Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway

The Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway was a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge heritage railway built in 1958 using equipment from the Nocton Potato Estate railway. It was located at Humberston, near Cleethorpes, and operated until 1985. The equipment was used to create a new railway at Skegness which opened in 2009.

History

The railway was built by a group of railway enthusiasts who wished to preserve the stock and atmosphere of the Lincolnshire area potato railways. The land for the railway was leased from Grimsby Rural District Council and opened in 1960 using a Motor Rail "Simplex" locomotive and a single open bogie carriage. In 1961 a second Motor Rail locomotive was added, and the railway's first steam locomotive, Jurassic arrived. Additional equipment in the form of the passenger coach from the Sand Hutton Light Railway (closed to passengers in 1930) and two vehicles that had formerly run on the Ashover Light Railway was brought to the railway and restored, entering service in 1967 and 1962-3 respectively. Less positively, midweek carryings were adversely affected by the 1962 extension of Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport bus service to serve the Fitties holiday camp, but weekend and Bank Holiday traffic remained strong, and by 1964 the line was carrying 60,000 passengers a year.

In 1966 the railway was rebuilt on a new alignment, and extended. The line saw considerable success in the late 1960s, and another steam locomotive, Elin, arrived, although it was too heavy for the lightly laid track, which limited axle loadings to approximate 2.5 tonnes. Trains operated push-pull for many years, but an accident resulted in Railway Inspectorate requiring the installation of run-round loops so that the locomotive would always be at the head of the train, and air brakes.

The railway also became home to a number of ex-GNR items including the somersault signals used to control movements at North Sea Lane station, railings, and other platform furniture from stations on the East Lincolnshire Railway many of whose minor stations were closed in 1963.

In the early 1980s the railway carried heavy passenger traffic to and from a large Car Boot Sale held at Humberston Fitties on Sundays. Traffic was so heavy that at times all three covered carriages were in use simultaneously. However, midweek fraffic outside of the brief summer season, had dwindled to almost nothing. Other issues arose that made it impractical to continue on the Humberston site. Firstly, the 1984 miners' strike considerably reduced the number of holiday makers using the Fitties, and this further decreased traffic on the line. Also, as a condition on renewing the lease on the site, the council insisted on the installation of 6-foot-high (1.8 m) fences on both sides of the railway, which would have created an unpleasant cage like environment for passengers using the railway's low slung coaches. In 1985, faced with a series of obstacles, the railway closed at the end of the summer season in September, and the track was lifted shortly afterwards.

Much of the stock of the railway stayed together and was put into storage, initially at the (now closed) Lincolnshire Railway Museum at Burgh-le-Marsh, and subsequently at the Skegness Water Leisure Park. Certain items, including a WW1 Ambulance Van were lent to the Museum of Army Transport at Beverley in the East Riding until that ran into financial difficulties in the mid-1990s. A revived Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway was built on the Skegness site,^[1] and opened on 3 May 2009.^[2]

Locomotives

See also

• British narrow gauge railways

References

Bibliography

External links

• The new location in Skegness
• The Railway's own web site
• Photo galleries of the LCLR in both incarnations

Coordinates: 53°10′38″N 0°20′35″E / 53.17731°N 0.34315°E / 53.17731; 0.34315 (Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway)