@Rediscovering Lost Railways, its primarily down to one of 2 factors firstly passenger uptake on these rural lines and government transport subsidy cut (laterly privatisation of UK railways). Nice if these vintage lunes were to reopen I believe the stretches on this video have become cycleways and guided busways.
I remember this route when it was still a railway line, I'm 73. In the 1950s it had steam trains and I remember how small the Bute Street engines looked compared to the Midland mainline trains were. A couple of years ago I was cycling along the part of this route from Luton to Batford with my Grandsons. We stopped to watch a Red Kite that was wheeling and soaring above us. I told them that my Grandparents would have seen steam trains chugging along this line but they would not have seen Red Kites here as they were extinct in this area during their life times. Red Kite re-introduction has been such a success but Railway re-introductions are an altogether different proposition.
When the railway left, so did all hope of prosperity for Dunstable. Whilst all the other rail linked towns in the area have thrived, Luton, Leighton, Harpenden, St Albans, Berkhampstead etc, Dunstable slowly fades away into obscurity, starved of the investment that London commuters brought to its neighbours. A collection of faded buildings and faded memories of a once pretty and vibrant little market town. Now all that is left is a legacy of grubby 60s architecture, terrible traffic management and empty shops on a sad and essentially useless high street. "There used to be a town over there"
I don't know much about the town, but I know enough to appreciate it has seen better days - a railway may help reverse some of these fortunes, but I fear there's more to it...thanks for your thoughts!
y building the BusWay, and foisting it on Dunstable, Luton Council ensured that Dunstable would remain as the biggest town in the South East without a rail link. British Rail, in the days of NetWork SouthEast had plans to join the Dunstable Branch to the Midland Nainline at Luton. Privatisation of the railways ensured that this neber happened, and the BusWay was the final nail in the coffin.
I started my British Rail career in Luton Crescent Road Yard in 1976 and the railway line at Bute Street to Dunstable was still in use working Oil and Cement trains between the two. Always remember a tragic accident on the line in 77/78 when the locomotives trundling back light from Dunstable one dark wet winters morning ran a couple over using the line as a short cut, it was the days before locos had headlights and the Driver said all they saw was a flash of an umbrella and the couple were gone. Will never forget the Driver, Guard and Second Man sitting in our mess room not long after it had happened. Very sad day.
Excellent. I’m from Dunstable. Too much has gone, too many impediments, too much development has taken place for it to be restored. But no it shouldn’t have closed. Being so close to London it should have been seen that these places would develop and would need interconnection. But hindsight always gives wisdom.
I'm from Luton and the old Bridge near Gypsy Lane was removed somewhere between 2005 and 2010 As i remember the road being closed so that it can be removed ( my mum worked in gypsy lane)
I grew up in Dunstable. Back in 1980s there was a push for the reopening of the (then still extant as a freight line to the cement works and Waterlows printing factory) rail line between Dunstable and Luton. This was known as the "Association for Dunstable Area Passenger Trains" (ADAPT). They even ran a rail tour along the line. For a while it looked promising, and indeed "Dunstable" was supposedly added to the destination blinds on some of the new stock bought by BR in the late 1980s in preparation for the reopening to passengers. Sadly it was not to be - privatisation of BR distracted attention and resources, the cement works and Waterlows print works both closed and there was no need for the freight branch either. For a while it lingered on as a potential heritage railway venture but after some rather acrimonious wrangling, the busway promoters got the upper hand and it was all swept away. It is now very, very, very unlikely to ever reappear, even if the full line detailed in this video would link the three mainlines to London. I can remember going for a Sunday morning walk with my Dad as a young teenager in the early-mid 1980s and we both wanted to see what the Dunstable North station site looked like so we walked down Westfield Road and hopped into the site via one of the many gaps in the fencing. It was a waste land, but you still see some bits and pieces if you knew where to look (and Dad did as he'd used it when it was still open). This was just before the council came along and bulldozed the site to build their swanky new offices. Though after they'd built the offices you could still spot the odd bit of railway infrastructure left in the "no mans land" on the edges beyond their car parks. I don't know if those are still there or not some 30+ years later. I used to also walk to/from school along Brewers Hill road and back then you could still see rails where the crossing point used to be, with the line on the north side of the road bought by the AC Delco factory and used as a long linear car park for their workers. One positive side of the busway was that it did provide an excellent traffic free shared foot/cycle path alongside. Very handy for getting to the L&D hospital from Dunstable for example.
As we head towards November, your documentary is like being beside the glow of a roaring fire with a glass of single malt. Absolute heaven! More please!
Gosh, that's so kind of you! I try to upload every few months so I can keep the quality just so. If I made a film every week or even each month it would be a poor show, so I hope you don't mind waiting!
A great surprise to me living in Victoria Australia. I was born in Dunstable near the end of WW2. Our house looked out onto the railway with Blows Downs beyond. Watching the trains probably created my life-long interest in railways. We left in late 1949 to go to Glasgow in order to board a ship to Australia. My father often talked of the line and its close associations. He worked for the Diamond foundry in Luton for most of his life and early in his first marriage lived in Harpenden and commuted from there. His first wife died in about 1937. With his second wife, my mother, they set up home in Dunstable and he then commuted to Luton from there. I have started building a model railway , very loosely based on the trackplan of the two stations in Dunstable. Thank you for a great documentary, a pity my father is no longer alive or he would have found it most interesting, and would have set him reminiscing.
My brother and I recently speculated that, with the resurgence of tramways (light-rail), had such a movement occurred when even the experiment of dmus had failed to save rural railways, a tramway could have been a saviour. The absence of signalling and all the heavy infrastructure that made such lines a money pit, and the frequency of tramcars would have been very welcome, especially the use of street running where needed. Sadly, the motor lobby had doomed the old style trams in the official mind from the 1930s right through the 1950s and only using the term 'light rail' brought them back. EU Infrastructure grants have also been taken away from us.
That just what Manchester Metro Link did, it reused BR lines and it not technically a tram system but a light rail system, the reason why Metro Link platforms are so high in the centre of Manchester is because they are the same high as BR's as they reused stations and track, Thomas the Tank Engine once escaped from the East Lancs Railway down to Manchester on the Metro Link Lines as there was and still is a direct track connection.
Great video - thank you. Having lived near Hertford for the first 30 years of my life, I can only imagine how useful such an east-west link would have been. There is virtually no east-west public transport in Hertfordshire (something HCC is now trying to right with some bus services) - but how lovely this railway would have been. Have cycled along the Cole Green Way many times! Also, let's not forget there was a link between Hertford Cowbridge and the Hertford East branch - although only used by freight - but with possibilities of connections to the West Anglia Main Line, Stratford and Liverpool Street. Again - what a shame this useful link has been consigned to history.
