March to Spalding

[a good off]

It is 40 years ago tonight since the joint line closed.

 

[WesternLancer]

It is 40 years ago tonight since the joint line closed.

I seem to recall seeing a good website on it's final years not so long ago - can't find it now to link to.

 

[306024]

40 years. Can remember travelling the route and going out to photograph locations before the line closed.

This year I walked from March station to Twenty Foot River and back. An interesting walk, trying to spot where the old yards used to be. There’s still some rusty signalling equipment hidden in the undergrowth in places. At Twenty Foot, the semaphore signal on the up line is still there. It must of been a welcome sight to March men knowing they were nearly home.

Of course where March used to be a big railway town, it is Whitemoor prison that provides a lot of employment now. So be prepared to encounter a few prison officers walking their big scary guard dogs

 

[507020]

Last week I saw that the March - Spalding section of the joint line was closed to save BR only £4 million in track renewal costs.

More recently, the Werrington Diveunder was constructed at a cost of over £200 million to alleviate the capacity impact on the ECML that the closure of March - Spalding had…

March - St Ives and Huntingdon - Cambridge could also do with reopening seeing as the “guided busway” is hardly fit for purpose

See also the Lincoln avoiding line. While the Joint Line is hardly complete anymore, the loss of March - Spalding along with Woodhead and the Settle - Carlisle at least contributed to making any further closures politically unacceptable from then onwards.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

It is 40 years ago tonight since the joint line closed.

And one I really regret not traveling

 

[jtek]

Travelled on the last train - it doesn’t seem 40 years….

 

[delt1c]

Travelled it on a tour

 

[Magdalia]

I did Spalding-March a few times in 1982, but always in the southbound direction. My last trip was on the Leeds-Yarmouth, to also do the Lincoln avoiding line that closed the same day as Spalding-March.

But I never did Spalding-March on a train that included a loco change at Grassmoor Junction, that finished in 1980.

 

[xotGD]

Thanks to a GoldenRail holiday I did the line in 1979 on the Newcastle - Yarmouth and return. And I remember us stopping in what at the time seemed a random spot for a loco change.

 

[John Webb]

40 years. Can remember travelling the route and going out to photograph locations before the line closed.

This year I walked from March station to Twenty Foot River and back. An interesting walk, trying to spot where the old yards used to be. There’s still some rusty signalling equipment hidden in the undergrowth in places. At Twenty Foot, the semaphore signal on the up line is still there. It must of been a welcome sight to March men knowing they were nearly home.....

I take it it's this signal you're referring to:
Old railway signal near March, Cambridgeshire

© Copyright Richard Humphrey and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
(Click on photo to go to the larger original on the Geograph website.)

 

[Western Lord]

My last trip on the March-Spalding line was on a Cambridge to Doncaster DMU. I was sitting in the rear saloon enjoying the panoramic views through the driving cab when, at March, a four-wheel van was hooked on the back, somewhat spoiling things.

 

[306024]

I take it it's this signal you're referring to:
Old railway signal near March, Cambridgeshire

© Copyright Richard Humphrey and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
(Click on photo to go to the larger original on the Geograph website.)

That’s the one, I have a rather similar photograph.

 

[mike57]

I can remember travelling over it in the dark in an unplanned ECML diversion in the late 70s, with the journey to London seeming to take forever. I have forgotten what happened to cause the issue.

 

[55002]

It is 40 years ago tonight since the joint line closed.

Wow that makes me feel old!

 

[Springs Branch]

My last trip on the March-Spalding line was on a Cambridge to Doncaster DMU. I was sitting in the rear saloon enjoying the panoramic views through the driving cab when, at March, a four-wheel van was hooked on the back, somewhat spoiling things.

I did a few return trips between Cambridge and Lincoln in the last days of this line, bouncing and rattling along in the Cravens 105 DMUs which used to ply to and from Doncaster.

Not only the March - Spalding section, but the whole journey right through Sleaford and on to Lincoln Central felt like being in a railway museum - jointed track, ample semaphore signalling all the way, manned level crossings, substantial country junction stations at March & Sleaford etc.

