East Lincolnshire progress

Train buffs want to reopen Ludborough to Louth railway line

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Grimsby Telegraph

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RAILWAY buffs are full steam ahead to take the low road to Louth.

It will cost about £1.6 million to rebuild the track between their station at Ludborough and the outskirts of Louth's Fairfield Industrial Estate.

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   Maurice Lynn, of Lincolnshire Wolds Railway, on the end of the line which is hoped will stretch as far as Louth

And the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway (LWR) owners have launched a fundraising appeal to buy track and materials for the eight miles of railway line.

The restoration of the Grimsby to Louth railway was the long-term objective of the preservation society that was formed when the line was closed by British Rail more than 30 years ago.

Ludborough station became the group's base and then the long haul began to rebuild this historic line as a heritage railway.

It will take eight miles of track to link the village with the outskirts of the town and appeal organisers estimated it will cost about £200,000 per mile.

They have obtained structural engineering reports stating the three bridges over which the track will run between Ludborough and Louth are sound.

LWR's managing director Frank Street said: "The bridges are basically sound, but they will need some maintenance."

He said the company also aims to extend the track northwards towards Holton-le-Clay.

"It is going to be a steady trickle than a flood of money for the work," he added.

He highlighted the progress that had been made since the group took over the railway line.

In 2009 a milestone was reached when steam trains started running to North Thoresby. The link to Louth will increase the current track by more than four times its current length.

Maurice Lynn, of LWR, said: "Our first target is to reach Utterby Halt, but there is much enabling work, such as clearing undergrowth and scraping and preparing the trackbed, which needs to be done before we can extend the line. It costs more than £200,000 to lay a mile of track so you can see the scale of the challenge.

"We need to raise funds to purchase materials such as ballast, rails and sleepers before we can progress."

Call 01507 363881 for more information.

East Lincolnshire was quite disgracefully relieved of its modern transport network when a whole tranche of lines - most of them double track - were closed in 1970. As well as the main line south of Grimsby the important branch to Mablethorpe also closed, as did a couple of other routes.

At last part of this network is reopening. It's good that Louth is the target, as it's a large town that really can't afford to be off the network for much longer.

Hopefully over the next ten to twenty years these idiotic closures will be fully reversed. The alternative is unthinkable!