Very Last Train to Folkstone Harbour 

I remember a time when luxury was actually a thing on trains, heck even for commoners like me!

Classic case of not finding out what the customer really wants. My wife had the misfortune to spend couple of hours on a pendolino in a face to back seat, next to a column, with a fat sweaty bloke on his phone in the Isle seat. Not good if you're clustrophobic. Rather drive.! Contrast German trains.

russell butler ;

70013 must be legendary

Did you go to Folkestone Academy? If so were you in the same year as Jake Dunn?

Also they had a great funfair, I remember being taken there as a child in the 70s . Also they had a lift that went up and down the side of the cliff, i think it was steam powered ?. Now the railway is no longer in use it would be great to build a new fun park with apartment's for family weekends.

@@originalherdsman3524 no it wasn't (or isn't I hope): The cars have water ballast tanks which are filled at the upper station ... Really nice piece of engineering. Hope it is still around.

@@becconvideo the cars don't fill up with water at the station, it's petrol. I think it's the cliff lift that is run by water and made into steam ? Maybe it's a waste of water to make it work now? But someone said that the permanent funfair has gone and not even a traditional funfair visits in summer.

Sad times when every bit of heritage has to be ripped out of a town. I use to work in the Rotunda Amusements, after leaving school. Council's can't leave nothing alone.

The redevelopment of the station and pier is very impressive with plenty of live events, restaurants and microbusiness. It's a tremendous shame thought that there has been no visible homage paid to the railway and ferry terminal.

They used to have several 0-6-0's kept purposely for banking, you would have thought they could have got hold of one, I mean that diesel on the front going down looked ridiculous and as for the carriages - stupid.

Brian Seama

It's a requirement for steam on the main line to have a diesel backup.

Also the second line was decommissioned, so they *had* to run it arse-in, head-out. No way to run either the main loco or any banking engine around the rest of the train.

DanTheFryingPan imagine the last thing you saw being the shithole that is Folkestone, yikes.

...and fuck Hitler XD

@@aryanscience My Dad was a career soldier and thought I would make a good career in the Intelligence Corps (in which he served). However, having lived in England while he was serving abroad, I was very clear in my own mind that, much as I respect our Service personnel, i did not, do not and never will respect their political masters. As you have so succinctly pointed out, every soldier, sailor and airman has been betrayed for their loyal, patriotism and sense of duty. Whether that be in 1939 - 1945 or in any conflict since, I ask myself continually, "What was their sdacrifice actually for?".

We will remember them.

Fuck the Monarchy!

youd think the people in charge could see this but they are dumb/corrupt

iT IS HOME TO ME JOHN MAY VANCOUVER CANADA

Luckily there are enthusiasts who carry on the traditional steam railways. My first memories are leaving Waterloo back in 1965 to go to Isle of Wight. Getting smuts in your eyes and watching the banking engines on the North and South Downs.

I can come round and make a smell for you if you like

Lol

On what is a 1 in 30 gradient both engines would have to be working virtually flat out to lift the train up the bank - the 47 would have been putting its major own effort in without doubt. Even at an absolute maximum output of around 2000hp (being generous), 70013 would have needed huge assistance to avoid stalling.

@@deepgreenish sure would!!!

Back in the 60's I used to go on school holidays down to folkestone and across the channel by boat and then on via SNCF couchettes to Switzerland. Those were the days!!

@@davidoswald9253 I had the chance of another visit to the area and it looked as if steps were being taken to reinstate the railway. I wonder?

@@davidoswald9253 Went from London to Venice via Folkestone on the Orient Express to go on honeymoon a few years ago. I remember thinking it was a shame that the old Folkestone Harbour station was no longer in use. However, it wouldn't have been much use to us if it had been, as it turned out, because rather than the old 'boat train', we were loaded on to coaches at Folkestone Central and then driven on to Le Shuttle to enter France through the Tunnel, boarding the Orient Express itself at Calais. Not quite the same as going on the boat (but the rest of the journey more than made up for it!)

Must be. The Arrow normally worked through Dover Marine.

I live in Folkestone and the town was host to the Canadian Corps throughout WW1. They trained and camped at Shorncliffe Barracks which is about 2 miles from the harbour before sailing to France. Plenty of Canadian boys lie in the cemetery which was next to the military hospital. RIP your grandfather

@@bobc6439 I was born in 1944. We do remember!

kentrail.org.uk/Folkestone_Pannier.jpg

It is even less vibrant in 2017, - although they have 'paved' the 'town centre' - and as for that Hotel Burstin by the harbour, that is the biggest eyesore in the place.

The diesel just sounds like it's idling. Possibly there simply because it's a legal requirement to have something to provide modern air braking service for safety's sake, and the easiest way to do that is hang a modern loco off the back with its engine running solely to operate the compressors, and the dump valves when actual brake force is called for.

If you listen, the 47 is just idling not helping at all.

Do not post strong language.

Now it's 10 years!

Just checked on Google Earth most of it is there!

@Chtrailfan they’ve made the end of the rail a nice pedestrian walk way with flowers and stones. The rest is how it was just unused. Shame i never got to see the trains running

Simple... The 'push' loco (in either direction in this instance) isn't doing ANY work. As the Diesel Electric is heading in the Steam Loco is idling to keep the boiler warm. As the Steam Loco is heading out the Diesel Electric is only running a generator for the electric lights in the carriages. In other cases that I know of when the push loco would've been working overtime (on an ore train up a 1 in 50 slope) the amount of force the pusher used was set by standard operations regulations. This was a pre-calculated figure based on: a) the power of the lead loco(s), b) the length of the train (ore train... longer = heavier [or more mass]), and c) the power of the tail pusher. Once the lead Loco reached the level track at the top of the slope it would begin to pull away, so your pusher would increase its push to keep up, for about half-way up the slope, and then it would let the train go and take the 1st turning triangle to return, as a light engine, to the depot.

More correctly it's running a generator for the lights, and a compressor for the air brakes, or if the carriages lack those it's providing the main additional brake force for the train other than what the steam loco itself can provide, brake vans and manually applied (screw handle) brakes having long since gone the way of the dodo. (in the steam era I guess the onboard lights would all have been gas mantles? not the safest thing in a carriage made of wood, really...)

I have a video of Tangmeres last run up from the harbour. It was advertised as to be the last run ever. The crowds were enormous !

Maybe 70013 was a stronger engine, to pull all those carriages up the bank without any real assistance (and maybe pulling that diesel as well...)? Did 34067 have any pushers helping it out of the town?

It's the bell for the swing bridge being closed across the inner harbour entrance

1 in 30 gradient, supposedly the steepest passenger line in the country