What a depressing scene. I'm in West Sussex and know many of those sites. The devastation to our railways in Kent and Sussex was criminal. The speed at which they lifted much of the track was suggestive of a plan to make sure the railways never had a chance to come back over time or be taken on and started up as private ventures. Damn fools and criminals instigated all this; just because people with the loudest voices were heavily invested in and with the road industry. My own village lost its railway, and was part of the line from Tunbridge Wells to East Grinstead. Literally 6 miles from Gatwick Airport, the second biggest in Britain. Thanks for the sorrowful pics !
I can remember the remnants of Hailsham station in 1975 & when it was finally cleared, the old line used to be a real mud track & we used to navigate it when walking home from school, it was accessible from our school field ,getting covered in mud on our uniform trousers & thick clods stuck to the bottom of our Dr Martens! Also having to do part of cross country on a cold Monday morning in double PE! We would have to run round the perimeter of the field through a gate on to the track & then up an embankment by London Rd bridge. I hated PE!!!
I am grateful to my father who took me in the 1960s on many of these lines, often via 'specials' organised by old-established railway enthusiast/correspondence groups. At that time the Southern region was able to provide us with a variety of steam power.
I am 100% pro rail. But we have to remember that back in the 1960s, very few people were using stations such as these. However, it has been shown that not securing the rights to re-instate the tracks on once key routes was the biggest error.
People used the railways a lot during rush hour periods, even on local lines. Outside of these hours, yes, local lines would have been quiet. So the plan should have been to maximise peak periods and lessen services at other times. We also need to remember that much of the traffic survey to count passenger usage for the cuts were taken during off peak times which made the situation look far worse than it was.
@nigelarmstrong252 There is some truth in that. But the growth of the car as the go-to means of both commuting (especially outside of London) and for leisure travel, together with the shift of freight to the roads, had the inevitable catastrophic effect on the railways in the 1960s. Even Labour - which pledged to stop the cuts - had to concede the position was hopeless. But as I said previously, the routes should have been protected for possible future use.
@@stephendavies6949 I agree totally with the mothballing of the network. There was a total bias towards road haulage etc. so any logic towards railways and improving them had no chance.
It was the greatest error; to keep the formation as a strategic reserve and not to allow a private house to be built smack on the roadbed or a motorway to cross it without a bridge (just in case).
A bit more about the branch line from Hellingly into the hospital would have been welcome. You can see the electricity catenary on the left of the picture. They had an electric railway which delivered coal etc.
I'm 40 and have my own views on how far we have fallen just in my lifetime. However me and my dad have long conversations about when he was a lad in the 50s and 60s, and its sad to think how bland, boring, same, and uncaring everything is now. I have a channel where I take shorts of trains in places I find interesting. I'm based in Eastbourne but I go all over Southern England. I took my dad up to Brum a few months back so he could show me where he grew up, and I obviously took advantage of the new geographic area to get my filming done. But I could see the sadness in my dad face when looking at places he remembered as a younger man. Bromyard station was an impactful one. He used to sell odds and sods out of a van at Bromyard station in his 20's, when we walked around that area recently it was virtually unrecognisable. Although he could still pic out landmarks and buildings around the station site, which was nice. He also pinched the signal box sign when they closed in the 60's, which he has now given to me, so its not all lost. He was clearly gutted with how it all looked now though. Stuff built for money, fast and boring. No pride in anything built today, even when it replaces things that really did have allot of pride in its design and construction. It's so tragic to see everything the same all over the country. The same rolling stock, infrastructure, the same bland modern replacements to once thriving local areas. Maybe I'm just older than my years. Still makes me sad to think of how little care there is now in everything.
@@KenwayJoel The railways were (are) part of our culture and heritage. We invented then after all ! Destroying them like they did was an act of national vandalism. I go past the old site of East Grinstead upper station daily and always think what could have been and what should have been. I'm pretty sure the whole south would be far better off now if we still had all the railways. In fact, the whole country would.
@@nigelarmstrong252 I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Beaching axe, didn't actually achieve the financial boost/recovery that they hoped it would, but actually had the opposite effect. I don't know how true that is. I enjoy watching old footage of days gone, but it does depress me quite a bit, I must be honest. I saw a video of 1948 or 46, of a permanent way crew renewing the entire junction outside St Pancras station. I absolutely love to see that kind of thing, before mobile phones and social media.
it's interesting to see the past and what they look like now - where I live had a lovely station building in historical pictures but is now just a small 1 story prefab. Where my house is now used to be part of an orchard (had to remove the last apple tree in my garden as it was dying a few years back). At the back of my garden used to be a railway sidings with a loading/unloading of goods and my neighbour found a cannonball that was obviously dropped at some point and rolled off when he recontoured his garden. The station carpark now stands where there sidings started.
What a depressing scene.
I'm in West Sussex and know many of those sites.
The devastation to our railways in Kent and Sussex was criminal.
The speed at which they lifted much of the track was suggestive of a plan to make sure the railways never had a chance to come back over time or be taken on and started up as private ventures.
Damn fools and criminals instigated all this; just because people with the loudest voices were heavily invested in and with the road industry.
