Looking at Louth from both sides in the past and present

THE Lincolnshire Wolds Railway, which is slowly extending southwards in the direction of Louth, is to reopen for public services on the spring bank holiday weekend of May 30/31, with a timetable of prebooked socially-distanced trains – to be repeated on June 13.

At the same time, a local council is hoping to get the green light for first moves to rebuild 16 miles of the East Lincolnshire main line to the historic market town from the south.

As reported last issue, East Lindsey District Council, supported by Lincolnshire County Council, has submitted one of 85 schemes bidding for £50,000 feasibility study grants in the third round of the Department of Transport's Restoring Your Railway ‘Beeching Reversal' fund announced by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on January 28 last year.

The application has been driven by East Lindsey's portfolio holder for planning Coun Tom Ashton and Coun Adrian Benjamin and is supported by local MPs Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) and Victoria Atkins (Louth and Horncastle).

It is based around a proposal to restore the line from Firsby Junction to Louth via Willoughby, Alford, Aby and Authorpe – with further consideration to be given to restoring the Willoughby to Mablethorpe loop, including Mumby Road, Sutton-on-Sea, Theddlethorpe and Grimoldby stations.

Passenger services on the Louth to Mablethorpe line were withdrawn on December 5, 1960, and passenger services from Willoughby to Mablethorpe and Firsby to Louth ended on October 3 and 5, 1970 respectively.

A restored line would serve Louth, Legbourne, Alford and Willoughby with a combined population of more than 20,000, and another 13,000 - plus summer seaside holiday traffic to more parts of the Lincolnshire coast

- if the Willoughby to Mablethorpe section was added.

Coun Ashton said: “East Lindsey is a great place to live and to visit, and developing both these aspects is essential for future growth and economic prosperity. Enjoying the extensive Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a settlement geography of market towns, rural villages, wild coast, seaside resorts, and an excellent education offer which still includes grammar schools, East Lindsey should be incredibly attractive for people to choose to locate themselves, their businesses, and their families.”

Coun Benjamin added: “A sustainable rail corridor would be a natural place to look, to ensure communities are connected and reliance on cars is reduced. Whether that is the growth of existing settlements or the creation of new ones is beyond the scope of this application, however it does point to a greener, lower carbon future

“East Lindsey District Council, supported by Lincolnshire County Council, has submitted one of 85 schemes bidding for £50,000 feasibility study grants in the third round of the Department of Transport’s Restoring Your Railway ‘Beeching Reversal’ fund...”

that allows this area to grow in a considered way, without engendering the harm which would come from scything through the countryside with major road projects. It enhances without harming.”

In 2012, I met John Edser, who worked in the Central Planning Unit team at BR's Marylebone headquarters from 1963-70, the task of which was to record in detail the progress of all the Beeching closures – passenger and freight – as they went through all the various statutory processes that were involved. The unit also did all the ground work for the basis of the Trunk Route Report and 1968 Network for Development, which formed the basis for the 1968 Transport Act, which carried on the programme of closures years after Beeching had departed.

I asked him if with hindsight he had any regrets about the closure of any particular routes – and his immediate response was the East Lincolnshire line from Grimsby to Boston. (The section south of Spalding was rapidly reopened after the 1970 closure, following a Spalding Urban District Council subsidy, and remains a busy and vital link for that town).

In the wake of the bid by East Lindsey, geographically one of the largest shire district councils in the country, covering some 700 square miles with around 140,000 residents, officials of the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway Historic Vehicles Trust, now based at the Skegness Water Leisure Park, searched through their archives and found a series of previously-unpublished photographs from the collection of the late William Woolhouse of Fotherby. The 2ft gauge line, at its previous home near Humberston, in 1960 became the world's first heritage railway to be built by enthusiasts on a greenfield site.

➜ Archive photographs courtesy of the William Woolhouse Collection/ Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway Historic Vehicles Trust.

B1 4-6-0 No. 61391 stands in platform 3 at Louth with a service to Peterborough, and possibly through to London King’s Cross in the mid-1950s.

ROBIN JONES Class 08 D3167, seen parked at the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway’s Ludborough station on April 18, is owned by Lincoln City Council and spent most of its working life at Lincoln Central station. For several years after withdrawal it stood on a plinth just outside that station, but since arriving at Ludborough is now operational and regularly used for shunting stock and some passenger operations.

An unidentified B1 4-6-0 passes under Wood Lane overbridge at Louth in the 1950s with a service to Peterborough, or possibly King’s Cross.

C12 4-4-2T No. 67379 hauls a three-coach train bound for Mablethorpe in the early 1950s. It is seen at Stewton Lane level crossing which was also the site of Mablethorpe Junction signalbox.

An unidentified DMU is seen at Theddlethorpe station in the mid-1950s, with a service to Louth. This section of the Mablethorpe Loop closed in late 1960.

C12 4-4-2T No. 67398 (displaying a Louth shed plate – 40C) at Grimoldby station in early 1950s, with a service for Louth.

C12 4-4-2T No. 67398 stands in platform 2 at Louth station with a service to Mablethorpe in the early 1950s.