Dr Beeching's Hometown Had FOUR Stations - The Three Bridges Line 

Thanks for having us Chris. 🙏

Always good to see you on a video, Dumpman!

There’s a good ‘private station’ on the Monsal Trail.

I guess people who owned a lot of land were quite powerful... I wonder what it would be like if that were still the case... oh... hang on.

Landowners could also insist on having tunnels built on their land as part of the deal - look at Catesby tunnel on old GCR

If it had not been for the landowner who owned land immediately south of Lincoln, Lincoln would have been on the ECML and not on a branch from Newark.

There's a private station at Kiplingcotes on the old York to Beverley line which is only a few miles from me, built for Lord Hotham. Another private station on the route was at Londesborough which was built for George Hudson, the railway king

Ahhh HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉

Ah thank you

true, it was the branch that was lifted past his house ,hence the time it took to lift it completely

As events have subsquently proved, he was right to keep that line going.

The line that took Dr B to London was the line that was remunerative. The others were not. The 3 Bridges to East Grinstead to TWW was partially in profit but not wholly. Hence the reason why it was closed by Castle in 1967. Blame the wording in the 1962 Transport Act stating that lines had to be in profit to survive. In 1968 there was a new Transport Act that allowed lines that were unremunerative but of a social need and could be grant aided to survive. But that's another story.

Dr Beeching didn't close any lines. He compiled a report as requested on lines which were not economical to run. Others took the decisions.

The town centre by-pass in East Grinstead is on the trackbed of the old line towards Tunbridge Wells. It's in a cutting, which they have called "Beeching Way!!!"

@@andrewvictor1865 True, but he said himself before he died that he thought his report had "gone too far."

My paternal grandma was from Sittingbourne. We have a photo of her sitting on her father's Thames barge, dressed like Mary Poppins.

The steelworks was also just about to open in Sheerness so that would have have provide a future source of revenue to the line. The main structure on the line is the bridge over the Swale which takes the road, then the only road, and railway. The government would still have to pay for the bridge to be maintained even if the railway was scrapped.

Dr. Beeching lived in East Grinstead along Lewes Road. I think it was in a house called Brockhurst.

Quite true though. He looked like a typical selfish git.

That's what I always quote when talking about Beeching and EG. Glad to hear it from someone else.

I think it was the only one that doesn't retain much

It was my local station for many years, about 10-15 minutes walk up the road. The old Edmundson card tickets actually used to say on them "Three Bridges for East Crawley," in fact there were proposals to rename it East Crawley at one time, with Ifield becoming "West Crawley, " but these came to nothing. Similarly, Christ's Hospital Station once had the suffix (on maps ar least), "West Horsham." Crawley New Town, when formed, swallowed up the villages of Three Bridges, Ifield and eventually Worth, but these were originally small villages in their own right. Today, Gatwick Airport is also in the Crawley area since the county boundary was moved (it used to be in Horley, Surrey) but I don't think one could knock anybody fir saying "Gatwick Airport, near Crawley." !!

I think you may meen Heathfield station regarding being lit by Natural Gas .

It wasn't done for the publics convenience, it was for the car lobby and Mr Marple's profits!!!

@@johntyjp I see the Marples myth is alive and well!