My first visit to this rural terminal last week, and it has raised some questions.
I was expecting a simple single line terminus, but noticed the complex of sidings on the left hand side, reached by a reverse shunt out of the platform road.
Quail Maps labels these sidings Magnox, DRS and Engs. I know that they were to serve the nuclear power station at Bradwell a few miles down the road, and that the existence of this station may have saved the branch in the Beeching era. However Google turns up that fact that the power station closed in 2002 and the last nuclear fuel train ran in 2006, giving up it's Thursday afternoon path.
As far as I could see, the sidings are well maintained, weed free, and may even have been used recently (it was raining, so the wet rails may have deceived me there).
Anyone know if there is any traffic here, or why the sidings are so well cared for. I know there was a proposal for a Chinese(?) backed power station, but I understand that is well dead and does not justify the maintenance of the sidings.
I was expecting a simple single line terminus, but noticed the complex of sidings on the left hand side, reached by a reverse shunt out of the platform road.
Quail Maps labels these sidings Magnox, DRS and Engs. I know that they were to serve the nuclear power station at Bradwell a few miles down the road, and that the existence of this station may have saved the branch in the Beeching era. However Google turns up that fact that the power station closed in 2002 and the last nuclear fuel train ran in 2006, giving up it's Thursday afternoon path.
As far as I could see, the sidings are well maintained, weed free, and may even have been used recently (it was raining, so the wet rails may have deceived me there).
Anyone know if there is any traffic here, or why the sidings are so well cared for. I know there was a proposal for a Chinese(?) backed power station, but I understand that is well dead and does not justify the maintenance of the sidings.