Southwold Railway #3
Forty years of dereliction and decay: After closure the line remained derelict for the next twenty years or so. There were moves to reopen it, none of which came to fruition. Most of the route’s track remained until the early forties. The army blew up part of the Blyth bridge…
Alfred County Railway
The Alfred County Railway was a two foot gauge line from Port Shepstone to Harding in KwaZulu Natal. Running for slightly less than a hundred years, it closed for good about five years or so ago after several attempts to revive its fortunes by way of tourism as well as…
Sixty years since the last train to Cwm Prysor #3
The next location of major interest was Trawsfynydd station and formerly this was an important one. It was here the railway’s locomotives were stabled. There was a substantial goods yard and a passing loop. The station’s importance was all the more essential as army camps were numerous around this part…
Sixty years since the last train to Cwm Prysor #2
The second part of the ‘Sixty years since the last train to Cwm Prysor’ feature. Previously it had been mentioned the line closed because of a new reservoir, that is true of course however in terms of passenger traffic it had in fact been closed some time earlier. The only…
West Clare’s modernisation era
Ireland’s narrow gauge lines were pioneers in the use of modern traction despite a general notion they were anachronisms. These small gauge lines no doubt meant the threat of road competition was far bigger than for the broad gauge lines. A number of the narrow gauge systems experimented with petrol…
Sixty years since the last train to Cwm Prysor
You know how we Brits bang on about our ‘fantastic railway summits’ being at Ais Gil or Drummochter but in fact there were many lesser and equally if not more, dramatic summits to be had and there’s practically none these days. Its because we don’t like the idea of railways…
Southwold Railway #2
The railway’s route from Southwold to Halesworth: From the station itself the line headed across Southwold common and soon entered the largest cutting on the entire route. This present day view on Google Street shows the start of the cutting itself. Its been a public footpath for the last seventy years or…
Köln – Bonner Eisenbahn
The Köln-Bonner Eisenbahn’s (KBE – or the Cologne to Bonn Railway) Rheinuferbahn once provided local and express trains between Köln and Bonn. There was a substantial freight operation too with large marshalling yards servicing local industries. The company stayed independent to the very end and it would have been around…
Barnstaple Ilfracombe #2
This week is the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Barnstaple to Ilfracombe Railway. This opened on 20 July 1874 and shut for good from 5th October 1970 – the last train was actually two days earlier on the 3rd October – an eight car DMU forming the 19.55pm…
Barnstaple Ilfracombe #1
Trains do indeed still cross the River Taw in many places, eleven times this happens in fact. However a twelfth crossing was the biggest of all – and the one trains just do not use anymore. Yes you guessed – its the Ilfracombe line’s stupendous cast iron viaduct at Barnstaple.…