Barnetby railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Barnetby
code = BTB


caption = Pedestrian bridge over platforms
manager = First TransPennine Express
locale = Barnetby-le-Wold
borough = North Lincolnshire
lowusage0405 = 47,280
lowusage0506 = 50,714
lowusage0607 = 59,498
platforms = 4
start =

Barnetby railway station serves the village of Barnetby-le-Wold in North Lincolnshire. The station area still (2005) uses semaphore signals. It is operated by First TransPennine Express, with East Midlands Trains and Northern Rail also serving the station.

Barnetby railway station is unstaffed, and is popular with railway enthusiasts for the freight which passes through.

The railway first came to Barnetby in 1848 when the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway was constructed. This line ran from Sheffield, through Retford, Torksey, Lincoln and Market Rasen before reaching Barnetby - then on to Grimsby. A year later, and the section of route between Gainsborough and Barnetby was opened, thus establishing the villages future a railway centre. The most important connection - and still is to this day, was the building of the Trent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway in 1866 - through the steel town of Scunthorpe. Over the following years, these railways - and several others became part of the Great Central Railway.

The Great Central Railway recognised the importance of the Humber ports. As well as developing Grimsby, the company invested heavily in Immingham Docks. Immingham was unique among the Humber ports in that a deep water channel made easy access for ships at all states of the tide. This suited the Great Central Railway as one of its chief forms of traffic was coal from the South Yorkshire and East Midlands coalfields.

With the increased traffic through Barnetby, the track infrastructure needed more investment. At the time, Barnetby had a fairly simple layout based on a standard double track. It even had a level crossing near to where the Kings Road bridge is today. In order to make passage easier, the Great Central Railway invested in the quadrupling of the track between Wrawby Junction and Brocklesby Junction - together with much improved signalling. The level crossing was removed and the Kings Road underbridge was built. In order to handle the traffic, new signal boxes were built at Wrawby Junction, Barnetby West, Barnetby East, Melton Ross and Brocklesby Junction.

In 1923, the Great Central Railway became part of the London & North Eastern Railway, then in 1948 as part of British Railways. In later years the infrastructure became part of Railtrack -and ultimately Network Rail.

Whilst most railway freight traffic passes through the village, in years past the village generated a small amount of its own business. The nearby malt kiln was opened in 1875, and the village cattle market used rail transport. Sadly, the cattle market is long gone and the malt kiln is crumbling away.

A serious accident occurred near the station in 1983, when one passenger died after a freight and passenger train collided.

ervices

The station receives weekday calls from TransPennine Express services between Cleethorpes and Manchester Airport via Sheffield every hour in each direction, along with East Midlands Trains services from Grimsby to Lincoln and Newark (roughly every two hours). Northern services to Sheffield via Brigg & Retford only operate on Saturdays (three trains each way).

Sundays see hourly trains to Cleethorpes & Manchester (two hourly in the morning) and a limited service to Lincoln during the summer months only.

Gallery

External links

Former Services