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Spalding to March - The End - now expanding a little beyond.


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"What about the one to the left of the signalbox to access the loop?"

 

If you enlarge the image you can see it is a single slip, so not facing. Shades of the Midland.

Jonathan

So it is, the signal should have given it away really, thank you for pointing it out.!

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These two have been labelled as West River GB Ely, which I know nothing of. A quick search today brings up Ely West River footpath level crossing on Holt Fen. I don't know if that is the same location, but these are from 22nd April 1987. The box does seem to have been manned, there's an almost empty jar of Nescafe on the table, probably the only thing in the photo that remains unchanged.....

 

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Dave

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Ah now the last picture is quite important. It's the only picture i've seen of the last phase of this box's existence. The section from Ely Dock to Cambridge PSB is track circuit block. Two levers are retained to control the new signals. Fresh white paint adorns the former distant levers. Before this the box had mechanical home and distants in each direction. Super pictures.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholasy/10759110754/

Edited by LNERGE
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It sort of looks as though its got the long Saxby style triggers on it.

 

My Ground frame is a mix of lever types, (two Mckenzies, and one Saxby) and I'm now tempted to put Saxby triggers on all the levers.....

 

Andy G

 

edit: Do I put a Stevens box on one as well?

Edited by uax6
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A few more from Deeping St James, but why was the box called St James Deeping?

 

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Harsco rail grinder I believe.

 

Off to MKMRS annual exhibiton tomorrow, grandson in tow....

 

Dave

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...

Harsco rail grinder I believe.

 

Weren't those things Speno (Swiss) rather than Harsco back then?

More photos at: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/95912-speno-rail-grinder-at-redhill/

 

It appears Harsco bought Speno in 1990: http://www.harscorail.com/about-us/history.html (scroll along to 1990).

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Stamford in April 1987. I was lead to believe Stamford was the posh part of Lincolnshire, but the state of the signal box says otherwise. Now of course it is all part of the station car park.

 

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Dave

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I think Robert Humm [Transport bookseller] may have owned & restored the signal box for a period whilst he ran his bookshop from the station- moved last year.

 

Stamford East Station by the river remained recognizable at this period, since replaced by housings & roads although the station building remains as a house.

 

Dava

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Whittlesea brings an end to the photos that I have of the area, these taken in October 1986. The remaining images are more south Midlands based, signal boxes and early-ish preservation shots.

 

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Dave

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I travelled from Whittlesea to Ely on the train last week and I have to say that March station looked a disgrace. Half of it was abandoned (and it showed) and the other half looked tired and unloved.

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I travelled from Whittlesea to Ely on the train last week and I have to say that March station looked a disgrace. Half of it was abandoned (and it showed) and the other half looked tired and unloved.

When i was working in Emneth 1997-2000 it was like that them

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I travelled from Whittlesea to Ely on the train last week and I have to say that March station looked a disgrace. Half of it was abandoned (and it showed) and the other half looked tired and unloved.

Really !!!!

 

Whilst I would totally agree that the abandoned half (the joint line platforms) look derelict the part of the station that is still used looks in fine nick for an old station.

The friends of March station do a great keeping things tidy hanging baskets etc etc and the paint job is fairly recent.

 

It aint ever gonna be a St Pancras International but I think it a tad unfair to describe an aging building as unloved (at least the still used parts of it)

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Regarding signals on the abandoned line, I pass the line on the a16 quite a bit and I noticed another signal amongst the trees heading towards spalding. There’s a YouTube video about rediscovering the railway posted by ‘rediscovering lost railways’. They are really good and really recommend it.

 

Best regards, Matthew

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I travelled from Whittlesea to Ely on the train last week and I have to say that March station looked a disgrace. Half of it was abandoned (and it showed) and the other half looked tired and unloved.

 

The abandoned bit is never going to look great without track. However the operating part of the station is quite smart and cared for, I think if you dwelt there a while you'd agree. Hopefully I've attached a shot from May this year, of the Hoo Jn.- Whitemoor engineers train nearing journey's end.

 

John.

Edited by John Tomlinson
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And on to French Drove. Seems quite an imposing building considering where it is.

 

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Dave

 

Here is a random selection of days from my 1978 train register which came from French Drove signal box and is an accurate record of events and what trains and services were actually running.  The night shifts were still steady with freight! What an absolute waste of a valuable line.

 

Hope people find it of interest.

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Here is a random selection of days from my 1978 train register which came from French Drove signal box and is an accurate record of events and what trains and services were actually running.  The night shifts were still steady with freight! What an absolute waste of a valuable line.

 

Hope people find it of interest.

 

I agree with the sentiment about a waste of a route. But in reality, it was very hard to justify keeping it open (due to costs avoided against traffic retained via P'boro), and even harder to justify re-opening. The Werrington Junction works (now authorised) plus the works already done at Peterborough, plus the extra capacity works between Ely and Peterborough (only partially authorised thus far, but still part of the NR strategic plan) will provide nearly three times the capacity that the old Joint route had available, and will make properly full use of a thus far, very underutilised long section of track (Ely-Peterborough), at a much lower cost. If it had not been for the major problems encountered at Ely, I believe all this work would have been done by now.

 

When I had some influence within RT, I tried to help the preservation group that were attempting to re-open the March to Wisbech line. The numbers did not even come close to stacking up, in a commercial sense, but it is clear there is now a growing desire to give this re-opening a fair crack, within the county councils (Lincolnshire used to be particularly poor with public transport proposals, and Cambridgeshire weren't much better going back a while). That was certainly not the case 25+ years ago. We can only hope.

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