British Rail - Beeching and the end of steam

[@chrismccartney8668]

Beeching understood the need for Intercity and also believed that Heavy Freight Long Distance Work (To/From Ports Channel Tunnel) was best done by Rail.

[@ronaldweir712]

Rail contraction had been going on for years before Beeching got his hands on the train set. His name gets bandied about as the architect of rail closures regardless when they happened. There some serious mistakes made in sixties notably closure of the Waverley route.

[@JonAschenbrenner]

I've heard they're gonna put it back.

[@martinanderson4721]

The Waverley reference is the line from Carlisle to Edinburgh. Can't remember what the locomotive was, but the carriages were tatty old stock. This probably ' 69 on my way to Redford Barracks.

[@Bungle-UK]

And, of course, Beeching didn’t close anything….ministers made the final decisions.

[@OscarOSullivan]

No one mentions that electric or diesel traction provided superior working conditions for footplate crew.

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

@@OscarOSullivan it also lead to a huge reduction in rail workers jobs and alot of the rail workers at the time romantised steam traction. The superior working conditions at the time were heavily advertised to try to sweeten it, many of the old films about deltics, the kestrel, blue pullman and many more heavily highlight the superior working conditions and overall increased comforts of the new electric and diesel traction. It is something that alot of the public do seem to overlook though

[@martinanderson4721]

And not forgetting that when Alan Pegler put Flying Scotsman up for the speed record the locomotive was sabotaged. In his LP he draws attention to the rasping noise coming from one of the bearings.. Sand in the oil feed. In one of the close ups of the connecting rods / wheels turning I noticed focus on the bearing in question.?

[@martinanderson4721]

In the archive pics of cars being freighted out of Ford Dagenham One of the cars was a dark blue Ford Zephyr. Dagenham and Linwood now gone. 😢

[@martinanderson4721]

The new uniforms introduced as part of the ' image improvement ' in the early 60s seemed to be modelled on an Italian style with ' bum freezer ' ( short ) jackets, and caps which seemed to have been styled on what the Wehrmacht had worn.

[@martinanderson4721]

It was not only in the United States that the City tramways were ripped up but also in Glasgow and Liverpool, the former having a widespread network outside the City . The embankments / trackbeds are still noticeable in places. There were very stylish Coronation ( 1937) style trams streamlined ( and big) - not forgetting the streamlined Coronation Sots of the same year. Holding the record until Mallard the following year.

[@martinanderson4721]

The changeover from steam engine trained drivers to diesel caused problems at Lechlade in 1963.😮

[@flippop101]

Nice upload, great channel, subbed!

[@martinanderson4721]

The same thing happened in the United States where the big car companies ensured that their interests superceded and trams and tramways in Cities ripped up and 4 lane + highways developed - and the railways under invested.

[@Bungle-UK]

A key point made here that is often forgotten by people who want to paint Beeching and Marples as evil - the majority of 1960s closures happened after Marples was gone and were signed off by the Labour Party.

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

And that cuts were necessary

[@Bungle-UK]

@@KeiranCounsellKC1994 indeed - much of the network shouldn’t have been built in the first place. Too many people look at this issue through sentimental eyes, rather than using logic.

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

​@@Bungle-UK yeah, i think beeching went a bit too far but he was likely planning ahead cost wise, im glad to see that routes are slowly being reintroduced in some places, gutted that metro systems and busses are replacing some but a transport link is better than none and some areas down south like wells have been pretty much abandoned by public transport services

[@johnchild61]

@@Bungle-UKthere are places where they could be put back but the trac has been built on cutting off the route! For ever !

[@Bungle-UK]

@@johnchild61 yes, not mothballing the lines or at least protecting the trackbed was a mistake. Then again, nobody at the time would have predicted the future demand.

[@West_Coast_Mainline]

Beeching wasn’t a bad guy, he loved steam, shame that he gets slandered

[@rockerjim8045]

You can tell what todays perception of Beeching is by how many statues of him there are

[@geoffreyking4515]

He wasn't the biggest villain, that was marples minister for transport ,beeching was just the puppet

[@sandletters39]

He was much more mandate than Marples.

