ASK LEO SPECIAL
The Essendine Line Ask Leo’s article about Stamford East Station generated a great deal of interest amongst our readers. We are pleased to share some of these personal reminiscences
Leaving Stamford
Travelling the Line - from C.W
The War Effort - from JS
“As a Stamfordian born in the early 1940s I have vivid and nostalgic memories of the station, which we called ‘The Northern’ since it had been run by the Great Northern Railway Company ... . The Great Northern Hotel opposite the station on Water Street was named after the railway. As a young lad in the 1940s and 1950s I enjoyed travelling on the Stamford-Essendine line from the station, sometimes out of necessity (to catch a connection on the East Coast main line at Essendine) and sometimes for the sheer pleasure of it. I particularly enjoyed going into the station with its typical (and to me pleasing) railway smells of smoke, steam, oil, paraffin etc - traces of which seemed to linger in the covered in train hall even when no train was present. I also recall a very unpleasant smell experienced when walking to the station via Albert Street – the smell of the gasworks! The train was usually a tank engine plus two vintage 3rd class non-corridor coaches, which when I first saw them in 1949 still had their pre-nationalisation livery of varnished teak, Ryhall Station which is still my favourite railway coach livery, One of the highlights of the journey for me was the rumbling noise as the train headed north over the bridge across the Welland near St Leonard’s Priory. After passing under the Uffington road bridge, agricultural implements could be seen on the sidings at the back of Blackstone’s and Martin Markham’s engineering works. There was a nice little station at Ryhall and Belmesthorpe, the platform of which still remains with a garden and a corrugated iron shed (probably a lamp store). There was no signal box, the signals being operated from inside the station building. There was a goods yard on the Essendine side of the level crossing but no goods shed. Coal used to be dumped by one of the sidings awaiting collection by one of the local coal merchants. One of the drivers was Mr Jack Day and the engine was nicknamed ‘the coffee pot’ and the train nicknamed ‘the Essendine Flyer’. I am pleased that the Stamford East station booking hall waiting rooms etc still survive and the stone built goods shed.”
“I too travelled on the last train when the driver of the engine was Jack Day. I would like to mention the large part that the East Station Goods Department played in the War effort. This department was very busy, efficiently run by Charlie Swann assisted by a gang of men and some women. Those days most of the traffic went by rail not road and the local firms were busy producing high class machinery. I have very many happy memories of Stamford East station and travelling on the train to catch a direct train to Edinburgh or London. They did not earn a lot working on the railway but were happy. They used to stop the train on the way to Essendine to see if there were any rabbits in the traps they had set. Opposite the station there was a two room public house by the grand name of ‘The Great Northern’ which the Stamford railway staff used to visit frequently. When a presentation was to be made to one of the railway employees, someone suggested it should be made at this hotel. When the boss arrived he was not at all impressed by the venue.”
Another Perspective - from SN “When I was growing up in the early fifties at Borderville Farm on Ryhall Road, the Stamford to Essendine train went through our fields. We often used to wave to the passengers. One day on a school trip I was on the train and it seemed strange to see father milking the house cow from a different perspective!” STAMFORD LIVING June 2011
51 TRAINS_DC.indd 1
51
19/5/11 15:46:02