Split Screen Time Machine: Newport to Freshwater Railway Line 1945-2005 

The Isle of Wight's railway network was built - and operated - on the cheap! Rounded shingle pebbles, either sourced from the beach or dredged from just offshore, don't have the same holding power as angular chunks of Dartmoor Granite from Meldon Quarry!

@@KempSimon The F.Y.&N was inspected by Colonel Yolland 3 times before it was allowed open, most of the bridges had to be rebuilt because they used to unslaked lime in the mother!

Quite a few hedges have been grubbed up to make the fields larger and easier to cultivate with heavy machinery!

Because the train was removed, the areas without train service stagnated, while those areas with train service grew.

@@KempSimon the UK government subsidise the farmers all over Britain, to grow more crops after ww2, now no subsidise the farmers are putting the headges back.

Some of the lines, like this one, were lightly used and were never profitable. Others that could (and should) have survived were killed by Beeching. The last surviving line, Ryde to Shanklin was also earmarked for closure by Beeching, but was saved due to local pressure groups. As the islands population has grown, the importance of a decent railway is obvious (especially to Newport), but those in power never had the foresight to maintain the trackbed and in many places buildings now make reintroduction difficult.