I was a Bengeo lad. And Cowbridge survived into the early 80s. The trackbed parallel to port vale and the bridge over port vale also remained in reasonable condition. As did the spur from the Ecml serving ICI at WGC. As others say in the last 30-40 years too much of the trackbed has been built on. Irony is that in the 80s talk of reopening focussed on how to remove the landfill west of cole green ...a minor issue today The line was also a frequent cross country run for us Richard Hale boys... only when weather was really bad rendering the normal mud runs impassable 😂
Railways were expensive to run because of signalling. At the time of Beeching most lines had a signal box at each station, and each junction. Each box required a minimum of two signalmen to cover the working day. The only way to ensure people paid for their train service was to have a manned entrance/exit point - for all the time that people might turn up. The signalling infrastructure, being so vital to safety, required expensive maintenance. The cost of running a line such as this must have been enormous when compared with the revenue. From a simple financial perspective one can see justification for closure. BUT (this angers me) lots of money and effort had gone into developing wayleave, yet tiny bits of land along the way was sold off, thus increasing entropy with no significant gain. The lines should have been placed into hibernation as it would have been obvious to any thinking (non-selfish) person that technology would develop and reduce the cost of operating the line. In answer to you question "Should this railway have closed", the answer is at the time probably _yes_ but the wayleave should have been retained so that the line could be reopened when technology made it financially viable.
Precisely put. These are wonderfully informative and evocative videos. Lines mothballed from the 1980s onwards are now realistic candidates for reopening but too much was lost in the past - a tragic waste of magnificent engineering. Either this route or Hatfield to St Albans should have been safeguarded as east-west links for future use. HCC is now looking at possible tram/bus links. I have mixed feelings about the guided busway (as in Cambridge). One problem was the nature of the junction with the Midland/Thameslink route but surely not insurmountable.
Thank you for that very great compliment - as it happens, I am deep into all things Betjeman at the moment as I prepare to revisit the sites he detailed in his peerless 'Metroland' film...so stay tuned for 'Metroland: Revisited'...coming soon...
I went to Ashton Middle School in the late 80s and early 90s and we used to do PE football and rugby in the playing fields that runs along 'dog kennel walk' (now a bowling alley!) which crosses the line between the two Dunstable stops. I was amazed when midway through a lesson a full sized diesel locomotive went past running light engine! It would have been one of the last times any train passed along this line as I never saw another and it quickly became overgrown after then (we used to walk along it, along the back of factories and over the bridge by the now McDonalds/Wickes.
Thank you so much for this. For years and years I would drive around this area on gigs, and would pass over and under various old railway bridges. Indeed including the A1 and M1. This video explains 90% of the question raised whilst driving. Thank you !!!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I'm from Higham Ferrers originally, used to play Tarzan swinging off the ropes that we strung up in the old goods shed, about 72. All bloomin houses now, although RHTS have done as much as they can :)
Wow... an amazing film of a much missed rail line !!. If only we hadn't been so quick to "get rid" of these lines. That one would be so useful and convenient for so many people to make links both east and west. So short sighted !!
The primary loser here is Dunstable with no railway connection and, at times, some horrendous traffic. I can imagine that a link to a mainline railway would be very beneficial, but there has so much that has been lost, it's tricky to see where it would run. Probably a link to Luton would make the most sense as, it's in the right direction for journeys to London and I suspect many more people journey from Dunstable to Luton than to Leighton Buzzard. Of course such a thing would mean commandeering the guided bus route as well as a lot of other work. I see much less benefit from Luton to Hertford as it would just be a very lightly used East-West route, as it was in past life. The "East West Rail" route, along what is much of the old "Varsity Line (Oxford-Cambridge), assuming it's all built, will be a lot more beneficial and ought to join up a lot of major radial routes out of London. The Oxford-Bedford part was due to be opened in 2025 (in theory) and, starting from Oxford, joins up with the mainline from Marylebone to Birmingham, then with the West Coast Mainline (that runs through Leighton Buzzard) Midland Mainline at Bedford (that runs through Luton). The further proposed extensions will carry it out to a junction with the East Coast Mainline (which runs through Welwyn) and then onto Cambridge on the West Anglia Main Line. There are then links further East from Cambridge. If anything is the missing link, then it is East West Rail, not the Hertford, Luton & Dunstable railway (noting the issue about Dunstable).
Fantastic film! Been waiting years for this featurette and I'm thrilled to see it. This disused line is one that only gets more and more relevant with time as more people use these towns and villages to commute to London, not to mention Luton Airport which an east-west rail line would make huge use of. (A major oversight in my view as to why it should never have been closed, given the growth of cheap air travel that was happening in the 60s.). For this reason alone, I think at least some of the line may one day be rebuilt in some form, especially as Luton Airport continues to expand (to the disquiet of many). P.S. The fact too that Hertford now has two stations, with no connection between them, is another anomaly left behind by the closure.
So pleased the film did not disappoint! I think you're right about the need for connections such as this, especially with the airport in mind. Do share the film far and wide if you can!
Superb video again! Always a real pleasure to watch. Thank you for the credit. As I have said before, no railway should have closed. I will leave it at that! 👍🙂
I think possibly reopening the line between Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable would be a smart move. The rest of the line I fear will stay as it is currently a slowly fading memory of the past where steam was supreme. Once again a brilliant and informative film I'm already looking forward to the next one knowing it'll be more than worth the wait
There was whispers to relink between toddington and leagrave to Leighton buzzard. Would have been a good diversion between Luton and Bedford when things go wrong, even moreso with the planned rail hub outside luton
@Rediscovering Lost Railways, a really informative video of a bygone age of railways joining industrial towns and citadels. The correct pronounciation of ayot it actually spoken as eight. e.g Chiswick Ayot.(eight), Ayot Green 'Eight Green' and so on.
Glad you enjoyed the film! Yes I was concerned about how to pronounce it, which is why I asked a couple of locals there who gave me the pronunciation I use in the film - strange! Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for this great video. So many memories. We visited Wheathampstead station last year where my wife's grandparents first lived. Her great grandmother used to visit them when they lived near Ayot on the Ayot station. We walked the Ayot green way a few years ago. We lived in Luton for a while and remember the plans for the guided bus way. Such a shame that this east west route was lost, how long would it take to drive from Hertford to Leighton Buzzard now?
A vital missing link. When the bus way was proposed, many people, including myself protested against it in favour of restoring the railway, which in my opinion would have served the whole area much better. Great film, thank you for making it.
While so much has been lost I do feel a surge of joy every time I hear a station house has been saved and is in use as a private residence. Also really enjoying the film references..so many that we are going back to rewatch as many of the films we can.. it allows us to enjoy them more fully.❤
Absolutely fascinating documentary (as always!). You have a habit of uncovering interesting gems, such as the old movie links, and I wonder how many more are hidden in the background stories of other former railways. Should this one reopen? East-West links post-Beeching have been weak, and arguably would benefit connecting radial routes out of London. But one wonders whether the 'missing link' you've so eloquently described would withstand the business case rigour, and survive decades of preparatory campaigning and planning, that the East-West Rail (Oxford-Cambridge) scheme, currently under construction, has successfully endured. Thank you for an excellently compiled and narrated documentary.
Thank you for your warm, generous remarks about my film - and I think what you say about the business case has it exact - there's just no momentum in government to get behind the building of railways
Wonderfully nostalgic, thank you. I grew up in Dunstable in the 1940s and 50s and we would often travel into Luton by train on Saturdays. Those were the days!
Thank you for today’s tour into the past. It’s sad in some ways to see what they are today. But thankfully your videos open up the past to be seen again. Cheers mate, and thanks for your time showing this to the grateful audiences. I am one of those. ❤😊
Another fabulous explore and explain of what used to be. It sounds like that area really needs good transport links away from congested roads, so as with all these decisions, more short-sighted politicians who only know how to make themselves richer at the expense and inconvenience of everyone else. With all the abandoned lines countrywide, including the Great Central, all those track beds should have been protected for the future. If that one thing had been done, think what could be happening now. Thank you for another nostalgic look. Excellently produced as always!
