The Somerset And Dorset Thread

You may have a point, that it didn't make business sense to sink the capital into it, and so it was a bad investment; but, once built (sunk cost and all that), too bad it wasn't kept.

Noel

 

Possibly, though my understanding is that it was loss making on operations (i.e., without considering the sunk capital) before WWII.


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It does make you wonder how towns and villages along the route would have faired if there never had been a railway, would they have flourished or become ghost towns?

 

They would either have used the other rail connections thry had, or for the most part remained sleepy backwaters. However, it's hard to think that this would have been much worse than the situation they found themselves in.

 

So which places along the S&D flourished because of the railway? And, if they flourished because of the railway, what happened after it closed?

 

'Evercreech Junction, it was to be the Clapham Junction of the West' to quote John Betjeman

 

I've said this before on another thread and I'll say it again, would we lament the S&D if it wasn't for all those lovely photo's Ivo Peters took? If it still lived today would we give it a second glance if it had unstaffed stations, single track and a service with 153 units?

 

Ivo Peters' pictures are an essential part of the myth of the S&D, but not all.

Had it survived as you suggest, without the photographs, I think the Bath Extension would still be considered a scenic route in it's own right, attracting interest in the way that the Heart of Wales, say, does.


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I believe one the reasons the Heart of Wales is still with us is because 'that line goes through 3 marginal constituencies!' I do think that Ivo's work means that there will always be a 'the sun always shone in those days' sort of ideal as regards the S&D. I'm not saying I agree with it's complete closure but I do think Ivo's work does tend to cloud a few peoples judgement and they seem to think 'reopen the S&D and soon we can have 92220 back on the Pines'

 

I thought it was 8 marginals for the HoW.

 

yes really it was only that short period after WW2 up to about 1960 where the legend of the S&D comes from, and Ivo's photos. It was only when holidays with pay took off that the line became busy and that evaporated again pretty quickly once the working man bought a car

 

and after all, how many of us have actually been along the Heart of Wales line?

 

I have.

 

Kept meaning too when I lived at home, but the idea of a day or 2 trapped in a tin rocket fills me with dread!

 

Twice on a DMU, once on a 153, once on an HST & once by steam.............

But while clearly Ivo Peters had a lot to do with it, when did he start publishing his pictures? Others have also photographed the line & there was a lot of interest at closure

 

Think my trip was in a Metro-Cammel 101.

 

Pictures of the trackbed

https://www.flickr.com/photos/91463401@N08/albums/72157639536107373/page4

 

Looking North from the overbridge at Masbury 7.4.17

 

You could say the same about Grimsby - Louth

However given passenger railways were still closing in the mid 80s (What is now the Spa valley shut in 1986 IIRC) and freight only branches were still being ripped up even later than that, Blandford - Poole would probably still have gone even if it had hung on another couple of decades.