A Train to Sid's Cafe

theatrically_inclined said:
The market town I lived in when I was a teenager originally had train stations on two different lines. Thanks Dr Beeching.
Now the town is not far from the eyesore scar-on-the-land of HS2.
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So there really was a Doctor Beeching? I didn't know. I thought it was just a plot of the lovely sitcom that bears his name. I didn't know it was based in reality. I did a bit of Wikipedia research and read up on the "Beeching Axe". I will never be able to look at the sitcom quite the same way. In 1963, my folks and I travelled through Europe on a Eurail Pass. My Father explained that for $110 US dollars we could go wherever we wanted in Europe, as often as we wanted, within the one month duration of the pass. I loved the trains, some were cleaner than others, some were louder, some were older and on some the food was better than others. A couple of the trains we took had steam locomotives, toot, toot. It was a great experience for me because the railroads in the US had pretty much converted from passenger service to commercial haulage, so I could only experience train travel abroad. Trains could not compete with planes for speed. We still have commuter trains that service the bigger inner cities and provide branch line transport from the suburbs to the city, but these lines usually only run for about 50 miles of track. Parking at the train stations is now challenged by competing needs for the land. South Station, the train station in Boston, now services more busses than trains.

There used to be passenger service on Cape Cod where I live, but it is now reduced to a trash train that makes a once or twice daily run to a trash incinerator on the mainland. There is a gantry bridge across the Cape Cod canal that lowers when needed to pass the train. If I am riding my bike on the canal bike path around 5 PM, I make it a point to get to the bridge and watch the event.

It is not just a UK thing.
 
Seymour Upperthong said:
There used to be passenger service on Cape Cod where I live, but it is now reduced to a trash train that makes a once or twice daily run to a trash incinerator on the mainland. There is a gantry bridge across the Cape Cod canal that lowers when needed to pass the train. If I am riding my bike on the canal bike path around 5 PM, I make it a point to get to the bridge and watch the event.

It is not just a UK thing.
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Several years ago, when Corning, NY still had a local newspaper, on April 1st there was a front-page composite photo of a passenger train in Centerway Square, in front of the former location of the New York Central Station (now a parking garage). There were hundreds of responses to the effect of "make it so," mine among them.

I recall the Erie railway tracks being lifted when I was a child, and Erie Avenue being renamed Denison Parkway, but I don't recall the year. And the DL&W line that used to run behind my house was lifted sometime after 1972. Now there's just a freight line (CSX?), frequent enough to be a noise pollutant.

The nearest passenger station is in Rochester, NY, 103 miles from home. It might as well be on the moon for all the use I make of it.
 
Seymour Upperthong said:
So there really was a Doctor Beeching? I didn't know. I thought it was just a plot of the lovely sitcom that bears his name. I didn't know it was based in reality. I did a bit of Wikipedia research and read up on the "Beeching Axe". I will never be able to look at the sitcom quite the same way. In 1963, my folks and I travelled through Europe on a Eurail Pass. My Father explained that for $110 US dollars we could go wherever we wanted in Europe, as often as we wanted, within the one month duration of the pass. I loved the trains, some were cleaner than others, some were louder, some were older and on some the food was better than others. A couple of the trains we took had steam locomotives, toot, toot. It was a great experience for me because the railroads in the US had pretty much converted from passenger service to commercial haulage, so I could only experience train travel abroad. Trains could not compete with planes for speed. We still have commuter trains that service the bigger inner cities and provide branch line transport from the suburbs to the city, but these lines usually only run for about 50 miles of track. Parking at the train stations is now challenged by competing needs for the land. South Station, the train station in Boston, now services more busses than trains.

There used to be passenger service on Cape Cod where I live, but it is now reduced to a trash train that makes a once or twice daily run to a trash incinerator on the mainland. There is a gantry bridge across the Cape Cod canal that lowers when needed to pass the train. If I am riding my bike on the canal bike path around 5 PM, I make it a point to get to the bridge and watch the event.

It is not just a UK thing.
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I see you still have the Cape Cod railway, offering pleasure trips which also pass over the bridge, I am guessing it is about a 60 mile round trip
 
maltrab said:
I see you still have the Cape Cod railway, offering pleasure trips which also pass over the bridge, I am guessing it is about a 60 mile round trip
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This is an excursion train which is a summer attraction that closes down for the off season. It is a scenic tour, which offers dining and sometimes features a Who Dunnit performance with audience participation. Like all excursions, you get off the train where you get on it, you can't hop off to go visit May's Cafe at Hatley Station (or in our case the Cafe at Duval Station on Willow Street). The last time this railway offered passenger services was in the late 80s, if my memory serves me right. You could take an MBTA commuter train out of South Station in Boston to the end of the line in Kingston Massachusetts. At that station, you would transfer to the Cape and Islands railway which would bring you into Hyannis center. The railyard in Hyannis was pretty big for such a small town. The very last of that track was pulled up two years ago. Why it remained there so long was because of an old buried gas trunk line in the vicinity. No one was really certain where it was or had the nerve to mess with it.

