The Lost Railways of Britain | 1990s VHS Classic Video

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Railway cutbacks are seldom out of the news as the recent proposed pruning of some of the UK’s less well-used lines shows only too well it’s tempting to think that not so very long ago there was a golden age of Railways when the service was far more wide reaching with lots of well staffed

Smart country stations leading into a super efficient national network of course the reality was very different Britain was indeed the birthplace of Railways but it was also one of the first countries in the world to see a major program of closures cutting back not only the excesses of duplication between one-time rival

Railway companies but also depriving many towns of their only rail Connection in the early 1960s Dr beaching in his Infamous report the reshaping of British Railways proposed huge cutbacks of the network drastically pruning duplicated roots and unprofitable rural lines though in reality a good many had already closed in the 1950s as a result of falling traffic levels and growing Road

Competition scenes like this were all too common in the 1960s as demolition contractors struggled to keep Pace with a sheer number of deric stations good sheds and Signal boxes the railway preservation movement had only just started and many artifacts that would be valuable today were simply left to rot

Disused lines became a familiar feature of the landscape waiting to be recolonized by nature or redeveloped by Man sometimes and against all the odds the closure turned out to be only temporary this attractive route to the shore of Lake windir in the Lake District was finally abandoned by BR in 1965 who were faced with the prohibitive costs of all year round maintenance for

A line that was used mainly for seasonal Excursion holiday traffic however many people felt this appealing short Line’s tourist potential was too great to be lost so the volunteers got to work eventually this three Mar strench was reopened as a Heritage Railway in 1973 since then visitors have once again

Been able to enjoy steam Hall to The Landing stage at Lake windir but for most closed lines there is no real Prospect of reopening once they’ve been deleted from the railway map in rural districts the track beds are often sold off peac meal to Farmers and within a few years only the old

Cuttings and embankments remain as reminders of former Railway Glory Days but it’s not all doom and gloom many Old Railway track beds have found a new use as popular foot paaths often with the support of the local Authority however even though the trains have long since Departed the substantial

Cost of safely maintaining large structures like Bridges and viaducts still continues which can be a heavy burden for local r repairs many former Railway buildings and stations also survive in a wide variety of uses often as attractive private houses Halton station near Lancaster has now found a very unusual new use

Tastefully converted it’s now a boat store for the Rowing Club at Lancaster University 40 years ago steam train would have stormed through here with holiday services from leads to moram Via Lancaster green Air much of the route is now a popular cycle track providing a traffic-free alternative to the busy a683 fortunately the bridges over the crook of Loon at Kon were left in place after the line closed the rhythm of the daily steam freight trains from Ham docks is now a distant

Memory and today the only sound you’re likely to hear around here of bicycles or Walkers enjoying the Tranquility of the lon Valley with the benefit of hindsight many lines that did close would today undoubtedly serve a useful purpose if only someone had had the foresight to moth Pall the track rather than

Completely remove every last vestage of Railway infrastructure it can be argued that it’s not simply about profit there are other matters including environmental issues that should be taken into account and indeed today’s new and invigorated privatized Railway does receive huge subsidies to operate some less profitable routes [Applause]

But it’s not by any means all bad news as we shall see during the course of this program although some famous and useful lines did indeed close others were saved and many other routs that were considered to have no future still function today even if they’re serving totally different customer needs

B Green Park Station was once the northern Terminus of the Somerset and Dorset Railway a Meandering cross country route that must always have struggled to cover its costs even before competition from Road Transport began to bite Dr beaching targeted the whole of the sumerset and Dorset system and the

Line to B Green Park closed in March 1966 the Somerset and Dorset remain steam worked until the end these evocative scenes were recorded on New Year’s Day 1966 with a train setting off on its leisurely journey to Bournemouth the engine is a br standard class 4 built in the