If they had closed but preserved permanent way / track bed it could have been relatively easy to re-open with changes in modern traction, same goes for a lot of routes closed
Brought up in Bedfordshire, familiar with many places on the line, very impressed with the research, filming and soundtracks. Looking forward to the next video, thank you!
I randomly came acroos this video and found the whole journey of the old lines fascinating. Now aged 77, I recall as a young teenager standing in the car park at WGC station, together with fellow trainspotters, waiting for the arrival of one of the first powerful diesel engines. A station porterwas also entralled by the sight of the enormous engine as it halted on the Northbound platform. The porter was pulling a 4 wheeled cart loaded with goods and had begun to cross the line that was the spur that ran from WGC to Luton. At the end of the platform there stood a signal box which blocked his view of the branch line which wended its way around the box. Our group of lads stood next to the fence and heard a train approaching from Luton. The station worker couldn't see or hear it as the noise of the diesel was very loud. He and his cart still stood on the branch line. We saw the danger and began to shout but to no avail. When he finally heard our cries he saw the approachiong train and tried to pull the cart out of its path. It was too late and the steam engine struck him and the cart which exploded in a shower of splinters and parcels. As the train passed us and came to a halt, other station staff came running along the platform and jumped on the track but they couldn't save the unfortunate porter. Our little group just stood open mouthed until we were shooed away. The image of this event still burns in my memory.
The East West Rail project is slowly ticking along further north, but maybe something similar to Croydon Tram Link or The Docklands Light Railway may work. Where laying down tracks is impossible, maybe have a tram/DLR vehicle leaving the original route, particularly in Dunstable, where it can travel through the main centre. Buckingham is another town that could do with a spur from Winslow (it's the county's main town after all)?
We have a 12 mile section of mainline track up in the Ribble Valley where there are more steam hauled passenger services than normal service trains despite the BR did away with steam services 55 years ago. The trains from Manchester all stop at Clitheroe and don't travel the 12 miles to Hellifield on the S & C where there is a platform for it.
Thanks for another great video, I’m not from the area covered in this film but I still appreciate the work gone into researching and creating it, it’s crazy that towns like Dunstable that really should have a rail connection lost both its stations, and lines that once served towns nearer to London lost their services, with our roads struggling to cope it makes us wish more hindsight had been used in the rail closures of the 60’s.
Thanks for your kind words once more - yes, it's a big old place and nothing to link it to the railway - I daresay a story replicated up and down the land!
Your vidoes are beautifully presented, and the mix of photos, current-day videos, with the maps and your narration, make these a real pleasure. Please keep up the excellent work
I lived in Wheathampstead for a number of years. The old line ran just a few yards from my home. Although it had closed by then one of our favourite dog walks was to cross the road then after that we could let the dogs off their leads for miles and walk almost to Welwyn . Beautiful video that revived memories of time when I had my dogs and my wife to walk with me. Thank you.
Thank you for bringing my childhood memories back to life! Our family moved to Welwyn Garden City in 1936, my Father worked in the Commercial division of the LNER at Kings Cross, and we lived here until 1946. I started school at Parkway School in 1941, sang in the St.Francis of Assisi new brick (and then unfinished) church on Parkway. I am still haunted by the sound of M2 Tank Engines hollowly chugging through Sherrard Park Woods. There were huge Rhododendron bushes in the Woods in which we could climb for a long way without our feet touching the ground. I loved those woods and the sound of the Tank Engine slowly panting its way towards Luton. That bridge at the top end of The Campus on the Digswell Road was always called 'The White Bridge' and my school was right at the other end of Parkway. My piano teacher, Dorothy Hesse, lived in Pentley Park just over that bridge and off Digswell Road. Michael.
Absolutely outstanding! You should be proud of your work which is of superb broadcast quality, often exceeding some. There are so many lines in the UK that should not have closed, or should have had their infrastructure preserved for possible future use. As usual short term planning and greed wins and the chances of most of these lost, useful routes are gone forever. Anyway, keep up your brilliant work, it is much appreciated.
Excellent, your films get better and better! The Sewell Greenway is on of my favourite walks locally, and I see how it now fits into a bigger picture. So much research, well done!!
Those of us resident in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire are badly served by east - west links since the Beeching era, noting that passenger services on this line were withdrawn in the 50s suggesting poor loadings. Every time I want to head north I check out the train timetables and sigh; via London is the option, expensive, time consuming and a poor alternative to the car, sadly. Thank you for the film.
Luton Hoo station, and the nearby former Chiltern Green station on the MML, were immortalised in the classic N-gauge model railway layout "Chiltern Green" in the 1980's. It survives to this day at the Devon Railway Centre.
Thank you for this excellent video. Having moved to Hatfield in 1958 when I was 4 and stayed there as I grew up all of this is my old territory. I remember bits of it, Cole Green, Ayot, Welwyn, much of it lost forever now. How foolish we were to close cross country routes like this, just to save a few ££ at the time. I suppose it would cost about £100M or some absurd figure to restore it now!
Another gem of a video, so well researched and produced. Definitely another line that should be still in operation. A town like Dunstable should be served by rail. Although I drive coaches, I dont rate guided bus ways. If we had the rail network before Beeching, the roads would be far less crowded.
Great video. There is still a remaining yard mast round the back of the council offices in Dunstable the one remaining item from the old station there. Also the crossing keepers house on Billington Road, in Leighton Buzzard is still standing, but now a private residence.
Thank you once again for a great video. It is always so sad to see closed railways as an enthusiast, but as a professional railway consultant my opinion is that this has no chance as a rail reopening - too much alignment has been lost, and the scale of demolition required to reinstate it would result in an insuperable level of opposition. Even the original decision to close might have been correct- it was an orbital route where almost all of the significant locations served already have a rail service going in the direction where most of the traffic goes- London. The end of wagonload freight probably meant it’s demise. I also agree with the negative comments about guided bus - a technology looking for an application- apart from a few specific applications where passing clearances are too tight, it does nothing that a a dedicated busway cannot do at much lower cost. But thanks once again for a great film.
My grandfather and father worked at the Blackbridge land fill site, this received rubbish from London by train and was the last piece of the line to close when the A1 was extended as they were not prepared to put in a bridge over a single track line.
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I think that the A1M Welwyn by pass opened in 1972/3 so the last remaining part of the Welwyn to Luton line would have closed a little before this. From memory I believe in the latter stages of this site they received two trains a day coming from North London.
This was a really interesting film. A rail link between these towns would definitely be useful. But with the best will in the world, I don’t think there would be enough demand to justify the capital costs of rebuilding the line.
Fascinating. I remember there used to be a train from Hatfield to Dunstable which was withdrawn by Beeching or earlier. Trains going west from Hertford are well before my time.
I used to play on this line as a kid around Crawley Grn Rd. It was still intact and we'd play with points and under bridges. An interest in its reuse sparked an A level geography project and that, a degree in Transport Planning! So I owe this line for a reasonably decent choice of career and lots of good teenage memories. Also COYH.
