Last Train - Southport To Preston 1964. Sound Recording by H J Cookson. Now rights of NMFB. Archive Photos - Various Sources. Steamport Southport Archives.
If this is the man known as Chris Mills, formerly of Southport & latterly reciding at Preston & working on the Ribble preserved line by Preston Docks. I knew him well & worked alongside him many years ago. He was a keen volunteer at Souhport steamport. If it's him, he passed away a few years ago & will be sadly missed RIP Chris.
the man is so right, he said we should have waited 10 years to see what the situation was then, by the then the line would have been invaluable , today very much more so, mad to close this much missed line.
May 18th, 2015 Alan Castle It is with great sadness that I have to report that Alan Castle passed away last night. Alan was a dedicated and skilled photographer and journalist, with countless magazine articles and books to his name. He was a regular contributor to the Preston Station website (particularly his article on the West Lancs Railway) and on the Lostock Hall MPD website and Lensmen forum. An ever-present figure at the lineside across the North West of England and beyond, he will be greatly missed.
A sad loss , my Granddad , used to get this train to work in the 60's he lived in Crossens back then, but dead for years now, yes he always said , it was a disgrace that the line shut, sorry to hear Alan passed on. the line should be open now.
in 1962/3/4/ i was a Student at Hutton Ag. College and we worked in the College fields and grounds alongside the line, ,and the passengers on that line used to wave at us and it seemed such a simple and happy, time.
A Southport to Preston train today would be a good idea if the quarter mile curve was put back in place at Burscough. There could be through trains from Southport to Blackpool.
Very heavy end-to-end passenger traffic, but Beeching's accounting system ignored that and only concentrated on the lack of local patronage of stations in the villages along the line, resulting in an overall profitable line looking like a sea of red ink.
Of course it was end to end traffic as the local stations commuter towns had not grown sufficiently. The thing is that other lines were closed because of very little end to end passenger traffic and ignoring the local patronage stations such as Macclefield to Manchester via Bollington and High Lane.
@@jwrobin21 Beeching was a glove puppet / scapegoat. It was Marples who engineered the closings. You won't be surprised to learn he had shares in road building companies. As soon as the word was given the tracks where immediately taken up at specific locations. Its almost as though it was all planned and that the land sell of was a done deal. Follow the money always.
@@cpcnw Sounds about right but the British Rail Network suffered from two major flaws. Firstly, the gauge was slightly too narrow: 5'6" was the optimal width for a combination of speed, stability and getting round the corners. Secondly, the lines should have been planned by the government and not built willy nilly, The train is still my preferred method of travelling as you can just sit back and RELAX. You should watch Ben Elton's stand up monologue on trains and the importance of a DOUBLE seat as there is NOTHING more comfortable than sitting on a train with your shoeless feet on the facing seat. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wPUjjhO_DpU.html
