I don’t get all misty eyed about steam trains and engineering and all that crap – things move on, diesel and electric are better; but I feel like crying when I see all the lines that used to be there and got ripped up. You really could go all over the country by train. I can’t imagine what it would be like now to hop on a train in your small town or even village and head anywhere in Europe.

I really really wish the Brecon line was still there. That makes me so sad.

There’s a great map on the wall at Victoria Station showing the extent of the old Lancs & Yorks Railway service:

It’s a wonderful thing.

Unfortunately, we’ve fallen prey to the idea that public transport has to make a profit, rather than be there as a service to the population and a benefit to the country as a whole.

It makes me very sad indeed.

As does the replacement of train services that carried bikes by vastly more expensive trams that don’t take bikes.
They do in Sheffield, but not Manchester.
You really couldn’t make it up.

Ah well, at least we’ve ended up with a a few nice cycleways. 😐

I agree wholeheartedly with both your sentiments, and am even less impressed with the current move towards trams rather than trains in Manchester..

Did a ride through Bath recently and out along the Two Tunnels Greenway. We stopped at the old station in Midford and got chatting to a couple of old fellas there. Turned out they both worked on the railways there back in the 1950s.

As it happened, they were at Midford that day to meet up with a load of colleagues from the railways and had a folder of old photos with them. We spent a good while chatting while they reminisced and showed us a pictorial record of their careers on the railways.

It was fascinating stuff. Of course, they lamented the loss of the lines due to Beeching but they seemed genuinely pleased that the routes at least we back in use as cycle paths. 🙂

I ride on one of those lines regularly, the one from aintree to southport!

Aintry?

You ain’t never gonna get down to Aintry……

I ride on one of those lines regularly, the one from aintree to southport!

The Cheshire lines, now adopted as the Trans pennine Trail goes to Hull route 62 of the national cycle network.

So much history on that route to Manchester.

There are so many old lines just waiting for the cash to be reopened either as cycle routes or real train lines, join SUSTRANS and support their work and help out as a volunteer as i do.

Top of our street is the Tameside trail which is a disused/converted train line ,it still has the remains of the turntable for putting trains on the sidings.

Not convinced with trams especially the ones on Mcr,the planner must have been on crack when they designed the route which Zig-zags across the road from Clayton to Ashton under lyne and has sent several cyclists flying(me included).

Was discussing with wifey the other day how they should reopen a load of the old lines to at least do bulk transit of goods around the country and get some of the HGV’s off the road doubt it will happen though which is a shame.

Most of the Brecon line is in pretty good shape as far as I can tell, including the tunnel.

Trail rat, surely the reason for trams is so that they can just come right into town on the roads? And then use existing suburban rail where it exists.. Seems like a good idea to me.

That’s exactly what they did with the Tyneside Metro.

Most of the Brecon line is in pretty good shape as far as I can tell, including the tunnel.

Trail rat, surely the reason for trams is so that they can just come right into town on the roads? And then use existing suburban rail where it exists.. Seems like a good idea to me.

I think the most viable option for some of the lines would be to make towns better for commuters. If Brecon had a train station for instance I’m sure it would bring loads of money in.

Shipley West Yorkshire. This is one of our local rides but I remember the odd goods train back in the 60s

Bradford to Keighley via Queensbury went over the Hewenden viaduct. Now an easy family cycle route near Cullingworth

http://joycewhitchurch.zxq.net/maps.htm

surely the reason for trams is so that they can just come right into town on the roads? And then use existing suburban rail where it exists.. Seems like a good idea to me.

Um, no.

The reason for trams is to make money for the share holders in the companies that invest in tram companies.

My town is now linked to Manchester by tram. It’s taken 4 years. Numerous businesses have closed because of the utter devastation to the town centre. They also closed the railway down, so all those commuters who went by rail now go by car or bus.

Given the death of the town centre, the tram will now provide the perfect escape route for everyone to shop in Manchester, resulting in the town dying even more.

Someone has made an awful lot of money from the tram extension, but it isn’t the town it goes to…

Glen Ogle, on the Callander-Oban line.
Must have been great.
And the Killin branch: the only community owned railway in Scotland apparently. And never repaid the capital it cost.

molgrips – Member
Trail rat, surely the reason for trams is so that they can just come right into town on the roads? And then use existing suburban rail where it exists.. Seems like a good idea to me.

But all the trains ran from the centre of Manchester to the centre of the vast majority of the towns involved.

They have just replaced the cheaper, bike friendly trains with horrendously expensive, over budget, bike unfriendly trams.

Trains are ace. proper trains with goods wagons and storage areas. Love ’em.

But all the trains ran from the centre of Manchester to the centre of the vast majority of the towns involved.

They have just replaced the cheaper, bike friendly trains with horrendously expensive, over budget, bike unfriendly trams. Are there examples of train line closure being directly linked to tram replacement? The new metrolink extension to East Didsbury runs along the old CRC line, for example, but that closed in 1967. I’m relatively new to Manchester so don’t know the history of how the metrolink developed.

OP is spot on – love the railways but it’s not about the engineering. I can appreciate a bit of locomotive traction, but the connectivity of it all is what it’s about for me. The history of how people used to travel and how the network shaped our country.

My son is 4 and daft about trains. At bedtime recently he told me that he thought Mr Beeching was a very bad man. Made me laugh.