March - Spalding GN&GE Joint Line

[elydock]

It is fast approaching the 30th anniversary of the short sighted closure of this once important through route. Do any of you have any memories of this line? Either living near it, working on it or travelling over it, I'd love to hear any stories or memories people have of it. 27/11/82 RIP.

Thanks!

[strang steel]

I spent some time lineside on the GN&GE between Spalding and Sleaford, and a few visits to Spalding station in the 1960s but not the Spalding-March section I'm afraid.

[AndyRush]

Postland
View of signal box and signalman's house looking south west 25.04.1983

Many hundreds more like this (when I get round to scanning them!)

Andy

[elydock]

Excellent! Thanks Andy. I'll look forward to seeing them.

[strang steel]

Tuesday August 1st 1967

Spent the day on Spalding station trainspotting. These are my notes:-

10:36 D6710 1N48 Down passenger 9 coaches

10:59 D5699 4F67 Up goods 12 vans

11:40 D6726 7E90 Up goods 42 wagons+brake van

12:00 D5638 7D91 Down goods 40 wagons+brake van

12:10 E56048 E50048 +W92000W Down local passenger service

12:57 E50001 E56022 Up local passenger service

13:08 D1511 1E63 Up York-Yarmouth 8 coaches

13:22 D6721 0J03 Up light engine

13:23 D1785 1N74 Down passenger 8 coaches

14:14 E56022 E50001 Down local passenger service

14:47 D1706 7J08 Up coal train 69 wagons+brake van

14:55 D5699 7H49 Down goods 19 wagons+brake van

14:59 E56007 E50007 Up local passenger service

15:00 D1529 0J01 Down light engine

15:42 D1532 Up goods 18 wagons+brake van

16:03 E50007 E56007 Down local passenger service

16:18 D5649 3C13 Up parcels 3 vans

16:45 D6721 7M69 Down goods 39 wagons+brake van

16:52 D1563 0D00 Up goods 18 wagons+brake van

16:53 D1706 7G08 Down goods 2 wagons+brake van

17:14 E50048 E56048 W92000W Up local passenger service

17:26 D1560 0D01 Up light engine

17:37 D6710 1E79 Up Manchester to Harwich 12 coaches

17:48 D5522 Down goods 41 wagons+brake van

17:55 D5523 Down light engine

18:01 D6705 1E78 Up passenger 10 coaches

18:12 D1569 1L59 Down passenger 9 coaches

18:30 D6743 3C87 Down parcels 4 parcels vans

19:00 D5640 D6744 Up goods 46 wagons+brake van

19:23 D5638 7J84 Up goods 51 wagons+brake van

19:28 D1533 3B05 Down parcels

[AndyRush]

And here is the translation, for anybody interested

1N48 0800 Colchester – Newcastle due Spalding 1037-41
4F67 ? unknown special ex Scotland
7E90 0448 Dewsnap – Whitemoor due Spalding 11/28
7D91 1125 Whitemoor – Doncaster Decoy due Spalding 12/03
1L56 1147 Peterborough – Grimsby due Spalding 1207-11
1C45 1122 Grimsby – Peterborough due Spalding 1254-1309
1E63 1000 York – Yarmouth due Spalding 1300-1304
0J03 unbalanced L/D to March Depot (7E03 1045 ex Colwick cancelled?)
1N74 1035 Yarmouth – York due Spalding 1317-20
1L73 1550 Peterborough – Grimsby due Spalding 1410-12
7J08 1148 Mansfied CS – Whitemoor due Spalding 14/18
7H49 1425 Whitemoor – Tinsley due Spalding 15/11
1C49 1300 Grimsby – Peterborough due Spalding 1440-44
0J01 1500 March Depot – Immingham Depot (off 0945 ex Immingham Fisons)
7J88 1240 Doncaster Bank – Whitemoor due Spalding 15/37
1L45 1540 Peterborough – Grimsby due Spalding 1600-02
3C13 1555 Boston – Peterborough due Spalding 1621-51
7M69 1610 Whitemoor – Colwick due Spalding 16/56
0D00 (7J36) 1425 Doncaster Bank – Whitemoor due Spalding 17/37 (usually early)
7G08 1555 Whitemoor – Mansfield CS due Spalding 16/41
1C51 1546 Grimsby – Peterborough due Spalding 1718-20
0D01 unbalanced L/D to March Depot (7J10 1441 ex Worksop cancelled?)
1E79 1200 Newcastle – Colchester due Spalding 17/14
7N48 1715 Whitemoor – York SNS due Spalding 18/03
0D01 1700 March Depot – Doncaster Carr Depot due Spalding 17/31
1E78 1442 Manchester Picc – Parkeston Quay due Spalding 1801-05
1L59 1610 Kings Cross – Cleethorpes due Spalding 1750½-56
3C87 1750 Peterborough Nene – Grantham due Spalding 1825-1915 (via Boston)
7J12 1445 Scunthorpe – Whitemoor due Spalding 18L34-18L36
7J84 1610 Doncaster Bank – Whitemoor due Spalding 19/31
3B05 (3N12) 1855 Norwood –York due Spalding 1955-2012

