Mansfield GC services

[70014IronDuke]

For many years I had assumed the GC main line went through Mansfield, but (as experts will know) the main line passed by some miles west of the town, so I assume that Mansfield GC was either a loop off the main line or some sort of separate branch.

So, my question is: What route(s) was Mansfield GC on? What were services like before it closed? Did it serve Nottingham (or anywhere) better than the Midland route?

Thanks to the experts out there, answers eagerly awaited!

 

[30907]

For many years I had assumed the GC main line went through Mansfield, but (as experts will know) the main line passed by some miles west of the town, so I assume that Mansfield GC was either a loop off the main line or some sort of separate branch.

So, my question is: What route(s) was Mansfield GC on? What were services like before it closed? Did it serve Nottingham (or anywhere) better than the Midland route?

Thanks to the experts out there, answers eagerly awaited!

Apparently an independent line opened 1916 from near Hucknall to Clipstone on the LDECR, worked by GCR.
The 1949 ER timetable gives 9tpd (4 through to Edwinstowe) and 2 on Sunday pm, doubt it improved thereafter!

 

[Bevan Price]

Apparently an independent line opened 1916 from near Hucknall to Clipstone on the LDECR, worked by GCR.
The 1949 ER timetable gives 9tpd (4 through to Edwinstowe) and 2 on Sunday pm, doubt it improved thereafter!

There is a brief history on Wikipedia

Mansfield Railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There is also a book in the Oakwood Press series of rail histories that seems not to be in the list of references.
Daily local services ceased in 1956, but some stations were retained for Summer Saturday services to the coast until the early 1960s.

 

[MisterSheeps]

The real rationale was the development of the coalfield to the east, the LDECR was a long way round via Shirebrook. The GC didn't promote (it was promoted locally by the developers of Crown Farm colliery) or particularly want 'The Mansfield Railway', though it did form a cutoff which saw freight from the GN (now ECML) at Tuxford to the GC at Annesley. 'The Fish' sometimes went via Mansfield from Immingham. Even with the line via Mansfield more Immingham traffic went via the Wales curve (Kiveton to Beighton), and the Duckmanton junctions were little used; Lincoln was a bottleneck. Then, as now, there is little population east of Mansfield.

 

[Magdalia]

Mansfield Central had 5 summer Saturday timetabled trains up to 1962.

Basford North-Skegness and return
Basford North-Mablethorpe and return
Leicester Central-Cleethorpes and return
Leicester Central-Scarborough and return
Ollerton-Yarmouth and return.

I expect that there was also excursion traffic, especially on summer Sundays and Bank Holidays.

The Grimsby-Whitland fish only went via Mansfield Central for a short period in the early 1960s, most of the time it went via Waleswood. But the Hull-Plymouth fish was consistently booked up the ECML to Tuxford then via the LDEC and Mansfield Central to reach the GC at Kirkby South Junction. Fish trains finished in early 1965.

Mansfield Central was still open for parcels into 1966 with a small number of trains from/to Nottingham PCD, but I don't know if these lasted right up to the big GC closure in September 1966.

 

[Harvester]

The 4:30 pm Grimsby to Whitland fish appears in numerous publications after Immingham Britannias took over the workings as far as Banbury. I have seen photographs of the Pacifics stopped at Pyewipe West Junction for crew changes, approaching Mansfield Central, and passing through Kirkby Central station while working the train. The dates would have been between autumn 1961 when Immingham received the Brits, and December 1963 when they were transferred away to Carlisle.

 

[Magdalia]

I was expecting a reference to the Britannias on the Grimsby-Whitland fish! I think that there's a big overlap of the via Mansfield period and the hauled by a Britannia period.

And while on the subject of fish train traction via Mansfield, during 1963 and 1964 the Hull-Plymouth fish was usually worked by a Dairycoates EE Type 3 as far as Leicester Central.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Thanks for info. So it seems this was very much a humble branch line in passenger terms. I had assumed there were somehow through coaches to Marylebone or some such. But apart from the Summer holiday trains, it was very low key. I suppose folks from mining towns didn't have the dosh to travel to places like London v often.

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks for info. So it seems this was very much a humble branch line in passenger terms. I had assumed there were somehow through coaches to Marylebone or some such. But apart from the Summer holiday trains, it was very low key. I suppose folks from mining towns didn't have the dosh to travel to places like London v often.

(My bolding) -- topic-drifting a bit, but brings to mind an anecdote once read in a book about assorted features of the World War I back-home-in-Britain scene. Told of a couple of lads from a coal-mining settlement in Nottinghamshire, who decided to volunteer for the army together. They discovered that it would be possible for them to seek to join a Northumbrian regiment, with free rail travel provided up to those parts, to "do the biz" there: they took the offer up, for the sheer interest factor of being able to travel much further from home, than they had ever been able to afford before. (They weren't railway enthusiasts -- just liked the idea of seeing a fairish new chunk of England.) One might reckon -- one of the rather few upsides of the 1914 -- 18 unpleasantness ...

 

[Dr Hoo]

Thanks for info. So it seems this was very much a humble branch line in passenger terms. I had assumed there were somehow through coaches to Marylebone or some such. But apart from the Summer holiday trains, it was very low key. I suppose folks from mining towns didn't have the dosh to travel to places like London v often.

Mansfield GC was a bit of an oddity in terms of opening during the First World War before a time of high inflation, coal strikes and so forth. On the other hand, coal mining was a relatively well-paid job, compared to, say agriculture.

But for many people before the First World War a Third Class return from Mansfield to London St Pancras (by the Midland Railway) would have been 22 shillings and sixpence (£1 12.5p). This was roughly the same as a week's pay for many people.

Long distance rail travel other than, perhaps, an excursion was simply out of reach of the great majority of the population back then.

 

[70014IronDuke]

(My bolding) -- topic-drifting a bit, but brings to mind an anecdote once read in a book about assorted features of the World War I back-home-in-Britain scene. Told of a couple of lads from a coal-mining settlement in Nottinghamshire, who decided to volunteer for the army together. They discovered that it would be possible for them to seek to join a Northumbrian regiment, with free rail travel provided up to those parts, to "do the biz" there: they took the offer up, for the sheer interest factor of being able to travel much further from home, than they had ever been able to afford before. (They weren't railway enthusiasts -- just liked the idea of seeing a fairish new chunk of England.) One might reckon -- one of the rather few upsides of the 1914 -- 18 unpleasantness ...

I suspect a rather more than a few "Good Christian Crusaders" c 700 years ago were similarly motivated.

 

[vic-rijrode]

...There is also a book in the Oakwood Press series of rail histories that seems not to be in the list of references...

I have this book and, as usual from Oakwood, it is an excellent description of the line, from its inception, "hey-day" and closure, together with many photographs - including Mansfield Central on its high embankment. It was published in 2019, titled "The Mansfield Railway" and written by Robert Western - highly recommended for those interested in fairly obscure and mostly forgotten lines. It is on Amazon - searching on "Mansfield Railway Western" brings it up.

 

[Calthrop]

I suspect a rather more than a few "Good Christian Crusaders" c 700 years ago were similarly motivated.

One gathers that that was indeed a factor in that episode -- earning Godly merit, plus fun / interesting / exciting / if lucky, potentially enriching, experiences: win-win ! The picture is got that throughout history, "going off to the wars" has often been seen by men, as something excitingly welcome -- rather than a waking nightmare. The possibility of getting killed or maimed, reckoned an acceptable risk to take; plus, it's one which very young men (heavily represented in the "recruits pool") tend to disregard -- they feel that "it can't happen to them".