The Whitby Branch

[@clivewinter8321]

Absolutely brilliant I just love old cinnie movies like this it shows the nostalgic of our heritage railway system

[@SMILEVIDEOTRAINS]

They say that every picture tells a story and this certainly did. Big thankyou

[@misstrever1952]

...brilliant video thank you! these old archive films are worth their weight in gold 👌

[@agdenyer]

I'm glad You liked it. It was my first attempt at making a film. The camera borrowed from my uncle, who gave my 2 rolls of 8mm film. ( approx 10 minutes playing time in total before editing)

[@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819]

The Esk valley wasn't just a peaceful farming area. It was also a hive of industry with iron-stone mines (predominantly in the Great Ayton area but all closed by the time this footage was shot), a brick and tile works at Commondale (now the Scout camp), a iron works at Grosmont (which after the blast furnaces closed was the site of a slag crushing plant and today is a carpark for the NYMR), and a ganister works at Castleton (ganister is a mineral used for making crucibles for the metal working industries. All of these industries were rail-served, but are all long gone.

[@davidwinkle4168]

I was on this line last week now known as the Eskdale Line. Nothing much has changed in 60 years except perhaps some of the signaling. The stations still carry the same charm as they did then. Well worth a trip!

[@joycetunley5258]

Another Scenic Route. Not been anywhere near to this route for SEVERAL Years.

[@onthegoldenline]

Very useful primary source material for all historians of Whitby railways. Also note the superior quality of the rolling stock compared with today. The Middlesbrough-Whitby line will be celebrating 150 years of operation in 2015.

[@stewartmcmanus3991]

Done that many times, great video.

[@lesigh1749]

How lovely Britain looked back then. Before six lane motorways and sprawling housing estates filled every patch of green.

[@johnshaw3398]

Happy memories. Knew the Grosmont section well in the 1960s. Thanks for posting this valuable record.

[@johnshaw3398]

Happy memories of frequent visits to Grosmont and Whitby in the 1960s. Thanks for posting.

[@bobbyshaftoe409]

Fabulous piece of film.This is wonderful. Every time we go to Whitby we have a stroll alongside the railway line to Ruswarp (not shown on this vid), it's absolutely brilliant and we get close-up pictures of steam trains. That viaduct (Larpool) is an amazing construction.

[@raymondfunnel6856]

I used to go to Whitby on this line My Auntie Alice said it won't be crowded oh boy we had a shock

[@nigelharte4584]

Fantastic footage,thank you.

[@STRAYCHORD59]

Very enjoyable , thanks

[@wivaquif]

Amazing how you can get eight minutes of footage on just 8mm of film 😉. Great nostalgic video, thanks for sharing.

[@dav1mic]

well done very enjoyable

[@G4KDXlive]

Very good, some very nice shots of the track.

[@cliffcook3993]

This line has managed to survive despite many attempts to close it.

[@hypergolic8468]

Really nice to see: thank you for sharing (as others have said).

[@jimbegin6554]

I was expecting Heather Snowdon - with her nice voice - doing the commentary! Nevertheless, great video across the Yorkshire Moors, thanks. Marples was the real villain!

[@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819]

Jim Begin no the real villains were the Conservatives governments in the 1950s who trashed the economy so much that in 1967 after 3 years of runs on the Pound Labour was forced to devalue the Pound by 14%. Marples, as bent as he probably was, and Beeching were left to carry the can.

[@SirReginaldBlomfield1234]

Agree with some of the comments below. Dr. Beeching wrote a report on the state of the railways purely from a business point of view. Ernest Marples swung the axe in his own favour and made millions building roads. The so-called Beeching axe really belonged to Mr. Marples !

[@bencripps1472]

@Aussie Pom - your comments, and those of others in this thread, are very well reasoned and present what in my opinion is a truer picture of who was responsible for the decimation of our railway system than has usually been put forward over the last 55 years or so. Ultimately though, irrespective of who was finally responsible, there was a hasty and unseemly rush to close lines (again, the economic case for doing so probably seemed unassailable at the time) whereas if a longer term view could have been taken, a strong case for retaining many of the lines for use in the 21st century, saving the flooding of the road system with freight which should be on the rails and helping the ecology and the environment, could have been made. Very sad.

[@Brooklands136]

What a delightful piece of filming and for a first attempt top marks to you. There was no camera shake which for me makes films unwatchable. Thank you for sharing your film I enjoyed it very much.

[@darrenrafferty9580]

lovely video , thanks for sharing :)

[@dougattrenholmebar]

Wonderful - I might have been on one of these trains........

[@jsgould5392]

Loved it.

[@ricjuk]

Amazing footage! Did you ever take any footage or still photography of the Guisborough branch?

[@videothen]

Dr Beeching took an axe And severed all the railway tracks The Luftwaffe in '41 Couldn't top the harm he done.

[@DepakoteMeister]

Dr. Beeching did nothing of the sort, he merely wrote a report. Any lines closed were done so by the Conservative and Labour transport minsters.

[@robinmoss5470]

Quite right. I get fed up with people blaming Dr. Beeching for everything and pretending everything would have been fine if B. R. had just gone on the way it had previously.

[@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819]

Martin Smith don't forget in the 1960s the country was almost bankrupted by the government policies in the 1950s, and that was a Series of Conservative governments and not Labour.

[@surreytrainfilms5688]

I sometimes wonder how people didn't drop their 8mm cameras onto the track, when doing that!

[@KempSimon]

Couldn't you have filmed from the front seats of the leading carriage, directly behind the driving cab?

[@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819]

Simon Kemp depends on whether the first class compartment was leading and on the availability of seats.

[@davidpoulton2860]

Supermac Macmillan gave Beeching a map and told him to rub out stations and lines we dont need and he did just that miles of railway and stations axed

[@TheWacoKid1963]

Only ever been down this line once in the early 70s, Is any still intact or is it gone?

[@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819]

TheWacoKid1963 the Eask Valley line survives and the stretch from Grosmont to Whitby is shared with some NYMR services. However it is mostly single track these days.

[@agdenyer]

Sorry I have not any pictures of the Guisborough branch

[@stephenhuitson8948]

Is this heavily cut and if so do you have more footage??

[@agdenyer]

This is all that was taken. 8mm cine film was £5 a roll and lasted 5 minutes

[@surreytrainfilms5688]

+agdenyer I thought 50ft was 3 mins?

[@feralferret]

@@surreytrainfilms5688 I think you're looking at 100ft for 8 minutes @ 16fps.

[@lennylaa1686]

@3.16, I wonder if that poster featuring a bikini clad woman would be permitted in oh - so PC Britain in 2018.?