These are probably pretty accurate, being derived from WTT's and some scrappy contemporary notes resurrected from a folder not looked at for 43 years (but they are augmented by a fallible memory!)

It would be nice if somebody had recorded something similar 10 years earlier...

Andy

[strang steel]

Well done Andy.

My WTT seems to have been the property of someone at Sleaford, and although it has ball point pen alterations in it, it does have the advantage of becoming the original and the later supplement at the same time.


3B05 would seem to be an extra added during the validity of the main table. My book has it as the 2039 Boston to Kings Cross, but becomes very mysterious as it is listed at Sleaford arr 2103 dep 2113. Why I saw it at Spalding at 1928 I have no idea, and why it is listed as down rather than up defeats me also.

3N12 was the 1855 Norwood Yard (March) to York, just to save any confusion with the SR Junction.

I wonder if the loco was exchanged somewhere and then ran to Boston to work 3B05 and the crew had changed the headcode prematurely?

Presumably, the Dewsnap to Whitemoor service would change traction in Rotherwood Sidings?

My guess that 4F67 is something running in the path of 4E33 (0150 Millerhill to Whitemoor).

I know that I am an anorak, but I find WTTs to be so much fun. I wish that I had had one 45 years ago.

[AndyRush]

3B05 1500 Grimsby – Kings Cross parcels was a fairly longstanding East Lincs train. It used to be 355 up and terminated at Peterborough FSX, running through to London FO. It was still in the WTT ending 5 March 1967 (having had an intermediate retiming in the November 1966 supplement. I don’t have the 1967 Summer passenger timetable, my next one being 5 May 1968 where 3B05 is shown as 2036 Boston - Kings Cross ‘Express Parcels’ via Sleaford and Grantham. I’m pretty sure that the train you saw on the down was 3N12 with a duff headcode, backed up by the Immingham type 4 on the front heading ‘home’. The Boston parcels was a Clarence Yard type 2 diagram off 3J53 parcels from Kings Cross.

The Dewsnap would have indeed changed engines at Rotherwood

You are probably right about 4F67, the jocks were always doing funny things with their trains from Millerhill, but with a March Brush 2 in place of the booked Gateshead EE type 4, it would have caused a certain amount of strife for the Cambridge engine controller unless something had already been 'acquired' to cover for the shortfall

Andy

[strang steel]

Mine is 6th March 1967 to 5th May 1968, and all rows where Sleaford is printed have been underlined in blue biro - which leads me to believe it was once a current copy there.

The SO 3N12 has been crossed out and "discontinued" written down the column and the SX train has had all its times changed, as has 3M01. 3C87 has also had discontinued written across it, and 3B05 added.

It would appear that some reorganisation of parcels services has happened at some time during the period, but no dates have been written in.

I used to have a few notes from 1961/2 many decades ago, but I lost all my pre-1966 notes after I left home. My mother never admitted to throwing them out, but I cannot think of any other fate they could have succumbed to.

So, I am sorry but I cannot help with earlier details, although from memory (highly unreliable) I seem to recall the passenger services worked by Britannias, there were lots of WDs on coal trains, a few 9Fs; and the faster freights were V2s or K3s but that is about as much as I can manage. I suspect that O4s must have been regulars, but I was used to seeing those elsewhere, so they did not stand out for me.

[PinzaC55]

I had a run over in 1979 I think and on Flower Day 1981 caught a shot of this "Duff" heading onto the line

47569 Spalding by pinzac55, on Flickr

BTW what are those things to the right of the loco?

