For most of the length of the line there are still examples of railway architecture to be seen. Some have been adapted for modern use, some stand exactly as they did when they were first built, and some need a little more searching for. Leaving Louth, the first bridge stood just where Newmarket become Legbourne Road(O.S.122/335867), and although nothing remains east of the road, some of the original brickwork of the bridge is easily visible from the little sunken lane (see picture below, left)

The bridge which carried the London Road over the line has completely disappeared on both sides of the road, but the Horncastle Road bridge is still completely intact(O.S.122/318858), and still has the iron supports for telegraph wires firmly in place amidst the decorative brickwork (see pictures above centre and right) The first station on the journey from Louth was Hallington. The building(O.S.122/305852) is a family home, and although there have been several bits and pieces added to the building over the years, the main structure is the same. Because of the layout of the later additions and replanting in the garden, it is difficult to stage a 'then and now' comparison. The photos below show the staion in the 1890s (left) looking towards Louth, the building from just south of the crossing (centre) and a view of the station yard (right) looking towards Withcall

Withcall Station itself has disappeared, but the platform remains (O.S.122/283837), and bears a recently made plaque to commemorate its railway history (below, right) In the 1980s the little waiting room still stood (below, centre) The present day cottages beyond the site of the station house can be seen on old photographs. The train pictured in another of Mike Black's photographs(below left) was C12 4-4-2T No. 67384 with the 9.55am Bardney to Louth on April 10th 1951.

The section of line between Withcall Station and the Withcall Tunnel is the best preserved and most meticulously tended section of the whole line. Henry Smith of Home Farm, Withcall, has made it a point of honour to replace hedhges where necessary, and keep the trackbed tidy and free of vegetation. He tells a delightful story of how, when his father moved to Withcall from Staffordshire in the 1930s, he simply hired a train, put all the family and business goods and chattels aboard and pulled up, many hours later, at Withcall Station, only a few yards away from their new home. When the line was built, the engineers even went to the trouble of building a very solid bridge(O.S.122/271828) (below, right) so that what appears today to be a relatively minor farm track could pass under the railway. Note the nesting box - home to a family of kestrels - to the left of the arch. The western portal of the Withcall tunnel (O.S.122/263821) (centre left, below) is spectacular by any standards and is the most dramatic sight of the whole line. Beyond the tunnel is Donongton-on-Bain. Although the road bridge has long since been filled in, the station is in excellent condition. Compare the station just after the Great War (bottom) with the modern scene (O.S.122/242818) (below, right), photographed from exactly the same spot.

After Donington-on-Bain the line winds round on a grassy embankment from which there is a fine view of the Bain Valley. The track bed by Benniworth Haven is impassable, but after taking the path round past the fishing lakes and walking a short way up the road, there is a very sturdy and well preserved bridge (O.S.122/218826) (below, left) which carries the road over the line. The bridge can look more like a canal bridge in winter when the line bed fills up with run-off water from the steep banks of the cutting. The second tunnel, named after High Street, the ancient road under which it passes, lies a short way to the west. It is by no means as dramatic as the Withcall tunnel, but its mouth, particularly at the western end (O.S.122/211830)(below, right) has an air of gloom and melancholy.

The next station was South Willingham and Hainton. A bridge used to take the line over the road here (O.S.122/199830) and in the photo below, taken by C. Bremner Smith sometime between the wars, a C12 4-4-2 pulls a Bardney to Louth train. In the modern photo, the scene is scarcely recognisable. The bridge has long since gone, the embankment has partly crumbled, and the substantial-looking house beyond the arch of the bridge has also disappeared.

The final three existing stations are well lived in and in good repair, although restoration has been kinder to some than to others. South Willingham Staion stands just west of where the line crossed the Benniworth to Willingham road. The platform is well preserved, and a beautiful garden has been developed around it, but the building (below, left) was unfortunately treated with a cement rendering at some stage after closure, and there are only odd glimpses of the fine brickwork of the old station. By contrast, the station with the least amount of external alteration is East Barkwith (O.S.121/172811) (below, centre). The brickwork looks just as it did the day the last train steamed past, and even the decorative finials on the roof-ridge are more or less intact. The most substantial of the village stations was Wragby (O.S.121/138779) (below, right). This has been maintained with great affection and care both inside and out.

Beyond Wragby, as the land flattens out, the traces of the line become less obvious. No more buildings exist and there are just a small bridge over a stream and the traces of a brick parapet where the Stainfield Road bridge once crossed the line. The crossing keeper's cottage east of Bardney is barely recognisable as such. One final architectural curiosity. In Mike Black's 1961 picture of Wragby sidings, an odd wooden shed on stone stilts can be seen in the upper left of the picture (below, left). The area today is a jumble of disused sheds, scrap metal and odd bits of platform and loading bay, but the mysterious wooden shed still stands! (below, right)