I too visited Ilfracombe very shortly after closure - quite a climb up the hill as I remember. More or less everything was intact. What a terrible waste. Thank you for your film.
visited the station site in June 1977. Walked along the track bed for 2 miles with only the ballast remaining. nothing left of the station by then either.
Crazy world .. I used to live in North Devon, I would of used this line ,alas I lived there in the late 80s. The car was king so they built the North Devon link road and the new bridge at Bideford. Hopefully the line to Bideford might be rebuilt.
If only successive Governments and Railway Boards could have been able to see the future, too many vehicles congesting our roads and pollution destroying the very air we breathe. Carbon form vehicle exhausts causing global warming and now the desperate need to find alternatives. Well we had those alternatives of course but they were destroyed, then as they say hindsight is a wonderful thing.
An extract of a much longer film posted some while ago, but very good all the same. As the money BR spent in 1967 on singling did not stretch to modernising the level crossings, operating costs wouldn't have stayed so high and (who knows?) the line might well have survived.
How sad 😞 Bet it would would a god send for rail traffic now just like the Okehampton line is today 🤔 My Mum had a B&B in Woolacombe and I visited it back in the 70s just as the line closed so I had to catch the stupid bus lol 😆
Okehampton train runs around 40% full on all services, averaged out. Not surprising when the town lies on the A30 dual carriegeway which also goes to Exeter.
A 96 year history of the trains 🚊 that ran from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton from 1874 to 1970. I wouldn’t be surprised 😯 why the trains 🚊 stopped running 🏃 from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton. The houses 🏡 🏠 🏘️ have trapped over the old railway 🚃. Ilfracombe railway 🚃 station 🚉 became unstaffed because there weren’t enough railway 🚃 passengers that used the train 🚆. Perhaps 🤔 it’s a shame that the railway 🚃 line has previously been closed. It’s one ☝️ of those things that not enough people used the trains 🚆. 👍👍👍👍
I love that Devon accent. Do not let it die.
Bring a station back to Ilfracombe. It has a big enough population for a town.
I too visited Ilfracombe very shortly after closure - quite a climb up the hill as I remember. More or less everything was intact. What a terrible waste. Thank you for your film.
visited the station site in June 1977. Walked along the track bed for 2 miles with only the ballast remaining. nothing left of the station by then either.
It's such a shame, isn't it?
Last train was in 1975. It was an inspection saloon hauled by 25063.
Such a sad story. Came the car and killed the train. Now the car is killing itself! Real justice!
Crazy world .. I used to live in North Devon, I would of used this line ,alas I lived there in the late 80s. The car was king so they built the North Devon link road and the new bridge at Bideford. Hopefully the line to Bideford might be rebuilt.
If only successive Governments and Railway Boards could have been able to see the future, too many vehicles congesting our roads and pollution destroying the very air we breathe. Carbon form vehicle exhausts causing global warming and now the desperate need to find alternatives. Well we had those alternatives of course but they were destroyed, then as they say hindsight is a wonderful thing.
An extract of a much longer film posted some while ago, but very good all the same. As the money BR spent in 1967 on singling did not stretch to modernising the level crossings, operating costs wouldn't have stayed so high and (who knows?) the line might well have survived.
The main video is on my channel, this is just a clip for the locals of Ilfracombe. It is such a shame so many lines were shut down.
How sad 😞 Bet it would would a god send for rail traffic now just like the Okehampton line is today 🤔 My Mum had a B&B in Woolacombe and I visited it back in the 70s just as the line closed so I had to catch the stupid bus lol 😆
So many places would have benefitted if the stations had stayed open. ☹️
Okehampton train runs around 40% full on all services, averaged out. Not surprising when the town lies on the A30 dual carriegeway which also goes to Exeter.
A 96 year history of the trains 🚊 that ran from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton from 1874 to 1970. I wouldn’t be surprised 😯 why the trains 🚊 stopped running 🏃 from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton. The houses 🏡 🏠 🏘️ have trapped over the old railway 🚃. Ilfracombe railway 🚃 station 🚉 became unstaffed because there weren’t enough railway 🚃 passengers that used the train 🚆. Perhaps 🤔 it’s a shame that the railway 🚃 line has previously been closed. It’s one ☝️ of those things that not enough people used the trains 🚆. 👍👍👍👍
Shame the line closed
The views in the movie make it look like one of the most beautiful lines in the UK. It is a very sad shame.
If the line reopened they would have to build a new station
@@michaelsandford1015
Even if the line had survived chances are the terminus would have been downgraded to a 'bus shelter' like so many others