Opinion: What The Doctor Ordered Made The Railways Better

Published on: 12 Jun, 2015
Updated on: 12 Jun, 2015

By David Rose

I was at Guildford railway station 50 years ago when the last trains ran over the Guildford to Horsham branch line.

Just five years old at the time, my dad took me there to see the steam engines. I can’t remember whether it was the Saturday or Sunday, June 12 or 13. But I do remember the following Wednesday’s Surrey Advertiser with pictures of the final train on the Sunday, doubled headed by two steam engines. ‘Coffee Pots’ or ‘Charlies’ as they were known to train buffs.

Me and my dad looking at an engine at Guildford waiting to depart for Horsham, Whitsun 1965. Picture by Roderick Hoyle.

I think that was probably the first time I looked at a newspaper. Perhaps it was that story that sparked what eventually became my interest and career in local newspapers.

Within two years of the closure of the Guildford to Horsham line, steam engines on British Railways’ Southern Region were gone; never to return I was told. I have always been a fan of ‘steam’ and as I was growing up I, perhaps like many others, came to view Dr Richard Beeching, as the enemy of railway enthusiasts. I didn’t grasp the fact that the demise of steam locos was all part of a wider modernisation plan of the UK’s railways.

But back then I guess my views were for nostalgic reasons rather than economic ones. It’s said that the good Dr Beeching told the others bosses at British Railways that they should not try to ‘do everything’.

He urged them to concentrate on what the railways did best – long-distance travel (a service which was later named Intercity), commuter trains and heavy freight. Now, I see that he was right.

Several things have come about in recent decades. For instance, our Intercity train services are widely held as being successful and well run with more and more passengers travelling by rail. Today’s modern trains make commuting more bearable (although I have never been tempted to join those who travel to and from London to work on a daily basis).

Bramley and Wonersh station with one of the final trains.

Everything is much cleaner today. My earliest memories of train travel, and even in more recent times, are of filthy coaches and dirty seats. Simply opening the door of the now-gone ‘slam door’ trains or opening a window seemed to leave muck and grease on your hands.

And I remember steam train spotting on the platforms of Guildford and Woking stations. You had to be careful if you sat on a station bench, lest it was covered in smut from a steam train!

Also, where would us train enthusiasts be without our wonderful heritage railways? I believe it must have been the hastened withdrawal of steam locos (West Germany, for example, gradually withdrew theirs) that made those really dedicated steam fans work so hard, most as volunteers, to reopen closed lines as ‘preserved railways’ and save so many of our wonderful steams engines from the scrap heap and lovingly restore them to their former glory.

Our heritage railways and those who make them run are a fantastic asset to our leisure services. And that includes the many ‘Santa specials’ and Thomas the Tank Engine days that bring in a whole lot of extra visitors on top of the die-hard steam buffs.

One of the tank engines that ran over the Guildford to Horsham branch pictured from Yorkie’s Bridge, Guildford, in 1964. This is how David Rose remembers steam locos. Picture: Robert Hind collection.

Ever a realist, I do find our heritage railways a bit too clean for my liking! Nostalgia taking over here again. My far away memories of steam trains are of grimy engines and all that dirt. Can we have a little of that please to make my experience when I get a chance to visit the Bluebell Railway or the Mid Hants that bit more real? Probably not, as it might damage overall visitor numbers, and anyway, I expect ‘health and safety’ would rule it out.

Some mistakes were, in hindsight, made when the Beeching axe fell. Perhaps some lines should not have been closed and the tracks ripped up and the land sold off. In France, for example, certain lines there were ‘mothballed’ in case the need arose to open them again.

It could be argued that the line from Guildford to Horsham should have been saved or ‘put at rest’. It’s said the track was ripped up in weeks of it closure.

Believed to be Locomotive Club of Great Britain special at Bramley and Wonersh on June 6, 1965. Picture: Richard Halton collection. Can anyone confirm or not?

Several times over the last couple of decades there have been calls and speculative schemes to get the line re-opened. It now forms the popular Downs Link footpath.

Suggestions have included a clean light electric railway that could be laid over the existing trackbed with the footpath running beside it. So far, none of these schemes have come to anything.

A year ago, the Surrey and Sussex Railway Society, formed by young railway enthusiasts Richard Harrold and Neil Jackson, proposed that the the route from Guildford to Cranleigh should be opened as a heritage line. It argued that reopening the route as others had suggested as a light rail service would be a complete waste of time and money.

In March 2015 it was reported that a petition had been signed by 2,000 people calling for the line to be reopened. Rumours are that a private company has also been looking into the idea.

Opponents have expressed fears that a new railway over the Downs Link would lead to more development.

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Will such a scheme ever see the light of day? What do you think? Let you views be known by leaving a reply in the box below.

Cranleigh station in 1965.
Picture supplied by Ben Darnton.

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