Now and Then
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- A look at some of Britain's abandoned railway stations.
After the 1963 Beeching report, Over 2,000 stations in Great Britain were closed and most were left to rot.
Pictured stations:
Ide Halt
West Moors
Kingsbridge
Wickham
Cowley
Littleham
East Budleigh
Forest Row
Music by Yann Tiersen
These places are like old folks, forgotten - there is a feel of emptiness and sadness seeing those once beautiful places in ruins 💔😪
I remember waking up to look out my bedroom window at trains going by. Now the tracks are replaced with a bypass roadway.
man, that would been awsome for you but annoying for everyone the train
Dan Man10 Gaming
I loved it. I kept a scanner on to know when the trains were coming.
Love your videos. "Start the video, son!"
Strangely moving - There was something very wholesome and welcoming about these rural railway stations and its so sad to see their demise and decay. Beeching was a short-sighted fool!
Beeching was just the hatchet man for Ernest Marples, the minister of transport who just happened to own a road building company.
Beeching did what any academic would have come to when faced with all the facts ,he also stopped some lines being closed ,when 1% of your footfall use 50% of your network it’s totally uneconomic ,he was just the guy that took the rap on behalf of the rail management at the time ,if his name had been Smith it would have been the Smith cuts...he was also payed a huge wedge to take the criticism....
Beeching just did what he was asked to do, list the lines that had to go to save the sum of money required. Not a fool, just a man doing a job.
@@MrDorbel That’s what Beeching said!
@@jerribee1 Marples used to own a Civil engineering company. When he was mead a junior cabinet minister in Oct 1951, he was required by Parliamentary law to resign his directorship which he did, and his was recorded at Company's House. The Parliamentary standards committee would also have been informed of this. From that time onwards he was not involved in the day to day running or contract negotiations of that company. Beeching as the Chairman of the newly formed BRB was responsible for pruning the rail network of all unremunerative lines that were identified in a survey of passenger traffic done in April 1962. The railways were running a deficit of £150 million and rising and something had to be done to stem these losses.
Great video. Total nostalgia for another age. Love it. A lot of RRs in the US have been abandoned too. Especially on the East Coast in rural areas.
It's very sad that these beautiful places that served so many people are being lost to history.
I agree to a certain extent. I think Marples wanted them closed and Beeching could not see the longer term benefit or the cultural heritage side of things either. I think they could have spared about 25-35% of what they closed. I know a couple of abandoned railways near me in South Wales that would now be profitable and they have recently re-opened Ebbw Vale to Newport with brand new stations.
Marbles wife, had a construction company, and guess who got loads of motorway contracts. A bit like today with Covid and MPs friends getting contracts too.
Marples & Beeching could not see the future of Britain. Ok the railway system was in need of modernisation, but to destroy as much as they did was absolutely disgusting. The stations that were shut should have been provisional with a view that in say 10 20 years if the need arose they could be reopened. The infrastructure that the victorians built was a fantastic achievement, it was criminal that it was destroyed by unscrupulous people like Marples & Beeching.
Not Quite. in 1962 there was a survey done across the whole rail network to determine what the passenger usage of lines was. The results of this survey were used to produce the Railways report what is colloquially called the Beeching 1 report. Lines that did not run at a profit as specified in the 1962 Transport Act would be candidates for closure, and lines that did make a profit would be developed. Also the Railways were running at a loss, a deficit of £150 million so something had to be done, in order to stem these losses. Also the Railway itself was closing lines via the Branchline committee, and had done so with a number of unremunerative lines. It is what happened to the Bluebell line here in Sussex that was closed in 1958, reopened and closed again, then a preservation society got involved and the rest is history.
fool
what's marples got to do with it?
Fantastic video. Such a shame to see such wonderful pictures of the past turn to weeds and dirt! Thanks for posting!
I don't live in Great Britain and never have but I like how this video was put together showing what it used to look like and then showing what it looks like now
This is ana amazing production, the music set it so well.
It used to be so cozy, cute and beautiful..my motto is: Changes sucks. works good for almost everything :(
So painful to see the conditions of these forgotten stations
So sad a time gone by and forgotten such a shame
That's nothing in the early 20s the US had over 275,000 miles of rail. Now there is only about 126,000. that's more than half of the lines abandoned.
Kevin Howard Britain is smaller than America though
In the 20th century the US rail and public transport systems were decimated by the big 3 motor vehicle manufacturers (notably Chevrolet).
