Peak Rail Presents - Doug Copley's Lineside Images #16.3 - The Barton Line Revisited (2001)

MP4 DCLI DVD #16-3 'The Barton Line Re-visited' (2001) (21 min)
With sound and commentary.
16 years after his first film of the Branch in 1985 (DVD #16-2), Doug took his caravan to Barrow Haven for a week in June 2001. The railway had moved from 'Rail Blue' and first generation DMU to 'Pacers', 'Sprinters' and privatisation liveries.
The film starts at the creek, 'Old Ferry Wharf', and the timber storage facilities. A couple of swans enter the creek, and at high tide a ship takes advantage to enter and tie-up at the wharf for its cargo of timber to be unloaded.
A couple of up trains from Barton to Cleethorpes, one a Pacer but the second a Northern Spirit class 158. Each day a 158 does a single early-morning round-trip from Cleethorpes to Barton, before joining its class-mates on a diagram of Cleethorpes to Manchester Airport round-trips for the rest of the day.
The journey time from Cleethorpes to Barton is 48 minutes. The 12-minute turnaround at each end enables one unit to shuttle back-and-forth, on the alternate hour from each terminus, to provide the basic two-hourly service in either direction. Borrowing' that 158 first thing, enables an 0700 as well as an 0600 to run out from Cleethorpes. They form 0700 and 0800 returns from Barton for the 'rush hour' commuters. The first unit then covers all the other services.
The film first takes you from Barrow Haven to the end of the branch at Barton-on-Humber, now the interchange for buses Scunthorpe-Barton-Humber Bridge-Hull Paragon, replacing the former paddle steamer ferry service New Holland Pier to Hull Corporation Pier, which ceased with the opening of the Humber Bridge.
From Barton the film is a journey up the branch to Ulceby, where it joins the line from Immingham and the refineries at Killingholme. Freight then uses the north-to-west side of the Ulceby-Brocklesby-Habrough triangle to reach Barnetby. The Brocklesby to Habrough side is the 'main line' to Grimsby and Cleethorpes, and Barton trains use the third side to reach the junction at Habrough.
Doug's commentary identifies all the stations, signalboxes etc.
Notes (in sequential order):-
passenger services Class 153 single units for many years.
On the approach to Barrow Lane Crossing signalbox the chipboard factory occupies the site of the former New Holland engine shed, a sub-shed of Immingham MPD (40B).
Barrow Lane Crossing gates are so wide because they crossed the junction of 2 sides of the former triangle, with 2 tracks leading left towards Barton, and 3 tracks to the right to New Holland Town station at the third junction of the triangle where the station had a centre road, and originally an overall roof.
For many years, a laundry at New Holland processed laundry from Restaurant Cars and Hotels of the Great Central Railway.
In the telephoto shot, in the distance and above the train, part of the city of Hull is visible across the River Humber.
Goxhill is the only station on the branch still to have original station buildings, but now in private ownership.
Ulceby. The remaining platform has been raised with timber-decking on top of the original stone-faced platform, to provide level access.
In a 2004 addition to the film, we go a little further south to a farm crossing where the Brocklesby/Barnetby, and also the Ulceby arms of the triangle converge, but not join. A Cleethorpes bound 153 now wearing Arriva livery gives Doug a precautionary 'toot' as it emerges around the bend from Ulceby.
Originally the 2 tracks from Brocklesby and the then 2 tracks from Ulceby ran parallel as 4 tracks for about a mile to a doubleY ('"YY") junction at the north end of Habrough's down platform. This arrangement meant the junction could be mechanically operated from the signalbox at Habrough station level crossing, but the "Y" points severely restricted speed.
Eventually the Barnetby line was slewed to the central 2 tracks of the 4, to get a straight run into Habrough station. The junction for Ulceby moved north to become a ladder junction at the point of divergance near the farm crossing where Doug got his 'toot' from the Arriva 153.
Habrough's staggered platforms either side of the level-crossing prevented road traffic being get held up by ordinary passenger trains, all of which stopped at Habrough including the 4 Cleethorpes-London services to Kings Cross. The morning train from Kings Cross to Cleethorpes and its mid-day return was usually Class 47 hauled, but quite frequently became a fill-in turn for a 'Deltic', a Gateshead 'Peak', or even an IC125 HST. The 10 coach London services exceeded the platforms and Habrough passengers had to use the rear 4 coaches.
The pictures at Habrough in 2004 were after the station buildings, footbridge, level crossing gates, and signalbox had all been swept away.

[@lnerrules-iw6ry]

Nice Footage there. Especially of Goxhill Station. The semaphore signals are no longer there, but the box and gates are there for now.

[@philipmadhatter4006]

Shame new Holland lost 99 percent of its railway glory