Southern region wanted shot of the S&DJR in the boundary changes of 1958, passing the buck over to the WR for responsibility of closure. But for those of us that know the lines history, it's original purpose eventually changed, and was left behind with the change in time.

[Captain Kernow]

And then they shut The Waverley & Woodhead. Definitely NOT WR plots !!

 

Brit15

I recommend a reading of 'Holding the Line' by Chris Austin & Richard Faulkner, which looks at the all-pervading anti-railway bias in the Government in the 1960s and subsequently, up until privatisation and the on-set of Community Rail. Very interesting and revealing.

[The Stationmaster]

As it happens the transfer would also have been beneficial to some staff on redundancy.  While footplate staff effectively had 'All Line' seniority, and the same (more or less) went for clerical and supervisory staff, ordinary grades such as PerWay and operating staff held their seniority within particular Promotional Areas.  By transferring everything well clear of SR territory to the Western staff would benefit by being more easily able to find jobs nearer to where they lived within their existing seniority and Promotional Area.

 

Thus for example a number of S&DJtR Signalmen easily dropped into WR vacancies quite near to home and in some cases nearer to home than their previous jobs on the S&DJtR.  It was probably a totally unintentional consequence but for all that it was a beneficial result for some as they weren't necessarily forced to move to stay in jobs on the SR.  Some of those who opted to be regarded as redundant SR staff had to move home, considerable distances in some cases, although because of their 'All Line' nature the same could happen to footplatemen (who went all over the place I understand).

[Tim V]

Only 6 replies, I am disappointed with the S&D pedants. I expected more....

[JohnR]

I dont think this in and of itself absolves the WR of guilt. I'd long heard that the SR only closed their portion (as detailed in this memorandum) because the WR were closing the nrothern section. Had the WR kept it open, probably rationalised, the SR would have kept their section open. As the memo explains, they were keeping it open for freight in any case from Blandford.

[bike2steam]

I dont think this in and of itself absolves the WR of guilt. I'd long heard that the SR only closed their portion (as detailed in this memorandum) because the WR were closing the nrothern section. Had the WR kept it open, probably rationalised, the SR would have kept their section open. As the memo explains, they were keeping it open for freight in any case from Blandford.

 

Interesting - but what memo ? Passenger numbers were low enough, it plummeted particularly after the end of through traffic, so much so even most of the replacement bus services didn't last long after the rail closure. A head count was carried out in the final months at Blandford for a possible skeleton Poole to Blandford service, while the fertilizer traffic to the 'Blandford & Webb' store was still running, but numbers were too small to make it feasible.