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The trains 🚂 🚊 🚆 used to run 🏃‍♀️ from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton everyday from July 1874 until October 1970 for 96 years which was a good 👍 long history life that happened. Trains 🚂 🚆 🚊 ceased running 🏃‍♂️ to Ilfracombe on Saturday 3rd 🥉 October 1970 is because it was a low service in the autumn 🍂 and winter ❄️ 🥶 every year that Richard Beeching had probably decided to stop ✋ the trains 🚂 🚊 🚆 going to Ilfracombe is because it’s no longer trusted by railway 🚃 staff that a few railway 🚃 passengers used the trains 🚂 🚊 🚆 daily. It’s highly unlikely to see trains 🚆 🚊 🚂 being back to Ilfracombe again is because the houses 🏘️ 🏠 🏡 have trapped the old railway 🚃. To be honest is that touchwood is trains 🚂 🚊 🚆 to Ilfracombe is now a thing of the past and I can 👌 be sure ✔️ 👌 👍 of that so don’t worry 😉 about it. It’s because there are buses 🚌 🚍 🚎 that run 🏃‍♂️ from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton is worked by Stagecoach 21 and 21A everyday including public holidays except Christmas 🎄 🎅 🧑‍🎄 🤶 Day, Boxing 🥊 Day and finally New 🆕 Year’s Day🎈 🎉 🥳. On the old railway 🚃 line in Ilfracombe, people can 👌 walk 🚶‍♀️ 🚶 🚶‍♂️ and use bikes 🚲 🏍️. It’s very sad 😞 😔 😢 that no trains 🚂 🚊 🚆 are to Ilfracombe is because it’s a good 👍 😌 😊 railway 🚃 service. When trains 🚂 🚆 🚊 ran to Ilfracombe, they had open windows 🪟, slam doors 🚪, luggage 🧳 rack, toilets 🚽 and they weren’t automatic operating doors 🚪 back then. It’s all water 💦 💧 🚿 under the bridge 🌉 🌁. 👍 😀 😃 😄

BRILLLLLLLLLIANT and the next videois a SEAMTRAIN going along the line WelI can live un HOPE

many thanks for this. I have spent some years staying in Hayle for holidays and it was fascinating to see the line of the old railway from where it departed the main line and went down into Hayle and to the old harbour. I have cycled along the old trackbed which is now a walkway cum cycleway along the creek and never knew that this was a part of the railway although I did know that it went through Hayle to the docks.

Just found this. It's brilliant, thanks very much, I followed it the whole way and recognised places. The viaduct between Trawsfynydd and Bala didn't come out well, it being a 3D image made from a 2D image but the rest of it came out well. Is this Google Earth? I haven't got that. You've got a spelling mistake in title, it's Corwen. Anyway, thanks.

Looks very rural and undisturbed...could it be reinstated? Bus transport very poor roads choked with traffic.

Bring it back

Interesting, however some captions would have been helpful. It must have been a great journey back in the day but unfortunately I missed the last train.

Great video, Tom. I can see the Ashville yard at 0.44

Great video ! , My home and surrounding area, it’s amazing seeing it from that perspective, thanks

Well done for finding the entire route, I had a a go but sadly failed.

My late father himself a legend of sorts on the SR is seen on the two iconic last days fotos of Hawkhurst and Goudhurst lines, as a kinda mental exercise he also maintained his "knowledge" of both lines based on the last weeks rule book workings as about that time he was working relief at Cuxton so had all the line down to Tonbridge to play with. During that time as well he practically rebuilt Snodland signal box repointing it, new shingles, installed a flushing toilet as me mum refused point blank to use the standard BR "thunderbox" or cess hole and it was christened by local celebrity Judge Dread who was often found in the box chatting trains and stuff with me father mumping tea as my old man he made a proper cup o' sergeant major's, 4 heaped tablespoons of BR best leaf tealeaves, boiled and set to stew, as the day went on more tea would be added to the pot and it was always full, Marvel instant milk and you had to admire the tannine plated cups, tea pot and spoons. In his last days on BR, he was at London Bridge where during the day staff had paid for a tea urn lady whose job was to keep on top of three large tea urns and she would do routes starting at Charing X panel, down to Chislehurst/Orpington boundary then cross over to the Central panels and do East Croydon all the way up to London Bridge terminus and approaches then into the kitchen to swap the urn over, fill the empty one and off she would go again round the panels.

Like the Cheltenham to Swindon video that ends in the wrong place that is not the station site, this one starts in the same wrong place but to be fair quickly gets to the correct line of the railway. The actual site of the station is clearly visible on modern maps like google and so on, very easy to locate. If you zoom in on the area the railway comes up from the southwestern direction from Rushey Platt Jcn (a walkable path) and goes under Croft Road to curve around to head east, south of Newport St, (the site of the station on the video is north of Newport Street, the railway was never in that location) then south-east in an arc that can roughly be seen following what is now Signal Way (railway connection) Trading Estate then through the area of modern flats and houses that are on the video. The line is then followed pretty much correctly south towards the M4 and on to Chiseldon and Marlborough etc. The bridge carrying the railway over Evelyn Street is still there. I know the producer knows this but just adding a bit of what I hope is helpful info. Always grateful for anything on the good old M&SWJR.

