bideford - before reopening

A few glimpses of Bideford back in 1985, when the line was, incredibly, being demolished.

25 years on Bideford has been fully restored, but no sign of train services yet. There's also something happening further down the line at Torrington, and north of Bideford at Instow.

This is a real no-brainer of a reinstatement. Bideford is far too large to be train less, and the problem of the station being on the 'wrong' side of the river could surely be solved by running a tram service across the road bridge into the heart of the town, perhaps using tram-trains? And why not extend this tram route on to Westward Ho!? (Could this be the only correct use of an exclamation mark followed by a question mark in English?) The scenery along the whole route is superb and the location of the line alongside the estuary would bring passengers in their thousands in this prime holiday area. Regular year round traffic taking people into Barnstaple and beyond should ensure the line is profitable from day one, and no doubt freight traffic could also be developed.

This is definitely a line merely sleeping ...

freight 78

A nice shot of a class 37 hauled freight heading through Marks Tey in Suffolk. This was (and still is) the junction for the Sudbury branch which survived both truncation, reducing it from a through route to a branch, and cloure proposals in the dead decades of the 60s and 70s, which is now of course flourishing in common with railways throughout the UK. How long before the missing section is reinstated?

50 at basingstoke

One for Paul Beard!

A class 50 on an Exeter train at Basingstoke station 9.8.1986.

The Salisbury-Exeter route was much neglected in the 60s and 70s - incredibly closure was ever considered at one time. It was run down, singled over most of its length and often employed underpowered locos. The 50s however were good for this route, and could be said to be part of the line's revival which since the 80s has seen stations reopened (Feniton and Templecombe) and the line partly redoubled. The next few decades should see the line electrified throughout, nore stations reopened and hopefully some of the branches rebuilt (Sidmouth, Lyme Regis etc). With the New S&D reopening Templecombe should become an interchange station once more, and even the Seaton Tramway should be re-extended to Seaton Junction allowing exchange traffic.

shanklin 1977

Isle of Wight Railways Remembered


I've always liked the Isle of Wight railway network, even if today it's a lot smaller than it was and will be again. One of the daftest closures of the Beeching years was the Shanklin-Ventnor line which connected the busy seaside town of Ventnor to the outside world. Of course BR at the time fully expected the IOW railways to all have closed by 1975, so that the rather silly situation with the line terminating short at Shanklin would have been short lived. Fortunately at least part of the essential Newport and Cowes line is currently being operated as a heritage line, I can't seriously see Cowes and Newport staying off the network for many more years!

20 and APT at beattock 1985

BEATTOCK

(5.6.1985 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING - CLASS 20

I lived near here for five years, but five years after these pics were taken. This is Beattock summit on the main Carlisle to Glasgow line. I'd photographed a class 20 with a guards van waiting in the passing loop when quite by surprise the APT came through on a test run!

twyford 1977

Some more random shots from Twyford in Berkshire, all taken on 8 August 1977. One of my favourite locations both for the variety and quantity of traffic passing through, with the added bonus of branch line trains to Henley-on-Thames.

jaffa cake

(barnham 13.8.1986)

In the mid eighties the first moves towards privatizing the network began to be made with regions being allowed to drift away from the corporate blue and grey. For a brief few months Network South East experimented with the classy 'Jaffa Cake' livery, which sadly soon gave way to the garish red, white and blue. The old slam door stock, which had been exclusively either rail blue or blue and grey for the best part of twenty years, could for a year or so could be seen in a variety of colours. This was by far the best!