Beeching report

[Iron Duke]

News item relating to Beeching 50 years on (ref KX)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951560

ID

[StevieG]

Thanks very much for that link, ID.

Seems hard to believe that that control panel, working 80 route miles of 'the GN', had became completely operational 36 years ago, in stages from 1975-77, was said at the time to have replaced 57* boxes, and that now, the scheme's signalling system (installed in local stages from 1970-77) is thus itself probably reaching its originally planned life-expectancy.

( * - E.g., by 1970 there were still 23 [or 24**] boxes in the first 5.5 miles of the KX area, out to Bounds Green, with 8 more having only gone in the preceding 10 years. Roughly around 1910, firmly in the GNR era, the total had been higher still, by around 4 - 6.)
........... [** - if the non-block post Five Arch Bridge cabin is included.]

[52A]

To be replaced I believe with cab signalling.

[PinzaC55]

Oh dear.

It's 50 years on. When will people stop living in the past? There are more important things to worry about than what may or may not have been.

Because those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

[PinzaC55]

News item relating to Beeching 50 years on (ref KX)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951560

ID

The new York Control Centre which will replace Kings Cross box is already being built.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Funny how the old mechanical boxes lasted for over a hundred years, in some cases, but the 'new' box, probably won't get to it's 40th birthday.

manna

[watcheronthebridge]

So fifty years after Beeching we have this - Network Rail's Strategic business plans 2014-19, a better railway for a better Britain which can be accessed at this page http://www.networkrail.co.uk/publicatio ... n-for-cp5/. Nice to see that the LNER sort of lives on, as the London and North Eastern Route!

[strang steel]

News item relating to Beeching 50 years on (ref KX)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951560

ID

We do get very nostalgic about closed country branch lines, but the harsh reality is that few people were using them even in the 1950s.

In a lot of cases, the irony was that many more people travelled on the 'last day' services, than had done on the regular timetabled trains in a month. It was a sure case of not knowing what you have had until it has gone.

[Iron Duke]

My own experience of this was a "main" line.
A collection of lads (myself included) being told by a ticket collector that we would have to give up train spotting due the station (Ruddington on the ex GCR) being closed. The word among local railway men was that this was something to do with the "midland" wanting to finally get rid of the intruder into Nottingham. To all purposes Nottingham is now on a branch line............

[sandwhich]

No doubt future generations many years hence from now will still be discussing the rights and wrongs of Beeching and his report. You cannot fault some of his ideas. The start of what became Inter City was one although this became bigger than he anticipated. Freightliner was another good idea. Before his time wagonload traffic was going onto the roads and the laying out of huge marshalling yards in the 1950s was much criticised at the time, it was an albatross which within 10 years had become an embarrasment, a mess he inherited, it was the early 1980s before it was sorted out to the system that we have today although not without its faults. The rail closures were not thought out to well as has been proved but lets be honest some it would have happened anyway. The 1960s and early 70s were not good for railways in general despite faster train services. It was the coming of the HSTs in 1976-79 that started the more positive outlook towards railways.

[PinzaC55]

News item relating to Beeching 50 years on (ref KX)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951560

ID

We do get very nostalgic about closed country branch lines, but the harsh reality is that few people were using them even in the 1950s.

In a lot of cases, the irony was that many more people travelled on the 'last day' services, than had done on the regular timetabled trains in a month. It was a sure case of not knowing what you have had until it has gone.

It wasn't simply about stations but through services. I have a 1970's book by the Railway Invigoration Society which looks at Beeching in some detail; they point out that most of the bus services which were supposedly a replacement for the railways withered away shortly after the lines closed, leaving anyone without private transport unable to reach their destination. In the case of the Spalding - Boston - Skegness service one of the reasons given was that it was "only busy in the summer". After closure major upgrades to the Spalding - Skegness road were announced - wait for it - "to cope with summer traffic".
When did you last hear of a road being closed and torn up because not enough people used it?

[Danby Wiske]

It was the coming of the HSTs in 1976-79 that started the more positive outlook towards railways.

Not forgetting, of course, the part played by Mr Savile...

[Mickey]

Deleted

[strang steel]

Here is a clip from that presentation:-

http://youtu.be/mUhMXnoCUCk

[Kestrel]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... s-ago.html

The following lists the lines that were to be closed. Some survived including the Liverpool to Southport line although Liverpool Exchange closed and the line runs as part of the Liverpool city centre loop line.

http://britishrailways.info/BEECHING%20CLOSURES.htm