The sudden sight of a straight line amongst the randomness of nature, a functional building or structure somehow out of context in a modern urban environment, a severed former bridge span over a neighbourhood road, the shaped stones of what looks like a low wall which stretches for some distance, a dominant copse-like group of Japanese Knotweed and an abundance of well used cycle and pedestrian routes where it would not otherwise be practical or financially viable to create them.
These are all features attributed to and inherited from the railway lines which fell to the scything cost cutting measures of Beeching in the 1960’s.
I like to study archived maps of my local area and what is most evident is the huge former network of what would be called branch lines founded by the great old railway companies such as the London and North East, Great Northern and many others prior to coming into State ownership.
I can take a bike ride from just across the road from my own doorstep all the way to the seaside which is a linear distance of only 12 miles when the same car journey is close to double that distance.
The old lines give a unique view into the inner city environment before passing suburban back gardens and out into the Greenbelt .
There are some sad sights of abandoned and derelict factories and warehouses although still retaining the scale and a ghost of their grandeur and contribution to the wealth of the city.
Ironically there are more people using the course of the old coast line for their leisure and exercise than those pitiful numbers that gave Beeching his justification for ripping up the rails on purely economic criteria.
For all those now benefiting from the amenity of a national cycle and footpath access network along the old lines there are countless more who have been deprived of a cheap and easy transport link to what are now rather remote and parochial towns and villages out in the rural hinterland.
The seaside towns are worse off for not having a railway link to the population centres where their most loyal and frequent visitors and patrons reside for the other 50 or 51 weeks of the year.
The halcyon years of the steam railways were intrinsically linked to the bloom and affluence of seaside and coastal resorts and in their disappearance heralded bleaker and more austere times.
There is some talk of reviving these mass transit systems in a few locations and enthusiasts and entrepreneurs have taken a few initial steps in the right direction but it may already be a lost cause.
So I will continue to make use of the old rail corridors, perhaps sit on the worn dressed stone of a stranded former platform, ride my bike and gawp into back gardens and thoroughly enjoy the shallow gradients and shortest routes possible between points A and B.
I think that the lyrics of the song “Slow Train” popularised by the crooners Flanders and Swann are a poignant tribute and lament to the ripped up rails. It was written in 1963.
Miller's Dale for Tideswell
Kirby Muxloe
Mow Cop and Scholar Green
No more will I go to Blandford Forum and Mortehoe
On the slow train from Midsomer Norton and Mumby Road
No churns, no porter, no cat on a seat
At Chorlton-cum-Hardy or Chester-le-Street
We won't be meeting again
On the Slow Train
I'll travel no more from Littleton Badsey to Openshaw
At Long Stanton I'll stand well clear of the doors no more
No whitewashed pebbles, no Up and no Down
From Formby Four Crosses to Dunstable Town
I won't be going again
On the Slow Train
On the Main Line and the Goods Siding
The grass grows high
At Dog Dyke, Tumby Woodside
And Trouble House Halt
The Sleepers sleep at Audlem and Ambergate
No passenger waits on Chittening platform or Cheslyn Hay
No one departs, no one arrives
From Selby to Goole, from St Erth to St Ives
They've all passed out of our lives
On the Slow Train, on the Slow Train
Cockermouth for Buttermere ... on the Slow Train
Armley Moor Arram
Pye Hill and Somercotes ... on the Slow Train
Windmill End
As a footnote the song may have had a protest and populist impact in that out of the lamented stations and connections listed in 1963 some nine remained open and still continue to do so, to my knowledge, in the current national rail network.
These are Chester le Street, Openshaw, Formby, Ambergate, Selby, Goole, St Erth, St Ives and just up the road in my local area, Arram.
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