 

[thedbdiboy]

Last week I saw that the March - Spalding section of the joint line was closed to save BR only £4 million in track renewal costs.

More recently, the Werrington Diveunder was constructed at a cost of over £200 million to alleviate the capacity impact on the ECML that the closure of March - Spalding had…

March - St Ives and Huntingdon - Cambridge could also do with reopening seeing as the “guided busway” is hardly fit for purpose

See also the Lincoln avoiding line. While the Joint Line is hardly complete anymore, the loss of March - Spalding along with Woodhead and the Settle - Carlisle at least contributed to making any further closures politically unacceptable from then onwards.

March - Spalding (and indeed the Lincoln avoiding line) are very definitive examples of short-sighted closures. However, we cannot lose sight of the circumstances of the time - BR was severely cash strapped and had no leeway for expensive renewals on life-expired infrastructure where savings could be made. However, it was semaphore signalled with numerous level crossings, so whilst eye-wateringly expensive, we need to recognise that both the Peterborough remodelling and Werrington diveunder have effectively been built to replace this route, offering a slightly longer but conflict-free route from March through Spalding.
I have to say, with the Lincoln avoiding line I have little sympathy when the local authority moans about the level crossing being closed for so much of the time - BR may have closed the route but the local planning authorities made no effort to safeguard the trackbed and it was substantially built over in no time at all. They reap what they sow!

 

[Bevan Price]

March - Spalding (and indeed the Lincoln avoiding line) are very definitive examples of short-sighted closures. However, we cannot lose sight of the circumstances of the time - BR was severely cash strapped and had no leeway for expensive renewals on life-expired infrastructure where savings could be made. However, it was semaphore signalled with numerous level crossings, so whilst eye-wateringly expensive, we need to recognise that both the Peterborough remodelling and Werrington diveunder have effectively been built to replace this route, offering a slightly longer but conflict-free route from March through Spalding.
I have to say, with the Lincoln avoiding line I have little sympathy when the local authority moans about the level crossing being closed for so much of the time - BR may have closed the route but the local planning authorities made no effort to safeguard the trackbed and it was substantially built over in no time at all. They reap what they sow!

A bit problem of March / Spalidng is that is was around 20 miles of almost nothingess - hardly any local residents to use the railway.

 

[thedbdiboy]

A bit problem of March / Spalidng is that is was around 20 miles of almost nothingess - hardly any local residents to use the railway.

Indeed, hence the early (pre-Beeching) closure of the intermediate stations. The sustainable function was to provide a link from East Anglia into the East Midlands via Lincolnshire and the modernised route via Peterborough and Wennington fulfils that function.

 

[507020]

March - Spalding (and indeed the Lincoln avoiding line) are very definitive examples of short-sighted closures. However, we cannot lose sight of the circumstances of the time - BR was severely cash strapped and had no leeway for expensive renewals on life-expired infrastructure where savings could be made. However, it was semaphore signalled with numerous level crossings, so whilst eye-wateringly expensive, we need to recognise that both the Peterborough remodelling and Werrington diveunder have effectively been built to replace this route, offering a slightly longer but conflict-free route from March through Spalding.
I have to say, with the Lincoln avoiding line I have little sympathy when the local authority moans about the level crossing being closed for so much of the time - BR may have closed the route but the local planning authorities made no effort to safeguard the trackbed and it was substantially built over in no time at all. They reap what they sow!

Given the nothingness served by the direct route as opposed to Peterborough March - Spalding has got to be about the best case scenario for closed lines not being reopened, but I don’t agree with the sentiment that it was life expired infrastructure that needed to be closed. I’m sure even the most comprehensive track and signalling renewal and even level crossing closures wouldn’t have constituted total re-engineering.