Loved the music that accompanies the film...... Also the old lines should be reopened as cycle/foot paths, I know about Sustrans but I don't think it does enough.... The government spends millions widening roads for cyclists safety when there are many on lines that can be used again.....
Sustrans does what it can considering it is a charity.
Woke up with some vivid images flashing in my head, some urgency to be somewhere like the images portrayed here:
At the break of dawn, some old timey small town train station, with piping coffee in hand with the steam evaporating at a steady pace, as I claim a corner seat, and it’s just foggy everywhere….
I don’t know if that train came though 💭
Good choice of music. Very melancholy.
Nicely done and well matched music.
Well done.
i almost cried!
There are lots of lines in Britain that if they had managed to survive the 60's and 70's would still be open and very profitable,as rail usage is now higher than for half a century. Capacity is reaching 100% on some lines.
But sadly,many of the closed alternative routes were cynically ripped up immediately and often sold for building on, and now they would be very hard to reinstate.
One of the worst mistakes any country can make is to let its railway infrastructure go to rot. It leads to the building of more roads, which in turn leads to more car and truck traffic, requiring still more roads, and so on. This is the price of individual "freedom".
Where I live there use to be a train station connecting the Swansea to Brecon Railway which suffered the Beaching axe. My late grandfather worked as a fireman on the footplate of the LMS Railway which ran on the branch line. I have spoken to people who remembered riding on the railway and said how sad they were when it closed as it was a brilliant form of transport,if it were kept open could still be carrying passengers today.
Yes, I bet a lot of closed lines would be well used today if the tracks/stations had just been left in place.
sadness and nostalgia
Sad. Just very sad :(
indeed, very sad
I recognised East Budleigh (or otterton station) as it was. I use to travel that line with my Grandad back in the 60's!!! The station is now a private house although the track bed is still there as it was.
Phil Barnett is right,Mr Beeching destroyed so much of our heritage with the stroke of a pen.
What a bonus these little branch lines would have been today, not only by keeping less cars and trucks of our roads, but also riding on a train through such wonderful countryside.
No they would still be losing money. The car is the way forward.
STFU. Some routes/stations would be well used today if the lines still existed. The population has increased massively since these stations closed. More people use trains today than at any other time in history.
No you are wrong, car ownership has also increased massively. Public transport in rural areas does not pay. And many of the lines closed were rural or semi-rural or they were duplicate routes. Well done to Dr Beeching, a national hero who has saved the country countless billions.
LocoScrapper you are so obviously a Troll. Go and sit in a huge traffic jam on your favourite motorway with all your roadtransport mates. The whole purpose of a nationalised railway system was to provide transport at an affordable price for the less well off people in society to enable them to travel to work/school/college etc. Beeching was a crook who was in bed with a typical crooked politician, Marples the motorway man. They just lined each others pockets - very much like modern day Tories are doing for their old mates with these so-called privatised Train Operating Crooks... er I mean Companies.
Cyberdon Blue Pull up duplicate lines and melt them for scrap charge. Rip redundant steam locos apart with cutting torches and melt them down.
a Terrible waste Beeching was EVIL as it killed communities, jobs and peoples livelihoods :( Station masters took such pride along with their staff to make their the BEST looking station, we were PROUD of our railways and of being British, where has all that gone?
Nonsense, I'm afraid: all Richard Beeching did was to implement the actions that BR was afraid to sanction itself. As a structured businessman Beeching soon discovered that just one of the regions - GWR - was losing 17 million pounds a year through bad practice and overmanning, so what would the final total have added up to if all the regions had similar losses?All the evidence is well recorded and out there if people care to look for it.Without Beeching the UK railway map would now look like that of France, where rural railways and branch lines just do not exist (I know - I now live there!).
And if you believe that you'll believe anything! Beeching was a hatchet man, sent in by Ernest Marples (who had extensive business interests in road building) to eviscerate the railways of Britain. "Structured" he might have been; ethical, he was not.
You've obviously been living in France for too long, since you don't seem to have much of a clue as to what really happened in Britain. Beeching was a shyster, working for a crook (Marples, who eventually did a moonlight flit out of the UK - ironically by rail - before the law could catch up with him!), and used "creative" accountancy methods to fabricate a case for closing the railways down.
www.christianwolmar.co.uk/2013/03/rail-717-beeching-guilty-as-charged-but-should-not-have-been-alone-in-the-dock/
Worth reading, even if Wolmar actually concedes more ground to Beeching than he merited.
LMAO "We all had a car" utter bullshit. Beeching was a axe man, pure & simple. Rural communities were devastated by these closures you must me wearing rose coloured glasses!
