Thursday 15 December 2016

Snowy Rye in 1979

RYE








(All; copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 19.2.1979) 



On a snowy 19 February 1979 I took a trip over to the Hastings-Ashford line which was still very much a classic railway - and had even been under closure (notices were issued and posted!!) a few years earlier.

Like other stations on this line the platforms were staggered, which was something you simply didn't see over me side of Sussex (Littlehampton). I think at this time the route was still double track throughout, which helped push up costs in the attempt to close the line! This probably is why the station buildings survived all along the line as well. All in all it meant that this was a line that was a pleasure to travel on, empty trains across an empty landscape, especially on bleak winter days like this!

It's all change now with the once threatened line a major artery feeding traffic from along the crowded south coast into Ashford International station, delivering thousands of travellers on to Eurostar to Paris, Brussels and beyond. 

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