Re: Thatcher-era BR’s financial situation, it was problematic that it had literally £0 available for such basic maintenance, which meant an inability to even keep the aforementioned lines open and with certainly no money to reopen them later, that the Property Board were left sitting on increasingly valuable parcels of land, in many cases ideally situated in what were now heavily built up town centres, the sale of which could fund BR’s continued operation in lieu of subsidy. The Lincoln avoiding line was certainly more valuable than March - Spalding in that respect. I note that Lincoln St Marks clung on for another few years before receiving the same fate.

Is the issue with the non-avoiding line a level crossing? I should know as I only went through there last week.

Indeed, hence the early (pre-Beeching) closure of the intermediate stations. The sustainable function was to provide a link from East Anglia into the East Midlands via Lincolnshire and the modernised route via Peterborough and Wennington fulfils that function.

Wennington Junction being where the Furness and Midland Joint line left the Little North Western route to Lancaster Green Ayre.

The question is why isn’t there a through service from March - Spalding via Peterborough?

 

[Taunton]

March - Spalding ... However, it was semaphore signalled with numerous level crossings

Possibly not all. Gerry Fiennes wrote that in the 1950s one of the LNER approach-lit searchlight signals along the dead-straight line was notably late in switching on as the train approached, and loco crews used to take bets on what aspect it would light up at ...

 

[Magdalia]

Last week I saw that the March - Spalding section of the joint line was closed to save BR only £4 million in track renewal costs.

More recently, the Werrington Diveunder was constructed at a cost of over £200 million to alleviate the capacity impact on the ECML that the closure of March - Spalding had…

March - St Ives and Huntingdon - Cambridge could also do with reopening seeing as the “guided busway” is hardly fit for purpose

March - Spalding (and indeed the Lincoln avoiding line) are very definitive examples of short-sighted closures. However, we cannot lose sight of the circumstances of the time - BR was severely cash strapped and had no leeway for expensive renewals on life-expired infrastructure where savings could be made.

Indeed, hence the early (pre-Beeching) closure of the intermediate stations. The sustainable function was to provide a link from East Anglia into the East Midlands via Lincolnshire and the modernised route via Peterborough and Wennington fulfils that function.

The GN/GE Joint Line, and March to Cambridge via St Ives line, were primarily freight railways, especially movement of coal from the Nottinghamshire coalfields to London. Most of that traffic disappeared in the 1960s when the big baseload coal fired power stations at West Burton and Cottam opened and electricity was sent to London using high voltage power lines instead.

That's why St Ives-March closed in 1967, the coal traffic had gone. It is impossible to reinstate as most of the Chatteris-March section is now the A141 road. St Ives-Cambridge only survived because of the sand traffic. I'll resist the temptation to comment on the busway!

Apart from summer Saturday holiday trains and the North Country Continental boat train the Joint Line never carried much passenger traffic. Until the 1960s there wasn't much room for passenger trains amongst the procession of coal trains. The boat train was diverted to run via Peterborough in 1973 once the Peterborough remodelling had been completed.

Those who have said that BR had no money in 1982 are absolutely right. At that time all of the remaining freight traffic could be accommodated via Peterborough, especially as continuously air braked freight trains could travel much faster than unfitted coal trains. In 1982 it would have taken remarkable foresight to anticipate large numbers of container trains from Felixstowe 40 years later mostly carrying goods imported from China.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Those who have said that BR had no money in 1982 are absolutely right. At that time all of the remaining freight traffic could be accommodated via Peterborough, especially as continuously air braked freight trains could travel much faster than unfitted coal trains. In 1982 it would have taken remarkable foresight to anticipate large numbers of container trains from Felixstowe 40 years later mostly carrying goods imported from China.

The financial issues affecting BR in the early 1980's was serious - not just the internal rail "issues" of strikes etc , but the impact of the steel strikes and the serious fall off of all coal traffic.

I was at Ipswich and Felistowe at the time , and about the only buoyant business hopes was the expansion of Felixstowe which container wise , blossomed. (new Walton Terminal being built and a "temporary" terminal was quickly established in the largely redundant Ipswich Lower yard with a road shuttle to the FX docks in order to provide an additional service (from Manchester Trafford Park) , pending expansion. So the expansion of Felixstowe was certainly happening and being planned for.