Very enjoyable portrait of a former cross-country railway. Apart from the Luton - Dunstable link, it seems to me doubtful that its likely usage would justify its reopening, in whole or in part. I tend to agree with your final judicious summing-up. I once walked the short section from Hertingfordbury to Hertford North. This is very pleasant for the most part, but your video shows that there are far more delights further West, with some very impressive bridges and station restorations. What a pity the stretch in Luton has become such an eyesore, instead of say a nature reserve, or small urban park. Thank you for a beautifully made video.
An unexpected pleasure to find another of your most excellent videos! This time I have the distinction of actually having traveled on part of this line, namely on the 'Dunstable Dasher' as it was known locally, from Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable. Traveling in an old suburban, slam door carriage hauled by a tank engine. A very scenic journey skirting the Dunstable downs, I remember. Thank you, Mike
Fascinating history. I worked at WGC decades ago for a couple of years and remember many of the names in the video. I once drove to Luton and back and it was difficult and I got lost in a small lane surrounded by fields. That was before internet and GPS. It'd have been much easier to have a rail link.😊
I believe a video covering the array of lost railways that span over east Sussex and into west Sussex. The cuckoo line, tonbridge-three bridges line, uckfield-lewes, bluebell railway and the spa valley railway would be interesting. So many abandoned lines in such a close radius.
Beautifully narrated, and so literate! I must have spent half my life, on and off, in St Albans (though I now live on the south coast), so Hertford, Dunstable and the intermediate stations all feel very familiar to me. Frankly, I doubt whether this line, if reopened, would carry much traffic - and, with the building developments on parts of it, it would be impractical even to try. But thank you for such a well-made and evocative documentary: the maps, in particular, make it so much more meaningful than using mere words.
Hi Another fantastic video, All I can say is what a waste, we should get back to the railway , it took men years to lay the track , build station's and at the stroke of a pen wiped out , it was a crime, place's cut off, bring it back , All the best Brian 😃
I often think about the people who worked on the construction when I see bits of abandoned infrastructure strewn about. Not that construction isn't hard work now, but the labour involved back then must have been something.
Thank you for exploring this line. About 12 years ago I was working in Welwyn Garden City and walked much of the line between the A1(M) near Welwyn and Hertford East Station. I also used to keep a look out for traces of the western section when travelling by car to Luton. It looks as though some further clearance work may have been done at Cole Green as I remember the southern platform being virtually indiscernible through the shrubbery.
A very enjoyable video. One that sits prominently for me as I’m fairly local to WGC and Hertford. I’m looking forward to collaborating soon on a video about The Garden City Project, and these rail links play a vital part in Welwyn being built where it was.
Brilliant video, very informative! I think you should consider Exploring the former Woodhead line some of which is still open (Manchester - Hadfield) but from hadfield no such railway no longer exists. It once linked Manchester - Penistone - Sheffield now sits abandoned and it was electrified 😢 this should definitely be reopened as it would massively ease pressure on the Hope valley line and even transpennine route!
Great suggestion and one I have considered for some time - the only obstacle for me is time and distance, especially the latter, as I live at the opposite end of the country, but I definitely harbour an ambition to do this!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways yes it would be good, im sure you could accumulate some more Subscribers aswell! Your videos are so detailed and interesting with your clear voice!!
@Transpennine I'd always welcome more subscribers, though I don't help myself by only uploading every few months...I try to focus on quality over quantity!
Should this railway have closed? Share your thoughts below! Might you consider supporting my channel even more? www.buymeacoffee.com/rediscovering
No it is so badly needed especially for the Airport
@Rediscovering Lost Railways, its primarily down to one of 2 factors firstly passenger uptake on these rural lines and government transport subsidy cut (laterly privatisation of UK railways). Nice if these vintage lunes were to reopen I believe the stretches on this video have become cycleways and guided busways.
I remember this route when it was still a railway line, I'm 73. In the 1950s it had steam trains and I remember how small the Bute Street engines looked compared to the Midland mainline trains were.
A couple of years ago I was cycling along the part of this route from Luton to Batford with my Grandsons. We stopped to watch a Red Kite that was wheeling and soaring above us. I told them that my Grandparents would have seen steam trains chugging along this line but they would not have seen Red Kites here as they were extinct in this area during their life times.
Red Kite re-introduction has been such a success but Railway re-introductions are an altogether different proposition.
Wonderful memories - thanks so much for your comment!
When the railway left, so did all hope of prosperity for Dunstable. Whilst all the other rail linked towns in the area have thrived, Luton, Leighton, Harpenden, St Albans, Berkhampstead etc, Dunstable slowly fades away into obscurity, starved of the investment that London commuters brought to its neighbours. A collection of faded buildings and faded memories of a once pretty and vibrant little market town. Now all that is left is a legacy of grubby 60s architecture, terrible traffic management and empty shops on a sad and essentially useless high street. "There used to be a town over there"
I don't know much about the town, but I know enough to appreciate it has seen better days - a railway may help reverse some of these fortunes, but I fear there's more to it...thanks for your thoughts!
y building the BusWay, and foisting it on Dunstable, Luton Council ensured that Dunstable would remain as the biggest town in the South East without a rail link. British Rail, in the days of NetWork SouthEast had plans to join the Dunstable Branch to the Midland Nainline at Luton. Privatisation of the railways ensured that this neber happened, and the BusWay was the final nail in the coffin.
I started my British Rail career in Luton Crescent Road Yard in 1976 and the railway line at Bute Street to Dunstable was still in use working Oil and Cement trains between the two.
Always remember a tragic accident on the line in 77/78 when the locomotives trundling back light from Dunstable one dark wet winters morning ran a couple over using the line as a short cut, it was the days before locos had headlights and the Driver said all they saw was a flash of an umbrella and the couple were gone. Will never forget the Driver, Guard and Second Man sitting in our mess room not long after it had happened. Very sad day.
Many thanks for your thoughts and memories!
Excellent. I’m from Dunstable. Too much has gone, too many impediments, too much development has taken place for it to be restored. But no it shouldn’t have closed. Being so close to London it should have been seen that these places would develop and would need interconnection. But hindsight always gives wisdom.
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can - and thank you for your views which I know are widely shared!
I'm from Luton and the old Bridge near Gypsy Lane was removed somewhere between 2005 and 2010
As i remember the road being closed so that it can be removed
( my mum worked in gypsy lane)
@@harryjohnson9215It was removed in 2010 along with the bridges at Church Street, Skimpot Lane and Guildford Street to make way for the Busway.
I grew up in Dunstable. Back in 1980s there was a push for the reopening of the (then still extant as a freight line to the cement works and Waterlows printing factory) rail line between Dunstable and Luton. This was known as the "Association for Dunstable Area Passenger Trains" (ADAPT). They even ran a rail tour along the line. For a while it looked promising, and indeed "Dunstable" was supposedly added to the destination blinds on some of the new stock bought by BR in the late 1980s in preparation for the reopening to passengers. Sadly it was not to be - privatisation of BR distracted attention and resources, the cement works and Waterlows print works both closed and there was no need for the freight branch either. For a while it lingered on as a potential heritage railway venture but after some rather acrimonious wrangling, the busway promoters got the upper hand and it was all swept away. It is now very, very, very unlikely to ever reappear, even if the full line detailed in this video would link the three mainlines to London.
