The last days
By November 1982, just a handful of trains ran on the line - three in each way, and not at the best of times to woo patronage. They were the 1006, 1153 and 1508 from March to Spalding, and 1238, 1444 and 1811 in the opposite direction, so if you lived in either town and were one of very few who wanted to commute to the other, unless you had flexible hours rail travel was pointless.
The last day was November 27 1982, and the final train was a Cravens Class 105 DMU on a Fakenham and Dereham Railway Society charter from Skegness to Cambridge. It left Spalding at 1836 and arrived at March at 1901, and then… that was that.
Earlier in the day, the last locomotivehauled train had been another railtour, BR’s ‘Jointliner’ from Cleethorpes to Cambridge hauled by 40024 Lucania. This used the line in both directions.
The last scheduled locomotive-hauled passenger train on the line had been on October 2 1982, when 37086 worked the 0920 Yarmouth-Newcastle.
Back to that last day and 37167, hauling an empty sand train, was the last southbound locomotive-hauled train of any kind and the last freight on the route.
After November 27 1982, all traffic had to divert via Peterborough - which was soon to become a bottleneck, and continues to get ever more congested.
Bridge crosses the line at the old level crossing at Twenty Foot River, some 1¾ miles from Guyhirn. Again, the old Crossing keeper’s house remains, and here the old home semaphore signal still stands (in remarkably good condition and still with its arm), although it’s not clear if the house owner has reinstated this, or if it was merely just left behind at lifting. Both are plausible!
There wasn’t a station here but there was a goods shed, and this still stands. Indeed, the ramps from the loading bays - presumably for livestock - can still be seen. The rail bridge over the river has been removed, although there is now a footbridge there.
At Twenty Foot, just after crossing the river, you can still see the base of the signal box (called Twenty Feet River). This was built as recently as 1974 to replace the previous building from 1882 (Twenty Feet Sidings), which had started to sink into the Fens! Therefore, the new box only had an eight-year life. Just south of here the line spread out to Grassmoor and Whitemoor sidings.
The prison is another (large) obstruction on the old trackbed. However, just beyond it at Whitemoor the railway returns with an
infrastructure yard which is at the end of a short branch from nearby March station. That station still retains the two platforms used by Spalding trains, albeit long bereft of track.
In the late 1990s, a buoyant Railtrack was issuing Network Management Statement documents each year. These were thick weighty tomes, but great though they were in showing that the railway had vision, the reality was that much of it was never going to happen.
In among these documents was the identification that the ECML was getting too congested, and that removing freight from the line would free up more paths for passenger trains. Part of this plan was to send freight trains via other routes, and upgrading the remaining section of the Joint Line - from Peterborough to Doncaster via Spalding and Sleaford - was seen as one key way to do this. And to be fair, Network Rail (the phoenix that rose from the ashes of the disgraced Railtrack) has done that.
But while Railtrack’s assertion that reopening the March to Spalding line would mean freight could avoid the busy bottleneck of Peterborough, it was never going to happen. It’s hard to understand just why it was even proposed - visits to Spalding and Guyhirn alone would prove the trackbed was too encroached and was lost forever.
Although still costly, a plan to build a flyover or dive-under at Peterborough would give the same result - trains could travel direct from March to Spalding without fighting for capacity to snake across the busy four-track ECML at Peterborough, causing interruptions to the passenger timetable.
And that is the plan. Consultations are taking place on a £100m scheme for a diveunder at Werrington Junction which would deliver just that - effectively a direct line from March to Spalding without having to touch the main ECML fast lines. If Network Rail’s plans come to fruition, this could be built in Control Period 6 (2019-24). You could argue that to need to spend this money on this diveunder highlights what a folly it was to close the line and (more importantly) build on the trackbed. And there is an element of truth in that. Admittedly, part of the reason the line closed was to improve the road at Guyhirn, but it seems (once again) that short-sightedness led to a short-term fix and cost-cutting exercise.
If the line had lasted just another three or four years, it would surely have made it to the present day. Remember it was still intact as late as 1985, by which time electrification of the ECML was under way. Did nobody think then to keep it, or to protect the trackbed, or was freight on rail really such a bad idea back then?
Closure of the line was a short-sighted, quick ‘win’ on BR’s 1980s balance book. Sadly, it was one that has been proven to have had severe long-term consequences - how useful would this route be now?
Still, it is nice to see so many more freight trains running through Spalding today, it’s just a shame they get held up when they get to Peterborough!