What-if....?

There is also an element of truth in that the railway got to Corfe before any decision re by pass was made......... 23+ years later and we are still awaiting a decision.. !!

 

A friend of mine has ridden a quad/walked a good proportion of it a number of years ago.

I also used to be able to see what was left of part of the trackbed from the croft I lived on!

Would be stunning if resurrected.

Chris

 

What if he closures of the beechig era, and later closures had not happened that lines that were seemed unprofitable had been just ran on pay train operation, to reduce the costs and some services joined onto others to reduce the stock needed, until such time as the loss was turned into a profit, for instance, what if the Mid hants been electrified, and the meon valley, you would have got Alton trains running through either to fareham or Southampton, trains to Cranleigh, going from waterloo, to bognor etc, in the west the ilfracombe service running to kingswear, would turning some branch trains into longer distance with a longer gap in services have saved sme lines?

 

Hers another one, that often makes me wonder, before it was cut up in 1967, W31 Chale , was hoped to be saved from the cutters at the last minute by having the loco claimed by the national collection, Now, had that happened, what would have been its fate, for instance, would it have been shipped back to fratton,, joined the other engines in the Preston park relics store, and eventually ended up at York, So assuming it would have been part of he national collection, would it have eventually gone on loan back to the isle of wight , or would it simply had been shunted back into ryde works, and left there due to the cost of transporting it to the mainland, until a suitable low loader was availible?

 

I know Pete, wouldn't it be nice if it happened a bit more often though?!

 

Here is another What if, What if the Big Four LMS/LNER/GWR/SR had continued beyond 1948. Would the railways be in better shape. I think they would. Would something similar to Beeching have happened ?

 

Or if Labour had kept to its 1964 manifesto commitment and abandoned Beeching, or if somebody other than Barbara Castle had been appointed Secretary of State for Transport, or if Scottish region had been as sympathetic towards Bob Symes and his associates' plans for the Waverley Route, or if the infant NYMR had selected the Scarborough-Whitby line as a home instead, or if the M25 had taken a different route thereby allowing the Westerham Branch project to go ahead.

 

I thought that the exemption had something to do with either David Lloyd George or one of his constituency backers having a financial stake in the line?

 

The closures would probably have been even more thorough than under Beeching, given that the railways would have been under an obligation to stay in the black, and subject to less political pressure.

Dieselisation would probably have happened quicker in some areas - the top ECML expresses would have been diesel by 1950.

 

I have to be honest I doubt it. Remember when the railways were privately run there would often be two or more competing routes between two cities owned by different companies. When BR took over they ended up owning them all so it was easy to say, Oh we have two routes between city A and B, lets close one of them. Essentially that is what Beeching did. Often as well the Western Region would say close the former Southern line and Visa versa so many lines selected for closure was because they once belonged to the other company.

It was quite clear as well, lines were deliberate run down and services withdrawn to then say, oh nobody uses it, lets close it.

As for ECML, I doubt there would have been any diesels by 1950, there certainly wasn't any in Dec 1947 when the LNER finished and indeed the A1 Pacifics were all being build around 1950 so there were essentially brand new then.

I think the railways would have faired much better had the Big 4 been allowed to continued, Sure there would have been some closures especially of small branch lines but nothing like as severe.

 

Easy to overlook that governments quietly chucked money at the 'big four'. If they hadn't, we'd have no A4s, otherwise, likely, they'd never have existed! How many other locos owed their existance to the Great British Taxpayer?

 

Never heard that... but it rings true! Boyd records that FR Directors had some serious explaining to do over certain expenses claims during WWI !

 

And of course DLG was as bent as a nine bob note. Coming back to the original question I would imagine that it would have survived until nationalisation under GWR ownership, but would have been closed by the mid-Thirties if the LMS had got hold of it.

 

In 1947, the LNER asked a number of manufacturers to tender to supply a fleet of 20-something diesels for use on the ECML, to basically the same specification as the LMS pair of diesels - 1,600hp, to be used in pairs. The proposal to the board is included in Bonavia's history of the LNER (because it was largely his work) and included example diagram outlines. After nationalisation, the Railway Executive quietly filed the responses in the round file, and ignored letters from the BTC asking what progress was being made on the scheme.

 

Quite likely. The LMS of course had their own outlet for slate from Blaenau. Had they got their hands on it, the Festiniog would have been history by 1934 at the latest.

Would the GW have invested in the line? I suspect slate traffic would have continued until (possibly.. and at the very latest) regional reorganisation in the early 60's, but regular passenger services would probably succumbed to bus services by 1930/31. If Paddington descided there was scope for tourist traffic, summer services might have continued, but the limiting factor of Moelwyn Tunnel which would most probably have put the kybosh on that... far too expensive to open out and I honestly can't see the GW keeping old FR locos and stock running for passenger services under any circumstances. The England's would have been considered 'well past it' and the Fairlies too non-standard.

Unless considerable investment had been judged worthwhile to permit another four or five Collett 2-6-2T's and about 15/16 new carriages to the VoR profile, which I seriously doubt, my guess is that some ex-ROD narrow gauge IC locos would have dragged slate 'empties' from Minffordd back up to Blaenau.... and at the same time would probably have spelled curtains for the two Corris locos, as soon as the GW got their hands on that line.

 

Come to that, what if Scarborough Borough Council had given David Smith planning permission to open a steam centre at Ravenscar station in the mid-80s?