I can remember going for a Sunday morning walk with my Dad as a young teenager in the early-mid 1980s and we both wanted to see what the Dunstable North station site looked like so we walked down Westfield Road and hopped into the site via one of the many gaps in the fencing. It was a waste land, but you still see some bits and pieces if you knew where to look (and Dad did as he'd used it when it was still open). This was just before the council came along and bulldozed the site to build their swanky new offices. Though after they'd built the offices you could still spot the odd bit of railway infrastructure left in the "no mans land" on the edges beyond their car parks. I don't know if those are still there or not some 30+ years later.
I used to also walk to/from school along Brewers Hill road and back then you could still see rails where the crossing point used to be, with the line on the north side of the road bought by the AC Delco factory and used as a long linear car park for their workers.
One positive side of the busway was that it did provide an excellent traffic free shared foot/cycle path alongside. Very handy for getting to the L&D hospital from Dunstable for example.
Many thanks for sharing your valuable and evocative memories of this line - it seems like it was a missed opportunity to reinstate it!
Profit truly destroys all good things.
I did enjoy that film, if a somewhat sad story!
Bittersweet, perhaps? Many thanks indeed!
As we head towards November, your documentary is like being beside the glow of a roaring fire with a glass of single malt. Absolute heaven! More please!
Gosh, that's so kind of you! I try to upload every few months so I can keep the quality just so. If I made a film every week or even each month it would be a poor show, so I hope you don't mind waiting!
Not at all. Each video is absolutely worth waiting for. Quality over quantity each and every time.. I completely agree with where you are coming from.
A great surprise to me living in Victoria Australia. I was born in Dunstable near the end of WW2. Our house looked out onto the railway with Blows Downs beyond. Watching the trains probably created my life-long interest in railways. We left in late 1949 to go to Glasgow in order to board a ship to Australia. My father often talked of the line and its close associations. He worked for the Diamond foundry in Luton for most of his life and early in his first marriage lived in Harpenden and commuted from there. His first wife died in about 1937. With his second wife, my mother, they set up home in Dunstable and he then commuted to Luton from there.
I have started building a model railway , very loosely based on the trackplan of the two stations in Dunstable.
Thank you for a great documentary, a pity my father is no longer alive or he would have found it most interesting, and would have set him reminiscing.
Thank you for sharing your valuable memories of this line, I'm so glad you enjoyed the film
Thank you for the Slow Train reference.
The most heartbreakingly sad song ever written.
My pleasure 🙏
My brother and I recently speculated that, with the resurgence of tramways (light-rail), had such a movement occurred when even the experiment of dmus had failed to save rural railways, a tramway could have been a saviour. The absence of signalling and all the heavy infrastructure that made such lines a money pit, and the frequency of tramcars would have been very welcome, especially the use of street running where needed. Sadly, the motor lobby had doomed the old style trams in the official mind from the 1930s right through the 1950s and only using the term 'light rail' brought them back. EU Infrastructure grants have also been taken away from us.
I think there's much to support this view - thanks for sharing!
That just what Manchester Metro Link did, it reused BR lines and it not technically a tram system but a light rail system, the reason why Metro Link platforms are so high in the centre of Manchester is because they are the same high as BR's as they reused stations and track, Thomas the Tank Engine once escaped from the East Lancs Railway down to Manchester on the Metro Link Lines as there was and still is a direct track connection.
Great video - thank you.
Having lived near Hertford for the first 30 years of my life, I can only imagine how useful such an east-west link would have been. There is virtually no east-west public transport in Hertfordshire (something HCC is now trying to right with some bus services) - but how lovely this railway would have been. Have cycled along the Cole Green Way many times!
Also, let's not forget there was a link between Hertford Cowbridge and the Hertford East branch - although only used by freight - but with possibilities of connections to the West Anglia Main Line, Stratford and Liverpool Street. Again - what a shame this useful link has been consigned to history.
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can - and agreed, east-west links nationwide are pretty shoddy!
I was a Bengeo lad. And Cowbridge survived into the early 80s. The trackbed parallel to port vale and the bridge over port vale also remained in reasonable condition. As did the spur from the Ecml serving ICI at WGC. As others say in the last 30-40 years too much of the trackbed has been built on.
Irony is that in the 80s talk of reopening focussed on how to remove the landfill west of cole green ...a minor issue today
The line was also a frequent cross country run for us Richard Hale boys... only when weather was really bad rendering the normal mud runs impassable 😂
Railways were expensive to run because of signalling. At the time of Beeching most lines had a signal box at each station, and each junction. Each box required a minimum of two signalmen to cover the working day. The only way to ensure people paid for their train service was to have a manned entrance/exit point - for all the time that people might turn up. The signalling infrastructure, being so vital to safety, required expensive maintenance.
The cost of running a line such as this must have been enormous when compared with the revenue. From a simple financial perspective one can see justification for closure.
BUT (this angers me) lots of money and effort had gone into developing wayleave, yet tiny bits of land along the way was sold off, thus increasing entropy with no significant gain. The lines should have been placed into hibernation as it would have been obvious to any thinking (non-selfish) person that technology would develop and reduce the cost of operating the line.
In answer to you question "Should this railway have closed", the answer is at the time probably _yes_ but the wayleave should have been retained so that the line could be reopened when technology made it financially viable.
Many thanks for your thoughts and comment - you're right, the railways of old demanded substantial manpower etc which must have cost a fortune!
Precisely put. These are wonderfully informative and evocative videos. Lines mothballed from the 1980s onwards are now realistic candidates for reopening but too much was lost in the past - a tragic waste of magnificent engineering. Either this route or Hatfield to St Albans should have been safeguarded as east-west links for future use. HCC is now looking at possible tram/bus links. I have mixed feelings about the guided busway (as in Cambridge). One problem was the nature of the junction with the Midland/Thameslink route but surely not insurmountable.
Just what I needed on a Sunday morning. Your almost Betjeman like delivery is wonderful. Thank you :)
Thank you for that very great compliment - as it happens, I am deep into all things Betjeman at the moment as I prepare to revisit the sites he detailed in his peerless 'Metroland' film...so stay tuned for 'Metroland: Revisited'...coming soon...
I went to Ashton Middle School in the late 80s and early 90s and we used to do PE football and rugby in the playing fields that runs along 'dog kennel walk' (now a bowling alley!) which crosses the line between the two Dunstable stops. I was amazed when midway through a lesson a full sized diesel locomotive went past running light engine! It would have been one of the last times any train passed along this line as I never saw another and it quickly became overgrown after then (we used to walk along it, along the back of factories and over the bridge by the now McDonalds/Wickes.
Wonderful memories! Thanks for sharing!
Here it is finally: 'my line'. And a typically thorough and excellent job as expected.
So glad you feel I've done it justice - do share far and wide if you can!
Good morning sir.
I would like to thank you my friend for posting your latest film for us all to enjoy.
All the very best.
☕👍
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
A touch of nostalgia, I walked all these lines in the early 80s, somewhat different now!.
I bet it is!
good morning , what a lovely surprise , best wishes from lancashire
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways always best to share mate
Thank you so much for this. For years and years I would drive around this area on gigs, and would pass over and under various old railway bridges. Indeed including the A1 and M1. This video explains 90% of the question raised whilst driving. Thank you !!!
