Friday, June 09, 2017

The flat railway crossing at Newark


Just past Newark Castle station the line to Lincoln crosses the East Coast main line on the level.

It's all controlled by signals, of course, but if I were driving a Lincoln train I would be tempted to look both ways before proceeding.

The photo above was taken from Newark Castle station and shows a train on the East Coast main line using the crossing.

There used to be an arrangement like this at Retford too, but one line was raised and the other sunk so that they no longer crossed on the level. At Newark the River Trent makes any such arrangement impossible.

The footbridge at Retford used to be a great place for watching trains. Deltics accelerating through the station on the main line: coal trains hauled by brand new Class 56s thundering through underneath.

I remember that the local lads all called each other "thee" and "thou". I wonder if that usage survives today?

2 comments:

  1. Hello Jonathan. I used to train spot a bit in my youth in Retford. Fife and Forfar Yeomanry was my last Deltic for the complete set. Took months to get it. The station staff used to tease me, saying 'you've just missed it, lad'.

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  2. In the early sixties, we used to play shove halfpenny on the station trolleys between trains :-) It was a 14 mile bike ride each way after school. I wonder how many 13 year olds would be allowed to do that now :-)
    Even more, excitement was when the mainline trains were diverted and came along the bottom of our garden in Creswell!

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