My own village lost its railway, and was part of the line from Tunbridge Wells to East Grinstead. Literally 6 miles from Gatwick Airport, the second biggest in Britain.
Thanks for the sorrowful pics !
Very nostalgic. Forest Row was 'MY' station from 1945 until 1961,
It was also, if I remember correctly, Dr Beechings local station.
Sad to see these all go 😢
Nice video. I was half expecting to see Polegate (the old station!)
I can remember the remnants of Hailsham station in 1975 & when it was finally cleared, the old line used to be a real mud track & we used to navigate it when walking home from school, it was accessible from our school field ,getting covered in mud on our uniform trousers & thick clods stuck to the bottom of our Dr Martens! Also having to do part of cross country on a cold Monday morning in double PE! We would have to run round the perimeter of the field through a gate on to the track & then up an embankment by London Rd bridge. I hated PE!!!
I am grateful to my father who took me in the 1960s on many of these lines, often via 'specials' organised by old-established railway enthusiast/correspondence groups. At that time the Southern region was able to provide us with a variety of steam power.
I am 100% pro rail. But we have to remember that back in the 1960s, very few people were using stations such as these. However, it has been shown that not securing the rights to re-instate the tracks on once key routes was the biggest error.
Definitely
People used the railways a lot during rush hour periods, even on local lines. Outside of these hours, yes, local lines would have been quiet. So the plan should have been to maximise peak periods and lessen services at other times.
We also need to remember that much of the traffic survey to count passenger usage for the cuts were taken during off peak times which made the situation look far worse than it was.
@nigelarmstrong252 There is some truth in that. But the growth of the car as the go-to means of both commuting (especially outside of London) and for leisure travel, together with the shift of freight to the roads, had the inevitable catastrophic effect on the railways in the 1960s. Even Labour - which pledged to stop the cuts - had to concede the position was hopeless. But as I said previously, the routes should have been protected for possible future use.
@@stephendavies6949 I agree totally with the mothballing of the network.
There was a total bias towards road haulage etc. so any logic towards railways and improving them had no chance.
It was the greatest error; to keep the formation as a strategic reserve and not to allow a private house to be built smack on the roadbed or a motorway to cross it without a bridge (just in case).
Nice video, but as everyone’s comments so sad
A nice production, although a couple of captions do not relate to this slideshow.
Now all these places are set to get bigger in the years ahead isn't it rather late for wooden politicians to make glib promises of decent transport?
A bit more about the branch line from Hellingly into the hospital would have been welcome. You can see the electricity catenary on the left of the picture. They had an electric railway which delivered coal etc.
it's a total disgrace to see these once stations serving the community end up like this it's a very sad world we live in 😭
I'm 40 and have my own views on how far we have fallen just in my lifetime. However me and my dad have long conversations about when he was a lad in the 50s and 60s, and its sad to think how bland, boring, same, and uncaring everything is now. I have a channel where I take shorts of trains in places I find interesting. I'm based in Eastbourne but I go all over Southern England. I took my dad up to Brum a few months back so he could show me where he grew up, and I obviously took advantage of the new geographic area to get my filming done. But I could see the sadness in my dad face when looking at places he remembered as a younger man. Bromyard station was an impactful one. He used to sell odds and sods out of a van at Bromyard station in his 20's, when we walked around that area recently it was virtually unrecognisable. Although he could still pic out landmarks and buildings around the station site, which was nice. He also pinched the signal box sign when they closed in the 60's, which he has now given to me, so its not all lost. He was clearly gutted with how it all looked now though. Stuff built for money, fast and boring. No pride in anything built today, even when it replaces things that really did have allot of pride in its design and construction. It's so tragic to see everything the same all over the country. The same rolling stock, infrastructure, the same bland modern replacements to once thriving local areas. Maybe I'm just older than my years. Still makes me sad to think of how little care there is now in everything.
@@KenwayJoel The railways were (are) part of our culture and heritage. We invented then after all ! Destroying them like they did was an act of national vandalism.
I go past the old site of East Grinstead upper station daily and always think what could have been and what should have been. I'm pretty sure the whole south would be far better off now if we still had all the railways. In fact, the whole country would.
@@nigelarmstrong252 I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Beaching axe, didn't actually achieve the financial boost/recovery that they hoped it would, but actually had the opposite effect. I don't know how true that is. I enjoy watching old footage of days gone, but it does depress me quite a bit, I must be honest. I saw a video of 1948 or 46, of a permanent way crew renewing the entire junction outside St Pancras station. I absolutely love to see that kind of thing, before mobile phones and social media.
Shame about the dreadful computer generated muzak.
it's interesting to see the past and what they look like now - where I live had a lovely station building in historical pictures but is now just a small 1 story prefab. Where my house is now used to be part of an orchard (had to remove the last apple tree in my garden as it was dying a few years back). At the back of my garden used to be a railway sidings with a loading/unloading of goods and my neighbour found a cannonball that was obviously dropped at some point and rolled off when he recontoured his garden. The station carpark now stands where there sidings started.
So sad and the music is all wrong ...should be a funeral march..
It was quite apt as it was very depressing. I can't disagree with the funeral march idea though.
Something from Nightwish...?