You're very welcome!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I'm from Higham Ferrers originally, used to play Tarzan swinging off the ropes that we strung up in the old goods shed, about 72. All bloomin houses now, although RHTS have done as much as they can :)
Wow... an amazing film of a much missed rail line !!. If only we hadn't been so quick to "get rid" of these lines. That one would be so useful and convenient for so many people to make links both east and west. So short sighted !!
Thank you so much! Do share far and wide if you can!
Just amazing as usual.
Thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
The primary loser here is Dunstable with no railway connection and, at times, some horrendous traffic. I can imagine that a link to a mainline railway would be very beneficial, but there has so much that has been lost, it's tricky to see where it would run. Probably a link to Luton would make the most sense as, it's in the right direction for journeys to London and I suspect many more people journey from Dunstable to Luton than to Leighton Buzzard. Of course such a thing would mean commandeering the guided bus route as well as a lot of other work.
I see much less benefit from Luton to Hertford as it would just be a very lightly used East-West route, as it was in past life. The "East West Rail" route, along what is much of the old "Varsity Line (Oxford-Cambridge), assuming it's all built, will be a lot more beneficial and ought to join up a lot of major radial routes out of London. The Oxford-Bedford part was due to be opened in 2025 (in theory) and, starting from Oxford, joins up with the mainline from Marylebone to Birmingham, then with the West Coast Mainline (that runs through Leighton Buzzard) Midland Mainline at Bedford (that runs through Luton). The further proposed extensions will carry it out to a junction with the East Coast Mainline (which runs through Welwyn) and then onto Cambridge on the West Anglia Main Line. There are then links further East from Cambridge.
If anything is the missing link, then it is East West Rail, not the Hertford, Luton & Dunstable railway (noting the issue about Dunstable).
Many thanks for your thoughts and comment 👍
Another excellent film! I also love the sound effects, very innovative! ❤😊👍
Thank you - I do enjoy adding those in!
Fantastic film! Been waiting years for this featurette and I'm thrilled to see it.
This disused line is one that only gets more and more relevant with time as more people use these towns and villages to commute to London, not to mention Luton Airport which an east-west rail line would make huge use of. (A major oversight in my view as to why it should never have been closed, given the growth of cheap air travel that was happening in the 60s.).
For this reason alone, I think at least some of the line may one day be rebuilt in some form, especially as Luton Airport continues to expand (to the disquiet of many).
P.S. The fact too that Hertford now has two stations, with no connection between them, is another anomaly left behind by the closure.
So pleased the film did not disappoint! I think you're right about the need for connections such as this, especially with the airport in mind. Do share the film far and wide if you can!
Superb video again!
Always a real pleasure to watch.
Thank you for the credit.
As I have said before, no railway should have closed.
I will leave it at that! 👍🙂
Thank YOU for your generous support and kind words, as always
Another excellent film many thanks. The Luton Dunstable section should certainly not have closed.
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways Already shared it with several people. Please keep your excellent films coming 😁
I think possibly reopening the line between Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable would be a smart move. The rest of the line I fear will stay as it is currently a slowly fading memory of the past where steam was supreme. Once again a brilliant and informative film I'm already looking forward to the next one knowing it'll be more than worth the wait
Thank you indeed and I agree with your assessment of the route's prospects
There was whispers to relink between toddington and leagrave to Leighton buzzard. Would have been a good diversion between Luton and Bedford when things go wrong, even moreso with the planned rail hub outside luton
@Rediscovering Lost Railways, a really informative video of a bygone age of railways joining industrial towns and citadels.
The correct pronounciation of ayot it actually spoken as eight. e.g Chiswick Ayot.(eight), Ayot Green 'Eight Green' and so on.
Glad you enjoyed the film! Yes I was concerned about how to pronounce it, which is why I asked a couple of locals there who gave me the pronunciation I use in the film - strange! Thanks for the tip!
As ever, wonderful! Thank you.
Thank you too!
Fantastic thanks for the effort
My pleasure, thank you!
Thanks for this great video. So many memories. We visited Wheathampstead station last year where my wife's grandparents first lived. Her great grandmother used to visit them when they lived near Ayot on the Ayot station. We walked the Ayot green way a few years ago. We lived in Luton for a while and remember the plans for the guided bus way. Such a shame that this east west route was lost, how long would it take to drive from Hertford to Leighton Buzzard now?
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
I'd wager it's about an hour to drive between Leighton Buzzard and Hertford nowadays
fantastic presentation. thank you very much
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
A vital missing link. When the bus way was proposed, many people, including myself protested against it in favour of restoring the railway, which in my opinion would have served the whole area much better. Great film, thank you for making it.
My pleasure 🙏
Well worth waiting for,thank you.
I'm so glad you think so, thank you
While so much has been lost I do feel a surge of joy every time I hear a station house has been saved and is in use as a private residence.
Also really enjoying the film references..so many that we are going back to rewatch as many of the films we can.. it allows us to enjoy them more fully.❤
So glad you enjoyed the film and lost railways, as I do!
it always astounds me how in-depth your videos are. great work, as usual - can't wait for the next one!
Thank you - it is a labour of love - do share far and wide if you can!
Thank you for this well researched enjoyable sadness.
My pleasure 🙏
Absolutely fascinating documentary (as always!). You have a habit of uncovering interesting gems, such as the old movie links, and I wonder how many more are hidden in the background stories of other former railways. Should this one reopen? East-West links post-Beeching have been weak, and arguably would benefit connecting radial routes out of London. But one wonders whether the 'missing link' you've so eloquently described would withstand the business case rigour, and survive decades of preparatory campaigning and planning, that the East-West Rail (Oxford-Cambridge) scheme, currently under construction, has successfully endured. Thank you for an excellently compiled and narrated documentary.
Thank you for your warm, generous remarks about my film - and I think what you say about the business case has it exact - there's just no momentum in government to get behind the building of railways
Wonderfully nostalgic, thank you. I grew up in Dunstable in the 1940s and 50s and we would often travel into Luton by train on Saturdays. Those were the days!
Glad you enjoyed it - thanks so much for sharing your memories!
I'm in the U.S. but still very interesting!
I'm glad the film has international appeal! Whereabouts in America are you? I have family in Missouri
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I'm in Harrisburg, Pa.
As always...amazing production values, music and narration. Thank you so much.
Thanks ever so much - really appreciated!
really enjoyed that 👍. A lost line i didn’t know existed. well done with your usual excellent work my friend 👍
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks ever so much, Neil!
Thank you for today’s tour into the past. It’s sad in some ways to see what they are today. But thankfully your videos open up the past to be seen again. Cheers mate, and thanks for your time showing this to the grateful audiences. I am one of those. ❤😊
My pleasure - thank you for you warm and generous remarks about my film(s)!
Another fabulous explore and explain of what used to be. It sounds like that area really needs good transport links away from congested roads, so as with all these decisions, more short-sighted politicians who only know how to make themselves richer at the expense and inconvenience of everyone else. With all the abandoned lines countrywide, including the Great Central, all those track beds should have been protected for the future. If that one thing had been done, think what could be happening now. Thank you for another nostalgic look. Excellently produced as always!
Thank you indeed - I know many on here share your views!
