The Railway Adventures E-Book

Vicki Pipe

• Herausgeber: September Publishing
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Railway revelations and brilliant new trips. The railways are one of our finest engineering legacies - a web of routes connecting people to each other and to a vast network of world-class attractions. It is also the best route to enjoying the landscape of Great Britain. Within these pages Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall from All the Stations (YouTube transport experts and survivors of a crowd-funded trip to visit all the stations in the UK) help you discover the hidden stories that lie behind branch lines, as well as meeting the people who fix the engines and put the trains to bed. Embark on unknown routes, disembark at unfamiliar stations, explore new places and get to know the communities who keep small stations and remote lines alive. Please note this is a fixed-format ebook with colour images and may not be well-suited for older e-readers.

Leseprobe

vicki pipe & geoff marshall

First published in 2018 by September Publishing

Copyright © Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall 2018

The right of Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall to be identified as the authors of this work hasbeen asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All photos copyright © Vicki Pipe unless otherwise stated.

The authors have made every effort to obtain permission from the propertiesand individuals photographed to include their images in this book.Please do get in touch with any enquiries or any information relating to this [email protected].

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder

Maps and quaint scale by Liam RobertsDesign by Clarkevanmeurs Design and Martin Brown

Printed in Poland on paper from responsibly managed, sustainable sources byHussar Books

ISBN 978-1-910463-87-1

September Publishingwww.septemberpublishing.org

Contents

Map 6

Introduction: 7

1 First, Choose YourPlace11

2 Remember to get off atthe Right Station37

3 Don’t Forget AboutThe network75

4 Talk to as Many Peopleas you Can 103

5 You can’t help but lovethe trains137

6 have your ownadventure159

All The Stats 200

References 202

Thank you 205

Index 206

introduction

our All TheStations journey

During the spring and summer of 2017 we, that’s Vicki and Geoff,  

undertook an adventure to travel to all 2,563 national railway stations  

in Great Britain. Crowdfunded by 1,564 people on Kickstarter, we cap-  

tured photographs and posted them on social media and filmed the  

entire experience, sharing it with our followers on YouTube. Now we’ve  

written this book as we want to inspire you to get out there and have  

your own railway adventures too.

Vicki: For me it’s the people that make the railways such an excit-  

ing place to explore. Railways have such a dramatic impact on our  

lives, they connect us to places and people that we would otherwise  

not think to reach out to. The process of travel and adventure helps  

us understand ourselves, our communities and the communities of  

others in a way no other activity can.

Geoff: I’ve always been fascinated by the infrastructure and the  

systems that make the railways work. Understanding timetables and  

how one facet of the system interconnects with another is a puzzle that  

never ceases to change, and I am constantly eager to learn how it all  

comes together.

Together we wanted to really see where the railways could take us,  

to bring to life the places and stations which for so long had just been  

indistinguishable names on a map. How pleasant is Pleasington? How  

awe-inspiring is Loch Awe? Is there really a Hall i’ th’ Wood? And who  

exactly are the 12 people using Shippea Hill station every year?

Another crucial factor was the realisation that Britain’s railways are  

changing. In the next five to ten years, services that exist now will  

become twice if not three times as fast; some may not even exist at all.  

The trains we travel on will have been replaced and the idea that you  

can live in London and commute to Edinburgh may just have become  

a reality. Technology is advancing the way we shape our lives and how  

we travel at high speed (pun intended). We wanted to take our journey  

and document it for posterity, for people to look back on and under-  

stand what Britain’s railways were like in 2017.

Introduction | 7

But we got more into the bargain. We met people who shared their  

time, their knowledge and their railway experiences more generously  

than we could have imagined. They gave us lifts, gifts and told us about  

their communities, how the railways affect them, the good and the bad.  

Where services are efficient opportunities flourish, in areas with more  

limited choices people can find themselves isolated. As the nucleus of  

many communities, the railways are not just a mode of transport, they  

have shaped the country and they continue to shape people’s lives.

And the journey itself is sometimes the best part of all. Unlike travel-  

ling by car you don’t have to choose a designated driver; that decision  

has already been taken care of. Everyone can be part of the adven-  

ture. Relax and spend time watching the landscape change through  

the window, share stories or plan the details of your day. It’s in these  

moments that you might decide to be spontaneous and completely  

change your route – we made some of our best discoveries by get-  

ting out at unexpected places, just because we could. And, you never  

know who might be sitting just across the aisle from you. Chances are  

there will be someone local to where you’re going, an expert who can  

tell you all the best places to visit, as well as which ones to avoid.

