The GHOST Railways of England 

I can't quite describe the feeling of seeing old, forgotten railways, buildings, and roads. I wouldn't say the feeling is exactly nostalgia, but i can't help but feel a strong connection to these things.

Your presenting style is brilliant. We all love a disused railway! Nice one.

The old blue brick bridges and viaducts look far better than the ugly concrete ones that they are building on HS2.

COAL TRAIN BRIDGE. Next to this site used to be the Bedford power station which was fed coal from this line. The power station sat in the fields by river field housing estate.

I don’t watch many RU-vid videos as they just annoy me, but you, your different, your humour, wit and presence makes for a great video🙌Keep them coming🤙

This channel is quickly becoming one of my favourites!

I fkn love this guy. He’s a top man and his videos are pure class👌🏼

Absolutely love the video Andrew, the commentary is brilliant and love the witty comments too. The brick built huts you came across are called Plate Layers huts, they are shelters for the Permanent Way gangs keeping the track in good condition as things like rotten sleepers need replacing etc.. Hope that helps?

Oasis!!! RIP to a great swimming pool! Memories are good.

Please upload more soon, your personality is awesome, the topics are very fascinating to me and I like the way you question things such as “I wonder who was the last person to be here before it was closed” and “I wonder if they are aware they are the last one”. There’s always a last time for everything. Im from north east England so there’s lots of coal mining history in my area, a lot of the railways and wagon ways of bygone industries now used as dog walking routes haha

If I close my eyes, I hear James Buckley in your voice! 😅 Very interesting vids with your ghost roads and tracks, I’ve subbed 👍 Ps. Metal detecting alongside the old rail tracks is a great idea for a vid.

Just subscribed before you blow up 🎉. Keep up the great work bud

Love this. I find the exploration of old roads and railway lines fascinating. Thanks for posting and the time/effort it took.

These kinds of videos are always better enjoyed on Sundays for some reason.

Actually in the 1963 Beeching report it was recommended the line stay open. I think BR wanted it closed

Keep up the good work! Really enjoy the way you present these videos, look forward to seeing you branch out to other locations 👍🏼😀

Excellent video and great watch of the Varsity Line along National Cycle Route 51! Regarding the bridge at 8:14: According to a google maps review: "The bridge is as shown, but the references to this being the bridge used to supply coal to the power station are incorrect. That bridge was near the entrance to Priory Country Park at TL07234949. The springers for the bridge can be seen on both sides of the New Cut which was crossed at an angle, and the gates into the power station are still present in the railings on the north side. You can even match the existing railings next to the car park to those in the photo of the train crossing the bridge in the interpretation board at TL07914968. If you look up old maps online you can see the route the railway took into the power station's sidings. The bridge in this photo is nothing to do with the power station and may just be a farm bridge, though I'm not sure of its exact purpose." (Likely it was for farmers to cross over the railway and be able to look down and see the train come through, as you said)

Hello mate. That thing you found. Its an old brown ceramic telegraph pole insulator. Oh yes. 😮

For those that don't know those massive airship sheds were part of the former RAF Cardington which is now the training centre for dvsa driving examiners 😊

This channel alongside Dime Store Adventures have quickly become my favourite thing to watch on RU-vid. I’m looking forward to seeing many more adventures as your channel flourishes!

Great to see this, delivered well and very interesting. As an engineer who has worked on railways, I enjoy seeing evidence of a bygone era - shame the railway network has shrunk, would be so useful to have some of those lines running today... Also, enjoyed the raod video too, always been curious about abandoned roads in the middle of nowhere

Jimmy Hill, legend

Love this mate, very interesting there's a big abandoned railways line near me

Another well presented and informative film! Well done buddy!

Former railway lines are dotted all over the country. Some have been left to, 'fallow', whereas others have been built on, or adapted into roads. Seeing the Wadworth 6X ale at the end was a bit of a blast from the past, for me. I was once interested in real ale and that was one of a number of brews that I remember enjoying during my younger years.

