highdyke - Frodingham services

[18B]

evening,

 

I was reading that the opening of the chord at Newark, which connected the former Midland line from Nottingham to Lincoln and thus permitted diversion of the Highdyke-Frodingham services to then run via Newark, Lincoln and Barnetby.

 

What was the previous route?

[JeffP]

Across the ECML at Retford?

[LNER4479]

No - turned off the ECML at Barkston Junction then took the now closed GNR route via Leadenham to Lincoln and thence to Scunthorpe. I believe a reversal at Lincoln was involved.

[jonny777]

They ran via Honington, Lincoln and Barnetby until about 1958; I don't know the exact date off the top of my head, but can find it.

 

Due to complaints about the number of slow trains crossing the High Street in Lincoln, the trains were re-routed via Sleaford and Boston until the Newark chord opened, and even then one or two still took the Boston route occasionally - presumably if there were problems on the two track section on the ECML between Grantham and Newark.

[JeffP]

Reversal would have been at Barnetby, aka Wrawby Junction.

 

Just reading in my book on the WD 2-8-0's that a loco that did this quite a lot on the early 60's was 90732 herself. then allocated to Frodingham.

 

Strange that both the first of the class, 90000, and the last and only named member, 90732, were both withdrawn off Frodingham. Maybe we got the fag-ends that Donny didn't want....

[jonny777]

Another advantage of using the Boston route - there was no reversal needed. Using the Lincoln route, trains would have reversed twice, which probably added to the reasons why the route was altered in the late 1950s.

 

My earliest memories are of iron ore trains running at between 2 and 3 hourly intervals through the 24 hour weekday periods. The Highdyke trains were supplemented by a few from Belvoir Junction and Welham Junction, but these were mainly the preserve of O4 variants and the occasional Stanier 8F respectively, rather than O2s.

[ROY@34F]

I was a fireman at Grantham '57 to '63 , although on loan to KX 'Dec '58 to Dec '60 , and on my return we went from Barkston South via Sleaford/Boston//Louth . No Grantham drivers went beyond Louth , most only as far as Borough-Le-Marsh, where we would wait for the empties to swap over with , if not before .

We always had our Tangos (02s) or a Frodingham Austerity in my time .

The Newark chord/ Lincoln/ Barnetby route was'nt until later diesel haulage , after Grantham steam depot closed in Sept. '63, but when the chord was built , I don't know exactly.

Regards , Roy.