1950s the crossing of the MIP Hills between everreach Junction and B produced some delightful scenery it also gave the line it steep gradients sharp curves and heavy Earthworks the combination of an X LMS locomotive and southern region green Rolling Stock is a reminder that the Somerset and Dorset was a joint line up to nationalization in 1948 chill Compton station was busy at least six times a year as the rail head for downside Public School it was also the

Loading point for one of the local cies to the south of binegar the line wound its way up to mabury Summit 8811 ft above sea level before dropping down again to ever Junction where the branch from bamon sea joined although the line from Bath turned out to me the more important arm

Of the snd it was actually opened more than decade after the line from bamon sea the original idea of the Somerset and Dorset had been to provide an Overland link between the sea ports of pool and burnam on sea avoiding the Hazardous sea Passage around the coast of Devon and

Cornwall the port-to-port traffic never lived up to expectations but once the B extension had opened the Somerset and Dorset found a new role carrying holiday makers between the industrial north of England and the South Coast as well as tapping the freight potential of Somerset quarries and ceries the intermediate station of wind Canton

Produced a mixture of Passenger and goods traffic as it was once the location of local milk processing Factories at Blandford branston’s School generated a periodic flurry of activity with pupil and their trunks which would have been sent Luggage in advance Blandford marked the start of the single track section to Temple which would have caus some congestion on busy Summer Saturdays the Northbound exit was up a steep climb at 1

In0 if only Summer Saturday traffic volumes could have been maintained every day of the year then doubtless the snd would still survive today but by the early 1960s it was a classic case of an underutilized resource soaking up taxpayers money and with little potential for development At Broadstone Junction the snd crossed the castleman’s corks group the original main line from Southampton to Dorchester via Ringwood it then skirted pool Harbor to reach this spacious Terminus at Bournemouth West 71 M from B and 45 from everreach Junction Bournemouth West was better known as the Terminus for waterl

Expressors the snd was long regarded as the poor relation in 1965 the Terminus closed completely its trains diverted to Bournemouth [Applause] Central the closure of this rural route followed the usual pattern of a lengthy public inquiry with many objections to the proposed withdrawal of services but the outcome was in reality a foregone

Conclusion the labor government of the day were determined to cut losses on the then nationalized Railway Saturday the 5th of March 1966 was the last day of the sndd with normal service trains and specials bursting to the seams in the Glorious spring sunshine sadly the closure would have scarcely

Been noticed by many people in the towns and Villages along its route rural buses and private cars long since having become their usual means of Transport this rural line to lose in Sussex closed in 1958 actually well before the publication of the beaching report but incredibly reopened as the Bluebell

Railway only 2 years later to become the first standard gauge Heritage Railway in the country its northern Terminus at HED ke was still used by BR trains from Haywood’s Heath until the closure of that line in 1963 the Blue Bell Railway was then free to take over the spacious five platform

Station and restore it to look much as it would have done in Southern Railway days among the railway’s first locomotives were two terer tanks originally built for Suburban Duties the other end of the reopen Bluebell Railway was Sheffield Park originally just an intermediate station on the line to lose the Bluebell Railway set up its locomotive headquarters here as well as administrative offices a museum and Bookshop all essential ingredients of the successful preserved Railway the Bluebell Railway quickly

Became far more popular than its Founders could have imagined by the early 1970s it was welcoming a quarter of a million visitors a Year Today visitors to the Bluebell Railway can enjoy a ride not only on the original 5m Stretch between Sheffield Park and HED Kings but also on the 3M extension northwards to Kings Cod this extension opened in stages between 1990 and 1994 a testimony to the patience and hard work of hundreds of volunteers over

The previous 35 Years the eventual aim is to extend beyond Kings coat to the outskirts of East grinstad with a new Terminus in the old station Goods yard within walking distance of the network Rail station in the town the Bluebell Railway traveler sees rural England at its best as the train