The Cape Cod railway has been in and out of business over the past few decades. Then some new promoter buys it up and breathes new life into it. Most of the track on Cape Cod has been taken up and the railbed converted into a bike path called the Cape Cod Rail Trail. The Cape and Islands railway shares the remaining track with the trash train. I have never taken the excursion myself, but those I know that have, have remarked that it is a once in a lifetime event.
 
Seymour Upperthong said:
This is an excursion train which is a summer attraction that closes down for the off season. It is a scenic tour, which offers dining and sometimes features a Who Dunnit performance with audience participation. Like all excursions, you get off the train where you get on it, you can't hop off to go visit May's Cafe at Hatley Station (or in our case the Cafe at Duval Station on Willow Street). The last time this railway offered passenger services was in the late 80s, if my memory serves me right. You could take an MBTA commuter train out of South Station in Boston to the end of the line in Kingston Massachusetts. At that station, you would transfer to the Cape and Islands railway which would bring you into Hyannis center. The railyard in Hyannis was pretty big for such a small town. The very last of that track was pulled up two years ago. Why it remained there so long was because of an old buried gas trunk line in the vicinity. No one was really certain where it was or had the nerve to mess with it.

The Cape Cod railway has been in and out of business over the past few decades. Then some new promoter buys it up and breathes new life into it. Most of the track on Cape Cod has been taken up and the railbed converted into a bike path called the Cape Cod Rail Trail. The Cape and Islands railway shares the remaining track with the trash train. I have never taken the excursion myself, but those I know that have, have remarked that it is a once in a lifetime event.
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We have many of these tourist attraction trains in the UK, some integrate with the main lines for easy access, others are in more remote spots and often you would need a car to reach them, some offer luxury dining which can be rather expensive, there is one not far from Barry, the link below shows all the sites in the uk.
Many moons ago I was trained as a guard and volunteered on the Northampton & Lamport railway, I had to do my training at the Great Central Railway over several weekends, it has to be the same training as if you were working on any mainline service.
I was then assessed by the same governing body in the UK, the chap that did mine was called Major Points

 
maltrab said:
I see you still have the Cape Cod railway, offering pleasure trips which also pass over the bridge, I am guessing it is about a 60 mile round trip
Click to expand...
I was remiss in my previous post. If you are on Cape Cod and want to take away a memory, take an offshore Whale Watch excursion out of Provincetown. The boats go from Provincetown harbor to Stellwagon Bank. I suggest P-town because it is the closest port to Stellwagon. You spend more time watching whales than travelling to Stellwagon. There will be plenty of oohs and aahs and plenty of photographic opportunities. If you see a sunfish on the surface out there, you will never forget it.

If you are prone to seasickness, take the train ride instead.
 
maltrab said:
Many moons ago I was trained as a guard and volunteered on the Northampton & Lamport railway, I had to do my training at the Great Central Railway over several weekends, it has to be the same training as if you were working on any mainline service.
I was then assessed by the same governing body in the UK, the chap that did mine was called Major Points
Click to expand...
Since he was assessing your performance, do you suppose Major Points meant Made-your-points?

I loved the website, it was enticing. The photo of the signalman's box was only missing Signalman Harry Lambert (our Smiler).
 
Graham said:
Retired now, but we could run our own service Terry.
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Oooooh, and it is still valid! Do you have to use it to keep your qualifications? If you do, please do. We have a lot of retired Merchant Marine Captains on Cape Cod. In order to retain their licenses, they have to occasionally pilot boats of whatever displacement they are licensed for. They volunteer to pilot Massachusetts Steamship Authority ferry boats that take passengers and freight to both Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The distance to either island is about 30 miles from Hyannis harbor. So each round trip can be done in about 1 day with expeditious loading and unloading. The Authority's competitor purchased some power catamarans about 25 years ago which are much faster. They are steered by a joystick, which must have been a new experience in close quarter maneuvering and docking, for some.
 
If you don't drive a particular class of train or drive over a certain route for over 6 months you have to be reassessed. The OTMR (on train monitor recorder/black box) shows everything you do & at what time & location. Random downloads are taken & scrutinised by your manager, so you have to be a good boy, or girl! I miss the driving but not the prepping of the trains down the sheds at 03:30 !
Glad to be retired, can visit Holmfirth whenever I want.
 
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