11-06-2019, 12:45 PM
On the subject of railways that no longer exist, it is sometimes easy to see why when you study these old maps.
This is a typical scenario on a section of road I know well: https://maps.nls.uk/view/101589419#zoom=5&lat=3349&lon=7342&layers=BT The station was about 750 yards west of the edge of the village from which it takes its name - but distance isn't everything!
A study of the bench marks show that the road rises fairly gently by about 50 feet in the first 500 yards but then things change drastically as the road rises a further 100 feet in a short, steep hill. If you thought Lincolnshire was flat, you were wrong!
Whether this particular line was ever really profitable throughout its existence - many were not - I don't know but it is easy to see that as soon as more conveniently accessible means of getting about became widely available, levels of passenger numbers would have plummeted.
It is not just Harmston that was treated in this fashion. If you look ast a modern Landranger map: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=495870&Y=362350&A=Y&Z=120&ax=496265&ay=362380 and follow the route north - the track bed is now the access road to a farm - you can see that Waddington was treated in the same fashion.
Heading south again, you can see the same pattern repeated at Coleby, Boothby Graffoe, Navenby and Wellingore.
Waddington most definitely had its own station, as did Navenby, which also merited a Great Northern Hotel!
However, the GNR obviously decided that the other three villages didn't merit direct access to its services!
This is a typical scenario on a section of road I know well: https://maps.nls.uk/view/101589419#zoom=5&lat=3349&lon=7342&layers=BT The station was about 750 yards west of the edge of the village from which it takes its name - but distance isn't everything!
A study of the bench marks show that the road rises fairly gently by about 50 feet in the first 500 yards but then things change drastically as the road rises a further 100 feet in a short, steep hill. If you thought Lincolnshire was flat, you were wrong!
Whether this particular line was ever really profitable throughout its existence - many were not - I don't know but it is easy to see that as soon as more conveniently accessible means of getting about became widely available, levels of passenger numbers would have plummeted.
It is not just Harmston that was treated in this fashion. If you look ast a modern Landranger map: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=495870&Y=362350&A=Y&Z=120&ax=496265&ay=362380 and follow the route north - the track bed is now the access road to a farm - you can see that Waddington was treated in the same fashion.
Heading south again, you can see the same pattern repeated at Coleby, Boothby Graffoe, Navenby and Wellingore.
Waddington most definitely had its own station, as did Navenby, which also merited a Great Northern Hotel!
However, the GNR obviously decided that the other three villages didn't merit direct access to its services!