Threads its way through an attractive Patchwork of fields and woods like many other preserved or Heritage lines the Blue Bell thrives as much on its location as on its historic collection of locomotives and Rolling Stock the stations too are an all important part of the nostalgic experience manually operated semaphore signals guard the exit from Hed King station much as they would have done in early BR days however it’s doubtful whether BR could ever have kept the station facilities quite as spit and span as

This one day it’s possible that hored Keen station may become a junction again with the Bluebell Railway intending to relay the branch towards Haywood’s Heath that closed in 1963 however this project is best regarded as a long-term aspiration today’s Motive Power on the Bluebell Railway is a lot more varied

Than it would have been in BR days the railway hosts the UK’s largest and most comprehensive collection of X Southern Railway types including this S15 owned by the morel locomotive Society being the first major Heritage line to operate the Bluebell had the incredible advantage that some of the locomotives used were acquired straight

From BR service into preservation after 1968 the railway had to look mainly to the scrapyards and heavy restoration work became one of its main Activities if it hadn’t been for the unpaid work put in by generations of volunteers most of this wonderful line would now be returned to Nature just like the Somerset and Dorset route today the Blue Bell undoubtedly succeeds in recreating a bygone age to be enjoyed as much by those born after

1968 as by those for whom it all seems like yesterday The Border City of carile is still an important Railway Junction today but until 1969 it was also the starting point for a line which some say should never have closed the Waverly line to Edinburgh via ho and Galla Shields completed in 1862 by the north British Railway company the Waverly line provided the most direct route between carile and the Scottish Capital competing with the Caledonian Railway route via Castair the Waverly line also gave access to a number of Branch lines riddings Junction 14 Mi north of carile was the starting point for the 7 m Long Branch to langhome that Branch was never fully dieselized and was an early casualty of the beaching report closing to passengers in

1964 however it kept a residual pickup Goods service until 1967 po marks the halfway point between carile and edram and was one of only two sizable towns on the Waverly line the other the Galla Shields while diesels were beginning to take over on the West and East Coast main

Lines this secondary line wasn’t a priority for modernization in 1961 the line was still host to this j37 Goods engine built around the time of the first world war an even older type still in daily use was this j36 a North British design dating back to

1888 long before the Advent of the UK Motorway Network the Waverly line saw a wide variety of through traffic including Express Goods trains between Northwest England and the east of Scotland which often conveyed perishables and other times sensitive traffics the north British company that built the Waverly line was absorbed into

The Ln in 1923 and L built locomotives like this B1 remained a common site on the line even inbr days the ancient locomotive that was still based at St Boswell’s for working the Long Branch to baric Via Kelo was paired with a couple of elderly non-corridor carriages although there

Were only a handful of passengers to enjoy the ride ever since the Waverly line closed in January 1969 there have been proposals to reopen it especially the northern section between Galla Shields and Edinburgh in March 2005 the Scottish executive agreed in principle to fund the reopening of the line as far as

Tweed Bank just beyond Galla Shields and 35 mil from Edinburgh the Scottish Parliament was due to debate the proposals in the summer and all being well construction could begin in 2006 if trains do return once more to Galla Shields this will be the most ambitious Railway reopening project ever undertaken in the

UK a once important trans penine route that closed in 1962 was the stainmore line linking tbay and penris in the west with Darlington in the East although built mainly for mineral traffic especially Coke from the Durham Co field to the Iron Works of Furness in

BR days the line was at its busiest on Summer Saturdays we scheduled holiday trains running between Blackpool and either Newcastle or South Shields the track bed of this stretch of the line near Ravenstone Dale is now the main a685 road trains were commonly double-headed in

Order to tackle the gradients of up to 1 in 59 between Kirby Steven and stainmore Summit ravenstonedale station had already been closed to passengers for nearly a decade when the very last train over stainmore passed through in January 1962 the stainmore line was known for its heavy engineering Works including