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

@@geoffreyking4515 beeching was brought in because of his business expertise to find a way to make the railway more cost effective and to save the tax payers loads of money, not only would it save tax payers loads of money but it would also allow for an update to the rail system. He is responsible for the success of the freight line service and the intercity services that we all take for granted today. Beechings report found that past investments had not been spent well and that there were simply too much railways in britian, many routes being duplicate routes. Ofcourse the changes made it so areas were without railways and ofcourse some may argue that he cut back too far or too much but it was necessary by that point. There were talks from that era about britian doing what some other countries had done and simply do away with railways all together. The real failure in all of this is that once the savings were made to the system the government didnt do all of what was necessary and as a result even today we are still waiting for these out of date updates to the networks we have. The uk had a problem that no other country had and we have suffered for that problem and that problem is having too much railways whilst others (who are more advanced these days) had barely any. Love him or hate him, without him we probably wouldnt have the railways today

[@Bungle-UK]

Barbara Castle signed off more closures than Marples….but don’t let facts get in your way.

[@tominnis8353]

The destruction of railway route integrity, particularly, was appallingly short-sighted. Tracks were ripped up and land sold off for other purposes with remarkable haste once lines had been closed. That was of course all part of Earnest Marples' corrupt plan; roads would reign supreme henceforth and he personally profited very well financially from this. Beeching was his "whipping boy". The original truck load (based on the maximum one horse could pull) was was of a size acceptable for British roads: environmentally and in terms of what the majority could accommodate. Today's heavy lorries might be financially "viable", but cause untold damage in a whole host of other ways in which its predecessors didn't.

[@robertplace6131]

When a proposed Railway was being debated in Parliament , ( the land- owning majority , ) were probably persuaded to retract their objections, by stipulating, that if the project ever failed , the Land , would be returned to them , or placed on the open market . Yet, those surviving track-beds, do make excellent and very popular cycle-routes , foot-paths , horse-rides , wild-life corridors and with invalid-scooters, motor-bikes and off-roading experiences too ! ..

[@Bungle-UK]

Ah….the Marples myth. You conveniently forget that the bulk of closures happened after Marples left office, and the Labour government signed them off.

[@martinanderson4721]

If there had been more aggressive questioning of Beeching by the journalists we have today, Beeching would have been challenged about his comments and asked to explain in more detail.than the deferential style of those days. Even so In the videos he looks quite uncomfortable.

[@bobotett4320]

Dr Beeching was not an evil man, he was a ruthless business man who did what needed to be done. Which mean weather we like it or not.

[@chriswaring5565]

THAT WAS HAWORTH RAILWAY STATION

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

please do link with timestamp!

[@nikbarr1721]

sucsesive governments all had a part in the fiasco it has now become. retired railway man mesen.

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

@@nikbarr1721 yep, but then the problem was under the private sector before hand aswell thats why the government had to buy it up. I mean we all agree the government ran it virtually into the ground but its happening even now under the private sectors and people are now suggesting we should go back to nationalisation

[@johnjanland4788]

Not Class 47 but D1500 class. JML

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

I was thinking of doing a video on the old and new classifications and get all the headcode info, but i still cant twist my head around how they structured the headcodes because there are some with no information i can find, mainly the 2 figures and 3 figure ones

[@AussiePom]

@@KeiranCounsellKC1994 I thought it was a Brush Type 4.

[@johnjanland4788]

Can Green Money nit his nose how,

[@JohnWayne-n3i]

Wow, watching this video really took me back in time! It's crazy to see how much the British railways changed in the mid-1960s. If you want to dive deeper into the Dr. Beeching Report and learn more about how it shaped British railways, I recommend checking out this informative video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIbTm5KPpLeoms0

[@johnjanland4788]

Beeching destroyed my part of the world: namely Holderness E Yorkshire. JML

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

Yeah I saw the map of the uk before and after when making the Hst video and some of the south of england, the north of england, scotland and wales were pretty much gutted for all they were worth. More monsterous are the metro busses that are replacing some of the lines, hidious hateful things they are

[@guyroebuck8510]

That sold off lines were not protected with a clause for future use is criminal neglect in my book. As in the fake Bond film... 'Never Say Never'.

[@sameyers2670]

I'm also from near Hull, of the local lines that closed as a result of Beeching my suspicion is that Selby to Driffield and the Hornsea lines would have gone anyway, I think the Withernsea line might have stood a chance as there were some places of a reasonable size on its route, the one I think k was a mistake closing was York to Beverley.

[@Bungle-UK]

Beeching didn’t destroy anything, it was government ministers that made the final decisions. Most of the lines around Hull were closed by Barbara Castle in the Labour government.

[@NeilSaunders-o5d]

Wost off now

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

@@NeilSaunders-o5d were actually better off, if beeching hadnt done his plan the railways would be so expensive to run that no electrification would have taken place and its likely intercity and freight lines would not have formed. There are some who suggest the railways would have ended up removed from britian all together. We have actually benefitted greatly from beechings plans