diesels under the wires

(Photos Leyland, 24.5.1985 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING - RISE AND FALL OF THE DIESELS

I'm firmly convinced that diesels will have all but vanished from our railways by 2040. This is because of Peak Oil, which will make the running of these machines totally uneconomic, and is now official government policy. We'll see all railways either electrified or run by a new breed of steam locomotives, using super efficient wood burning as power.

The above four pictures all show diesels running under the wires at Leyland on the West Coast Main Line back in May 1985.

I'd encourage all railway enthusiasts to photograph this transitional form of transport whilst they still can! Once they are gone they really will be gone for good.

uckfield

UCKFIELD

(All 4.7.1977 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - SUSSEX TRANSPORT HISTORY

This was Uckfield back in 1977. The station has now been resited to the north of the level crossing and this scene has vanished.

The line used to continue to Lewes, double track throughout and a very useful diversionary route when the main London-Brighton route was blocked. The dinosaurs still saw fit to close this route in 1969 but the call for reinstatement has never gone away and is now stronger than ever.

It's inevitable that this line will be reopened in the not too distant future, and hopefully electrified, once again allowing it to take some of the pressure off the main London to Brighton line. So trains will doubtlessly pass this point again!

LINKS

Rail Thing Routes - Rails of Sussex
Southern Region Scene - 1970s
Rail Thing - British Railway Stations and Buildings
Rail Thing - Vanished Rail Scenes

monorail

(All 23.11.2010, copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING - MONORAILS

This is the monorail that serves Disney in Orlando, Florida. I didn't really know anything about this system before visiting, and was quite surprised that it was far from being an amusement park ride as expected. It actually serves a vital function, linking the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and some other Disney attractions to each other and to the Transportation Center. Trains run every couple of minutes and were packed. I was very impressed by the PA system on board which told us exactly why we were waiting for a few minutes just before our station (one of the trains was being switched to the Epcot route). All in all quite an experience.

Monorails can work in very dedicated situations like this - there's a similar short system at Orlando International Airport for example, but must cost a good deal more than conventional rail. A high capacity tramway would probably do the same job at a half the price - but you would lose the experience of seeing everything from an elevated position.

Links

Rail Thing - Rails of North America
Rail World

(Updated 30.5.2017)

aldershot 1986

ALDERSHOT

(All 22.8.1986 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - HAMPSHIRE TRANSPORT HISTORY

Four shots from Aldershot taken on 22.8.1986. I think this is the only time I've ever been to this location, which is rather out on a limb. Nothing special at the time, but stacks of infrastructure, slam door stock and even that grey liveried class 47. Railways are never static and what seems everyday in one decade is often non-existent in the next.

Links

Rail Thing Routes - Rails of Hampshire
Rail Thing - 80s UK Railscene
Rail Thing - British Railway Stations and Buildings
Rail Thing  Southern Region

(Updated 30.5.2017)

narrow gauge in the lowther hills

Britain's highest adhesion railway is (at over 1400ft asl) the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway, high up in the Lowther Hills south of Glasgow. I lived in Leadhills for five years, it's a magical place steeped in history and usually deep in snow! The line runs in the summer only and will eventually extend to Wanlockhead, Scotland's highest village. The line was originally a standard gauge light railway, linking with the main Carlisle to Glasgow line at Elvanfoot, closing in 1938. As its name implies this area was once the centre of the Scottish lead mining industry. Today it is the main area in Scotland for panning gold. The line operates at weekends in the summer only. No need to ask why!

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?