Be curious, ask questions and take your time – you never know  

what you might discover. Whether you go just a few stops further than  

normal on your daily commute, travel to the other side of the country or  

‘break your journey’ to explore that interesting building/castle/statue/  

topiary you’ve always noticed from the train, all are an adventure.

To the trains!

Previous pages |The view form theFfestiniog Railway, justpulling out ofPorthmadog station (seepage 168).

10 | The Railway Adventures

CHAPTER

first, chooseyour place

1

First, chooseyour place

First, you have to choose where to alight, and with so many interest-  

ing areas to explore that is one of the most exciting and challenging  

aspects of the journey. While you can find loads of information online,  

we recommend using local knowledge. For our challenge, we asked  

for tips and suggestions from the Great British public on social media  

and, as it turns out, the public are incredibly passionate about where  

they live or used to live – the places they grew up, where they went  

to school or where they’ve visited their grandparents every Sunday  

for the last 20 years. Ask your friends and family, question your col-  

leagues, you could even pop a message out into the Twittersphere.  

You will notice that while passions are predominantly positive, people  

also feel compelled to tell you where you shouldn’t go – however, we  

found that unravelling why we shouldn’t go somewhere often gave us  

more insight into that place’s identity than those locations we were  

told were ‘must see’ (see Welsh Valleys, page 18).

We received literally hundreds of suggestions, and every single tip  

went into our ‘Master Spreadsheet’, but we knew there was no way we  

would be able to visit every place we’d been given. We quickly devel-  

oped two key questions to help us decide where to alight:

1. Is it within walking distance (or a reasonable taxi ride) fromthe station?

2. How long have we got before the next train departs?

Of course,having a railwayadventureisn’t just abouttravelling ontrains. It’s aboutexploring theplaces therailways takeyou.

12 | The Railway Adventures

Right | Our recreation of theOasis single cover ‘SomeMight Say’. If only we’d havebeen able to find some fish.

You don’t even have to spend an entire day somewhere. If you ever  

find yourself with a 40-minute change over somewhere, you can most  

certainly fit in a ‘mini’ explore. It’s easy to do this at the very central  

city stations, such as Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff, but it’s also  

doable in smaller areas too, like Canterbury, Hinkley, Largs, Penmaen-  

mawr, and that’s just for starters.

We often found that the activities we hadn’t planned turned out to  

be the most interesting and exciting moments of the trip. If someone  

you are chatting to becomes very animated, or if you receive multiple  

‘YOU HAVE TO GO AND SEE . . .’ tip-offs, always reroute if you can.  

Just like when we travelled through Derbyshire. Originally, we had  

planned to end our first day at Matlock; however, we’d received so  

many messages telling us that Cromford station (on the same branch)  

was used as the location for the cover of the 1995 Oasis single ‘Some  

Might Say’ that we simply couldn’t ignore the opportunity to take a  

closer look.

Of course, your adventure doesn’t have to be about historical  

sites or pop culture references. On our challenge we also wanted to  

explore the current status of the railways. To discover how they work,  

and work differently in different parts of the country, and also how  

they are used and what they are used for. The idea that the network  

provides something more to society than just a service from A to  

B is often overshadowed in day-to-day announcements about can-  

celled trains, changing franchises, performance statistics, timetable  

First, choose your place | 13

Right | We met Sir Peter Hendyoutside Euston station just afew weeks into our journey. SirPeter was also a Kickstarterbacker for the project, andadopted Dalston Junction andSt Erth stations as his reward.

alterations or the costs involved in upgrading a line. But as Sir Peter  

Hendy, chair of Network Rail, told us when we asked him what he  

thinks the railways are for, ‘It’s very important people realise its huge  

place in the society and economy of the Britain we live and work in.’  

From the building of infrastructure and the systems that make the  

network run, to the people who work and use the railway as well as  

the connections between different places along the way, our adven-  

ture taught us there is almost no aspect of modern Britain that the  

railways do not impact.

Discovering new locations, talking to local people, hearing stories  

that have shaped those places at different times and being able to  

see first-hand where it all happened, where it still happens, has given  

us a unique and comprehensive perspective of Britain which we never  

could have envisaged at the beginning of our adventure.

Every place, no matter how small or seemingly unpronounceable  

(Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch), has  

a story to tell. Inevitably, that story is interwoven in some way with  

the arrival or departure of the railways (and often with castles too –  

seriously, there are loads of them).

In the nineteenth century, the arrival of the railway to the small  

fishing town of Looe in Cornwall created a more efficient alternative  

to canals for transporting copper ore from Bodmin Moor to South  

Wales (via ships docked in Looe harbour). But when the mining indus-  

14 | The Railway Adventures

Above | Our first but notour last encounter with themighty gull.

the town in the many galleries and potteries jumbled together along  

the winding, hilly streets. These sit alongside unending independent  

shops, vegan cafés, ice cream cafés, regular cafés, restaurants and  

corner stores, some boasting trade for over a hundred years. All open,  

all welcoming and obliterating the phrase ‘typical British seaside town’.  

