A short visit to Spalding (was my home town for 34 years!), to watch tome of the freights which are now using this upgraded route. GBRf 66722 Sir Edward Watkin on 6Z86 Whitemoor-Doncaster
34 years eh? you'll remember when the station looked like this I'm sure complete with a classic line up of VW polo, a mini and two metros in the foreground Is the goods shed still there? It was quite an imposing structure More importantly I suspect, as the whole area has been re-signalled, that the classic great Northern Signalbox has been swept away. from your pics it certainly looks as if the trees have thrived over the last few years Kev
Yes, Kev, almost everything has gone. No 1 Box was demolished a few weeks ago. The station building looks about the same as it is a listed building - they would have liked to replaced it with a glass and aluminium monstrosity! Cars have changed though but cannot park in front now as that is a road, the other side of which is a Sainsbury's supermarket.
This signal box seems to be set back quite far from the tracks. Is this due to some sort of track reconfiguration?
I'm really enjoying the new software. It allows much bigger photo dimensions. Makes viewing such as these so much nicer!
Ken, there were originally four tracks across the road, looking south the left hand two were to March on the joint line also to Peterborough. Right hand pair were to Bourne on the M&GN and to loco shed and goods yard. Just the line to Peterborough exists now, but to the north the Boston line was taken up and trains now use the joint line to Sleaford, Lincoln, etc. https://flic.kr/p/eaYSFE The above link hopefully shows the four tracks. Photographer was standing above the Bourne line tracks. The line to far left was used as a freight bypass to the then busy station!
A shot I took from footbridge just after tracks were lifted. And one from another footbridge on north side of station across the freight yard. Lines on the right go to Boston and Grimsby, lines curving to the left go to Sleaford and Lincoln and the ones used today as the only through route. Spalding had a quite extensive rail installation in the old days.
All part of the big purge of routes a number of years ago. Even some quite major routes were closed and the land sold off. Now they wish they still had some of them, like the Spalding to March route, but it has houses on one end and a prison on the other! Recently this Peterborough to Doncaster route was completely upgraded for higher speeds so freight trains can be taken off the main line where all passenger trains run at 125 mph, so 75mph freights get in the way a bit. Many routes are showing an upturn in both passenger and freight trains as more freight is diverted from road to rail. Passenger numbers are at record levels on many routes. Sent from my Hudl 2 using Tapatalk
Sounds like some of our idiot business "gurus" got your railroad leaders heads, with the ridiculous short term outlook philosophy which continues to plague us over here....
Wow! Thanks for the terrific photos you guys. The British railways are fascinating! How are those rails secured to the sleepers (ties)? It almost looks like some kind of clamps Doug