Bury to Bacup train 1966 - full journey. 

The railways which were axed in the 60s and 70s would be a godsend these days. great archive footage... Bacup is isolated enough as it is!

its so sad that the line was built on after Rawtenstall. imaging what a valuable asset it would be for the communities along that route if it still existed

What a tragedy we lost these routes. Fascinating footage. Thanks.

Absolutely brilliant, rare rare footage of this long lost line shut so tragically and short sightedly. What a boon it would be now to those communities. I'm a volunteer driver at the East Lancs but always lived in South Manchester and never travelled the route when it was open. These scenes have reminded me what extensive infrastructure there once was and the amount of freight even in these scenes towards the end of passenger services is substantial. A gem, thanks for sharing, and are those the dulcet tones of Stuart McDonald doing the commentary?

I walked through Newchurch tunnels this weekend and then found this video. Stunning and so wish we could have the railway back

Fantastic, 1966 the year England one the World Cup. Wonderful archive film the branch to the left to Accy went n Past my house just close to Helmshore level crossing, it brought back wonderful Memories . Thank you Peter H

Great footage seeing the old stations from bury Bolton street to Bacup i am a volunteer on this railway as a ticket collector and only see the stations what they are like since the railway as been re opened as all of it is single line know i live in Haydock i wish i could have travelled on it when i was younger and seen all the sidings and the double track . it was good to see how it was then before it was an heritage line.

Fantastic. We used to travel from Bury to Bacup by train but I had lost track of just where the stations were.

Got to say this is brilliant....Never went this far on the train.Wish I could go back to when I had just left school.1966 Bril.

At 0:26 you can see the old conductor rail entering the east lancs tunnel at bury which used to run up to holcombe brook, which according to the history books went out of use in 1951. But it was still used at bury bolton street to power the old class 504's until march 1980, after which they were diverted to the bury interchange bus station.

First train ride I ever had was from Bolton Street in the early 60's, my father, grandfather and g.grandfather all worked in some way at that station. Lovely video

All I Have to say is a big thank you for a long while i have wonderede whgere the train went from bacup to rawtenstall, i had a guess all be it a very good one and thanks to your video i was proved right. A Big Thank you.

Just occurred to me, a ten year old lad kicking a ball about, caught somewhere in these images, would now be 67 years old !

Such a cool line that closed down.

Wow cheers

Good to see the Waterside pub in Summerseat too

This was not some rural backwater; this was a not "no hoper" underused line. Until the last day in 1966 trains were every half an hour, every fifteen minutes at the peak and all day on Saturday. Beeching was "accountancy led" not business or service led: the busiest lines lose the most money. He even wanted to closed Bury - Manchester, and Southport to Liverpool (both electric and busy commuter lines)! I do wish the ELR would run proper commuter services instead of playing at trains.

love trains i was last on one in 1997 from wales to liverpool

Incredible footage, as a member of the ELR and often seeing the line from the cab I now realize how much the line has changed, from now on I will have a different look to the surroundings, and try to discover traces of all what's gone. I tracked the old line past Rawtenstall on Google maps, finding out that rebuilding the line to Bacup is nearly impossible today as lot of the trackbed is occupied by roads and developments. But it would be a spectacular extension on the ELR!!!!

nice to see what the ELR was then...

hi ive got a video of the train from bacup back down to rawtenstall..Also track lifting at waterfoot..

They ruined the valley when they shut down the railway and built the by-pass.

The platforms are deserted. Valuable memory though.

Very good but where was Bacup Station Boo?

There did seem a lot of traffic. But dumbsizing rail seems a long standing fetish to the guys in Government. Why is there such a dearth of sidings and loops ? Preserved railways do this better than NR. The Cambrian is like a basic train set and the Borders line doesn't even have a run round loop at Tweedbank. How freight can ever get back market share is clearly Mission Impossible with NR!

How long was the line from Bury to Bacup?

A unique record of this route. Particularly the Rawtenstall to Bacup section. What a pity the film to video transfer is so poor. I presume it was filmed on 8mm home movie film and probably a home-made transfer. They can be so much better than this. I do hope the original film still exists and hasn`t been thrown in a skip somewhere.