Thank you so much for researching and posting. I was a 'Bideford Boy' and travelled that way many times in the 1950's and until it's demise. Fond memories of the eventual speedy descent after Swimbridge and the guard always saying he hoped the brakes would work. A man in our compartment once introduced himself to me and ended up giving me a signed copy of one of his works......C S Lewis. I was about fifteen at the time.

Thanks Tom. Very interesting.

Thanks very much for taking the time to put this together, I grew up in the area in the 70's and the Hatch Beacham bit was particularly interesting as of course first the railway went, then the road when it was bypassed. Next time I am in the UK I will visit Hatch on purpose!

This line must be reinstated to improve the resilience of the network as a whole. It is even a more rational route to Cornwall than the sea wall. In Tavistock, the trackbed has been built on.

There's something wrong with this map, the track bed and cycle way is still in-situ at Instow, I've cycled it recently in 2022, but on this overview its showing it missing! Also it doesn't look correct at Torrington either! If approval gets given the line between Bideford and Barnstaple could reopen.

Well done.

A steam service between Lostwithiel and Fowey in the summer months would be a gold mine.

The DNS which did struggle to pay it's way doubled in 1942 to help with D Day closed down 1966

Great video. I have explored parts of the line including the incline a number of times but this was brilliant. Many thanks.

Very good although the last shot where it ends is not the Swindon Town Station site. The film ends in a car park north of Newport Street shown on the right whereas the station site is out of picture perhaps a hundred yards or so to the right, south, behind the houses and shops on the right of the picture. The station site is now a trading estate and the curve of the station site is easily discernible in what is now called Signal Way where the line headed south out of Swindon towards Chiseldon, Ogbourne and Marlborough etc.

Thank you, most interesting, getting all my old maps out now,

I remember the old train, I travelled on it a few time from Seaton junction to Axminster , I was at a boarding School(Manor House School) in Seaton, for my annual trip to Africa to see my folks

Despite being only 6 miles in length the C&W R had a half-mile tunnel, which required locomotives with special low-cut chimneys to cope with the restricted headroom.

This is awesome! I'd like to see a version where the eye altitude is 20 metres - almost a drivers eye view :-)

So what's the route

Great Railway Journeys of the World!

Fascinating.

What a lovely place Bristol is not a single car on the road.

A commentary would have been useful, mentioning places of interest as we passed above.

Elham Valley Line.

Sort of an ASMR thing going on here following the old line. Funny that you can so easily make it out all these decades later.

Ahh yes ... trips on the ( Atlantic coast Express ) ... now no more ! ...DAVE™🛑

Are walkers allowed along these routes?

Truly superb and thank you very much for bringing to us! I do the same for myself but not with anything like your finesse or knowledge! Was that a branch/narrow gauge going away NE at 7:58?

Enjoyed this one. I never realised how many twists and turns there were to the line, which I am quite familiar with from on the ground. Looks entirely different from above.

Shame this isn't now a footpath/cycleway.

There’s no chance of this line ever reopening, but it would make for a great cycle track and walkway.

i live there!

The track bed totally obliterated at Cheltenham Cirencester and Swindon and you'd think there was never a railway there

As a regular visitor to perranporth and Newquay I really enjoyed this flyover. Thank you.

Shame this closed, we faringdonians could really do with a connection nowadays

Thanks for making these videos . They are saving me a fortune on helicopter rides .

A great piece of work! Would be interseting to follow the course before the railway closed, or in its heyday.

Such a waste! No running commentary and 95% of watchers will not have a clue to where exactly they are except when leaving Newton Abbot and reaching St Davids. Luckily being a long distance driver for 40 years I knew exactly where the route would go. Have also argued for years that the Government were crazy to be King Canute at Dawlish and wasting millions of taxpayers money! This video would have been far more helpful to the public if you had given them the facts of the line existence and why it should never have been closed. Why not? AFRAID OF BEING POLITICAL? You could also say people , especially the young remain ignorant because you've only done half a job!

Hope that young people realise how short sighted our successive Governments are closing down what we had built by Irishmen with picks and shovels. Padstow to Bodmin Road and Paddington wasted, Padstow to Waterloo via North Cornwall and Mid-Devon was a criminal act! Empty headed MP's abound.

This is by far the best video I have watched for these reasons. The film footage travelled at the right speed! So often, many vids will have you falling asleep. This was perfect for any Cornishman that knows the area, Its easy to pick our Dunmere and Wenford etc. Dividing the film and replaying worked a treat too. Thank You!

As I watch the final film footage of this video, I am shocked at what once was a beautiful town in the 1950's with a population less than 10,000. What is it now? A DUMP containing 40,000 English people and perhaps 8,000 Cornish folk.

I’ve just watched and followed with my 1964 quarter inch OS map. Intermediate stations approx. and e&oe: Egloskerry 2.45; Tresmeer 4.55; Otterham 7.50; Camelford 10.30; Delabole 12.00; Port Isaac Rd 14.25; St Kew Highway 15.55.