The considerable number of special Freightliner trains above the working plan , was always managed either direct via Bury to the ECML , or more often - via London and the GEML. March- Spalding would never have come into consideration.

 

[Magdalia]

I was at Ipswich and Felistowe at the time , and about the only buoyant business hopes was the expansion of Felixstowe which container wise , blossomed. (new Walton Terminal being built and a "temporary" terminal was quickly established in the largely redundant Ipswich Lower yard with a road shuttle to the FX docks in order to provide an additional service (from Manchester Trafford Park) , pending expansion. So the expansion of Felixstowe was certainly happening and being planned for.

The considerable number of special Freightliner trains above the working plan , was always managed either direct via Bury to the ECML , or more often - via London and the GEML. March- Spalding would never have come into consideration.

Thanks for this, always good to hear from someone who was there. I don't remember the temporary terminal at Ipswich: was it visible from passing passenger trains and can you remember how long it lasted?

I was thinking of the speedlink air braked freights to/from Parkeston Quay for the European ferries as being the buoyant freight traffic in East Anglia around that time.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Thanks for this, always good to hear from someone who was there. I don't remember the temporary terminal at Ipswich: was it visible from passing passenger trains and can you remember how long it lasted?

I was thinking of the speedlink air braked freights to/from Parkeston Quay for the European ferries as being the buoyant freight traffic in East Anglia around that time.

The temporary Ipswich Lower Yard terminal was up and running in about a week ! (a hired in crane) , and was set up when the Area Manager was on leave , and he was amazed on his return when he saw a departure coming up past Ranelagh Road crossing with an 03 front and rear (rapidly replaced by a 37 I have to say) - yes it was visible from the station and it lasted from about 18 months. I regret not keeping a diary. The road shuttle operation was staffed by volunteer Freightliner road drivers , from Swansea , Southampton , Liverpool and Kings Cross who lodged in Ipswich and enjoyed the break of routine and the work. These terminals had spare staff at the time - as domestic traffic was falling.

Ferrywagon traffic to and from Parkeston was declining - partly due to the planned move to Dover - I recall the path of the 1009 from March was often used for 5 set "extras"........(I used to cover the container teminal at Harwich from time to time , and the box traffic - much of it Ford traffic was quite buoyant for a while , till that all changed)

 

[Taunton]

Last week I saw that the March - Spalding section of the joint line was closed to save BR only £4 million in track renewal costs.

Keep going ... apart from track renewals the line had innumerable level crossings, in fact apart from ones adjacent to its bridge over the River Nene it didn't have a single road bridge in its length. This was a freight route with overnight traffic, where the crossings would be manned for three shifts. The operating costs must have been very considerable.

 

[thedbdiboy]

Given the nothingness served by the direct route as opposed to Peterborough March - Spalding has got to be about the best case scenario for closed lines not being reopened, but I don’t agree with the sentiment that it was life expired infrastructure that needed to be closed. I’m sure even the most comprehensive track and signalling renewal and even level crossing closures wouldn’t have constituted total re-engineering.

Re: Thatcher-era BR’s financial situation, it was problematic that it had literally £0 available for such basic maintenance, which meant an inability to even keep the aforementioned lines open and with certainly no money to reopen them later, that the Property Board were left sitting on increasingly valuable parcels of land, in many cases ideally situated in what were now heavily built up town centres, the sale of which could fund BR’s continued operation in lieu of subsidy. The Lincoln avoiding line was certainly more valuable than March - Spalding in that respect. I note that Lincoln St Marks clung on for another few years before receiving the same fate.

Is the issue with the non-avoiding line a level crossing? I should know as I only went through there last week.

Wennington Junction being where the Furness and Midland Joint line left the Little North Western route to Lancaster Green Ayre.

The question is why isn’t there a through service from March - Spalding via Peterborough?

There are two separate issues here.

BR closed the line because it could not afford the renewals to life expired assets; these would have involved resignalling, level crossing gate replacement and no doubt track rationalisation. however once it had been closed and lifted, a modern day reopening would have been classified as a new railway build and therefore the level crossings would no longer be allowed at all. That is why, having 'lost' the route in the 1980s, replacing its purpose with a conflict-free path via Peterborough became the solution.

