A Wet & Steamy Afternoon

-Oy-

-Oy-

Bloke with a camera
Location
Lancashire
LMS Jubilee Class No45690 'Leander' steams through Townsend Fold on the East Lancashire Railway this afternoon with a Santa Special bound for Rawtenstall.

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hollydolly said:
these trains are not commuter trains they're speciality vintage steam trains which are looked after like babies (y)
Click to expand...
Holly is right, on 27 March 1963, a report by one Dr Richard Beeching, called: The Reshaping of British Railways, was published.
It's implementation caused the closure of 4,500 route miles, 2,500 stations and the loss of 67,700 jobs. The UK had one third of it's rail network closed. Most of those closures were in rural areas, we called them branch lines. If it interests you just search for: "Beeching, railway closures."

Oy, speaks of The East Lancashire Railway, it's one of many routes rescued by volunteers, that's what Holly means when she refers to speciality vintage steam. We have quite a good number up and down the country, nowadays they are known as Heritage Railways. They put much effort into recreating the railway as it was.
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You can tell from the cars on the left in this photo that it was taken before closure. Black & white was the popular choice for photos, colour was available but extremely expensive. Looking at this original makes Oy's photo all the more appealing.
Those volunteers have done a wonderful job of preserving everything from stations to ancillaries as this van will attest:
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Our heritage railways put on all sorts of speciality events, one of the most popular being WW2 era. That's when our rail network was stretched to the limit. This link will take you to The Great Central Railway's 1940's dance. The Place is packed and they all in period attire.
 
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