Review
Charles Loft reviews The Times Exploring Britain’s Lost Railways by Julian Holland T
his ‘nostalgic journey’ and ‘poignant reminder’ is aimed at those who, like Julian Holland, spent their childhood trainspotting in the early 1960’s; men for whom the end of steam and the ‘politically motivated vandalism’ of the Beeching closures have left scars that cry out for nostalgia’s balm. A satisfyingly thick and glossy volume, it will be gladly lifted from pre-Christmas bookshop shelves by grandsons and great nephews. Some fifty closed lines are featured, evenly distributed across seven regional sections; maps and photographs accompany a potted history of each line and a description of its route today. The book works best as an introduction to the delights of old railway lines for those whose primary interest is cycling or walking – it is the ability to easily traverse a portion of former railway that explains Holland’s selection of routes. Those seeking a guide to the pre- Beeching rail network will be surprised to see the Great Central, Somerset and Dorset, East Lincolnshire and Waverly lines all omitted. Nevertheless, those who already own the same author’s Beeching 50 years on may feel that too much duplication remains here. Thirty years ago one could stumble through mud and brambles armed only with an ordnance survey map, the relevant volume of H. P. White’s Forgotten Railways series and a hazy grasp of the law on trespass, to find relics that appeared lost to the world. Nowadays those routes which have not been spruced up as cycle paths tend to be inaccessibly overgrown or obliterated beneath modern developments. As a result there is not much ‘exploring’ here. The sections describing the lines today are brief but efficient, mentioning the main sights along each route and offering tips on handy car parks and pubs. Holland confines himself to describing the sections that remain accessible and the book has nothing to say on how modern environments reflect the now invisible geography of former railways in the boundaries and streetnames of modern developments and the routes of the roads that replaced them.
A significant proportion of the photographs are modern views providing a good idea of the usually attractive settings. However, the few modern pictures accompanying Hartlepool to Sunderland and Low Moor to Dewsbury (at one point ‘sandwiched between a sewage works and the western outskirts of Dewsbury’) do little to dispel the suspicion that these are not routes one would go out of one’s way to visit. It is unclear why the northern section of the book covers these lines but not the former Great Central Dunford Bridge to Wortley (including the bizarre echoes of Thurgoland tunnel). Padstow, Wadebridge and the beautiful routes around Buxton are equally odd omissions.
The accompanying histories are well- written but too short to offer more than a glimpse of whatever gave each line its distinctive character. The format allows a perfectly adequate summary of the West Somerset Mineral Railway’s brief existence but defies the author’s attempts to do justice to the
The book works best as an introduction to the delights of old railway lines for those whose primary interest is cycling or walking
struggles between the LSWR and GWR in entries on the lines around Tavistock. The historic photographs are good but if this is the reader’s main interest, the selection does not quite match Paul Atterbury’s Along Lost Lines. Exploring Britain’s Lost Railways. The book will provide a useful source of inspiration for anyone who enjoys cycling or walking holidays but it exemplifies the way in which the internet challenges publishers. As the convenient car and lorry finished off the lines whose passing Holland mourns, so a quick Google of a cycle path’s name will provide all the information the visitor needs, while (in a web groaning under the weight of old railway photographs) the excellent
disused-stations.org.uk offers better histories than can be found here. So are such works redundant? Perhaps Dr Beeching would have closed this book, but just as a Eurostar will never breath steam like the Mallard, some of us still like to actually turn the pages.
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Published by HarperCollins on 10th October £30.00 ISBN: 978-0-00- 750541-8
Charles Loft is the author of Last Trains
- Dr Beeching and the Death of Rural England published by Biteback October 2013 Page 47
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