Another Solid video Andrew. Looking forward to the next one! 👍🏼

Awesome. I love this as I’m just down the road In St Neots. Love this channel and the effort involved. Keep it up. You’re doing a sterling job! 👍👍

Ey up me duck. The brown ceramic article you found was a ceramic pylon electricity insulator... 2.28k subscribers at the time of this comment after just three videos, I think your channel will do well if you carry on like this. Well done me owd. *A subscriber 🙂👍

I really enjoyed this thank you, keep up the good work.

Fantastic video. I'm fairly local myself and know these lines. If I see you walking them, I might buy you a beer. Thanks for finding the access to the Turvey section of the Bedford-Northampton which I didn't. On the Varsity Line closure though, you may be surprised to learn that one wasn't down to Beeching.

Loving the channel, I too am a fan of documenting the fascinating hidden remnants hiding in the woods

Loving your videos and your presenting style, keep 'em coming, xx

Weirdly enough I was thinking about this as a potential sequel to your ghost roads video given the amount of disused railways that there are in the UK, was shocked when I saw the notif like you read my mind 🤣

Another fantastic video! Please keep them coming! 😊

This is another brilliant video. Thank you for showing me more of my hometown!

I have a fond memory as a kid when google earth was still very new, sitting up late at night with my dad and following along the old great central railway line and we traced it all the way to london. We both still like exploring old features on maps and on walks :)

I actually hurt when I see horrible housing estates on rail lines. It's the finality of it.

Awesome, been looking forward to this one!

Another great video, escapism at its finest ❤

lots of old railways near where I live, it's a really interesting topic, hopefully someday these railways see life again.

Bedford Oasis! Used to love going swimming there back in the day :)

Crikey, my old news patch. Bedfordshire. Another superb video! Long may you film!

Don’t blame Beeching totally. He only identified lines and stations that lost money. He wasn’t responsible for closing them. Two people share that honour. Earnest Marples who was not only the Minister for Transport but a director of Marples Ridgeway who built roads. A definite conflict of interest. Next was Barbara Castle who carried on closing them based on the original report.

People are rightly commenting about being disgusted by the demolition of brick viaducts and Victorian railway engineering but forget about the context of when these things were demolished. Viewing Victorian architecture as positive and worth preserving is a relatively recent phenomenon, the 1950s saw brick the same way that many people view concrete and glass buildings today. They were literally everywhere, they cost a lot to maintain and were often caked in soot and dirt from the environment. We like Victorian buildings and brick viaducts today because the good ones survived and the bad examples of slums, crumbling bridges and smoke stacks didn’t. The same thing has started to happen with the brutalist architecture of the 60s & 70s where people morn the loss of buildings like Robinhood gardens and say how innovative and bold the Barbican is but forget about the awful Tricorn in Portsmouth or crumbling, nameless apartment buildings that have all faced the wrecking ball.

Another brilliant and interesting video! Just as I was wanting an old railway video too!

Another great video, just shows you what is still hidden out there, gone but not forgotten. Mick H

Another interesting line was the Sheffield line. Just outside Bedford is the old warden tunnel. Pretty cool

Great vid! Loved seeing those old stations saved as housing. I've had a fair hand in designing a similar job out Norfolk way recently, there's numerous ghost lines out here.

I grew up in bedford and find your content interesting. Keep up the great work!

This is so cool. I absolutely love trains, especially steam trains so seeing these and imagining the steam trains is ace. It'd be awesome to see you travel the UK doing these on the ghost roads and train lines 💜

its amazing that there are thousands of miles of old abandoned railways all over the UK , which are all freely traversable as bridle paths. you can walk from the sleepy East Yorkshire town of Hornsea all the way to Liverpool without setting foot on a road.

Coal Train Bridge may have been named after the final traffic on the line when it became a siding for delivering coal to Bedford Power Station at Goldington which closed in 1983.

