Enthusiasts are gearing-up to commemorate, a few months from now, the fiftieth anniversary of the end of regular BR steam in August 1968 -- especially perhaps, those ageing or aged ones among us, who were around for that experience "at first hand".
I find more than totally fanciful, the perception that particular individual years are inauspicious ones, featuring a greater-than-usual concentration of "bad stuff" happening. This can be seen to apply to 1968 in broader terms than those of our own oddball hobby: with ugly goings-on in France, and Czechoslovakia; and the routine of perpetual same in Vietnam. I've also found myself aware, though -- both at the time, and in hindsight -- of 1968 being (for those enthusiasts anyway, with my kind of sentimental bent for the old-fashioned things / "lesser lines" scene), an especially miserable year railway-wise, even for its miserable half-decade -- in other aspects besides "no more BR steam".
For a start -- a considerable number of BR lines, loved by many, were closed in 1968, at any rate as regards passenger services (a few parts thereof, later rescued in preservation). Those most regretted, personally, for me -- out of a considerably larger total list: Okehampton -- Bere Alston; Yeovil Pen Mill -- Yeovil Junction (now back in passenger action, I'm aware, in a "phantom" kind of way); Cheltenham -- Honeybourne; Oxford -- Bletchley and Cambridge -- Bedford St. John's (the two extremities of the "Varsity Line"); Kings Lynn -- Dereham; [Kings Lynn] -- Magdalen Road -- Wisbech -- March; the Midland main line through the Peak District; the "arm" of the Bidston -- Wrexham line, from Hawarden Bridge junctions into Chester Northgate; and the two ex-GNSR "loop" lines eastward from Elgin: Moray Firth Coast, and inland via Craigellachie.
Also in the British Isles: summer 1968 was, on the Isle of Man under the Marquis of Ailsa's regime, the final "for keeps" operational season -- though that was not known at the time -- for the IOMR's Peel and Ramsey lines. (I didn't get to the Isle until the following year, damn it.)
On the Continent: in France, 1968 saw closure of the magnificently scenic metre-gauge Reseau du Vivarais system (portions of it, subsequently preserved), and its nearby sister line of the same gauge, to Florac; also, of the last surviving section with passenger traffic, of the once extensive Herault standard-gauge light railway network -- this final section, from Montpellier to the seaside at Palavas.
Closed too in '68, in Denmark, was what had long been that country's last remaining public narrow-gauge line: the final section, from Ronne to Nekso, of the metre-gauge system of the island of Bornholm -- "curtains" for this one at last in '68, after a number of years with the axe poised to fall. Elsewhere in Denmark, several privately-owned standard-gauge rural railways (once extremely common on the Danish scene, some still in action today, almost unfailingly delectable) succumbed in that year. 1968 also saw closure by the Yugoslav Railways, of several 760mm gauge lines in Bosnia: all-and-any of the Yugoslavian narrow gauge was IMO a lovable thing, and its demise to be regretted. And, much further afield: 1968 saw closure of the last surviving operational section of the standard-gauge rail system of Trinidad -- from accounts heard and pictures (still and cine) seen, an attractive and fascinating railway.
Would be interested to hear from other participants, about 1968 losses -- aside from "the big one" -- which they feel moved to lament.
I find more than totally fanciful, the perception that particular individual years are inauspicious ones, featuring a greater-than-usual concentration of "bad stuff" happening. This can be seen to apply to 1968 in broader terms than those of our own oddball hobby: with ugly goings-on in France, and Czechoslovakia; and the routine of perpetual same in Vietnam. I've also found myself aware, though -- both at the time, and in hindsight -- of 1968 being (for those enthusiasts anyway, with my kind of sentimental bent for the old-fashioned things / "lesser lines" scene), an especially miserable year railway-wise, even for its miserable half-decade -- in other aspects besides "no more BR steam".
For a start -- a considerable number of BR lines, loved by many, were closed in 1968, at any rate as regards passenger services (a few parts thereof, later rescued in preservation). Those most regretted, personally, for me -- out of a considerably larger total list: Okehampton -- Bere Alston; Yeovil Pen Mill -- Yeovil Junction (now back in passenger action, I'm aware, in a "phantom" kind of way); Cheltenham -- Honeybourne; Oxford -- Bletchley and Cambridge -- Bedford St. John's (the two extremities of the "Varsity Line"); Kings Lynn -- Dereham; [Kings Lynn] -- Magdalen Road -- Wisbech -- March; the Midland main line through the Peak District; the "arm" of the Bidston -- Wrexham line, from Hawarden Bridge junctions into Chester Northgate; and the two ex-GNSR "loop" lines eastward from Elgin: Moray Firth Coast, and inland via Craigellachie.
Also in the British Isles: summer 1968 was, on the Isle of Man under the Marquis of Ailsa's regime, the final "for keeps" operational season -- though that was not known at the time -- for the IOMR's Peel and Ramsey lines. (I didn't get to the Isle until the following year, damn it.)
On the Continent: in France, 1968 saw closure of the magnificently scenic metre-gauge Reseau du Vivarais system (portions of it, subsequently preserved), and its nearby sister line of the same gauge, to Florac; also, of the last surviving section with passenger traffic, of the once extensive Herault standard-gauge light railway network -- this final section, from Montpellier to the seaside at Palavas.
Closed too in '68, in Denmark, was what had long been that country's last remaining public narrow-gauge line: the final section, from Ronne to Nekso, of the metre-gauge system of the island of Bornholm -- "curtains" for this one at last in '68, after a number of years with the axe poised to fall. Elsewhere in Denmark, several privately-owned standard-gauge rural railways (once extremely common on the Danish scene, some still in action today, almost unfailingly delectable) succumbed in that year. 1968 also saw closure by the Yugoslav Railways, of several 760mm gauge lines in Bosnia: all-and-any of the Yugoslavian narrow gauge was IMO a lovable thing, and its demise to be regretted. And, much further afield: 1968 saw closure of the last surviving operational section of the standard-gauge rail system of Trinidad -- from accounts heard and pictures (still and cine) seen, an attractive and fascinating railway.
Would be interested to hear from other participants, about 1968 losses -- aside from "the big one" -- which they feel moved to lament.