Barnstaple & Ilfracombe Railway 1970.flv

One of the last Summer Saturdays before closure of the line. Shot on 8mm Standard Eight. Silent.

These clips are on a new dvd at
www.rail-dvd.co.uk/page_2469656.html

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Trains;
• Railways;
• Barnstaple;
• Ilfracombe;
• Class
• 42;
• Warship;
• Dragon;
• Champion

[cgpaddock]

Thanks for the comment burnleyfan11965. I wouldn't pretend that the situation in winter was anything other than pretty grim. Elsewhere on YouTube I have posted a poor quality piece of film entitled 'Winter Train to Ilfracombe' which on arrival at Ilfracombe shows only the postman waiting for it.

[cgpaddock]

Thank you for your comment and interest. Yes indeed most of the branch lines around the south west suffered from British Rail's flawed method of accounting. Sadly everything west of Barnstaple is gone now and the former junction station reduced to a single line. Not even a run-round loop so loco and stock trains are no longer a possibility. As for the junction yard, it is now occupied by a Tesco supermarket.

[pongokliem]

Fantastic, I've been waiting for years for somebody to post a film of this lovely line lost to us back in the 70's. I used to stand at braunton gates as a boy and see these giant warships thunder by. Great memories! Well done

[MiLLwallpaul231258]

What a smashing clip of a railway no more,We were up at woolacombe back in may of this year and i took the dog for a walk along the old trackbed and thought about the trains....such a shame it's all gone

[Toneslope]

Great . I was on the last train that ran on that line as a boy .Many thanks

Tony

[dodger5450]

lovely piece of film of a line that should still be there. With good marketing it could be busy 9 months of the year and reasonable for the rest. The diesel hydraulics look good too!

[MICKTHEMERC]

Very , very nice piece of film, thank you.

[burnleyfan11965]

Now that was a busy line that summer saturday,what it was like on a wet and windy tuesday afternoon in january we dont know,but there was a case for at least running it during the summer with maybe a restricted service on non summer weekdays

[50012Benbow]

What a great piece of film, not being old enough to remember these lines its amazing to see what they were like whilst open, having been to Barnstaple recently its hard to believe the railway ever passed over the river at all as so little evidence remains.

Thanks for sharing a wonderful film

[MrAdrianharding]

Thank you for sharing with us - the insanity of closing the line beggars belief!