Golden Age of Steam on BBC4

and when exactly ??

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com schrieb:

All will be revealed when the beeb release the new schedule. Maybe it's on their website already?

MBQ

Should be good - I'm not a fan of Private Eye, but when he gets his teeth into the politics behind something.....

Cheers Richard

As I posted over on uk.railway :

Rather naff title for a programme....

Quote from BBC Press Office website :- "The notorious Beeching Report of 1963 led to the closure of many of Britain's railway lines and stations. In Ian Hislop Goes Off The Rails on BBC Four, Ian considers whether the report's author, Dr Richard Beeching, was a kind of Genghis Khan with a slide rule, ruthlessly axing swathes of the rail network in the name of progress, or simply the fall guy for something that had to happen?"

Richard

Ian Hislop is actually very good at this kind of reporting. Knowing his (apparent?) stance on many issuses being quite left-wing, his programme about the Boy Scout movement was extremely well done. This should be a good one to watch.

Interestingly, Pete Waterman in his series of programmes also did a set on the Beeching Report. As it effectively cut short his career as a railwayman, it was somewhat of a surprise that he was supportive of the report - blaming the subsequent fiasco on the government's failure to implement it's recommendations in full. They went for the cost-cutting measures (closing uneconomic routes) but failing to develop the railways due to the expense. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Ian Barefoot

Yes people keep on about "The Beeching Report" but how many people have actually read it ?

The things people always associate was the closure of stations & other major reductions :-

Staff reduced from 500 to 300 thousand 40%

Route miles reduced from 17 to 13 thousand 24%

Number of stations reduced from 5 to 2 thousand 46%

Locomotives reduced from 14 to 5 thousand 64%

Carriages reduced from 36 to 20 thousand 44%

Wagons reduced from 900 to 450 thousand 50%

Train miles reduced from 335 to 250 million 25%

In the 2nd part of his report the recommendations are many but are summed up to me in one sentence :-

" The real choice is between an excessive and increasingly uneconomic system, with a corresponding tendency for the railways as a whole to fall into disrepute and decay, or the selective development and intensive utilisation of a more limited trunk route system. "

History shows what became of the second part !

I assume all have now seen the listings for this and the other railway programmes on BBC4;

Of course he is going to say that, he made a fortune out of his second career and has made even more due to the 1994 privatisation of the railways - had Beeching not happened Pete Waterman would be thinking of retiring from a life time spent working on the railways (probably at not greater level than cleaner or platform porter) about now!...

Very few I suspect, many don't even seem to know when it was published, any line or station closure from 1948 on gets blamed on his "Axe"! I know of one instance were someone claimed that their local station was closed due to Beeching and that their father campaigned against the closure - never mind the fact to do so he would have had to have done so from beyond the grave - and no his name wasn't Marty Hopkirk!...

Sorry, but isn't this post off topic.

Kevin

" ........ isn't this post off topic ? "

Despite the fact I feel a little suspicious of Kevin's post I am going to say this.

Most of us on this group have at least a little interest in railways, both new and not so new. My family have had close connections with the railway industry for many years and I personally take an interest in history of all kinds ( an Open University programme on fossils is also on that night ), as it explains in some way how we arrive at what we have, or dont have, today.

'Ian Hislop Goes Off the Rail's is only part of the BBC's Golden Age of Steam season and will include railway walks etc. What better way to see how railways worked / looked for inclusion in layouts. What else are people doing but attempting to recreate history in model form ?

This is a somewhat long winded way of me saying NO ! this post is not 'off topic'

Yes, you need alt.troll, I think it's that away ===>

Kevin ( Zen83237 ) has replied to my last thread directly.

" I don't see how it meets the charter. If it is going to be quoted to other off topic posters why not all. "

.... and he kindly included a copy of the charter.

I may be wrong, as this is only a guess, but has Zen83237 been criticised in the past for a similar apparent charter non compliance ?

This is a non mediated group and this kind of thing occurs. The 'line' between real and model railways is somewhat of a smudge.

Some posts on Google Groups I have found to be vulgar and offensive, some from people who normally appear to most civil ( one I think was drunk or something at the time ) but it's an 'open' group just like the rest of the Internet. I try and keep my blood pressure low.

I personally appreciated the post and have set my video to record the programmes late tomorrow night.

Kevin ! if you feel the need to 'police' the group then fine.

It's less off topic that the "Steam loco apparently abandoned in a bush." thread, that should have been posted to the uk.railway group - or at least prefixed 'OT:'. So why did this "Kevin" chap decide to pick this thread and that follow up reply, may be I have upset a clueless troll who though that he would try it on...

I posted to both. included this group as if I had not gone to the Model railway exhibition I would not have seen it,and there was a chance that others who had seen it while visiting the venue in previous years may have found out some thing about it.

G.Harman

Group etiquette is something learnt from experience ..... I personally have no problem with occasional off topic posts ( get rich quick schemes or ads for trainers etc. not included ) marked SOT, OT or not !

With me it's not necessarily the finished article that's of most interest but how it's done, be it model making from scratch of scenery etc. Off topic post sometimes lead me to answers or even to questions I have not even thought about.

Chris

I wasn't having a go at you, I just used your message as a demonstration that this thread seems to have been picked out for criticism.