at 40.04 there is the severed stump of Fawley's Down Distant marked by the 2 large silver birch trees so at some point from 2010 on wards it was cut down.

Good ole Thumpers. We used to have some around Portsmouth-Salisbury until the "electrocuted" the line back in 1990. I love to hear their "burble" as they speed along.

I remember this episode SO well. Being inside the boiler. It was exciting and interesting having one's favourite subject appearing on Blue Peter!!

28:20 wonderful hearing the kids in the background dutifully spending time With daddy's filming. They must treasure this now. I went to Reading (from Dorking) in 1979 with mum for a day trip spotting and we couldn't even afford a camera film. Having film of it would be extraordinary!

24:33 all that semaphore signalling ❤

Having left the mother country exactly 50 years ago in June 1974, watching videos like these help keep me in touch with railway journeys in the UK. As I love to reminisce of the old railway lines on trips I have traveled as a young lad on holidays in the past, it keeps my memories alive. I want to say how much I appreciated your wonderful whole five segments of this fantastic trip in areas I was once familiar with and want to say how diligent I thought the driver of this Hastings Diesel was with his horn warnings well before the sign appeared. Also the information provided on the screen was extremely informative of old by-gone days of over two centuries. You all have to be commended.

Thanks for the video, love these Thumpers!!😎🚃🚃🚃🇬🇧

This is a beautifully done video, with excellent annotations! Bravo!👏

Magnifique balade dans la campagne anglaise, très astucieusement montée en 5 parties. Il faut le reconnaître, vous êtes les meilleurs dans la préservation de lignes et de matériels anciens. Ancien bénévole sur une ligne musée belge, le CFV3V, je connais les difficultés rencontrées pour l'exploitation et l'entretien de l'ensemble. Bravo et amitiés à tous. 🤗👍

As a local lad who has commuted this route to Slough for work (20+ years), popped to Hungerford with the family for days out etc I can only say how wonderful this video is. Great to see the route from the track.

I was a trainman G at oxford 88 to 89 i was one of the guards on the special opening day of Islip station....in its single line days😊 happy memories

"1985ish"?

Proper trains enjoyed watching then lucky to have a friend of my family use to drive sadly not around he was very passionate loved his job .

I well remember those trains - can’t believe it’s 40 years ago Seems like yesterday

Superb video - many thanks for sharing!!!

Could you imagine the health and safety lot’s reaction if they saw you jump off a still moving engine like that, today! 😂😂

Going past Ashford works in 1965 there where several steam locos parked, does anyone know what they were?

Great video, (hope you get that wheel flat sorted).😉🙏

Why did we pass an HST before Melksham? They are not normally rostered to this route?

A route that Eurostar used for nine years.

Also a thank you for the captions, many videographers leave that detail out, and overseas viewers and those not familiar with the lines traversed are left wondering.

I guess the Marshland line was double track but rationalised at some point. Third rail is missing, just like Shalford Junction to Reigate. Always wondered why those two obvious gaps were never built. Also Aldershot South Junction to Wokingham. I left UK in 1963 and returned for a holiday in 2005, and was very surprised the upgrade wasn’t completed. We travelled over the route from Ashford to Brighton in 2014 on another trip.

At 14.47 legend should read: "A35 dual carriageway". The A36 is the Salisbury Road.

Used this line to go fishing in Tonbridge on Saturdays and school holidays with friends in the 60's. Usually, I set off around 7am from Redhill and came home when it got dark. I'd have been about 11 at the time. I lived near Reigate at the time.

There are actually plans to reopen the line for passengers this year or next year with 2 new stations, Marchwood and Hythe and 3 level crossing upgrades, Jacobs Gutter Lane, Marchwood and School Road

Always wondered how elec trains go thru a washer. (Slowly, wearing thick rubber boots! LOL!). Surely it would be necessary to perodically clamber on the roof and scrub it clean, after the unit/loco has been switched off/isolated?

Gosh the late great class 319 in thameslink colours lol another one added to the collection love this

Interesting.

I remember hearing the Ashford thumper going through Hampden Park every morning when I was younger, I also heard it miles away up in Old Town as well many times. I love that sound, the raw power you hear from these engines is quite something.

Some of my first memories were looking down at the steam locomotives in Park Sidings (1:52). Years later, my first Rail Rover covered part of this line.

Was gonna shout out OH A HST … then it dawns on me it’s 6 years ago 😂🤣😂 especially a blue one now they are green

I’ve been here.

Can’t believe this is 6 years ago now love watching these over and over again

This is so relaxing thank you!!!

Richard, great work! I’m watching this in Nov 2023. Having grown up in Ashford, worked in Smeeth, lived also in Hythe, and now living on the outskirts of Dover I can say that I know the area surrounding your journey very well. Your excellent captioning was accurate and well researched. I’m thinking the tunnel under the country house grounds is probably either the Brabourne family’s ‘New House’, owned by Lord Brabourne (married the late Countess Patricia Mountbatten). Or perhaps the original Palladian manor - Mersham Le Hatch, on the other side of the A20, the seat of the Knatchbull family. I hadn’t realised there were so many disused stations on the route. As you approached the two tall gothic tunnel entrances before Dover you described the ‘new’ Samphire Hoe country park there. This was in fact created as you say from (half) of the spoil of the channel tunnel boring except that was chalk marl, not just chalk, an interesting conglomeration of clay and chalk from beneath the sea bed. I am also a volunteer ranger at Samphire so that part was particularly fascinating. It is in fact another SSSI and is a riot of colour in spring with orchids and other flowers

13:04 and 13:25

Passing the Hither Green Disaster site of 1967.

Great video with a mind boggling array of junctions, flyovers and switches. How about a few photos at the end of the trainset that we were traveling on?

I travelled many times in the opposite direction to Newark then onto Kings Cross but never travelled in this direction…

It's all the knowledge and information given in the captions that make these videos brilliant.

Brilliant thank you

Growing up in Basingstoke I've done this line a good few times! 😀👍

Thanks for this. It's such a magnificent line across the Romney marsh, past quaint, picturesque Rye and the dramatic Cadborough cliffs. Reminiscent of the Scottish lowlands in its rural fog-bound beauty, this vital home counties amenity deserves much more attention than it gets.

158 yards! We have been Metric since 1973!!!

Lovely countryside ride.

Interesting.

Interesting.

Love the sound of these engines For myself, they compare very well with the 37's and 50's

Thank you very much for posting. Just wanted to ask about the MOD siding between Dilton Marsh and Warminster...has that been removed or have I just missed it?:)