If only this could be remastered electronically, what a film then !

I’m sure my dad was a fireman on this line in the 1950s. He was made redundant when the line shut but managed to get another job on the railway, eventually becoming an inspector.

Superb (yet sad) combination of music and photos.

I went on one of the last trains to Whitby from Guisborough 57/58 I think

I watched this on the telly in the Sandsend station camping coach when i stayed there a week last November. Quite an experience!

instant frission

As with so many lines butchered by Beeching and Marples.

Hi where did you get the pictures for the maps at the start? I’m currently building a somewhat accurate map of the 1950s BR uk network using Ian Allen’s rail atlas of 1955. Great video Thankyou for sharing

Such a sad sight when I see the history of this line. I’ve been to Staithes and Sandsend

How emotional for me. I love Whitby and keep discovering such delights like this. Thanks for uploading even though it was a while ago.

Hardly a journey, more like a pile of photographs etc readily available elsewhere

Great footage/slightly inappropriate music.

It would be embarrassing if this was now Heritage Line the queues and crowds would make BR wince in embarrassment. Went on Swanage Line and NNR this summer bloody packed...

What a journey it would have been for all sorts of reasons, thanks for sharing

Thanks Mike, for the photos, for the music….for The Golden Line. 🚂🚴‍♂️👣🇺🇦

The section of line at Fishburn Park is not shown. Was this a tunnel ?. Thanks.

Rescue me…..yes indeed……why as a nation did we stand back and let Beeching and the Tory plonkers of the day destroy a third of our rail network . Mikes photos and fitting music are brilliant.

This captures so well, the criminal destruction of so many of our lovely rail lines back on the 1960s. Thanks Mike.

Thanks Mike, it’s so sad to know how this wonderful railway was so brutally destroyed. Love your music and films of this line, can’t work out the connection between Devon and Cleveland. Would love to meet you and say thanks in person. Best wishes.

I was eight years old when the last train went through Hinderwell. Some of us kids were stood on the crossing gates waving like mad as it went past. We used to love travelling on the steam trains. My Grandfather was the relief Station Master on that line. He often seemed to work a lot at Kettleness.

I remember travelling from Loftus to Whitby by train as a child when we came up to Yorkshire for our holidays, staying with family in Liverton Mines near Loftus. I'm not sure which year the line closed but I was born in 1952 so would have been on it quite a few times. I just wish I could remember going over the viaducts, especially the one at Staithes. I mainly remember going along next to the beach at Sandsend. Thanks for posting these interesting pictures.

The one thing we excel at in this country is throwing away our heritage.

We're did the Middlesbrough to Whitby direct line go? Can only go to Whitby now

Ha why 5 o ..ya kidding

❤

Think of the summer crowds waiting to this on Summer Sunday and be able to see the rugged coast you can't see from the road if this was preserved line...!!

Look up sand send and kettlewell tunnels on KZfaq. Amazing structures on a difficult line. And samdsend is in a poor state of repair 65 years on.

Would have been a marvellous asset today. Usual British shortsightedness, just like urban tramways!

Mike, thanks for this very sad but lovely piece of film. The harp music goes so well. I guess you have a great affection for this lost railway, destroyed by an uncaring Tory Government. I also love your ‘nothing takes the place of you’ on Deserted Railway. I’d like to know more about you. I believe you are based in Devon. You are very talented. See Geoff and Chris b channel.

Sil Austin-he is best!

We may lament the loss of those fascinating viaducts but on balance I don't suppose they were really appreciated by those back in the day whose view they spoiled.

31.12.22.. The South Portal of Sandsend is totally sealed now, no way of entry. Only way in is via a climb on the North Portal of Kettlenes Tunnel. Both are showing extreme signs of collapse, internal walls are seriously buldging. Not to be entered.

2.18 Last train ever at Staithes is actually at Hinderwell. Regards Alan, in Canada.

Who is the woman's voice in this song ?

I've walked through the Grinkle tunnel into Loftus a few times while ferreting for rabbits on the banksides

"Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone" Big yellow taxi, Joni Mitchell

Open it back up and whitby to scarborough

So sad it was lost

Easy to Close. Very difficult to Re-open 😏. Please change the music!

How lucky we are that someone with a cine camera thought to record what then would have been an every day event.........wonderful.

There are two really great books around that sometimes turn up on Amazon, Railways Around Whitby volume's one and two by Martin Bairstow packed with photographs and information about every day running on the line as well as last trains to run and some coverage of the NYMR. In the late 1950's and early 1960's cars and road transport was seen as the way forward, especially by one Ernest Marples. Now our roads are jammed with traffic with the idea of electric cars being our saving grace, which they are not. We are now paying the price for short sighted governments destroying lines such as this.Another great read if you can find a copy is Lost Railways Of Holderness which again is packed with photographs and information about the Hull to Withernsea and Hull to Hornsea lines, both of which would have seen an upturn in fortunes in modern times.

STATE VIOLENCE ON THE PEOPLES RAILWAYS THAT THEY CALLED "DIRTY, INEFFICIENT AND UNECONOMIC". STATE VANDALISM ON WORKING CLASS COMMUNITIES THAT THEY CALLED "SLUMS". HOW MANY HEARTS BROKEN? HOW MANY OF US CONDEMNED TO A LIFE OF NOSTALGIA AND SADNESS FROM CHILDHOOD ONWARDS WITH THE DISAPPEARANCE OF STEAM AND OUR BRANCHES? STATIONS CLOSED AND THE LIFEBLOOD OF OUR TOWNS AND VILLAGES TAKEN AWAY. SO MANY OF US WITNESSED THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR BEARINGS AND MEANING IN LIFE. AND THEN OUR RULERS HAD THE CHEEK IN THE SEVENTIES TO CONDEMN YOUTH VANDALISM WHEN THEY WERE THE BIGGEST VANDALS IN THE COUNTRY! THEY TURNED OUR LAND INTO A TRAGEDY OF URBAN EYESORES AND WASTELANDS WHERE LOST, ALIENATED SOULS WANDER AIMLESSLY - GHOSTS BEFORE THEIR TIME.

We had that prat Beeching to thank for destroying our Railways

I visited this area years ago with my mum and dad we stayed with my Auntie Alice in Redcar

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing.

The engineers don't wave from the trains anymore, like they did back in 1954.

My mother travelled on this 1954 1955 my mother thought what wonderful view s

Good photos but perhaps it would have been better to put some jazz from their time as background instead

The line from Loftus to Whitby West Westcliffe was a financial burden to he railway companies that owned and operated it. Its construction was a nightmare and was only completed when the NER company took over. And within a few years the line was closed whilst a new tunnel was bored to bypass a landslip. The viaducts, especially the one at Staithes, were constructed of poor materials and unsafe. It is surprising that the line lasted was long as 1958. However a section, Skinningrove to Boulby was relaid with new bridges constructed in the early 1970s to service what was the new potash mine at Boulby a mile short of Staithes. This section is now owned and operated by the company that owns the potash mine. There are 4 booked trains each day.

I was there - good old days ;-)