Trains at Barnetby (SHML, GLNL, ShLL) - 02/04/2024

The 214th video of my train spotting adventures.
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This video begins a series of videos from in and around the Sheffield area and beyond of North England, starting off with Barnetby railway station in North Lincolnshire. A small, unstaffed 4-platform station, it was first opened in 1848 when the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway (GG&SJR) was constructed, running from Sheffield, through Retford, Torksey, Lincoln and Market Rasen before passing through Barnetby, and on to Grimsby. A year later, the route from Gainsborough to Barnetby opened, securing Barnetby's future as a rail centre of sorts. The most important line to open to Barnetby to this day was the Trent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway (TA&GR) in 1866, passing through Scunthorpe, a heavily important steel town. These railway and several others eventually grouped into the Great Central Railway (GCR).
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The GCR understood the Humber's important ports for trade, resources and revenue. The company invested heavily in Grimsby, and the Immingham Docks; the deep water channels made for easy access for big cargo ships no matter the tidal state; this worked very well for the GCR, with its main cargo traffic being coal from South Yorkshire and the East Midlands. More investment was needed in Barnetby's track infrastructure as a result of increased traffic; at the time it had a simple two-track layout with a level crossing nearby. The GCR invested in quadrupling the track between Wrawby Junction and Brocklesby Junction, along with much improved signalling. The level crossing was removed in favour of the underbridge seen to the Cleethorpes-end of the station today; new signal boxes were also constructed. In 1923, the GCR was amalgamated with others into the London and North Eastern Railway company, and then in 1948 became a part of British Railways.
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Most rail freight passes through Barnetby, but businesses there had small impacts early on; a malt kiln was opened in 1875, and people used the railways for their cattle market; at this point in time the cattle market is long gone and the malt kiln is crumbling away. The station buildings were demolished in the 1980s and replaced by bus-style shelters, but the main building besides the station still stands, used as office accommodation by Network Rail.
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Barnetby served as a railhead during World War II for RAF Elsham Wolds, a bomber base, with arriving personnel able to be picked up via RAF vans. Australian Don Charlwood, in his memoir, "No Moon Tonight," writes about standing on the platform with 20 other men, part of four newly arrived crews for RAF bombers flying night raids on Germany from Elsham Wolds. While they waited for the van, ". . . we stood on the platform looking up at the hills that rose gently from every side." Casualties in Bomber Command were extensive: ". . . of our twenty only eight were destined to depart Barnetby station a few months later."
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A serious accident occurred near the station in 1983, when one passenger died after a freight and passenger train collided. In 2001 a new footbridge complete with ramps was built. The lines through the station were re-signalled over the Christmas and New Year of 2015/16, with the new colour light signals installed and the old manual signal boxes at Wrawby Junction and Barnetby East closed during a 17-day blockade; the area is now under the control of the York IECC. Over the years it's proven very popular with rail enthusiasts due to the vast amount of freight traffic passing through day-by-day.
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Filmed on the:
South Humberside Mainline
Grimsby-Lincoln-Newark line
Sheffield-Lincoln line
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Trains seen:
TPE) Class 185 Desiro
EMR) Class 158 Express Sprinter, Class 170 Turbostar
NT) Class 150 Sprinter
DB) Class 66
FL) Class 66, Class 70
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