Station Name: YARMOUTH SOUTH TOWN
 A Cravens DMU rasps away from South Town on its short journey to Lowestoft sometime in the post-1968 period. The DMU, or at least the leading car, is in blue livery with small yellow warning panel. The blue appears to be the shade which came to be known as 'chromatic blue'; a duller shade with a hint of metallic to it. There were a few DMU cars running around East Anglia in this livery at the time and they were also given very small numbers and, sometimes, a small version of the BR 'double arrow' logo. This livery did not sit well on DMU cars and apart from on some suburban stock was to be replaced by what became the standard and rather more glossy Rail Blue livery. On the left, modern buildings are gradually changing the scene while the buffertstop, once at the end of short stubby siding, remains. The bufferstop was probably attached to a short length of track some eight or ten feet long, as many of this type were, which still lurked beneath the grass. On the right Messrs Jewson have gained a prominent presence and their new Dutch barn-type structure is already in situ on the site of what had been an ironworks. Today, of course, none of this exists. Unfortunately this scene of dereliction was all too common during the 1960s and indicative of a cash-strapped BR trying to do its best against sneering pro-road governments and constant turmoil within BR's own management structure. Yarmouth South Town had been among the stations (and thus with it the line to Coke Ovens Junction) listed for closure by Dr Beeching but had LNER plans drawn-up in 1943 come to fruition South Town would have most likely gone in 1947 or, at the latest, in 1953 during BR days. Had this happened it seems the victor would have been Beach station, meaning that Vauxhall would also have closed, with all trains diverted into Beach by means of a couple of new chords; one east of Belton and one east of Breydon Junction. As events transpired, South Town survived this abandoned scheme and the round of Beeching closures during 1964-65 only to become one of several closures across the network during 1970. In 1964 Harold Wilson's Labour government had narrowly won the General Election, with one of their election pledges being to reverse the so-called ‘Beeching cuts’. Wilson's Minister of Transport was, then, Tom Fraser and it was he who failed to carry out Labour's election pledge and indeed went on to authorise closures which even Beeching had not listed. Fraser's job as Minister of Transport was taken over by Barbara Castle in December 1965 and Fraser resigned from Parliament in 1967. Mrs Castle was to refuse consent to close certain lines but, well-meaning though she was, she was an inexperienced Minister and her tenure lasted only until April 1968. One of the best known non-Beeching closures consented to by Fraser was the Oxford - Cambridge line (although Bletchley - Bedford was ultimately to hang on) but Mrs Castle, due in no small part to her inexperience in the murky world of ministries, failed to prevent it. Mrs Castle was succeeded by Richard Marsh, a man who made no secret of the fact that he was pro-road and who ironically went on to become Chairman of the British Railways Board. Therein lies a clue to how the 'right person for the job' from the perspective of government is not necessarily the right person from the perspective of a nationalised industry. Perhaps it is as well that Marsh served only one year as Minister of Transport. On the British Railways Board things were equally as stormy during this period. Following on from Richard Beeching were Stanley Raymond (1965 - 1967) and Henry Johnson (1967 - 1971) before Marsh took over in 1971. Both Raymond and Johnson were relatively little known and today are all-but forgotten. Fred Mulley had succeeded Marsh as Minister of Transport, thus it was under his watch and that of Johnson, as BRB Chairman, that the last train rasped away from Yarmouth South Town in May 1970. Politicians and Chairmen come and go with monotonous regularity. In truth, but by no means in fairness to politicians and BRB chairmen, the damage to Yarmouth South Town had been done long before 1970; the closure of the Beccles line in 1959 and the decline of the British seaside holiday both played a by no means small part. The increase in car ownership is also partly to blame, this changing from a trickle to a flood during the 1960s and onwards, but arguably the increase in car ownership was due in part to rail closures, actual or threatened, rather than being the sole cause of them. Freight was another matter, with the coming of better roads and vehicles more suited to longer journeys it is hardly surprising much freight shifted to the roads with the rail strike of 1955 being a major catalyst. Dr Beeching's vision of bulk and liner trains came far too late with what such rail traffic as exists today being constrained by a reduced rail network supposedly struggling with capacity issues. The familiar phrase from the Beeching years 'adequate replacement bus services' does not hold well with the travelling public who will tolerate it only when there really is no alternative. Exceptions are, perhaps, in urban areas and the Yarmouth - Lowestoft corridor is one such. Despite Yarmouth Beach station closing in 1959, taking all the aforementioned issues into consideration we must ask ourselves if, today, Great Yarmouth could support three railway stations and the answer is ‘no’. The Yarmouth - Lowestoft line was one of countless closures which became a target for preservationists who wished to run a commuter service intertwined with a steam heritage service for tourists. Had this happened it would almost certainly have not reached Lowestoft Central and it is doubtful if South Town station would have continued to exist. Fledgling preservation schemes frequently did, and still do, have aspirations to run commuter services but seemingly without fully understanding exactly what such would involve. Of the very few which have succeeded, what actually appears is little more than a heritage diesel service of no real practical use to anybody. On this basis, then, it is perhaps as well Yarmouth South Town was allowed to pass into history.Photo from Ted Burgess collection  Home Page
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