The railway system in Britain is the oldest in the world, with the first locomotive-hauled public railway opening in 1825. Having lost ground to the more modern networks around the world following privatisation in the 90's and the introduction of diesel and electric power many of the carriages from its glory days of pioneering travel are now crumbling along stretches of disused tracks across the country. This article will be looking at a specific part of England's railway network, once known as the Midland Railway, that hides some clues to a system that once connected an empire.
There's something fascinating about the hundreds of forgotten Victorian railway lines that are scattered across Britain. They hide in every town and city, still shaping the boundaries of each county, and are almost always totally overlooked. After the industrial revolution, tram lines and buses dramatically reduced the number of train links needed within most cities around a century ago.
At one time, trains would have been the primary means of transport for getting from one side of a city to the other, but soon enough they were reduced to linking parts of the country together instead. Many of these 'lost lines' became foot paths or roads, but the vast majority can still be seen from above, or up close if you pay attention to what might seem like unusually straight and thin woodlands. Every now and then one might hide some stranded treasure. Like this platform stairway and old rail carriage found on a disconnected section of the midland railway, which last operated nationally in 1922.
This once busy train yard sits dormant along a stretch of railway no longer connected to the midland rail system, once the third-largest railway undertaking in the British Isles.
Places like this become different beasts altogether when the light dies down, and the faint moaning of these heavy, creaking iron objects moving in the wind gives the carriages an imaginary personality as they rust away on a forgotten stretch of track, almost as if they are all too aware of the fact that they have found their final resting place.
Amongst many of these rusting wrecks stands a brilliantly preserved 1930`s train carriage sat forgotten and unused here in the hills of the British Midlands. From a time when trains were a form of transport that could actually be enjoyed, these carriages would have been used at a time between wars when Britain was still leading the way in luxury travel.
