{"id":970,"date":"2013-03-28T14:30:40","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T14:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/?p=970"},"modified":"2013-03-30T17:44:43","modified_gmt":"2013-03-30T17:44:43","slug":"slaithwaite-station-bounced-back-after-beeching-axe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/?p=970","title":{"rendered":"“Slaithwaite Station bounced back after Beeching axe”"},"content":{"rendered":"

[From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 28th<\/sup> March 2013] \"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"(l<\/p>\n
(l to r) Tim O’Connor, Vicky Minton, Julie\u00a0 Devall and Paul Salveson<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

TODAY marks exactly 50 years since the controversial Beeching Report recommended closing 2,000 railway stations nationwide.<\/p>\n

Those that faced the axe in the Huddersfield area were Slaithwaite, Golcar and Milnsbridge\/Longwood \u2013 and they all shut in October 1968.<\/p>\n

The Beeching Report unveiled on March 27, 1963 was a bombshell, listing 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles of railway for closure.<\/p>\n

Dr Richard Beeching was recruited by the government from a very successful business career at ICI and his remit in 1961 was to return the rail industry from a deficit of \u00a3112m to profitability immediately.<\/p>\n

Only one of the Colne Valley stations has since reopened \u2013 Slaithwaite \u2013 which now has a Friends of Slaithwaite Station to protect and promote it.<\/p>\n

And yesterday the group told train travellers about what Beeching did half a century ago and the importance of Slaithwaite station to the Colne Valley now.<\/p>\n

Railway expert and Golcar councillor Paul Salveson said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is now a pretty good service from Slaithwaite but we would like more frequent trains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something we will be guarding jealousy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Slaithwaite railway station reopened just over 30 years ago in 1982.<\/p>\n

The original station was on the old London & North Western Railway line\u00a0 and was once a centre of passenger services and commercial freight.<\/p>\n

The station first opened on August 1 1849 to coincide with the opening of the\u00a0 first tunnel at Standedge which took three years to build and cost \u00a3201,608.<\/p>\n

In 1848 the station had two platforms and modest goods facilities but by 1900\u00a0 it had grown to four platforms, a large goods shed, stables for the delivery\u00a0 horses, a signal box and coal drops to feed coal to the mill boilerhouses in\u00a0 Slaithwaite.<\/p>\n

In 1923 the LNWR was amalgamated into the greater London Midland &\u00a0 Scottish Railway and things continued at Slaithwaite much as before, but with a\u00a0 gradual decline being punctuated by World War Two.<\/p>\n

In 1948, LMS was subsumed into the great British Railways as the whole rail\u00a0 network became nationalised. Slaithwaite goods yard closed on October 5, 1964\u00a0 and the station itself followed suit on October 7, 1968.<\/p>\n

The entire station including the goods yard was demolished. The rails were\u00a0 taken away for scrap and the mainline was reduced from four tracks to two.<\/p>\n

But 30 years ago, on December 13 1982, after extensive local lobbying and\u00a0 campaigning by some determined local residents, the station was re-opened \u2013 on\u00a0 the same site \u2013 but with new platforms and waiting shelters.<\/p>\n

FOSLS (Friends of Slaithwaite Station) is a voluntary group that promotes\u00a0 the station as a pleasant and safe place for all rail passengers.<\/p>\n

Read more: Examiner http:\/\/www.examiner.co.uk\/news\/local-west-yorkshire-news\/2013\/03\/28\/slaithwaite-station-bounced-back-after-beeching-axe-86081-33073334\/#ixzz2OqLSnrLm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 28th March 2013] (l to r) Tim O’Connor, Vicky Minton, Julie\u00a0 Devall and Paul Salveson TODAY marks exactly 50 years since the controversial Beeching Report recommended closing 2,000 railway stations nationwide. Those that faced the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,58],"tags":[46,32],"class_list":["post-970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friends-of-slaithwaite-station","category-slaithwaite","tag-fosls","tag-slaithwaite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions\/974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smart-rail.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}