The Brits were way ahead of us in at least one regard. Every single station pictured had a high-level platform. I think they also had very few grade crossings and speed restrictions. BUT other UA-cam postings show tremendous amounts of money going into high-speed rail across England. Just look at the Norton posts. They are thrilling to see.
Once a wonderful railway now gone
My great grandfather John Pooke was the station master at East Budleigh, it is now a private home...
I love this stuff. Thank you.
Heartybreaking, trully heartbreaking.
Now, then, that words ring a bell
It's a crying shame that Britain was once a nation that was looked upon as a shining beacon. Now I don't know what to make of Britain. It's not the country I recognise.
It's not all doom and gloom. My local line in Fife, closed for decades, is now reopening.
Is there anything more depressing then today's bland, cold buildings and concrete. The world used to have a tucked away, cozy feeling to it.
I read recently that some railway lines/stations may be re-opened.
Cowley, and Forest Row are in good shape (track and couple of buildings)
1920: look how nice this railway is. 2018:we could put a factory right where this station is
Yes no intention to provide a rural train service any longer, that the creators built in the heydeys of rail transport.
With renewed thinking and foresight, many of the routes could still be in use today.
They were of their time, now cast simply to the memories of thoughs people still living who remember them and to photographs.
nice video, but sad.
It's a shame most small station didn't serve the villages they were apose to. Today they would be a god send, and the roads would be alot clearer.
What/where is the last two photos taken - it looks like the Watercress line in Hampshire Yes/No ??
it's music is so fabulous
We have government owned railways in Australia and you would be surprised to hear that many regional lines have been or are being closed down.
You can tax trucks but not government railways.
france is closing most of its rail network
at least these stations pictured fared better than Widnes Central, nothing left of it just Ashley way a road
thats a shame that those old stations had character. now gone forever
its realy sad to see that the steam trains of america are dissapearing. im 11 andi always loved steam trains since i was 2. I hope one day they realize that the awesomeness of the US steam trains. its sad to see there becoming the past.
Roads are there regardless of economic conditions.
I worked in freight in Melbourne, in 1967, but thanx to Beeching's type, I never worked in railfreight ever again, and it took 40 more years to even get a sniff of a railway job again. I blame car culture and the adoration of the armchair projectile connected to the combustable engine!
sometimes.....the future has to fall back on the past
Sometimes, the sad truth is, we have to let nature decide what happens to the wonders of the world. Half of the times it's sad. And other it makes us feel happy. A train station that was historical, needed to go. It was sad. But a power plant being grown over by nature is happy. It shows that nature has a feeling about what we do to it. Sometimes we have to let things go.
lost much of the British heritage to the Beeching report and all those old navies who worked so hard to have these lines and infrastructure axed it was murder of a history now in places lost
Lovely video
If the U.K.’s budget improves, I hope that those abandoned train stops be renovated, if you know what I mean.
@Intransitman not necessarily... Back to the topic on railways and espechisally railway lines, ever herd of preserved lines? Some of them were rebuilt after beeching's axe and they're in use today. But In many other instances, yes you're right because the land was sold and was built on and so you can't actually rebuild the railway line once the land is sold.
It sad to see how alike were british railways dismantled here in argentina. Something like 6/7 of all the railways networks are like the "now" images of the videos or even worse, just the enbankment without rails and field, not even the station.
Sad and shameful. I can understand maybe a few stations being closed but the money saved should be put into improvements for other stations. It seems that if something is working well it cannot be allowed to last.
Just imagine all the jobs that went along with this.
Some of those old stations would make nice single-family residences.
He could have just left them opened without service and it would be in the future reused, but he didn't. Sad to see 1 man decide the decline of thorps and towns without connectivity
It seems to be heartbreaking to watch this..........
Beeching, was resposible for the greatest act of vandalism,that the UK has ever known...
Beechinng was given a brief, to identify the lines that had to go to save a set sum of money. That's it. His personal responsibility was zero.
Even the 'nows' are then now!!
I hear many people tell me that, 'change is good'. I tend to disagree on much... but not all. What happened to the railways was a disgrace, but [retrospectively] needed. Maybe not in quite the way it was conducted, but it had to change... or so I am told!
nice pics whis could vist
Interesting film. Beeching got it partly right - the system couldn't continue at the density that it was. He also got it partly wrong - failing to recognise where development would take place and developing trends in transport. Well, no one is perfect. But remember that the railways on Britain today carry more passengers than they have ever done (even when the network was larger) and that number continues to grow. Lines and stations are reopening where there is sufficient demand.
of course numbers are growing, only have to look how the population has exploded since the time of the boomers! I call it very wrong, forcing more onto the roads.