Indeed, there is very little that is ‘typical’ about St Ives.

More than being an artistic centre, there is a sense of tranquillity  

about St Ives that seeps into you the moment you step off the train,  

and before you know it you’re sat on a bench by the harbour, eating  

chips (or rather shielding them from the gulls) and content to watch  

the ships roll by. St Ives was the perfect place to start our journey,  

giving us a unique perspective from which to view the rest of the  

country. It shatters your expectations and epitomises the extreme  

contrasts that make up ‘Great Britain’. Go from the Mediterranean  

haven of Cornwall to the hard-industrial landscapes of Yorkshire, then  

over to the meandering hills of Wales and up to the coarse, ragged  

crags of the Scottish Highlands. See urbanisation, remoteness, over-  

crowding and sparse wilderness, all of which are accessible by one  

common denominator: the railway.

First, choose your place | 17

Welsh Valleys

Everyone said to us that there’s not much to see in the Welsh Valleys.  

Someone from the Valleys even told us, ‘You know what you absolutely  

should do when you get to Merthyr Tydfil?’ ‘Ohh tell us!’ ‘Leave.’ ‘Ah.’  

However, far from making us dismiss the Valleys, we wanted to  

know more. What’s wrong with the Welsh Valleys?

It’s true, the towns and villages along the Valley Lines don’t offer  

the same kind of obvious attractions that you get somewhere like Car-  

diff. What they do have, nevertheless, is a rich story to tell.

The Welsh Valleys were famous for ore and coal mining throughout  

the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The livelihood of almost every  

family in the area was reliant on the work, support and community that  

these industries supplied. The railways were built to serve the mining  

villages, as well as the pits themselves. (We were sent a map of the  

Valleys pre-Beeching showing many more lines than even we had re-  

alised. Today only six lines remain.)

After a long period of struggle, battling against government  

closures, the decline of coal use and imports of ore from other coun-  

tries, almost all the pits in Wales closed in the 1980s. Since then there  

have been high levels of unemployment in and around the towns and  

villages along the Valley Lines. Some families born into the mining in-  

dustries have never worked again. Current lack of job opportunities,  

and the sparse nature of cultural engagement, entertainment and  

‘Expect storiesof strength andcommunity’

Right | Artwork in BankSquare, Ebbw Vale. Areminder of the town’sconnection to the steeland coal industries.

18 | The Railway Adventures

connection to other parts of Wales have given the Valleys a less than  

positive reputation. One of the train guards we chatted to told us that,  

faced with such challenging circumstances, young people often make  

their own entertainment on the railways, including train surfing – which  

we were staggered to realise is actually a real thing (Google it, but  

don’t ever do it!), causing disruption and serious safety concerns.

While providing an, albeit illegal, distraction from the challenges  

of Valley life, the railways could offer up a tantalising opportunity for  

growth. They currently only provide direct services in and out of Car-  

diff, but with more services and better connections to  

places such as Swansea and Newport, the prospects  

for people living in the Valleys could change. With vi-  

sion, the railways – first built to bring people to an al-  

ready booming industry – could become the means by  

which new industries and opportunities grow.

Treherbert station, now the end of the line, was once  

the midpoint connecting the Taff Vale Railway and the  

Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway, with a tunnel un-  

der the mountains linking one valley with the next. If  

this line was still operational, think about the opportu-  

nities for local people.

Once we had discovered both the history and the  

current challenges and campaigns, we gained a real  

sense of the richness of the Welsh Valleys. Yes, don’t  

expect glitz and glamour or even shops and cafés  

open past 5 p.m. (except Greggs, top tip if you’re in  

need of an emergency cup of tea in Ebbw Vale), but  

the hardships and changing fortunes along the Valley Lines are just as  

important to understand as more obvious places of interest.

If you visit the Welsh Valleys expect stories of strength and com-  

munity and hope for the future. Also expect exceptionally friendly  

people, like Cerian from Aberdare (who gets another mention in  

chapter 4 because she’s such a legend) who drove us to Treherbert  

over the incredibly beautiful Craig y Llyn, proving to us that the Val-  

leys aren’t just about industry!

Other points of interest along the line worth an explore include  

Ebbw Vale, which (as well as providing emergency tea) has a funicular  

elevator taking you from the station up to the town centre.

Above | Treherbert station.Not always the end of the line.

First, choose your place | 19