Cranwell branch

Cranwell Branch
 Grantham to Boston Line
 Sleaford
Grantham to Boston Line
Rauceby
Cranwell

The Cranwell branch was a 5.175-mile (8.328 km) long Logan and Hemingway built single track branch railway line that ran between Sleaford, on the Great Northern Railway, to the airship base at Royal Naval Air Service, Training Establishment, Cranwell, Lincolnshire (as RAF Cranwell was initially known). In addition to the main line, there were 2.4-mile (3.9 km) of sidings.[1] It did not run via Rauceby station, as wrongly shown on the accompanying sketch.

History

Transporting materials and supplies to the RNAS Training Establishment along farm tracks was always difficult; a railway running parallel to Ermine Street from Ancaster was initially proposed, but severe gradients were found when surveying the route.

Matters were brought to a head by the harsh 1915-16 winter, which made the farm tracks almost impassable, resulting in a temporary railway track being laid from Sleaford. Following correspondence between the Admiralty and the Board of Trade early in 1916, work started on the permanent way later that year, after the Admiralty insisted that: "risks must be taken in wartime and work must not be held up in waiting for obligatory peacetime safeguards to be applied."[2]

The line was in use by 1917,[3] and a direct connection from the main up line at Sleaford opened up in March 1918.

In regards to finance, the line never broke even: 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.[4] After coming under repeated pressure to reduce the deficit,[5] the line ceased to carry regular passenger traffic in November 1926, [6] with a consequent reduction in running costs.[7] Its original use, for the conveyance of materials and provisions to the training establishment at Cranwell continued, however, together with the occasional passenger train (such as the special trains bringing public schoolboys to visit the college in the 1930s, the first Canadian contingent to arrive in the Second World War and the 1953 Flying Training Command Coronation contingent, which was pulled by a British Railways J6 class 0-6-0 tender engine with another of the Class on the rear).[8]


Permanent way

From the sidings at Sleaford railway station, the route passed Sleaford West signal box, over the level crossing and then circled to the north, crossing the River Slea near to Drove Lane. It then proceeded up towards Leasingham, skirting Westfield Wood and entering the military base slightly to the south of the present road (B1429).

Rolling Stock

Five locomotives owned by the contractors Logan and Hemingway are known to have worked at Cranwell; these were all Manning Wardle 0-6-0 Saddle Tanks, with numbers: 3, 4 Epworth, 5, 7 Bletcher and 8.[9]

A surviving Logan and Hemingway locomotive of the type used on the RAF Cranwell Railway (a 0-6-0 Manning Wardle saddle tank originally known as Number 10, but which now goes by the name of Sir Berkeley[10]) is owned by the Vintage Carriages Trust.[11]

End of the line

The branch closed completely in 1956, the track being lifted the following year.[12]

At May 2012, the original bridge over the River Slea remained 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 remained in use, as a guardhouse.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Cranwell Railway. HC Deb 23 March 1927 vol 204 cc403-4W". Hansard 1803–2005. UK Parliament. 23 March 1927. Retrieved 30 May 2012. ...the length of the main line is 5 miles 14 chains and in addition there are 2 miles 32 chains of sidings.
  2. ↑ Letter, Admiralty to Colonel Druitt, dated 17 April 1916, as quoted in Ludlam, A J (1988). The RAF Cranwell Railway (Paperback). Locomotive Papers. 169. Oxford: Oakwood Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0853613794.
  3. ↑ "Outline History of RAF Cranwell". Royal Air Force Cranwell Apprentices' Association (RAFCAA). RAF Cranwell: RAF Cranwell Apprentices Association. 7 March 2011. Archived from the original on 19 August 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  4. ↑ "Cranwell and Sleaford Railway. HC Deb 17 June 1925 vol 185 cc494-5". Hansard 1803–2005. UK Parliament. 17 June 1925. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  5. ↑ "Cranwkll (sic) Railway. HC Deb 28 April 1926 vol 194 cc2023-4". Hansard 1803–2005. UK Parliament. 28 April 1926. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  6. ↑ "Cranwell Railway. HC Deb 23 March 1927 vol 204 cc403-404". Hansard 1803–2005. UK Parliament. 23 March 1927. Retrieved 14 Jan 2017.
  7. ↑ "Cranwell Railway. HC Deb 20 February 1929 vol 225 cc1132-3W". Hansard 1803–2005. UK Parliament. 20 February 1929. Retrieved 30 May 2012. As it was, expenditure on the railway was reduced from £4,000 in 1926 to £2,000 in 1927. Next autumn ‘’(i.e. 1929)’’ the establishment at Cranwell will again be increased, on the transfer of the Electrical and Wireless School from Flowerdown, and the effect of this should be to bring a greater volume of traffic to the railway, with a consequent increase in receipts and the wiping out of the deficit on the working account.
  8. ↑ A H C (1953). "The 'Little-Used Branch Line': The Cranwell-Sleaford Railway of Yesterday and Today.". RAF Cranwell College Journal. RAF Cranwell. 25. Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  9. ↑ Ludlam, A J (1988). The RAF Cranwell Railway (Paperback). Locomotive Papers. 169. Oxford: Oakwood Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0853613794.
  10. ↑ "0-6-0 Saddletank Locomotive Sir Berkeley". Vintage Carriages Trust Rolling Stock Collection. Retrieved 8 June 2012. Restored to operational condition. At Middleton Railway, Leeds.
  11. ↑ Ludlam, A J (1988). The RAF Cranwell Railway (Paperback). Locomotive Papers. 169. Oxford: Oakwood Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0853613794.
  12. ↑ Ludlam, A J (1988). The RAF Cranwell Railway (Paperback). Locomotive Papers. 169. Oxford: Oakwood Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-0853613794.
  13. ↑ Wright, Neil (October 2004). Lincolnshire's Industrial Heritage - A Guide (Paperback). Society for Lincolnshire History & Archaeology. p. 54. ISBN 978-0903582209.
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