It all started 60 years ago

Reminded that railway preservation got going 60 years ago this May with the Tallyllyn passing into the hands of the first society to save a line. It survived because of a lack of success - and the quarry it was built to serve, being maintained by a local MP from his own pocket when the company that built it pulled out. On his death, his widow was advised that the best course was to close the line. So a group of enthusiasts stepped in to save it as virtually everything - even the track - was original.

Perhaps the most outstanding preservation story has to be that of the Duke of Gloucester. Firstly, it was only built because no 46202 was damaged beyond economic repair in the Harrow didaster. It was never popular with engine crews, and was taken off the list of locos to form part of the national collection.

It next arrived at the scrapyard gates, the firm in question quickly dismantled locos received, someone pointed out it was at the wrong yard, shades of 6023 & 6024 which also would have been scrapped but also ended up at Barry because their axle loading too great for their intended destination.

Back to the Duke, it arrived at its intended destination - Barry - where the cylinders and valve gear removed for sectioning. When a society intended to restore it, many thought this was really an impossible task.

Now if only the former LSWR North Devon/Cornwall lines from Okehampton to Bude, Padstow and Plymouth could be restored...... Recently visited Shillingstone, where a group are trying to raise funds to purchase a section of trackbed of the S&D, another Beeching victim

The restoration of “The Duke” was indeed an absolutely mammoth undertaking. Having seen the pictures of its’ condition at Barry in the late seventies, it’s a credit to the tenacity of those who got it going again for believing they could ever bring it back to life. A truly herculean effort.

The loss of almost all of the north Devon and Cornish coasts’ rail services, except for the St.Ives and Newquay branches, is an absolute crying shame, especially now with a booming tourist trade across the South West region that could really do with a way to take traffic off the roads in the area. It would be fantastic to see trains, either National Rail or preserved, running into Bude, Wadebridge and Padstow.

I occasionally wonder what would have become of Britains’ railway preservation movement if it wasn’t for the Beeching closures of the sixties, which have furnished so many of the prevalent preservation societies with suitable picturesque branch lines to store and run their locomotives and rolling stock, which otherwise may not have been available for this purpose.

Reminded that railway preservation got going 60 years ago this May with the Tallyllyn

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Just a footnote....apparently the seeds of railway preservation were sown 20 years earlier, in the 1930's, with unsuccessful attempts to save the 3 ft. gauge Southwold Railway in Suffolk after it closed in 1929.

I occasionally wonder what would have become of Britains’ railway preservation movement if it wasn’t for the Beeching closures of the sixties,

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With hindsight, it would have made sense for BR, at the time of the Beeching 'modernisation', to have retained a handful of lines as heritage steam routes, like part of the Great Central line, for instance.

kennethw said:

Reminded that railway preservation got going 60 years ago this May with the Tallyllyn passing into the hands of the first society to save a line.

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And the person mainly responsible was the late, great Tom Rolt. So, if he had not fallen out with the canal preservation group, would anybody else have saved the Tallyllyn?

It was the closure of several narrow guage lines including Southwold, also lines like Glyn Valley, Lynton & Barnstaple, the FFestiniog lying derelict, which when the recommendation to close the Tallylln was put to Sir Haydn's widow, prompted a group from Birmingham who had visited the line under the Sir Haydn regime, especially during the war years, to save the line.

Reopening to Bude would be a major task indeed, as the line (dismantled railway) on the OS map ends at the outskirts, it would appear that the course was oblitereted at the A39 , the station site is now a housing estate, look for Bullied way, the a3073 is still named station rd
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sprinterguy said:

The loss of almost all of the north Devon and Cornish coasts’ rail services, except for the St.Ives and Newquay branches, is an absolute crying shame, especially now with a booming tourist trade across the South West region that could really do with a way to take traffic off the roads in the area. It would be fantastic to see trains, either National Rail or preserved, running into Bude, Wadebridge and Padstow.

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And it was the railways which created the tourist industry in the west country in the first place! the GWR was always the leader, the LSWR tried to get in on the act as well
Note the famous poster by the GWR "See Britain first" - there's a distinct similarity between Italy and Cornwall. Until the road bridge was built over the Tamar, road access to Cornwall was difficult - either a long trek across Bodmin moor, or a long queue for the Saltash ferry. Mineral lines such as the Redruth & Chasewater and Bodmin & Wadebridge predated the main line from Plymouth, the R&C ran to Devoran where copper ore was loaded onto ships which took their cargo to Wales.

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kennethw said:

Now if only the former LSWR North Devon/Cornwall lines from Okehampton to Bude, Padstow and Plymouth could be restored...... Recently visited Shillingstone, where a group are trying to raise funds to purchase a section of trackbed of the S&D, another Beeching victim

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Oh, how I would love to window hang behind a Warship (or similar!) from Okehampton down to Plymouth Friary! I feel like I was born half a century too late.. as indeed I probably was!

Note that the line to Padstow is probably the most likely contender to be restored in your personal list - plans are afoot for the railway to move in the Wadebridge direction, so I understand... (It's only the d*mned cyclists in the way! Go on - push them out the way! The railway was there first!)

50Fan91 said:

Oh, how I would love to window hang behind a Warship (or similar!) from Okehampton down to Plymouth Friary! I feel like I was born half a century too late.. as indeed I probably was!

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I read somewhere that all transport enthusiasts deem themselves as born "too late".

I would've loved to have lived in the days of the Big Four, if it wasn't for a wee thing called World War II.