Talk:Epping Ongar Railway

Controversy

I've added the 'Controversy' paragraph because I think it's too big a piece of the railway's recent history to miss out in the article, and gives great explanation to why the railway does not have features such as steam and does not appear to make much progress between months at present. However, it's wording must be careful to avoid bias and I invite anyone to help make it an impartial yet informative paragraph.

DarkBiolizard 14:49, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Advert tag

I have removed the "advert" tag, after removing several instances of the word "our". I think there may be too many external links. Any views on this? Biscuittin (talk) 22:24, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

I have reduced the external links. Biscuittin (talk) 01:19, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

Line history

When the Eastern Counties Railway opened the line in 1865, was Ongar always going to be a terminus or was there a grand plan to push onto Chelmsford for instance? But this was never undertaken because of say, lack of funds, mergers or other reasons? Chipping Ongar just seems like an odd place to stop because it is practically between all major great population centres therefore making difficult work for the the line's profitability!

If such a plan existed, it would be interesting to see it included here, with source(s).

But bear in mind that today's largest nearby population centre dates only from the 1950s: Harlow simply did not exist in 1865 except as another village. Ongar has lost out in economic importance to Harlow (and Chelmsford and Brentwood) in living memory because of the UK's bizarre planning policies which enforce the status of dormitory town on many "green belt" settlements such as Ongar (and correspondingly long commuting times on people needing to go to London to work) but that is something else which only really became a feature of the home counties economies from about 1950. In the nineteenth ccentury, and on through the first half of the twentieth before the greenbelt effects deadened local enterprise, Ongar was indeed more of an economic focus, I think maybe even with its own regular cattle market before the cattle went to the west of England. Building jobs in the area tended to be undertaken by local firms, generally using bricks from the Ongar brickworks which I think was only closed down during the First World War. Today local building jobs involve firms s from places like Chelmsford, Chingford or Brentwood, and as for the provenance of the bricks .... I've a suspicion that nobody knows!

For the perspective of the 1860s, Chelmsford had received already it's own (more direct) rail link to London in the 1840s, which more or less follows the line of the old Roman road between London and Colchester. Not clear why Chelmsford businesses and travellers would have voted for an alternative less direct route via Ongar.

The old bridges over the Epping Ongar tracks suggest the possibility of a twin track was envisaged when they were built, but the necessary cuttings and banking never look to have been built/cut for more than one track's width. In the 1860/70s/80s/90s there would have been no mass commuting from Ongar or even Chelmsford to London. There was plenty of affordable accommodation for London workers very much nearer to their work places.

Road travel above foot speed only became a major feature of the UK economy with the advent of motor vehicles fueled by cheap fuel. (Older readers may remember cheap fuel...) Economic drivers of the nineteenth century railway building in the region would have involved in the first instance the need to move bulky merchandise such as the coal deliveries to this part of Essex (heat and power for homes and workshops.... and trains.) and delivery of rural produce - notably milk which till the 1960s was still produced in the area in some quantity - to London's hungry urban communities. None of that would really make an economic case for extending the railway east beyond Ongar toward (say) Chelmsford, though I agree that if you simply look at a map it's an engaging idea. And I'd love for someone to tell us there was a plan and what happened to it.....

Regards Charles01 (talk) 20:34, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

According to Epping Ongar Railway Ltd (EOR), the Eastern Counties Railway were considering a number of plans to extend the railway beyond Ongar station to a number of possible destinations. According to EOR, the residents of Ongar liked the idea of being a terminus station (why?) and deliberately built a cemetery immediately in the line of what would be the track's extension to prevent any such extension. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.150.65.44 (talk) 17:13, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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Blake Hall station platform

"Blake Hall was closed in 1981; it is said that it handled six customers a day. The station building still survives, without platform, as a private dwelling. Even after closure, it only required a kind word to the shuttle's driver for an unscheduled stop to be made. London Transport responded by removing the platform, rendering the unauthorised procedure impossible."

Blake Hall tube station, by contrast, has this:

"The line passing the station site is now privately owned and operated as a heritage railway by the Epping Ongar Railway, and although the platform was reinstated in May 2012 this is for aesthetic purposes only, and the station remains closed."

Is it just that this article is out of date? Harfarhs (talk) 17:02, 13 August 2017 (UTC)

Updating

Some dates (especially post 2012) would be useful - eg under Ongar 'The milk dock is being restored...' Jackiespeel (talk) 22:51, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

Epping link

Should '...via Epping...' link to the station rather than the place? Jackiespeel (talk) 09:38, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Yes. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:41, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Sometimes there is a logic that is not obvious to those with a tangential interest in a topic - eg where 'the locality page' (in this case) has a subsection on the station. Jackiespeel (talk) 10:02, 3 July 2019 (UTC)