um rebecca yes
hi hi do you want to do something fun
oh can we when i say fun do you want to do something fun it killer
it gets better than that because we're in Hastings we are 1066 country and there's two fun it killers
so it's like twice the funicular twice the funicular so this is the utterly delightful town
of Hastings now I've never been here before and despite its name and obvious national significance
in the country's history well i still naively found myself completely gobsmacked at the amount
of well history here so let's go and find today's fun it killers we started our trip over here in
the old town now if you want to take a look at the marvel that is the east cliff railway from above
which served here for 90 odd years but you're too far away well just do what i'm doing right
now which is nip onto google maps it's 3d here and really goes to show how much of the cliffside
they carved into so here at the bottom of east cliff railway we are ready for action
but it's closed ah okay well that's a little bit disappointing closed for essential maintenance
so after a quick trip past the wonderful little miniature railway here
we head over to the more quirky of the two funicular railways quirky for a number of reasons
you see when you search up pretty much any funicular railway they all seem to hold a
record oldest running steepest oldest electric oldest operated water balance
you name it they've all got a record now the east cliff back where we were seems to hold the
record for the steepest active so what records does this one hold over here on the west cliff
hang on that seems to be some kind of cue so let's go with the plan b and ride down instead of up
the queue i'm sure will be a lot shorter i wonder if there is a quicker way up
ah yes have a look at this delightful alleyway i wonder if i should make a video about quirky
alleyways one day anyway let's head on up so right now we're walking adjacent to the lower part of
the lift the Hastings west cliff railway i say railway of course but it's actually a funicular
railway that being a cable hauled railway attached to two tram-like vehicles on rails the earliest
is said to date back as far as the 1500s but of course the Victorians fully latched onto them and
in the late 1800s they sprung up all around the uk coastline now if you didn't know where to find
this funicular it might take some time to search because a quick view from above shows nothing
but grass and cliff edge that's largely due to the fact that 400 feet of this 500 feet root
is actually underground now that wasn't unique because both Clifton and Broadstairs lifts shared
the same design of being largely underground both of those however are out of operation so
this funicular does indeed have at least one world record the oldest surviving underground funicular
so we've reached the top and what a gorgeous view over Hastings it is today you can just about see
the east cliff lift so let's queue up or maybe not and wait our turn to head down the cliff
as we cue you'll note the massive winding wheel on the left here at the top well this was found
to have faults in 2019 after some 127 years of use it was sent to a foundry in Sheffield for repairs
it was finally reinstalled open and raring to go march the 18th just in time for the pandemic
so let's pull up a front seat and cast our eyes down the hill it's a 1 in 29 gradient
and it's 400 feet of brick-lined tunnel joy built by holm and king of Liverpool who went
on to build the Snowden mountain railway the initial cost was set at 10 000 pounds
construction was to use 1.7 million bricks and it started in 1889. now it was supposed to open later
that year however a few setbacks meant that costs nearly doubled as did construction time it finally
opened in 1891 on march the 25th you really will never tire of the thrill of going up and down one
of these gorgeous lifts even if you're seemingly going for a tunnel with no view at all well
this to my mind is as good as any view and it's lit up so you can see the joy all around you
although the brickwork does look like it has some bulges in places i'm sure that's completely in
hand and everybody's fine the carriages themselves just add to the experience a real victorian feel
with their construction being well that of the midland railway carriage and wagon company
so that was a Hastings funiculars or funicular! yeah singular funicular yeah there we go we'll
get a go on another one one day soon i'm sure hoped you like that kind of short little video
that we did this week we're back next week with all the usual abandoned exploration
type stuff that we do with about the canals and railways and all sorts i'm
not sure what is coming up are you i don't know but there was anything to be fair yeah
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