Woodford Halse and the Great Central Railway
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- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2024
- Welcome to Part 2 of my Ghosts of the Great Central Railway Mainline. In this episide we're in the sleepy village of Woodford Halse. On the arrival of the Great Central Railway, the village was transformed into a thriving railway town, with a station on the junction of the Stratfor-upon-Avon & Midland Junction Railway. Sizable sidings, engine shed and a large railway footprint to the north.
Upon closure in 1966, the village was once again without a railway and all that remains today is the footprint of the old station site and former trackbed. Two bridges under the station remain, standing tall as a reminder. We can see the old station house and the bricked up entrance arch for the steps upto the station.
The station opened in 1899 as Woodford and Hinton. Hinton is the adjoining village to Woodford. In 1948 it was renamed Woodford Halse, before closing in 1966.
We are visiting various locations on the GCR between Culworth Junction in Northamptonshire and Rugby in Warwickshire. Visiting former station sites, bridges, junctions, old infrastructure, viaducts, tunnels and some other interesting stuff.
Great Central Mainline was built as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway. Opening in 1899, it was designed to be as straight as possible with as little gradient as possible. Speed was the aim and express trains travelled between London Marylebone, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. It was the last UK mainline to be built before HS1 over a century later.
It thrived initially, however with a lack of upkeep, neglect and dwindling usage, it was mothballed during the great railway rationalisation of Dr Beeching in the 1960s - known as the Beeching Axe. Lost railway artefacts and relics are left scattered along the route.
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Keep um coming love all your walks done many myself love GCR 👍
Cheers James 👍
Used to be able to get to High Wycombe, where I live, from Woodford Halse. It was a crime to shut the GCR - there would be no need for HS2 if this was still there, it could have been diverted direct to Birmingham, and it carried on from Woodford Halse to Sheffield and Leeds.
If youre ever in Woodford Halse on a Wednesday the model railway club meets in the Sports and social club (the ild black and white building in the village) and theyve done a brilliant model of the station.
Ah yes I was looking at some photos of the model railway. Looked fantastic.
One of my favorite railway lines, I’m in GCR heaven! Keep these videos coming 👍😊
Cheers David 👍. Glad you're enjoying them.
Always keen to see the remains of this great line and the beautiful engineering brick structures. Looking forward to more.
More to come! :)
Great episode. Thank you. 🙂🙂🙂
Glad you're enjoying the series.
Thank you for today’s video. Another great walking tour. Enjoy your week ahead, and see you on the next. Cheers Paul! 😊
Cheers Martin. See you on the next one.
So painful to see these remains and know what’s been lost. Station Roads all across the UK, now with no station.
You're right about the station roads. It's amazing how many you notice.
The stuff that's left of this line is incredible really, it struck me as so sturdy you could run trains on it to this day, just stick some lines down and off you go. I'd love to have got a peek of the platform remains, but that undergrowth was something else.
We could take goats up a few weeks before going back?
Love it Paul - 1 of the best old mainlines for sure... Another Crime of corruption against the Railways- Bet you enjoyed these videos... Nice to see Jim !
Hi John. A huge waste isn't it. Such great engineering. I do love filming anything GCR related.
Thanks
Thank you ever so much Stephen. 👍
Great video paul. All the engineering on this line looks really high quality shame it was only open 67 years . Scary thought parts of the M1 will be that age in a couple of years
Crikey. Dare I say parts of the GCR are in better shape than some of the M1 road surface 😄
Another good one as ive said before like all the old blue bricks and bridges and buildings hope you dont run out of things to film Paul.
Haha cheers Chris. No chance of that. I could spend a lifetime filming on the GCR.
People moved away when the railway came, when the railway went they built loads of houses now there's loads of people and no railway.
It still disgusts me that we threw this line away
I’m new to your channel, I’ve been watching a couple of your vids particularity these ones on the GCR, one of my favourite disused railways, very interesting, looking forwards to the next one.
Welcome 👍 fellow biker too I see?
Glad you're enjoying the videos so far. Plenty to come 😉
@@WobblyRunner Oh ok so you have a bike as well, I’m itching to get out on it again , just waiting for some better weather!
Keep up the good work.👍
Yeah. I don't get out on the bike as much as I'd like these days. I seem to be far busier doing other things.
@@WobblyRunner yeah I can understand that, life/work tends to get in the way.
On the subject of railways I’ve had an interest in disused railways since the 1990’s, like yourself ivd visited a few and taken pics.
How much of the GCR London extension are you hoping to cover considering it was 90 odd miles in length?
@willswheels283 I've done bits of bobs of it further up north as I lived next to it near Sheffield for years. But not too much down south. Its harder to get further south due to other commitments but days out to film little pockets fingers crossed
Are the 'hinges' where the station sign board was mounted?
That is possible. I thought they were for gates or something, but you could be right.