Smardale Viaduct which was some 550 ft long and up to 90 ft High although most of the costs associated with running a railway cease when the Line closes some like the maintenance of listed major structures still continue Although the isolated smardale Viaduct hadn’t carried any Revenue earning traffic for 40 years it still had to be maintained by BR and then rail track eventually this impressive structure was sold for just a penny and restored by the northern Viaduct trust and today forms part of a pleasant country

Footpath heading towards Kirby Steven the stainmore line passed through an arch of the other smardale Viaduct on the SLE and carile line just visible in the distance Kirby Steven East was the junction for the Eden Valley branch to applebe and Pen R part of which survived for Freight traffic until the

1980s the track between applebe and warhop was never lifted and the reopening of that section was the first Target of the Eden Valley Railway Society formed in 1995 the site of Kirby Steven East station was also saved and in the longer term the Eden Valley Railway Society

Aims to restore a train service on the 11 Mile Stretch from applebe to Kirby Steven belar Viaduct was without doubt the most famous engineering structure on the stainmore line spanning a distance of over a, ft and standing 196 ft above the valley floor it was built entirely of iron designed to combine strength

With lightweight Construction today there’s barely a trace of the Railway at belar the viaduct was dismantled and cut up for scrap soon after the line closed in 1962 leaving only memories of the holiday trains that once clattered across the valley the nearby settle and carine line has a happier story to tell it was one

Of the handful of trunk routs targeted for closure in the 1963 beaching report and was threatened again in the 1970s and 80s however the line that refused to die has since bounced back to become a major Freight artery as well as providing much needed passenger services in the Yorkshire dalees national

Park with its substantial viaducts numerous tunnels and other heavy engineering works the settl and Carly line was a magnificent achievement by the Midland Railway when it first opened to passengers in 1876 but a century later British Rail was trying its best to run down the residual inter city service claiming

That it was a hopeless loss maker in 1983 the line was deprived of all its through Freight Traffic typically very little effort was made to market the the few passenger services that remained in the 1980s batty Moss or ribblehead Viaduct came to symbolize the struggle to save the snc its deteriorating condition was given as a compelling reason for closing the line with an estimated repair bill

In 1988 of nearly 3 million the 24 span structure RIS majestically above the mland landscape that was once inhabited by hundreds of navies employed by the Midland Railway today small humps and depressions on the ground are all that remain of the navi settlements with their shops schools and other Facilities mechanical signaling has remain remained a feature of the settle and carile line to the present day although some boxes such as this one at hton were abolished in the 1980s as traffic levels declined Horton was one of the 12 intermediate stations that closed in 1970 when BR withdrew the twice daily

Local passenger service between Skipton and carile happily the platforms were left in position as the closure turned out to be shortlived the Yorkshire Dales National Park sponsored a summertime dal’s rail service from 1975 and BR reintroduced all year round stopping trains in 1986 today eight of the 12 Clos stations

Are in the timetable again in the late 1980s it seemed that the writing was firmly on the wall as the official closure notices were posted poed and there was a flurry of steam specials to travel the route for the last time helped by the publicity generated by the many steam train specials the

Fight to save the line began to gain momentum at the same time British ra began a campaign of closure by stealth gradually cutting back on all but the most essential maintenance and grossly exaggerating the cost of the line’s upkeep in the end after a huge public outcry and against all the odds the

Potential of this fine line was finally acknowledged in 1989 by the conservative government of the day who scrapped the closure plan opening the way for the line to be revitalized after the closure notices were withdrawn ribblehead Viaduct was repaired and the track singled to restrict weight although the final bill was nowhere near

The claimed original estimate of 3 million lb the snc has rediscovered its Freight potential although the freight flows that use the line today are very different from those that finished in 1983 the main traffic now is coal from Scottish opencast sites and hunston deep water port to power stations in the air

And Trent valleys in the early 1980s the coal traveled mainly in the other direction from Yorkshire pits to customers in Scotland [Applause] unseen by most tourists the line also carries up to three chains a day of containerized dulur gypsum from draxx power station near Selby to Kirby Thor