If they had closed but preserved permanent way / track bed it could have been relatively easy to re-open with changes in modern traction, same goes for a lot of routes closed
Would you suggest diesel? Battery electric? Mains electric? Steam?
Yes, I think you might be right
Brought up in Bedfordshire, familiar with many places on the line, very impressed with the research, filming and soundtracks. Looking forward to the next video, thank you!
I've always felt that if I meet with the approval of long term residents, then it must have worked out OK 👍
Awesome. Love your videos. It's just what I enjoy doing myself. Looking for signs of a distance past. 👍
Thank you so much!
Excellent video as always 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you
Thank you so much!
I randomly came acroos this video and found the whole journey of the old lines fascinating. Now aged 77, I recall as a young teenager standing in the car park at WGC station, together with fellow trainspotters, waiting for the arrival of one of the first powerful diesel engines. A station porterwas also entralled by the sight of the enormous engine as it halted on the Northbound platform. The porter was pulling a 4 wheeled cart loaded with goods and had begun to cross the line that was the spur that ran from WGC to Luton. At the end of the platform there stood a signal box which blocked his view of the branch line which wended its way around the box. Our group of lads stood next to the fence and heard a train approaching from Luton. The station worker couldn't see or hear it as the noise of the diesel was very loud. He and his cart still stood on the branch line. We saw the danger and began to shout but to no avail. When he finally heard our cries he saw the approachiong train and tried to pull the cart out of its path. It was too late and the steam engine struck him and the cart which exploded in a shower of splinters and parcels. As the train passed us and came to a halt, other station staff came running along the platform and jumped on the track but they couldn't save the unfortunate porter. Our little group just stood open mouthed until we were shooed away. The image of this event still burns in my memory.
What a tragic thing to happen and a terrible sight to witness. A vital reminder as to how dangerous the railway can be!
The East West Rail project is slowly ticking along further north, but maybe something similar to Croydon Tram Link or The Docklands Light Railway may work. Where laying down tracks is impossible, maybe have a tram/DLR vehicle leaving the original route, particularly in Dunstable, where it can travel through the main centre. Buckingham is another town that could do with a spur from Winslow (it's the county's main town after all)?
Agreed on all counts!
We have a 12 mile section of mainline track up in the Ribble Valley where there are more steam hauled passenger services than normal service trains despite the BR did away with steam services 55 years ago. The trains from Manchester all stop at Clitheroe and don't travel the 12 miles to Hellifield on the S & C where there is a platform for it.
Many thanks for your thoughts and comment - I bet this is not the only place where heritage services outnumber mainline traffic!
Thanks for another great video, I’m not from the area covered in this film but I still appreciate the work gone into researching and creating it, it’s crazy that towns like Dunstable that really should have a rail connection lost both its stations, and lines that once served towns nearer to London lost their services, with our roads struggling to cope it makes us wish more hindsight had been used in the rail closures of the 60’s.
Thanks for your kind words once more - yes, it's a big old place and nothing to link it to the railway - I daresay a story replicated up and down the land!
Great vid mate. Ex local which makes it most fascinating. Wicked sweet awesome!
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for taking the time to say so!
There is a beautiful poetry to your commentary. I really do love how you map the old to the present
Very kind of you to say so, thank you
Your vidoes are beautifully presented, and the mix of photos, current-day videos, with the maps and your narration, make these a real pleasure.
Please keep up the excellent work
Glad you like them - and I will do!
I lived in Wheathampstead for a number of years. The old line ran just a few yards from my home. Although it had closed by then one of our favourite dog walks was to cross the road then after that we could let the dogs off their leads for miles and walk almost to Welwyn . Beautiful video that revived memories of time when I had my dogs and my wife to walk with me. Thank you.
Many thanks for sharing your wonderful memories!
Thank you for bringing my childhood memories back to life! Our family moved to Welwyn Garden City in 1936, my Father worked in the Commercial division of the LNER at Kings Cross, and we lived here until 1946. I started school at Parkway School in 1941, sang in the St.Francis of Assisi new brick (and then unfinished) church on Parkway. I am still haunted by the sound of M2 Tank Engines hollowly chugging through Sherrard Park Woods. There were huge Rhododendron bushes in the Woods in which we could climb for a long way without our feet touching the ground. I loved those woods and the sound of the Tank Engine slowly panting its way towards Luton. That bridge at the top end of The Campus on the Digswell Road was always called 'The White Bridge' and my school was right at the other end of Parkway. My piano teacher, Dorothy Hesse, lived in Pentley Park just over that bridge and off Digswell Road. Michael.
Wonderful memories, thank you for sharing!
Stunning video! The stories to be told about these lines are amazing. The litter filled cutting was a sad site.
Thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
Absolutely outstanding! You should be proud of your work which is of superb broadcast quality, often exceeding some.
There are so many lines in the UK that should not have closed, or should have had their infrastructure preserved for possible future use.
As usual short term planning and greed wins and the chances of most of these lost, useful routes are gone forever.
Anyway, keep up your brilliant work, it is much appreciated.
Wow, thank you! Many more films to come!
Excellent, your films get better and better! The Sewell Greenway is on of my favourite walks locally, and I see how it now fits into a bigger picture.
So much research, well done!!
Many thanks!
Those of us resident in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire are badly served by east - west links since the Beeching era, noting that passenger services on this line were withdrawn in the 50s suggesting poor loadings. Every time I want to head north I check out the train timetables and sigh; via London is the option, expensive, time consuming and a poor alternative to the car, sadly. Thank you for the film.
I live in South Cambridgeshire and I agree. East West Rail might help if it comes to fruition but who knows!
Another excellent video, thanks. Yet another missing link that would be well used had it been left in situ. We’ll never learn. 🚂🚴♂️👣🇺🇦
Many thanks indeed 🙏
Luton Hoo station, and the nearby former Chiltern Green station on the MML, were immortalised in the classic N-gauge model railway layout "Chiltern Green" in the 1980's. It survives to this day at the Devon Railway Centre.
Many thanks for this - good to know
Thank you for this excellent video. Having moved to Hatfield in 1958 when I was 4 and stayed there as I grew up all of this is my old territory. I remember bits of it, Cole Green, Ayot, Welwyn, much of it lost forever now. How foolish we were to close cross country routes like this, just to save a few ££ at the time. I suppose it would cost about £100M or some absurd figure to restore it now!
Many thanks for sharing your wonderful memories of the line!
Brilliantly researched, shot and narrated as usual. Thanks for your efforts!
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
A superb episode covering many aspects that determine railway boom and bust 👌
Very kind of you to say so!
Another gem of a video, so well researched and produced.
Definitely another line that should be still in operation.
A town like Dunstable should be served by rail.
Although I drive coaches, I dont rate guided bus ways.
If we had the rail network before Beeching, the roads would be far less crowded.
Many thanks for your comment and kind words about my film
Great video. There is still a remaining yard mast round the back of the council offices in Dunstable the one remaining item from the old station there. Also the crossing keepers house on Billington Road, in Leighton Buzzard is still standing, but now a private residence.
I wish I had seen it! So glad you enjoyed the film, do share far and wide if you can!
There is also the brickwork for the old turntable well located there as well...