 

[Calthrop]

Shifting (as tends to be my wont) from scholarship and analysis, to the sentimental and nostalgic; I do feel that this section -- although there is a "sensible" reason or two, for regret for its demise -- is for the lover of scenic and engaging-to-the-eye lines, one of the less woeful abandonments of the past half-century. Crossing dead-flat, sparsely inhabited Fen country -- in a fairly recent thread on these Forums, theme "most depressing stretches of the network": neighbouring lines, still in traffic, were nominated as scenically thoroughly depressing (and defended by other posters; including myself, "born and raised" in that area: but totally flat landscapes are overall, a minority taste).

Despite where I spent my first two decades (essentially, 1950s and 60s): I travelled on the March -- Spalding line only once, and in one direction only. There was never need for family "real going from real A to B" purposes, to use it; especially after, in 1957, we moved to live in Peterborough: which city is in an "apex / hypotenuse" relationship with rail section March -- Spalding -- no matter where you're going from Peterborough ... My journey over the line (north -- south), had to be cunningly worked-in as part of a week's tour per railrover ticket in summer 1964. At that time, a bit of extra interest on that stretch was afforded by its being in the few years wherein -- after, essentially, closure and dismemberment of the Midland & Great Northern system in 1959 -- a new connection with said system was created, by the installing of a curve by the flat crossing at Murrow, between the March -- Spalding, and -- retained for freight -- (Peterborough) -- Dogsthorpe -- Wisbech (North), sections: that stuff was there in summer 1964, to be watched out for and "valued". In the following couple of decades I had thoughts and hopes of covering March -- Spalding once again; but never managed to realise them.

 

[Magdalia]

I do feel that this section -- although there is a "sensible" reason or two, for regret for its demise -- is for the lover of scenic and engaging-to-the-eye lines, one of the less woeful abandonments of the past half-century. Crossing dead-flat, sparsely inhabited Fen country -- in a fairly recent thread on these Forums, theme "most depressing stretches of the network": neighbouring lines, still in traffic, were nominated as scenically thoroughly depressing (and defended by other posters; including myself, "born and raised" in that area: but totally flat landscapes are overall, a minority taste).

As a Fenlander born and bred I have to object to that!

For me there's something quite magical about the Fens on a cold and sunny winter's day, with long clear sightlines (especially to Ely Cathedral), big skies, spectacular sunsets and clouds of steam (and the smell) from the beet factories. Long shadows cast over deep valleys are far more depressing in comparison. And one of the best ways of appreciating the Fens on a cold and sunny winter's day was from the warmth of a Cravens DMU, especially from the seat behind the driver.

 

[WesternLancer]

As a Fenlander born and bred I have to object to that!

For me there's something quite magical about the Fens on a cold and sunny winter's day, with long clear sightlines (especially to Ely Cathedral), big skies, spectacular sunsets and clouds of steam (and the smell) from the beet factories. Long shadows cast over deep valleys are far more depressing in comparison. And one of the best ways of appreciating the Fens on a cold and sunny winter's day was from the warmth of a Cravens DMU, especially from the seat behind the driver.

I do agree with this - as someone from a more undulating area (sussex weald) I have to say I found the fens remarkable and very interesting indeed the 1st time I saw them and still do - like a mini US or Canadian great plains. I very much enjoy trips through it - sections east from Peterborough being appealing for this very reason.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm a big fan of the Fens -- myself born and bred there, as per my post; but am aware that many folk -- poor clueless souls -- find them boring and unappealing. My parents came from the Chester area; moved to south Lincolnshire shortly after World War II, in consequence of job opportunity for Dad -- they always felt themselves to be in exile in dreary flatness, like the Netherlands but without the exotic foreign charm. They revisited Chester whenever any sort of holiday opportunity presented itself: whence some interesting rail travels; but never March -- Spalding, that being in the wrong direction.