How interesting, a big thank you for this restoration. Your film just highlights the tragic mistake and lack of vision closing this beautiful line. I remember using Gratispool 35mm film in the mid-sixties. My slides of Ireland had a prominent pink hue!
what a shame the preservationists could'nt have saved this line.....the sound of steam struggling out of ilfracombe towards morthoe would have been priceless in this day and age
Beautiful! Thanks for posting the film. I was born in Barnstaple & can remember the trains to Ilfracombe. The line from Barnstaple to Umberleigh was singled in 1971, just 6 months after the Ilfracombe line closed & the up line was removed in 1972, if this helps.
I've viewed this again and didn't realise any winter trains were loco hauled. I was under the impression that all the Barnstaple-Ilfracombe trains were DMUs with the exception of the summer trains from London, but I'm clearly wrong! Did I also see postal bags being loaded at Ilfracombe? Good to see the railway being used by the Post office, even in its last few months of operation.
Fascinating. Great shame the preservation scheme failed. The branch closed in October 1970, so unless this was a special, the film must date from the late 1960s. (The line was singled in 1967.)
This was a lovely route that was closed by politicians with no forward thinking. We have cycled from Fremington to Ilfracombe on the hold trackbed where we could. A beautiful journey it must have been by train.
Umberleigh railway 🚃 station 🚉 in north Devon used to have a double track is many years ago in 1963 because more people might have used the trains 🚊 where Umberleigh now has a single track because in the year 2023 plenty of people use their own cars 🚗 🚘 🚙 everyday and it’s a rural railway 🚃 line. It’s highly unlikely that trains 🚊 will run 🏃♂️ from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe via Braunton again, even on Tuesday 31st December 2030 (New Year’s Eve) 🧨 💥 🎇 🎆 🥳 🤩 🥃 🍹 🍾 🍷 🥂 🍻 🍺 🧃 🧋 🥤 🎂 🍰 🧁 🍨 🍧 because the railway 🚃 line is hopeless 😩 😞 😔 and can’t be bloody trusted anymore because they lost 😞 😠 😡 plenty of customers 👩🦰 👱♂️ 👨🦰 🧑🦰 👨🦳 🧔 🧔♂️ 👴 👩🦱 🧑🦱 👱 so who bloody cares about the railway 🚃 business 👩💼. Perhaps 🤔 most people decline to use the trains 🚊 because when they use their vehicles 🚗, it’s more convenient. I honestly don’t think 🤔 that trains 🚊 are coming back to Ilfracombe in north Devon again. I honestly believe it to say it to myself that “It’s highly unlikely that trains 🚊 are returning back to Ilfracombe in north Devon again because the line was unviable and no one ☝️ has asked to put them back in service again so don’t worry 😉 about it”. I am right for what I said to myself about it. Goodbye 👋 trains 🚊 to see Ilfracombe and don’t come back again anymore. It’s the end of the matter. Trains 🚊 to Ilfracombe is a thing of the past and it’s water 💧 under the bridge 🌉. 👍 👍 😃 😁
