The first part of the line was opened to goods traffic in November 1874. The story of its inception is well told in the
booklet 'The Louth to Bardney Branch' by W.B. Herbert and A.J. Ludlam (The Oakwood Press 1984)
and suffice it to say that it was a triumph of hope and expectation over economic sense. It was a line which had required much engineering
and earthmoving in its construction, especially over its central and eastern stretches. This had been a curse to the engineers
and navvies, but is a blessing for enthusiasts today, as much of the line's route lies along cuttings
and embankments, not to mention the two remarkable tunnels at
Withcall and
Benniworth.
The remaining station buildings are in good order, although some have extensions and additions which
are not in keeping with the original style. The best preserved is the station at Donington on Bain (right) The photo is taken
looking westward from what used to be a bridge carrying the road over the line. Sadly, the bridge was demolished and
the arch in-filled, but the station today is as smart and business-like as it ever was. The trackbed bends away beyond the station to the right of the picture
and leads to a beautiful stretch, first cutting, and then embankment, which gives the walker an excellent view over the Bain valley.
Sadly, the section of the line which passes through a cutting south of the fishing lakes at Benniworth has become badly overgrown,
and there were aggressive notices posted warning against trespass.
The line ran into financial problems almost from the first, and the group of adventure capitalists who began the line had to sell it off to
the Great Northern Railway in order that traffic could run at all. Walking or driving through the area today one is impressed by the lack of
population density. As an agricultural area it is certainly much less populated now that it was
in the latter part of the nineteenth century but, this fact aside, it is still not easy to see how they thought they could make the line pay. One of the main problems was that the line
did not run directly into Lincoln. The original surveyors planned a route which, after leaving Wragby (see map below), would keep to a more westerly heading
and meet with the Lincoln - Boston line near Five Mile House. There were problems in buying the land, and the solution reached was probably to be one of the great
weaknesses of the line as a commercial proposition. After Wragby, the line would head much more in a southerly direction, and join the GN line near Bardney, but facing the wrong way. This meant that the train
would have to reverse direction in order to get to Lincoln.
As can be seen from the 1948 timetable reproduced below, three trains a day each way, plus goods trains as required, would not
have ever made for a huge amount of hustle and bustle on the line. Traffic tended to keep pace with the fairly measured lifestyle of a sparsely
populated rural area.
When the Second World War ended Britain was faced with a world in which Victory had been paid for with human lives, but the Peace needed to be paid for with economic hardship. The years of austerity
were to be ones where financial reality was to affect all aspects of national life, and running a railway was to be no exception. The last passenger train between Louth and Bardney
ran on Saturday 3rd November, 1951, and five years later the line was progressively shut down to freight
services. The last section, between Bardney and Wragby closed on February 1st 1960.
The first part of the line was opened to goods traffic in November 1874. The story of its inception is well told in the
booklet 'The Louth to Bardney Branch' by W.B. Herbert and A.J. Ludlam (The Oakwood Press 1984)
and suffice it to say that it was a triumph of hope and expectation over economic sense. It was a line which had required much engineering
and earthmoving in its construction, especially over its central and eastern stretches. This had been a curse to the engineers
and navvies, but is a blessing for enthusiasts today, as much of the line's route lies along cuttings
and embankments, not to mention the two remarkable tunnels at
Withcall and
Benniworth.
The remaining station buildings are in good order, although some have extensions and additions which
are not in keeping with the original style. The best preserved is the station at Donington on Bain (right) The photo is taken
looking westward from what used to be a bridge carrying the road over the line. Sadly, the bridge was demolished and
the arch in-filled, but the station today is as smart and business-like as it ever was. The trackbed bends away beyond the station to the right of the picture
and leads to a beautiful stretch, first cutting, and then embankment, which gives the walker an excellent view over the Bain valley.
Sadly, the section of the line which passes through a cutting south of the fishing lakes at Benniworth has become badly overgrown,
and there were aggressive notices posted warning against trespass.
The line ran into financial problems almost from the first, and the group of adventure capitalists who began the line had to sell it off to
the Great Northern Railway in order that traffic could run at all. Walking or driving through the area today one is impressed by the lack of
population density. As an agricultural area it is certainly much less populated now that it was
in the latter part of the nineteenth century but, this fact aside, it is still not easy to see how they thought they could make the line pay. One of the main problems was that the line
did not run directly into Lincoln. The original surveyors planned a route which, after leaving Wragby (see map below), would keep to a more westerly heading
and meet with the Lincoln - Boston line near Five Mile House. There were problems in buying the land, and the solution reached was probably to be one of the great
weaknesses of the line as a commercial proposition. After Wragby, the line would head much more in a southerly direction, and join the GN line near Bardney, but facing the wrong way. This meant that the train
would have to reverse direction in order to get to Lincoln.
As can be seen from the 1948 timetable reproduced below, three trains a day each way, plus goods trains as required, would not have ever made for a huge amount of hustle and bustle on the line. Traffic tended to keep pace with the fairly measured lifestyle of a sparsely populated rural area.
When the Second World War ended Britain was faced with a world in which Victory had been paid for with human lives, but the Peace needed to be paid for with economic hardship. The years of austerity were to be ones where financial reality was to affect all aspects of national life, and running a railway was to be no exception. The last passenger train between Louth and Bardney ran on Saturday 3rd November, 1951, and five years later the line was progressively shut down to freight services. The last section, between Bardney and Wragby closed on February 1st 1960.