Charles Loft, “Last trains”

Even since I started following Youtubers Geoff Marshall and Jago Hazard since 2017, I have developed a slow iterative fascination of trains and railways. In 2023 I visited the National Railway Museum in York, United Kingdom as a result of watching Geoff’s videos. It was a very informative place for anyone with a remote interest in trains. 

Whilst there I bought a book, “Last trains” by Charles Loft. It gives a deep insight into the notorious Beeching cuts that took place in the 1960s as a result of Dr Richard Beeching’s report on the UK railway system.

Although I have previously heard of Beeching, it was mostly negative.  People did not want their local railway line and stations closed naturally, so I decided to read all about it in Loft’s book.

Loft starts off with a background, after world war two, the nationalised railways were haemorrhaging money as there weren’t enough passenger journeys to justify some of the lines and stations. Coupled with that, private car use was increasing. The government simply could not economically sustain a railway system that grown exponentially since the Victorian era.  

As the book pointed out, Beeching was not just about cuts to the system but also investment in improving certain lines. However history has overlooked this. Loft mentions the opposition to cuts, which included local residents and the rail unions. His report did mention the social effects of the closures and alternatives were proposed.

Contrary to public perception, Loft points out that not all lines that were proposed to be closed were closed. Some of it was due to political pressure. The UK, after all has general elections and railway closure proposals were an election issue in the 1964 and 1966 general elections. The switch from the MacMillan Conservative premiership to the Douglas-Home premiership disrupted the process, however the incoming Labour government in 1964 generally stuck to the recommendations of Beeching. 

One of the things Loft mentioned was that some of the closed lines live on as heritage railway lines. An example is the Bluebell railway in East Grinstead, Sussex, which I have personally visited after hearing about it in a Jago Hazard video. 

I find this book to be informative if you want to know about Britain’s railway history in the era of rapid economic, social, cultural and technical changes.