I agree. Swinderby still has a steady flow, but the service could be better. Collingham and Hykeham, by comparison, have a better service and are well used. I doubt the same could've been said about stations along the cliff route, especially with a number of stations some distance from the villages they would serve, like Navenby and Caythorpe.
When the avoiding line closed it made sense for two different reasons. Firstly most freight ran at night so going via the City was not an issue. Secondly there was a serious shortage of signalmen in the Lincoln area and insufficient to justify the opening of Pyewipe Jct on night shift for (then) few freight trains that operated over the Joint.
I was there on the last evening aswell, on the last train ever, which I think was a Crewe
It was. I saw it arrive.
Did that change remain? I thought it returned to the Market Rasen route. The reason I remember was that it derailed a Lissingly (Between Market Rasen and Lincoln) on a Sunday afternoon in the late 1990s.
I think Lincoln little seen gems is the Ballast Holes and I did cycle to there to see the lake and the natural reserve. That's old BR land and certainly a gift to the city but little visitors due to its location.
I don't think so. All the through services (not just the Sunday one) were withdrawn in 1992. Here is a link to a parliamentary debate on the subject.
Thanks - my typo as well. I recall the sprinters took over about the same time. there was another accident at that level crossing with wrong line working when the crossing keeper opened the crossing and caravan got hit by a train on the "wrong line"
That was correct. But BR were not proposing to close a railway. The line from Cleethorpes to Newark would remain open. So would the line from Newark to London. There was nothing to stop BR no longer running direct services through Newark. Just as there was nothing stopping them splitting the Lincoln to Crewe service into three sepaerate shuttles.
Are you suggesting that BR closed Lincoln St Marks (and associated routes used by passenger services) without ministerial consent?
Freeman was speaking seven years after the closure of St Marks, which happened during Lynda Chalker's tenure. he was talking about the withdrawal of a service, but there was nio sugegstion that the lines that service ran on would lose all their services (unless you count the short stretch of track connecting platform 3 at Newark to the up main, and the facing crossover allowing down trains to reach that platform)
I've not lived in Lincolnshire long enough to know what the then Bishop might have said, but I find that story unconvincing. Its unevidenced and ecclesiastically illiterate - every CofE church in Lincolnshire is part of the Diocese of Lincoln, and I've not heard of it being described as an important diocese for centuries. St Mary-le-Wigford church is a Grade 1 Listed building, so historically significant (the oldest parts are 11th Century), and I can well believe there being real interest in its setting, but is far from the most important church in the City.
Why is the Diocese of Lincoln any less important than any other? It is one of the oldest, dating from before the Conquest (the See was moved from Dorchester-on-Thames in 1072). It is admittedly a lot smaller now - the modern Dioceses of Peterborough, Leicester, St Albans, and parts of Ely and Oxford, were all part of the Diocese of Lincoln in the Middle Ages.
I assume you are referring to that Gothic upstart at the top of the hill !
We agree - my point is not that Lincoln is unimportant, but that it is not specially important. For precisely the reasons you cite. As for relative importance, I noticed that the Diocese of Lincoln's status wasn't that great a few years back when the recruitment process was stopped, and the Archbishop of Canterbury imposed an interim bishop from outside upon the diocese.
No - I was thinking in parish terms. Even within it's own benefice, St Mary-le-Wigford plays second fiddle to the incumbent's "main" church of All Saints, Monks Road.
I have often thought it was a mistake to close the Lincoln avoiding line, it seems an even worse decision now the joint line has been upgraded for freight (particularly container traffic).
It wasn't a mistake in 1982. The Joint Line was built for coal traffic, most of which disappeared in 1966. The final nails in the coffin were the withdrawal of wagonload vacuum braked freight and collect and deliver parcels. The limited remaining traffic could be accommodated easily on the East Coast Main Line.
So we come ack to the old argument, which I believe Robert Adley campaigned on, if they insist on closing lines stop them building on the trackbed so it can be reversed at reasonable cost if that ever proves necessary.
The City Council were only to keen to build on the land released by the avoiding line, much to the regret of everyone nowadays heldf up by the procession of freight across the High Street.
Beeching did propose it, and the whole line to Nottingham, for closure, but it was decided to close the Grantham line instead, and put in a spur at the Newark flat crossing to maintain connections from Lincoln (and south Humberside after closure of the East Lincs line) to London
Is Lincoln currently a particular problem for container traffic? Would the avoiding line have been in any way suitable for container traffic?
Are old lines always the answer to new problems though?
Container traffic is a relatively new issue, since the Joint Line was upgraded. However, long freight trains blocking the High Street are an old problem, as the Immingham oil traffic has never been able to access the old avoiding line. The underlying issue is a combination of a narrow strip of flat land on which railways and the city can be built, with high ground north and south of the city that rule out alternatives (the LD&ECR apparently planned to tunnel under the city before coming to a working arrangement for access to Holmes Yard and Central).