Hmmm, you are quite right the costs needed pruning but maybe a little bit more vision might have helped considering all the infrustructure was already in place, steam as much as we love them is very expensive to operate, however it was a different world then, I would think it would be cheaper to catch the train, family budget etc...but the convenience thing comes into it, just a reminder that as efficient as the Japanese railway is.. it costs 10% of GDP to operate.(gulp!)
It's so sad to see ;( just like here in America some of our stations going away
Even putting aside emotional reactions to Beeching's cuts he still made a grave mistake in the closure of these stations. Only now are people beginning to realise the importance of alternative modes of travel as opposed to cars and the motorways. Lines in the midlands that were closed would now make a booming trade. In Scotland too the lines that have been reopened - against much pessimistic opposition - have proven successful beyond the campaigners'wildest dreams. Take the line from Edinburgh to Tweedbank for example, every morning it's packed with commuters and school kids. It's all very well to say that we are always clever with hindsight but people at key positions like Beeching are supposed to have a vision of the future. Unfortunately his vision was mistaken.
Nice music..
La Valse D'Amelie by Yann Tiersen
Sad I miss it
Silloth's loss was a sad blow.
What a pity this happened
Maybe if instead of closing stations and ripping lines up they ran the station with little or no staff closed the buffets etc an passengers paid on the train the stations just might be still here today.
But thinking about it if the branch lines weren't closed there would be no preserved railways today.
The service is quite poor in Sydney most of the time
When railways are trashed, it's not for economic reasons, it's for political reasons, if there's a downturn in the economy, you're not going to rip out the road from in front of your house.
If you are going to do a 'Then and Now' try to take the 'Now' photo from exactly the same position as the 'Then'...
Sad to see, but if it was’nt Beeching / Marples, it would have been someone else. The railways were losing millions!
Awesome
with the train prices going up ,no one will use the trains
So sad! Bring them back, I say!
@Intransitman Err... Yeah, actually it was for economic reasons I believe because after world war one and worls war two british rail had competition with all other modes of transport (Cars, busses, Lorried and air travel) and with the railways badly damaged from two world wars (both equipment such as locomotives,rolling stock and railway buildings etc) as well as competing with road vehicles, british rail employed beaching to try to get the railways making a profit, Bezching tried not to cut...
Sad, so sad.
are these your photo?
The reopening of a few lines Dr Beeching had closed shows that he was quite mistaken. He had the same passion for identifying uneconomic railway lines as Senator McCarthy had for identifying communist sympathisers.
Cool2BCeltic And McCarthy was right.
Like the film very sad but music I found grating on my nerves after a few mins.
If you destory some thing you can't use it at some later point.
Beeching was a bastard. He should be stripped of his title (a peerage). He rips the hearts out of rural communities and gets a peerage - only in sick Britain woyld this happen.
Face facts, people stopped travelling by train - railways became obsolete abnd cripplingly
expensive. Buses were much more local and direct, cars even more so.
Passengers voted with their feet.
Then and now!
So sad..... Sooo sad...
How very sad...
Years to build economy and to be forgotten years later "(¬ . ¬)"
Yesss
Now it’s cheaper to drive, than sit on an overcrowded train. Privatisation’s progress, apparently.
and what was the cost of beechings report???
Since 1945, the greatest crime in British history.....destruction of rail lines....
It’s just such a shame. How economical and planet friendly we could all be with better train links in our towns and villages. They’ve made everyone outside the big cities reliant on cars. Then moan at us for climate change!
Pls decrie name of station
yes its crazy.. in this day and age, the govts should be trying to get large semi trailers off the roads and to use rail instead.. Here is Aust the same thing has happened in every state..more over sized and heavy trucks. most of our shunting yards are long gone..
such a shame ;(
Ironic really that with the cost & penalties of running a car these days a decent rail system would be a godsend to most communities now. Beeching should have been shot for his short sightedness.
cars didn't kill off the railways. The first big knock to the rail monopolies came about 1900 in the shape of the electric tram. This creamed off a lot of profitable suburban traffic. Then after World War One the motor coach and motor bus spelled the end for medium distance routes
No wonder our present day rail network is buggered!
Only a small part of our Tyldesley platform still exists... well, it might not now, Labour screwed us over an replaced the old rail line with a stupid useless guided busway just recently, what was left might have been completely destroyed now >:(
Very sad