The Beeching closures of the 1960s were acts of reckless criminal damage to the national railway network. There were many lines across Britain that should have remained open and one example is the Barnstaple to Ilfracombe stretch of line. Today a through train from London Waterloo to Ilfracombe at weekends would be welcome by many people.

Really enjoyed watching this programme RIP Donald Beale a true engineman

A wonderful story told beautifully.

Magical 🙂

Makes me cry every time I watch it so evocative and emotional. RIP the BR network😢

Donald Beale.....a true gentleman & professional ....so sad we have lost him...God bless Donald..

Totally agree Brilliant to watch

A brilliant film for memories, Donald Beale remembered fondly, Dr Robert Beaching cursed

I was lucky to get hold of the LAST EVER copy of the great Donald Beales book! You cannot buy them anymore 😢 RIP Donald.

@teddy1066

2 жыл бұрын

What’s the title? I wonder if someone will scan it digitally?

Here we are in 2020 and politicians are still causing untold damage to the country. What a wonderful time capsule this film is.

1919, the same year my Grandfather started , he was a driver too. talked with that same slow somerset accent....thanks for posting this.

I have watched this film so many times always enjoying every second of it. Donald Beale was 83 (correct me if I am wrong) when it was made. We've lost something sadly never to return,thanks to Ivo Peters we have the memories. KZread has been a God send for those interested in railways.

Brilliant 👏

At least the S and D stayed under steam till the end.

I love hearing Donald's stories. The man hired out before the grouping. The lost generation chaps were real men and the nicest I ever met. Not like the later generations. They believed in doing the best you could at what you did, community and camaraderie. Something lost today, all that is gone, long gone. Everyone is me, myself, and I these days.......

This is a most wonderful little film of a long gone scene. Donald Beale and Peter Smith are absolute gems in their own right! Thank you for uploading. Rgds from Holland, Joachim

@Trek001

2 жыл бұрын

Donald is in another S&D documentary from about the same time where he jumps up into the cab of an old friend and just gets right back to it

Ivo Peters drove a Bentley. Such amazing loco men such as Donald Beale and Peter Smith were supreme masters of the art of driving locos over the S & D

@stevethompson9714

7 жыл бұрын

Chris Horne

My Husband is modelling this railway , its taken him years but he loves it

A wonderful and touching film.... FILM not VIDEO!

What a sad but nice film.

A wonderful film about a breed of men we shall never see again. Ivo Peters was always driving his Daimler up and down the line and the railwaymen passed his films along the railway to the various stations. But the railway is now seeing a rebirth with incredible equipment coming into use. This pleases me. Steam could never have survived, no matter how much we love to see it in action. The lines were often never allowed to serve the towns properly because the authorities ensured they did not build stations in the centre of towns. We cannot blame Dr Beeching for that. All in all a great historic video.

@alantraish3368

3 жыл бұрын

Absolutely agree Keith. Just to let you know Ivo drove a MK V1 Bentley which I believe is owned by someone at the West Somerset Railway 👍

I worked on Bitton railway (Avon Valley) before it reopened.. WE were the ones who built the toilet block revamped the sheds , Repaired walls etc. There was a few trains there but i dont think any of them where being used. They were still being restored. It was a great place to work. Love the old steam engines.

Just before Hawkers of Kingston closed down my foreman was a young lad straight out of university who didn`t know a drill from a tab washer - and he was my boss!!

I know this is the past, but I feel we've moved far away from our destination.Like missing your stop, going beyond where you wanted to be.

it's interesting that an old West Country accent seems to have an American twang to it

This film saddens me. The end of an era. Beeching has a lot to answer for

@marciebalme588

7 жыл бұрын

yes I have to agree

@lynton09

6 жыл бұрын

The real villain was Marples, Beeching was the oily rag.

@waverunner3911

6 жыл бұрын

michael hampton best thing he done get rid of dead wood long live the desile

@prafter7

4 жыл бұрын

Proper English please. Did not done.

@danieldarcy7862

3 жыл бұрын

Marples ' family were part of Marples Ridgeway who built motorways. Not suspicious at all!

A driver preferring the original Bulleid Pacifics to the rebuilt versions... I wasn't expecting that lol

@castlesandjazzers1534

4 жыл бұрын

Granted, the rebuilt ones seem pretty boring, but everyone knows the ogs can be pains to work with.

S and D should never have been closed. Rural areas isolated by Beeching. 60 years ago finally being scrutinised. Should have been overruled then as anti social.

Marples has a lot to answer for, being hand in glove with the road hauliers and with vested interests in road infrastructure projects that saw him shuttle off to France to avoid jail for tax evasion on the millions he and his wife had made out of that, and in closing down most of what the Victorians left us as part of their legacy by using his puppet Beeching, but so does Barbara Castle. As transport minister it is she who closed the S&D. Yes, the railways needed pruning, but not cutting off at the roots. In these days of traffic choked motorways, high fuel prices, and an ailing mining industry, the S&D had it been continued and developed would have been well set to both provide the transportation needs of the region and prosperity. The whole transport infrastructure in the region that the S&D served is now a joke. You spend more time sitting in a car in traffic than going anywhere. And around the likes of Wells and Bournemouth it is a nightmare of either personal or poor public transport. As railway engine driver Donald Beale noted, the S&D had always suffered due to the severe gradients in the route to Evercreech Junction, and the need for banking locomotives to deal with that. But with the advent of the 9F locomotive the S&D had the solution to that problem, only to see the line closed by the government! Ridiculous. And to provide a suitable replacement for the infrastructure that was lost by closure of the S&D? How much will that cost in todays money? The short-term-ism mentality, and blatant stupidity of short sighted fools in governmental power in the UK absolutely astounds me even today!!

@TravellerFair

7 жыл бұрын

Ernest Marples was the real villain of the piece.

@moonshapedabsolution

6 жыл бұрын

Castle actually tried to undo the damage by the guy before her (the original appointment by Wilson until he was sacked). She saved some railway, but was mostly ineffective as the cuts were already policy underway. Beeching actually lost too. The whole thing from his perspective was a favour for Marples to enhance his career, who gave him the job as BR chairman. But he didn't expect the Tories to be voted out in an election soon after, which would force a cabinet reshuffle. So he lost the job anyway. Marples kinda won, he got his family firm road construction contracts.

Sad but interesting!

Sure, Beeching was the villain ,but, and it's a really big 'but' take away Beeching and Marples and institutions like the Bluebell and all the other 'preserved' lines for steam simply wouldn't exist in their current guise and form today for us all to enjoy!

@moonshapedabsolution

6 жыл бұрын

Silver lining

I worked on British rail best thing they done got rid of steam to much hard work keeping them running and not good 4 the environment

@garrieleepeck8753

5 жыл бұрын

They were beautiful

@cjstibitz2130

5 жыл бұрын

Diesel engines put a lot of pollutant in the environment too. If you hear from a good steam driver they would tell you an efficient driver who knows how to run their train would put less smoke into the air than a diesel does

@michael32A

4 жыл бұрын

@@cjstibitz2130 Agreed there. Cleaning a 56XX Taff Tank parked next to a cold-starting Class 47 10 years back, I was up level with the exhausts and down-wind, and can assure anyone there's nothing all that clean about a diesel. I had a red raw throat and streaming, stinging eyes for ages. That smoke was far more acrid than anything that came from the 56XX's chimney all day. 😕

@alantraish3368

3 жыл бұрын

Ha ha troll didn’t work did it ?