Thank you once again for a great video. It is always so sad to see closed railways as an enthusiast, but as a professional railway consultant my opinion is that this has no chance as a rail reopening - too much alignment has been lost, and the scale of demolition required to reinstate it would result in an insuperable level of opposition. Even the original decision to close might have been correct- it was an orbital route where almost all of the significant locations served already have a rail service going in the direction where most of the traffic goes- London. The end of wagonload freight probably meant it’s demise. I also agree with the negative comments about guided bus - a technology looking for an application- apart from a few specific applications where passing clearances are too tight, it does nothing that a a dedicated busway cannot do at much lower cost. But thanks once again for a great film.
My pleasure and thank you so much for your thoughts and insights!
The railway carried west past Dunstable to Bletchley or Leighton Buzzard I believe serving quarries on the way.
Thanks for clarifying!
My grandfather and father worked at the Blackbridge land fill site, this received rubbish from London by train and was the last piece of the line to close when the A1 was extended as they were not prepared to put in a bridge over a single track line.
Many thanks for sharing your valuable memories!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways I think that the A1M Welwyn by pass opened in 1972/3 so the last remaining part of the Welwyn to Luton line would have closed a little before this. From memory I believe in the latter stages of this site they received two trains a day coming from North London.
This was a really interesting film. A rail link between these towns would definitely be useful. But with the best will in the world, I don’t think there would be enough demand to justify the capital costs of rebuilding the line.
Many thanks indeed for your thoughts and comment 👍
Fascinating. I remember there used to be a train from Hatfield to Dunstable which was withdrawn by Beeching or earlier. Trains going west from Hertford are well before my time.
Many thanks indeed!
I used to play on this line as a kid around Crawley Grn Rd. It was still intact and we'd play with points and under bridges.
An interest in its reuse sparked an A level geography project and that, a degree in Transport Planning!
So I owe this line for a reasonably decent choice of career and lots of good teenage memories.
Also COYH.
Wonderful memories, thanks for sharing 👍
Having walked both parts of the line its great to revisit the line again Great work.
Many thanks indeed 🙏
Greetings from Australia.I always enjoy your videos especially the "then and now" photos.
And I look forward to your kind comments - thank you so much!
Very enjoyable portrait of a former cross-country railway. Apart from the Luton - Dunstable link, it seems to me doubtful that its likely usage would justify its reopening, in whole or in part. I tend to agree with your final judicious summing-up. I once walked the short section from Hertingfordbury to Hertford North. This is very pleasant for the most part, but your video shows that there are far more delights further West, with some very impressive bridges and station restorations. What a pity the stretch in Luton has become such an eyesore, instead of say a nature reserve, or small urban park. Thank you for a beautifully made video.
Many thanks for your comment, thoughts and kind words about my film!
An unexpected pleasure to find another of your most excellent videos! This time I have the distinction of actually having traveled on part of this line, namely on the 'Dunstable Dasher' as it was known locally, from Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable. Traveling in an old suburban, slam door carriage hauled by a tank engine. A very scenic journey skirting the Dunstable downs, I remember. Thank you, Mike
Wonderful memories, thanks so much for sharing!
A very enjoyable video very well filmed very interesting history of the line looking forward to your next video
Glad you enjoyed it - many thanks indeed!
Fascinating history. I worked at WGC decades ago for a couple of years and remember many of the names in the video. I once drove to Luton and back and it was difficult and I got lost in a small lane surrounded by fields. That was before internet and GPS. It'd have been much easier to have a rail link.😊
Really glad you enjoyed the film and thank you for sharing your memories!
I believe a video covering the array of lost railways that span over east Sussex and into west Sussex. The cuckoo line, tonbridge-three bridges line, uckfield-lewes, bluebell railway and the spa valley railway would be interesting. So many abandoned lines in such a close radius.
Agreed - many that I would love to explore thereabouts!
I've really enjoyed cycling along this route in stages recently, but I'd give it all up in a heartbeat if it was reinstated as a railway.
Totally agree!
Your videos are always worth waiting for, thank you.
Very kind of you to say so - thank you!
Beautifully narrated, and so literate! I must have spent half my life, on and off, in St Albans (though I now live on the south coast), so Hertford, Dunstable and the intermediate stations all feel very familiar to me. Frankly, I doubt whether this line, if reopened, would carry much traffic - and, with the building developments on parts of it, it would be impractical even to try. But thank you for such a well-made and evocative documentary: the maps, in particular, make it so much more meaningful than using mere words.
Thank you for your kind words and generous remarks about my film!
Hi Another fantastic video, All I can say is what a waste, we should get back to the railway , it took men years to lay the track , build station's and at the stroke of a pen wiped out , it was a crime, place's cut off, bring it back , All the best Brian 😃
Many thanks indeed for your views, which I know are widely shared!
I often think about the people who worked on the construction when I see bits of abandoned infrastructure strewn about. Not that construction isn't hard work now, but the labour involved back then must have been something.
Thanks for another cracking vlog very interesting story 😊
Thank you so much! Do share far and wide if you can!
Thank you for exploring this line. About 12 years ago I was working in Welwyn Garden City and walked much of the line between the A1(M) near Welwyn and Hertford East Station. I also used to keep a look out for traces of the western section when travelling by car to Luton. It looks as though some further clearance work may have been done at Cole Green as I remember the southern platform being virtually indiscernible through the shrubbery.
Thanks for sharing your memories!
Another brilliant video, keep'em coming 👍👍
Willdo, thank you!
Wow, this shows what a fantastic amount of thought, research and hard work goes into your films. Well done sir.
So kind of you to recognize this and say so - it means a lot
Interesting video, many thanks. Plenty of missing links in Luton!
My pleasure, thank you - do share far and wide if you can!
another fine video
Thanks ever so much - do share far and wide if you can!
Very professional video thank you. I went to college in Hertford but I did not know about the closed line.
My pleasure 🙏
Another great film congratulations
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent as always ,well researched and well presented
Many thanks indeed 🙏
Thank you very interesting I love watching and listening about these lost lines sad but thought provoking 👍💯
Thank you so much! Do share far and wide if you can!
A very enjoyable video. One that sits prominently for me as I’m fairly local to WGC and Hertford. I’m looking forward to collaborating soon on a video about The Garden City Project, and these rail links play a vital part in Welwyn being built where it was.
Thank you and best of luck with your film!
Great filming and superb narration! Love the well researched history
Glad you enjoyed it!
Brilliant video, very informative! I think you should consider Exploring the former Woodhead line some of which is still open (Manchester - Hadfield) but from hadfield no such railway no longer exists. It once linked Manchester - Penistone - Sheffield now sits abandoned and it was electrified 😢 this should definitely be reopened as it would massively ease pressure on the Hope valley line and even transpennine route!
Great suggestion and one I have considered for some time - the only obstacle for me is time and distance, especially the latter, as I live at the opposite end of the country, but I definitely harbour an ambition to do this!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways yes it would be good, im sure you could accumulate some more Subscribers aswell! Your videos are so detailed and interesting with your clear voice!!
@Transpennine I'd always welcome more subscribers, though I don't help myself by only uploading every few months...I try to focus on quality over quantity!
@@RediscoveringLostRailways always good to see nice detailed videos!
A useful link in it's day but maybe now duplicated by the slowly reopening East West Rail line out to Cambridge from Bletchley and Oxford?
Yes, maybe! The government's stomach for the Oxford Cambridge project is pretty lacklustre, so I fear this one would not fair well!