Keeping hundreds of lorries off the narrow Yorkshire D’s roads much of the credit for the Revival of the snc goes to the voluntary group Friends of the settle Carly line that was formed in 1981 to campaign against br’s closure plans shortly after the reprieve the charitable settle carile

Railway trust was founded with the aim of conserving the historic architecture and structures along the route today these organizations work hand inand with the different train operating companies and local councils to promote the line and ensure its continued success the work of the settle carile Railway trust in restoring Porton and

Kirby Steven stations was not only welcomed by The Traveling public but also gained Royal approval when the Prince of Wales arrived behind Duchess of southernland in March 20 2005 I just wanted to use this opportunity to congratulate all those who have played such an enormously important part in in in in keeping this

Line open and in restoring these wonderful buildings and in making it such a pleasure for people to travel along this line in which I include myself uh having had the great Good Fortune of going along here already today being pulled by a steam engine which uh I can’t tell you what pleasure

It gives me it brings back very happy memories of my childhood so thank God for enthusiast like all of you if I may say so because the world have been very much a poorer [Applause] place but the S and C is much more than a working Museum thanks to strong public

Support the line that refused to die is now once again an integral part of the nation’s Freight and passenger rail network and as such can look forward to a future a less fortunate trans penine route was the wood headline which despite being spared by Dr beaching lost its through passenger service in 1970

And closed completely in 1981 Sheffield Victoria Station lay on the former Great Central route from Manchester to London but in later years it was best known as the Terminus of the electrically worked service from Manchester halt by class 76 locomotives of Ln Design the pioneering Woodhead electrification scheme was the first of its kind in the country linking two major cities some 41 miles apart and including a brand new tunnel through the penines work on the scheme was started by the Ln but delayed by the second world war the full electric service from

Manchester to Sheffield eventually being launched in 1954 locomotive changes were a feature of Woodhead operation as many trains began or ended their Journey away from the electrified line penniston was the junction for the non-electrified branch to barnesley which lost its local passenger service in 1959 but was still used by Excursion

Traffic in the 1960s although the wood headline had seen massive investment in the 1950s The Chosen electrification system of 1,500 volts DC soon became non-standard as be opted instead for 25 kilovolts AC for its West Coast scheme the low level of business for from most intermediate stations meant

That BR could reroot its Manchester Sheffield trains via the Hope Valley Line without too much opposition local Services would continue at each end of the Woodhead line electric between Manchester and Hatfield and Diesel between penist and Sheffield but the re-rooting would bring the end of Passenger Services through the new Woodhead tunnel barely 15 years old what a waste Freight traffic continued to keep Woodhead busy in the 1970s mainly coal from Yorkshire pits to various destinations in the Northwest including Fiddler’s fery power station and Gaston docks for export

It’s tempting today to think that the Woodhead route should have remained open but the reality is that the traffic has changed dramatically and most people now travel across the penines by car on the a57 Woodhead coal traffic ebed away as the Yorkshire pits closed and the 1950s electrification system was old and

Expensive to maintain BR decided that the the best option was to re-root the remaining trains and close the central part of the line completely which they did in July 1981 by the end of the second world war the privately run Railway network was totally worn out and in desperate need

Of new investment the new labor government of 1945 believed the answer was to nationalize not just the railways but all the nation’s transport including lorries some six years later the new conservative government decided to denationalize the road industry but left British Railways intact as competition between Road and rail dramatically increased the losses

Began to mount up British Railways were forced to charge Freight customers set tariff which was set down by a parliamentary tribunal in practice these charges could easily be undercut by the new Private Road holers the rod quickly set in and more and more traffic moved from rail to Road

Over the years as the motorway network has steadily expanded many freight services and Rural Freight only lines have been lost thankfully some rural Freight only lines were left intact and today the amloc branch which closed to Freight traffic in the 1990s could well be reopened as a passenger line once again

