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Vintage Trains

Vintage Trains is one of the U.K.'s leading operators of main line steam train excursions.

From the start of 1948, the railways were nationalised to form British Railways (latterly "British Rail") under the control of the British Transport Commission. Though there were few initial changes to the service, usage increased and the network became profitable. Regeneration of track and stations was completed by 1954. In the same year, changes to the British Transport Commission, including the privatisation of road haulage,ended the coordination of transport in the UK. Rail revenue fell and in 1955 the network again ceased to be profitable. The mid-1950s saw the rapid introduction of diesel and electric rolling stock, but the expected transfer back from road to rail did not occur and losses began to mount.

The desire for profitability led to a major reduction in the network during the mid-1960s. Dr. Richard Beeching was given the task by the government of re-organising the railways ("the Beeching Axe"). This policy resulted in many branch lines and secondary routes being closed because they were deemed uneconomic. The closure of stations serving rural communities removed much feeder traffic from main line passenger services. The closure of many freight depots that had been used by larger industries such as coal and iron led to much freight transferring to road haulage. The closures were extremely unpopular with the general public at that time, and remain so today.

Railway Pictures

The public image of rail travel was severely damaged following the series of significant accidents after privatisation. These included the Southall rail crash (where a train with faulty automatic train protection equipment went through a red light); the Ladbroke Grove rail crash (also caused by a train going through a red light) and the Hatfield accident (caused by a rail fragmenting due to the development of microscopic cracks).

Following the Hatfield accident, the rail infrastructure company Railtrack imposed over 1200 emergency speed restrictions across its network and instigated an extremely costly nationwide track replacement programme. The consequent severe operational disruption to the national network and the company's spiralling costs set in motion the series of events which resulted in the ultimate collapse of the company, and its replaced with Network Rail, a state-owned, not-for-dividend company.

As franchisees (most notably GNER) have over-bid to renew their franchises, it is believed that some will have wiped out their profitability in the light of rising subsidy repayments back to the Exchequer. If the franchise holders withdraw, responsibility for operating trains will go back to the Department of Transport, further fuelling calls for a full-scale re-nationalisation. However the recently terminated Connex South Eastern franchise, while "nationalised" as South Eastern Trains until the end of the franchise period, the service was subsequently re-franchised as Southeastern.

The Flèche dOr was introduced in 1926 as an all-first Pullman service between Paris and Calais. On 15 May 1929 the Southern Railway introduced the equivalent between London and Dover. The train usually consisted of 10 British Pullman cars, hauled by one of the Southern Railways Lord Nelson class locomotives, and took 98 minutes to travel between London and Dover. Because of 'market forces', including the impact of air travel on the underlying economy, ordinary first- and third-class carriages were added in 1931. Similarly the first-class -only ferry, Canterbury, was modified to allow other classes of passenger.

The train service was stopped at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. It resumed after the war on 15 April 1946; initially running with the pre-war Pullmans and the Trianon Bar car, a converted twelve-wheeled Pullman car. In 1951 a new set was built as part of the Festival of Britain.
In 1961 with the Kent Coast electrification scheme the train became electric-hauled. A decline in demand saw the last Golden Arrow run on 30 September 1972.

The Golden Arrow

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway is a 15 in (381 mm) gauge heritage railway in Kent, England. The 13.5 mile (23 km) line runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St. Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romney Sands to Dungeness, close to Dungeness Power Station and Dungeness Lighthouse.

Constructed during the 1920s and eventually opening on the 16th July 1927, the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway was the dream of millionaire racing drivers Captain J.E.P. Howey and Count Louis Zborowski. Unfortunately Zborowski was killed in a motor racing accident at Monza before the Romney Marsh site was chosen, and Howey continued the project alone. Mountain Class 'Hercules' hauled the inaugural train from Hythe to New Romney with a healthy guest list including the mayors of the two towns, and General Sir Ivor Maxse. However, Howey was not happy with just 8 miles from New Romney to Hythe, and he duly extended another 5.5 miles from New Romney to Dungeness. This section was originally double track, but is now single track due to extensive damage during World War II, when the line was taken over by the military. After the war the line was re-opened between Hythe and New Romney in 1946, with the singled New Romney to Dungeness section being reopened in 1947 by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. As well as being a tourist attraction, this railway is a useful service between the small towns and villages between Hythe and Dungeness, and is also under contract to the local council to transport school children to and from The Marsh Academy in New Romney

The Beeching Axe is an informal name for the HM Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running the railway system of the United Kingdom. The name derives from the main author of the report The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr. Richard Beeching. Although this report also proposed the development of new modes of freight service and the modernisation of trunk passenger routes, it is best remembered for recommending the wholesale closure of what it considered to be little-used and unprofitable railway lines, and the removal of stopping passenger trains and closure of local stations on other lines which remained open.
The report was a reaction to the significant losses which had begun in the 1950s as the expansion in road transport began to abstract significant passenger and goods traffic from the railways; losses which continued to bedevil British Railways despite the introduction of the railway modernisation plan of 1955.Beeching proposed that only drastic action would save the railways from increasing losses in the future.
However, successive governments were more keen on the cost-saving elements of the report rather than those elements requiring investment. Over 4,000 miles of railway and 3,000 stations were closed in the decade following the report, being a reduction of 25% of route miles and 50% in the number of stations. To this day in railway circles and amongst older people, particularly in those parts of the country that suffered most from the cuts, Beeching's name is still synonymous with the mass closure of railways and consequent loss of many local services.

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