Sleaford railway station

Sleaford
Location
Place	Sleaford
Local authority	North Kesteven, Lincolnshire
Coordinates	52°59′44″N 0°24′37″W / 52.995488°N 0.410350°W / 52.995488; -0.410350Coordinates: 52°59′44″N 0°24′37″W / 52.995488°N 0.410350°W / 52.995488; -0.410350
Grid reference	TF067454
Operations
Station code	SLR
Managed by	East Midlands Trains
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	312,528
2005/06	321,678
2006/07	340,026
2007/08	316,320
2008/09	318,766
2009/10	316,894
2010/11	323,306
2011/12	336,944
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Sleaford from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

View from the level crossing

Platform view

Sleaford railway station serves the town of Sleaford in Lincolnshire, England. The station is 21.25 miles (34 km) south of Lincoln Central.

The station is now owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Trains (EMT) Train Operating Company (TOC) who provide all rail services.

Sleaford is the last remaining market town in Lincolnshire to be served by both north-south and east-west lines.

Services

As of December 2012 there is an approximately hourly service each weekday to Nottingham via Grantham and to Skegness.^[1] A limited service operates on Sundays with additional trains during the summer months.

There is also an hourly service on the Peterborough to Lincoln Line northwards to Lincoln and southwards to Spalding and Peterborough - the Peterborough service does not run in the evenings . There is no Sunday service on this line.

History

Overview

The first railway in Sleaford was the Boston, Sleaford and Midland Counties Railway which opened from Barkston Junction, north of Grantham on the Great Northern Railway main line on 16 June 1857 and on to Boston on 13 April 1859. This railway became part of the GNR in 1864.^[2]

This was followed by the GNR line from Bourne which opened on 2 January 1872.^[3]

Next came the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway which opened from Spalding through Sleaford to Ruskington on 6 March 1882, and from there to Lincoln on 1 August of the same year.

Finally the line to RAF Cranwell, then known as 'Royal Naval Air Service, Training Establishment, Cranwell', opened in 1917.^[4] This single track branch apparently ran at a loss: in response to a Parliamentary Question, it was revealed that, even allowing for a credit in respect of the c.15,000 tons of Government stores that were transported along it during 1924, the line still made a loss of some £3,570.^[5] Having ceased to carry passenger traffic in 1927,^[6] it closed completely in 1956. As of May 2012, the original bridge over the River Slea remains in agricultural use, with that part of the track's route (leading from the bridge to Drove Lane) commemorated on an information board. The former Cranwell station building also remains in use, as a guardhouse.^[7]

Passenger services on the Bourne branch ceased on 22 September 1930, although the line remained open between Billingborough and Bourne for goods until 1964.^[3]

The Grantham to Boston and Spalding to Lincoln lines remain open, as does the north to south link line bypassing the station. This has recently been refurbished by Network Rail and returned to full operation after several years of disuse^[8] (as part of the plan to route more freight trains onto the latter & away from the busy East Coast Main Line).

Sleaford is still one of only a few places still to have signal boxes named 'North', 'South', 'West' & 'East' around the area. With the North and South boxes on the Peterborough to Lincoln line, and then the West and East boxes are at each end of the station on the Grantham to Boston line. So if travelling from Lincoln to Peterborough on the train you would pass all four boxes. The North & South boxes are however due to be decommissioned as part of the upgrade work mentioned above at the end of 2013.

Sample train timetable for July 1922

19 September 1954. A1 4-6-2 No. 60136 'Alcazar' heads Trains Illustrated Fenland Rail Tour at Sleaford

The table below shows the train departures from Sleaford on weekdays in July 1922.^[9]

References

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Rauceby		East Midlands Trains Nottingham-Skegness		Heckington
Ruskington		East Midlands Trains Peterborough to Lincoln Line Mondays-Saturdays only		Spalding
Historical railways
Ruskington Line and station open		Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway		Helpringham Line open, station closed
Disused railways
Terminus		Great Northern Railway Bourne and Sleaford Railway		Aswarby and Scredington Line and station closed
Cranwell Line and station closed		Great Northern Railway Cranwell branch		Terminus

External links

• England - Lincolnshire (Map). 1:10,560. County series, Epoch 1. Ordnance Survey. 1891. Sheet 106/NW.  ; Sleaford station on 1891 OS map.