For the isolated routs that served the many coal mines that once were scattered around the countryside the future was decidedly Bleak with no traffic and no potential for passengers nearly all of these lines have been lifted and are returning to nature it’s important to be realistic though and to realize that not every

Line that’s closed can have a new future as a preserved Railway or be reopened as a cycle way the Great Central mainline from Sheffield to Nottingham and London was a prime target for closure because it largely duplicated other routes daytime expresses were withdrawn from the Great Central as early as

1961 leaving only semi fast traffic and one CrossCountry service between York and Bournemouth through Freight traffic was withdrawn in 1965 and long sections of the route were closed completely in the following year leaving just a rather pathetic dmu operated service between Notting and rugby until 1969 the great Central’s London

Extension from Nottingham to London marleybone was Britain’s last Main Line opening in 1899 although it was superbly engineered it served fewer population centers than rival routs and south of rugby it ran through 60 Mi of almost uninterrupted Farmland here at lfra it passed over the Midland Main Line though there was no

Physical connection between the two routs in the steam Days one of the main Freight flows on the Great Central was coal from the East Midlands to London rooted via marshalling yards at anle and Woodford house as a Prelude to closure BR was able to divert much of this traffic onto the Midland Main Line a limited Revival for the Great

Central came in the 1970s thanks to the mainline steam trust a voluntary group that aimed to recreate the experience of Mainline steam running by Reviving The 9M stretch between lfra and Lester the operation later took the name of its ancestor the Great Central Railway lfra Central Station has been

Painstakingly restored to recall the postwar years before the decline of the Railway set in uniquely among Britain’s preserved Railways the Great Central includes some 5 and a half miles of double track which in itself goes a long way towards creating a Mainline field however the regulations for Heritage Railways

Prevent today’s trains from attaining Mainline speeds this particular train is hauled appropriately by a former Great Central oal locomotive [Applause] this peak diesel recalls a more recent era but one that must be just as unfamiliar to younger observers as the age of steam the Peaks remained a common site

On nearby Midland lines in leerer until the mid 1980s we step back into the 1930s at quorn where the name board reminds us that the Great Central became part of the Ln in 1923 the line remained under Eastern region control in early BR days but was later transferred to the London Midland region

The island platform at corn was a typical Great Central Arrangement the semore signals box and sidings all enhan the authentic Mainline atmosphere of the Great Central for the time being trains are limited to the 9 miles from lfra to Leicester North but longer term plans could see the line extended North from lfra to ruddington giving a total route

Length of nearly 20 mil the main stumbling block to that extension is the missing bridge over the Midland main line at lbr had BR not run down the Great Central in the 60s Peaks might well have become established on passenger and Freight duties until the arrival of second

Generation diesel Traction in the 80s and ’90s the Great Central had the advantage of gentle gradients nothing steeper than 1 in 176 and wide radius curves making it highly suitable for high-speed running whether the small intermediate stations like rothley could have survived into the 21st century in National ownership is another matter at

Best the buildings would doubtless have been demolished and the station reduced to an unstaffed halt in reality BR closed rothley and five other intermediate Stations between Nottingham and rugby as early as 1963 though thankfully some platforms and buildings were left intact although a return to trunk Mainline status is possible if ever the

Central Railways Channel tunnel piggy bank link plans come to fruition the most likely Prospect for this surviving chunk of the Great Central is its continued development as a thriving Heritage line perhaps the major asset that all of the UK’s Heritage lines share is the widespread use of volunteers

From drivers to station staff and track maintenance gangs most people don’t draw any wages they’re happy to give up their time for something they believe so passionately about however for today’s lines that are at risk of closure it’s a very different story a threatened rural line that still

Forms part of the national network today is the 114m route around the cumbrian coast Dr beaching proposed closing the central part of the route completely and retaining just Branch lines from carfi to Barrow and from carile to White Haven despite the line offering some of the most impressive Coastal scenery in

Britain the route is only lightly used by local traffic at ansite the cumbrian Fells form an inviting backdrop as a diesel unit crosses the Kent estery a single Carriage somewhat dwarfed by its surroundings provides more than adequate accommodation for the few passengers traveling between Barrow and White Haven dolon station like almost all

Intermediate stations on the cuman coastline became an unstaffed hold around 1970 as BR tried to cut costs unusually for such a rural location part of the former Goods yard remains in use for deliveries of oil from grouth Refinery the only Network rail line to penetrate into the Central Lake District

Is the threatened 10m windir Branch the line was built mainly with tourism in mind although it was was opposed by no lesser person than William woodsworth the windir branch was always single track but severe rationalization came in the early 1970s when BR removed all loops and sidings effectively

Turning the branch into a Long Siding from the West Coast Mainline Junction at oxen home unfortunately this rationalization meant that the branch was barred to through Excursion locomotive Hall trains the old Terminus at windir became more of a liability than an asset and BR decided in 1980 to sell off the site for

Conversion to a supermarket with provision for a new terminal platform behind today there’s little effort made to promote this attractive line which would surely support a regular summer steam service in mid Wales the survival of the Cambrian Coastline from mli to pelli owes much to political expediency a survey in

1974 when car ownership was significantly less than it is today found that less than 2% of marioni residents used the line and only 3% of visiting tourists used it but for some communities it under deniably fulfilled a role and each closure proposal was greeted with VT opposition the 115 span barmouth Bridge

Crossing the mordak estery caused the most recent threat to the line when it was found to be Infested by Marine woodworms many feared the worst but in fact repairs were carried out and the line was soon back in business in the late 1980s the Cambrian Coast was one of

Several rural routs to benefit from Radio signaling cutting out the need for traditional signal boxes in Cornwall the L branch is one of several to have survived against all the odds a single rail car shuttles between the picturesque coastal town of Lou and the mainline Junction at liscard

Rationalization came early to the L Branch the passenger service was dieselized in 1961 and goods facilities were withdrawn in 1963 leaving just a basic longsiding operation an even more Curious survival is the gunis lake branch on the Devon Cornwall border this was the classic case of a line being retained for social reasons

And because there was no realistic Road alternative as one writer put it BR had suffered The Misfortune of inheriting a fine Viaduct across the river Tamar in historical terms the gun is Lake Branch was once two separate lines joined here at beer olston where today’s trains reverse Direction although only one track

Remains beer olon station has so far managed to escape bus shelter treatment and retain something of its life L and Southwestern Railway character even the shell of the signal box remains on the former up platform until 1968 beer olston was an intermediate station on the London and Southwestern

Mainline from exitor to Plymouth and the junction for branch trains to callington Via gunis Lake through services on the London and Southwestern Mainline were withdrawn because they were supposedly duplicating those on the Great Western route by a doish in practice the logic of the closure was questionable as it

Left the sizable town of Tavistock without a rail service and forced all the costs of the surviving beer olston to Plymouth line onto the gunish lake Branch operation hopefully like this on the Ingleton branch which once linked to Clapham on the Skipton to Lancaster line with lill on the west coast Mainline

Will not be repeated again track lifting here didn’t take place until 1967 the line having been retained as a theoretical diversionary route for West Coast Expresses in practice the track lifting trains were the heaviest loads the line had seen for some time in reality no government will go on

Subsidizing little used routes with trains which are seen as doing little more than carting fresh air around the countryside but with car ownership particularly in rural areas considered to be a necessity our rural lines need very skillful marketing if they are to Survive No Doubt new action groups inspired by the success of the friends of the settle and carile will begin themselves to promote their own local lines not just as passenger routs but also for their valuable Freight potential keeping lorries off our overcrowded roads surely everyone in the community will stand to

Benefit from a sensibly funded and used rural Railway Network