Friday, May 10, 2013

A relic of Stamford's railway history


We have seen Stamford Water Street or Stamford East. When it was open, the town's other station was known as Stamford Town.

Stamford Town is still open today as plain Stamford - platform 1 for trains to Peterborough, platform 2 for trains to Leicester.

But when you are there it is obvious that there used to be a third platform, which must have served trains to Seaton. This was a station on the Market Harborough to Peterborough line which was also the junction for the branch to Uppingham. It stood almost beneath the mighty Welland viaduct.

The site of Seaton station is now occupied by a scrapyard, but at one time - out in the lush Welland valley - it must have been almost idyllic.

And the line to Stamford has its place in railway history.

R. Davies and M.D. Grant, in their Forgotten Railways: Chilterns and Cotwolds, write:
On 4 October [1965] the Seaton to Stamford shuttle changed from steam to diesel; for its last week it had been the sole-surviving steam push-and-pull train in Britain.
Trains between Stamford and Seaton ceased on 6 June 1966, but if you look in the undergrowth behind the lost platform at Stamford you will still find its name spelt out.

1 comment:

Clare Humm said...

Although the service had ceased so long ago the bay platform and track were still present when we came to Stamford Station in 1987. Later - maybe some time in the 1990s - the track was lifted and the trackbed filled in to platform height. This raised the ground level nearly to the base of the brick STAMFORD lettering. The lettering continued to be maintained by Friends of Stamford Station but recently Network Rail put up a white picket fence at the foot of the embankment so the lettering can no longer be seen. It's probably not possible to maintain it either.