I have a shot of (Welland Bridge?) box a while after closure and thought I had uploaded it to Flickr but apparently I haven't - I will look for it tonight.

[Pyewipe Junction]

My recollections form the late 1950s in Lincoln are:

Express passenger: Harwich - Liverpool, B17s (sometimes B1s) up to late 1958 then Britannias; Newcastle - Colchester, March V2s (60803, 60938 and 60948 come to mind); York - Yarmouth, B16 as far as Lincoln, can't remember what took over.

Local passenger: (March - Doncaster): believe it or not V2s were regularly used on these services, hauling three-coach trains of LNER stock. These services were withdrawn in September 1959.

Freight: V2s, K1s (March had 30 of these), K3s and 9Fs on fast freights. O4s and WDs on coal trains ex-LDECR.

And then there was the Tuesday 'trialler'. Each Tuesday a loco fresh out of Doncaster works would work a fast freight to March and back. It could be anything - a Pacific, V2 or B17. It was particularly anticipated, as it was quite often a NE or Scottish Pacific not normally seen as far south as Retford or Grantham on the ECML. I believe there was a similar turn from Doncaster to Leeds and back. I can't remember ever hearing of an A4 on this though.

[strang steel]

And then there was the Tuesday 'trialler'. Each Tuesday a loco fresh out of Doncaster works would work a fast freight to March and back. It could be anything - a Pacific, V2 or B17. It was particularly anticipated, as it was quite often a NE or Scottish Pacific not normally seen as far south as Retford or Grantham on the ECML. I believe there was a similar turn from Doncaster to Leeds and back. I can't remember ever hearing of an A4 on this though.

You may have solved a mystery, Pyewipe, which has eluded me for many decades, and that is why I underlined 60100 Spearmint in my earliest ABC. It seems to have been in The Plant during the summers of most years in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and may have worked one of these trains to March.

I never remembered seeing anything turning on the Barkston triangle, so just assumed I had made some kind of mistake - but maybe not.

[PinzaC55]

Welland Bridge box 1983.

Welland Bridge looking S 4.6.83 by pinzac55, on Flickr


Welland Bridge Spalding 4.6.83 by pinzac55, on Flickr

[strang steel]

Excellent photos, and yes - a very short sighted closure especially considering the planned acceleration of passenger services on the ECML and the usefulness of an alternative route for freight services to north and east London.

I have a 1967 mystery that the WTTs do not solve, and that is the F headcode trains. There were several seen on various Saturday mornings which do not appear in the timetables; in fact I have no idea what destination F represented, as these ran on both up and down services.

For instance, on 6th May 1967 two Sulzer Type 2s (later class 25) were seen light engine sporting an 0F93 headcode and running north towards Sleaford. About an hour later D6744 passed also in the down direction on 7F04.

One week later but at about the same time (around midday) on 13th May D5619 appeared on 7F08. And D5635 on 20th May with 7F04 again. You could be forgiven for thinking these were heading for some destination such as Lincoln or Retford, but on the 30th May D1567 had charge of 7F11 but this time in the up direction towards March. And on June 2nd a pair of Brush 2s (probably class 30 in those days) D5668+D5695 were on 7F06 in the down direction.

If anyone has any info, or even speculation, on the origin and destination of these trains I would be very grateful, as it would answer a 45 year old question that has always intrigued me.

Might they have been MOD services that were not printed in the published WTT for security purposes?

[AndyRush]

In the original four character headcode system, introduced in 1960[?], all special trains were given an 'X' as the second character. On 1 April 1964 this was altered in the ER Sectional Appendix with 'X' now signifying any special train routed to or via the LMR and 'F' being used for specials to or via the East Coast Main Line (including Scotland) and 'Z' for other internal ER specials. By January 1969 (From the Sectional Appendix, but I think it appeared in Supplementary Operating Instructions earlier than this) the system was changed again with 'F' standing for ECML as before, 'G' now signifying internal ER specials, 'X' for Royal Trains and trains conveying out of gauge or exceptional loads and 'Z' applying to any special train routed to or via the LMR. A short while later (can't find documentary evidence at the moment), 'F' became purely used for specials to and from the Scottish Region via Berwick and 'G' was used for all internal Eastern specials.

Andy