Last train to Melton Mowbray

Another gem from Hansard. Here is John Baldock, the Tory MP for Harborough, speaking on 10 December 1953:

On Saturday I went to see a train leave Market Harborough Station. It was larger than the customary trains which have been leaving on that line for a considerable time, and it was headed by a very ancient Midland engine. On the platform were a very large number of people to see this train, the last ordinary passenger train on this line to leave Market Harborough for Melton Mowbray. I understand that there was a considerable crowd at Melton Mowbray also to see it on its last return journey. 

Many who witnessed the departure at either end were wearing mourning clothes with black ribands and armlets. They were "in at the death" of a service which had rendered considerable assistance to the rural communities between Market Harborough and Melton Mowbray on a piece of line which had served 11 rural stations. On each side of the line is the finest feeding land in Britain.

John Baldock was the MP for Harborough between 1950 and 1959. He died in 2003. The photograph of East Norton station is borrowed from the GNR & LNWR Joint site.