East Lincolnshire Line (pre-1970) query

[tom73]

The East Lincolnshire Line was once a busy main line, particularly in the summer months with holiday expresses to Cleethorpes.
I have just watched two "cab ride" videos on YouTube. One showed a journey from Peterborough to Lincoln via Spalding and the second a journey between Lincoln and Cleethorpes via Market Rasen and Barnetby.
Two things struck me.
The two lines - Peterborough to Lincoln and Grimsby/Cleethorpes to Lincoln converge just before Lincoln. For a train to get from one to the other, it has to reverse in Lincoln Station. It is hard to imagine a (once) busy main line with a time consuming reversal having to be carried out.
Am I missing something?
The second thing that struck me was most of the closed stations on the Peterborough to Lincoln stretch were closed in the mid-50's (before Beeching) whereas those on the Lincoln to Cleethorpes stretch were closed in or around 1965, logically as a result of Beeching. Just thought it was an interesting piece of railway trivia.

 

[Calthrop]

The East Lincolnshire Line was once a busy main line, particularly in the summer months with holiday expresses to Cleethorpes.
I have just watched two "cab ride" videos on YouTube. One showed a journey from Peterborough to Lincoln via Spalding and the second a journey between Lincoln and Cleethorpes via Market Rasen and Barnetby.
Two things struck me.
The two lines - Peterborough to Lincoln and Grimsby/Cleethorpes to Lincoln converge just before Lincoln. For a train to get from one to the other, it has to reverse in Lincoln Station. It is hard to imagine a (once) busy main line with a time consuming reversal having to be carried out.
Am I missing something?

I think you maybe are -- apologies if I'm mis-reading you here, and condescendingly telling you stuff which you're well aware of: but, up until 1970, long-distance passenger between London and the south, and Grimsby / Cleethorpes, essentially went up the ECML Kings Cross -- Peterborough, then branched off along the route to Grimsby via Spalding, Boston, Firsby, and Louth. From closure of this through route in 1970 ("bits" survive in passenger service), services between London and Grimsby / Cleethorpes switched to: London (KX) -- Newark -- via new curve onto the ex-Midland Railway line thence to Lincoln, then on north-eastward via Market Rasen and Barnetby, to destinations. In my perception, reversing at Lincoln in order to get between the south, and Grimsby / Cleethorpes; has never been an issue as a regular thing. The primary objective of the one-time Great Northern & Great Eastern Joint line (formerly from March to Spalding, now "kicking-off" at Spalding and running thence Sleaford -- Lincoln -- Gainsborough -- Doncaster) has been to facilitate traffic to / from industrial south Yorkshire, on a north-west / south-east axis.

The second thing that struck me was most of the closed stations on the Peterborough to Lincoln stretch were closed in the mid-50's (before Beeching) whereas those on the Lincoln to Cleethorpes stretch were closed in or around 1965, logically as a result of Beeching. Just thought it was an interesting piece of railway trivia.

Interesting, for sure -- one feels that much of what happened closure-wise on BR 50 / 60 years ago, was somewhat random. If you'll pardon a minor correction, the "village" stations on the two routes Peterborough -- Spalding -- Firsby -- Grimsby; and March -- Spalding -- Lincoln -- Doncaster; were passenger-closed (a few of them had in fact met that fate previously) w.e.f. 11 / 9 / 1961 -- not in the mid-50s, but indeed pre-Beeching -- leaving open only stations serving places qualifying as "towns". I have a hazy-ish but treasured memory of encountering on a car-borne family outing, at either Postland, or French Drove & Gedney Hill, on the Spalding -- March section, in summer 1961 when I was aged thirteen: a southbound local train calling at that station -- 4-6-0 (likely, I feel, B1)-hauled. That station and its fellows, would close to passengers only weeks later. And, I travelled on a local DMU working in summer 1964, Barnetby -- Market Rasen -- Lincoln; relished the delights of the village stations on that stretch, then still functioning for passenger traffic; closed for same w.e.f. 1 / 11 / 1965, truly after the Beech-man had done his work.