Love the video once again, very well done and good to watch, find all this super interesting! I've been doing this for about 10 years since I was 19, started by just spending hours on Google earth because it's interesting and then I was like wait what's that, and realised my village used to have a railway station. So I decided to walk it one day in 2014, done absolutely loads since! Found abandoned roads, where roads have been re-aligned all sorts. I always think nobody else is interested since nobody I know understands why I do it lol! Also done a ton of building urban exploring which people seem to find more interesting. Not for RU-vid or anything just me exploring. Recently explored another disused railway near me that's literally been totally forgotten, multiple bridges but so hidden you'd never know they are there, especially as they pass single track roads nobody uses. Lots of very old bottles too ;) if you ever fancy travelling down to Essex / find yourself near the haverhill end of Essex (I know haverhill is Suffolk tho) I'd be happy to show you and share what I've found over the years!:) keep up the videos absolutely love them 👍

Keep it up mate im from the local area love finding out about the local history 👍

Funnily enough, the footage of the first viaduct being exploded is my local line (well, ex line I guess). The station building still exists, then there's a industrial estate with the road built on the line, harshly called "Beeching Road". A newer road was built on the second part. But the rural part either side of the old viaduct still exists with some relics left. The viaduct crossed a portion of marsh as the line raised in elevation either side.

New subscriber love your content can't wait for future ones

That old station building is beautiful, I'm glad it still stands. Also maybe get some comfy wellies or something?

you can use those nice ghost railways for pedal driven "Draisine" touring as we call those pedal driven railway vehicles. That makes nice tourist attraction, you can build draisines for 8 people or 11 people with lots of pedals. Only the tracks must have been left.

I followed an old track bed on Google maps . I was surprised to find a steam engine and several coaches sitting on a small stretch of remaining track in somebody’s garden.

you have "one of those voices", and you are very aware of it

there’s a really good abandoned 2 mile bit of railway in greenock scotland, massive bridges and tunnels to see if you every make your way up there

I love see a haunted places one day on your videos

There used to be a narrow gauge railway on the Stevington Walk, I used to be a member but was forced to move due to metal thefts … Great pub shame it closed down

That hut was like a visitors book, maybe you should sign it if you go back.

Please come to the redditch railway it's the end of the line, but once upon a time, the track used to carry on! Long story short, there's a tunnel underground. There's only one-way round to access it. well, worth a look!!! 👍

That hand-crank story time was fun! You need one of those backpacks (knapsack, rucksack...?) that holds "Wellies" on the back! Thanks for doing what you do! Cheers from the other side of the puddle!

Sometimes, the audio doesn't seem to be synchronised with the video, but otherwise, anorher great video, Andrew! Thank you very much, very enjoyable 👍🏼😄

You've gotta do old runways, airfield and airplane parking areas, easy to identify with the unique concrete squares!

Great content

Greetings from a fellow railway explorer. Google Earth and the old Victorian/Edwardian maps are a godsend for us explorers. I’ve enjoyed this video very much and of course subscribed so I can watch some more. Happy exploring. Ron.

Haa just been into tesco next door. My girlfriend has her horse stables slap bang next to the old line in Willington. I walk my dogs along the old line most days. Nice wonder. You’ll see the original oak fence which lined it in stages. In the car park of the danish camp you’ll see the old weigh bridge.

Use to run along a small part of the old track doing cross country runs when I use to go to abbey school elstow

My dad’s house is built on an old railway track, we knew there was one which ran through the area then we discovered old sleepers deep under the back garden. The old station (Worsley) is about a mile walk away, it’s is also a ghost station though the platforms still remain.

awesome cheers for the info ,great stuff , more please lol

Loved it dude. Glad you didn’t actually soil ya self 😅 would love to come along one stroll and a pint with you one day!

Good stuff mate. I live and work round bedford and kempston. really interesting vids. think i passed you when you where doing the chimney corner vid. keep it up.

