Lincolnshire
Many years ago Steam Days ran an article on the rail lines in East Lincolnshire and it showed a wonderful picture of how little the railway impacted on the landscape. A recent holiday allowed a trip to East Lincs for a few days with no particular intention of looking for railway relics. Astonishing were the number of ‘Station Roads’ that we travelled on with no sight of any railway, although Willoughby Junction station building still exists. Elsewhere we chanced upon a road diversion which directed us through Tumby Woodside. Now here’s a thing. When I got home, glancing through my RCH atlas, there was Tumby Woodside, last stop before Coningsby, on the line between Bellwater and Woodhall Junctions. But … Tumby does not appear in my 1912 Handbook of Stations or my 1947 ABC Rail Guide. TW is now in prairie land with not a hedgerow in sight, let alone a wood to be beside. My point above about the effect on the landscape applies.
The route of the line through Woodhall Spa was evident and west of the town was an overbridge over the rail formation. Is the scrap value of iron in Lincs so low as this and another we went over are not worth levelling off? On the north-east side of the bridge was a rare thing, a slight embankment going across a shallow vale towards the old terminus at Horncastle. Further north, the station building and platforms at Legbourne Road are present even to the installation of a down starter on the platform end. Not I fear the correct design, as I suspect the LNER and BR did not run to getting rid of the GNR signals that would have adorned the route.
Across a minor road in deepest countryside we came across a well signposted extra low bridge on one of the former rail routes. Evidently very well kept and restored brickwork, I bet the local parish council cherishes this structure, keeping heavy vehicles out of the area!
Apart from a couple of conversions from rail to road, the coastal strip from Skegness to Cleethorpes is rail-less but worth a trip and the autumn Wolds are beautiful.
Mike Downing
Sale, Greater Manchester