Beeching: PMWilson was the bigger villain

Thanks for the latest Heritage Railway magazine. Just to addafew additional points to your fascinating articleonthe Keighley& WorthValley ( KWVR) andTheRailway Childrenfilm.

Backin1959, BRoriginallysetout toclosetheKWVRbranchanditwas onlystronglobbyingbylocalpeople andtheKeighleylocalauthority thatpersuadedtheTransportUsers ConsultativeCommitteetooppose closureandtorecommendatrialdiesel service.

Withoutthisstayofclosure, itis unlikelyapreservationsocietywould havebeenformedtosavetheline, and itwouldhavegonethesamewayas theHolmfirthbranch, whichdidclose in1959.

Onpage45, thedriveroflocomotive No. 67appearstobeRichard Greenwood, andtheguardintheOld Gentleman’scoachisGrahamMitchell. Bothplayedcrucialrolesintherunning oftherailwayandarestillaroundtoday.

TonyCox, thepersonwhobought Lancashire& Yorkshire0- 6- 0

No. 957, onlythesecondlocomotive tobeboughtfromBR, in1959, isstilla volunteeratKWVRasfarasI’maware.

Therewasastageperformanceof theRailwayChildrenatTheCrucible, Sheffield, manyyearsago, probably 1980sor90s, andafull- sizemock- upof alocomotivewascreated.

Whenyousawitcloseupyoucould seehowflimsyitwasthough!

DavidSmith, Sheffield

➜ Morenewbuildsto re- createVictorian trainsneeded

I BELIEVE itwas inevitable government in the 1950s, especiallyone devoted to reducing publicexpenditure, would seek to tackle the growing‘ problem’ of theworsening financial position of British Railways. Thetroublewas, they startedfromthe wrong end.

As yourightly comment, the national networkwasamess, with lines running into areas simply to put downapresence incompetition with one ormore other companies.

Itwasa19th- century railway, being run inamid- 20thcentury commercial and technological environment, and failingbadly.

Whatwasmissingwasany attempt to relate the network as it existed, and deviseaplan that rantrains whereand when people actuallywantedtotravel on them. Likewise freight.

Letmegiveanexample frommy hometownof Rugby. In 1962– before

Beeching– whathad started lifeas the Midland Counties Railway from Leicesterwasclosed because of falling passenger numbersand the poor state of the infrastructure.

Alternativeserviceswere provided fromRugby Central station, abrisk walkaway on the former GreatCentral Railway.

Closure

Then in 1966, the GreatCentralwas closed south of RugbyCentral, which retainedaskeleton service toLeicester and Nottingham, andwas probably the largest closure of the Beechingera.

Theskeleton service lasteduntil 1969, when itwas replaced by buses.

Sincethen, there has never been an adequate train service to link Coventry, Rugby, Nuneaton, Leicester and East Midlands, althoughachange of trains atNuneaton– arecent innovation – isbetter than nothing.

Elsewhere, ithas takenacentury to get a link fromthe north side of Manchester ( Lancashire& Yorkshire), to the south side ( London& NorthWestern), and already it is running out of capacity.

Thewrong questionwasasked. This led to the incorrect policybeing implemented, under the malign influenceofMarples the road- builder. Beechingwas simplyahired hand, in myview.

However, there isone other name thatdeserves to be called out and shamed– HaroldWilson, Prime Minister from1964to1970.

He ranasuccessful election campaignpromising to scrapthe Beeching plan. Inreality, most of the closures took placeonhis watch. Drawyourownconclusions.

MervynLeah, email