Excelent videos,both the raiway ones and ghost roads very informative and interesting please do more

I walked that line a few years ago, but in the opposite direction to what you’re doing. Should be reopened once they’ve finished the other section between Bletchley and Bicester/Aylesbury.

In Gosport there is an old railway track that went from Fareham to Gosport. All now gone apart from a few stations and platforms now homes or overgrown. Gosport is a big town without a functioning railway station since it was bombed during the war. For years it remained a ruin, now awful flats

Don't you just love those "wait a bit" bushes? Very common on branch lines.

I used to go to that pool as a kid that's some nostalgia for me 🤣

you need to have a look at oswestry to welshpopol, most of the track still remains. also theres a great abandoned railway tunnel between rhayader + st harmon. follow the old track from the hairpin by the nature reserve

I’d love to see you combine these fun historic route walks with some metal detecting and magnet fishing 😉 A bit like the bottle you found it adds more to the story.

You are like the replacement figure for Tom Scott, ...there is a discontinued railway line that went from Didcot nr Oxford down to Winchester where it got axed before it could continue westward, they have reopened the Hermitage to Hampstead Norris as a pedestrian and cycle path, they want to reopen more to provide the public with a place with which to travel at leisure or fitness, but many parts are now on private land so it will never be the same route, ha, James Buckley Ive said that before but forgot until his pic popped up! 😂

Fascinating video once again! Somehow you even make the fence posts interesting. I'm still a little surprised they didn't just reuse more of the old route for East-West Rail. I know further west (Bletchley - Oxford) the route is mostly the same. The cottage near Stevington has gotten worse since I first saw it about 15 years ago. Every time I walk that route it seems to be getting worse! I've also walked further along on to picts hill estate - not much to see that I remember. (It was with permission I should add... the farmer nearby doesn't take kindly to visitors) Given this is all local to me as well, I need to get back out there and see what else there is to see!

The platform you depict at Willington is not the station as used by passengers. What this is is the sidings used to load goods and the old weighbridge also exists close by. Willington passenger station remains are discernable but not obvious. Station name board also exists with local collector.

Great video! Ever considered diving more into derelict pubs? I've found The Lost Pubs Project is a great tool to find them all over Britain. Growing up in the East End it's an unfortunately common sight to see these once great pillars of the community redeveloped into housing or demolished entirely, so a video on them might be interesting!

3:29 Tory vandal who had a vested interest in road building, as he was a former director and shareholder of the civil contracting company, Marples Ridgeway. He was duty bound to sell off his shares on becoming a minister, which he duly did, he sold them to his wife Ella.

you should make a vid exploring stewartby brickworks

@BrickDust - Andrew! Great video! If you're ever interested in old railways of the Cotswolds, come by Cheltenham!

Part of the reason old viaducts were blown up is because British Rail would still have to maintain them despite no trains ever running over them again. Councils were asked if they wanted these structures but the cost of maintaining them was astronomical, so a stick or of dynamite. Problem solved.

I thought it was Tom Fraser that closed the line. Enjoyed the video, thank you.

Latest news is that Bedford Borough Council is protesting about 38 (not 65) houses to be demolished. BBC in fact are saying the reinstated line is 'not necessary'.

This is Distinguished map skills well done Good drills that

Thanks for the upload enjoyed... Daz.

i was cycling on the bedford to Sandy bit when you were filming this dunno how i didnt see you

Great video 😊 Please can you do the Bedford to Hitchin line ? You've also got the Nickey Line not too far away

20:35 looks like a ceramic electrical cable holder like you see on power lines

Interesting video. BUT. Richard Beeching had left the Railways Board by June 1965 when he returned to work at ICI. A Labour Government came to power in October 1964. The Transport Minister who let the Varsity line close, was Barbara Castle. Both the Conservative and Labour parties, shut down large parts of the Railway network. So NOT a Beeching cut.

I'm glad you did a second video. You have a very good and interesting channel. Would you ever consider doing old ww2 airfields too? There's plenty of them in old maps with the runaway still there